For the Love of Food

I am always on the look-out for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. In the search for a crisp chocolate chip cookie, I came across this fantastic chewy cookie recipe on Cooking On the Side.

I tried these cookies out in all sizes: small, medium, and jumbo. And, jumbo cookies were definitely best over all because these cookies are breadier than what most people are used to and the larger they are the better the chocolate to cookie ratio is.

I made some ingredient substitutions to adjust for my dietary needs at the time. That’s also why my cookies look a bit different than the ones on Cooking On The Side. Different ingredients react differently when baked.

So, while I continue my search for a crisp chocolate chip cookie recipe, you can enjoy this one! Continue Reading »

So, after 4 weeks of not being able to eat anything sweet, I had a nice pile of these cookies. I found the original recipe on MyRecipes.com, made some substitutes, and didn’t end up with Thick, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, but rather thin buttery ones. They were so delicious that we couldn’t stop eating them. Continue Reading »

Baby-back ribs are not very popular in Germany – ribs in general are considered a sort of waste product. So, they are cheap. I can get a kilogram of spare or baby-back ribs for €3,00 (about US$4.17). So, when we need a cost-effective meal that contains meat, ribs are the way to go for us.

The other day I came across a copycat recipe for Tony Roma’s baby-back ribs. The recipe included a sauce, which was good (see next week’s Monday post), but definitely did not taste anything like Tony Roma’s bbq sauce. I did however, split the rib recipe in half to try out my new sweet and smoky homemade bbq sauce, and, to my surprise, I had recreated Tony Roma’s bbq sauce!

The cooking method for these ribs is really fantastic and quite simple and created delicious succulent fall-off-the bone ribs. You will need 2 days to make this recipe, so prepare accordingly! Continue Reading »

At the end of last month I participated in Foodbuzz’s 24,24,24 event. Among many other dishes, we grilled a whole suckling pig. Having some meat left over, I was sent home with some leftovers. So, I took the opportunity to make some bbq pulled pork that my husband had been begging me to make for a while.

I didn’t follow a recipe, I just put in the ingredients that I felt would be right. Luckily, I measured everything out and wrote it all down so that I could share with you.

I also made a less traditional addition to the pulled pork by adding a can of some Heinz Baked Beans in tomato sauce that we had bought to try. They added some nice substance to the meat and next time I will double the amount of beans in the recipe. And, next time I will also just use navy beans instead of baked beans in tomato sauce. I found that the baked beans sauce didn’t add (or take away) from the recipe. So, since baked beans are more expensive than plain old navy beans, I will go with the cheaper alternative.

I served these over homemade buttermilk biscuits and with steamed corn. However, because bbq pulled pork is gooey and messy we ate it with a fork a nice and cut the biscuit into it as well. It was absolutely delicious! Continue Reading »

Happy 2009 everyone!

I decided to analyze my blog from January 2008 – December 2008 to see what you like.

Why?
I want to see more of you around my blog more often. And, that means finding out what you like.

How?
I looked at all my posts and saw what you commented most on and I learned quite a lot.

What? Continue Reading »

The other day I happened upon a blog post about “TCHO Beta Stuffed Cookies” – chocolate chip cookies with a sort of of chocolate filling sandwiched in between. They looked really good.

The cookie recipe was pretty simple, and the batch looked like it would be small so I wouldn’t be eating a large batch of cookies in one or two days. You know…it’s just so hard with them sitting their calling your name and saying “eat me…eat me”.

I did tweak the recipe a bit by changing out some of the ingredients and adding walnut – I LOVE walnuts in cookies. But, this time I think they may have slowed the baking process of the center of the cookies. Next time, and oh yes there will be many more next times, I will try it without walnuts to see if it helps.

As some of your may know, I have not been able to eat sugar (table sugar or dextrose) in the past – it’s a long story, and if you want to know, email me and I’ll be happy to tell it again. Anyways, I am now breastfeeding much less than before and I seem to be able to handle sugar in small quantities. The first time I realized this I thought I was “cured” and got so excited I made chocolate chip cookies with real chocolate chips, fructose (no table sugar on hand), and brown sugar. Brown sugar is still a really big no-no and caused quite a bit of pain. So, this time I decided to go with all my usual substitutions, but use the real chocolate chips instead of the malt-sweetened ones that I bring over from the US.

I wouldn’t say that the sugar in the chocolate chips has no effect on me – there is some pain. But, nothing like before. And, definitely tolerable every once in a while. And, definitely worth using in these delicious cookies. The batter was very light and fluffy, but it made a nice moist cookie. I will never make Nestel Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies again. This is my new chocolate chip cookie!

The original recipe can be found here. This is my version: Continue Reading »

By now many of you may have already read New York Times article about the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

The jury is still out on where exactly the best cookie can be found, but they seem to believe that when baking the perfect cookie, 36 hours of resting time for the dough are necessary.

So, I figured I’d try things out for myself. I used the Nestle Toll House original chocolate chip cookie recipe and substituted sugar with fructose and brown sugar with pal sugar.  Granted, I am not using brown sugar, so my dough does not change colors as dramatically as theirs, but I can tell you that there was definitely a noticeable difference! Continue Reading »

I’ve never had Indonesian food before, so when I was paired with Arfi from HomeMadeS for this month’s Taste&Create, I was really excited. Besides the fact that every one of her photos is a masterpiece, she has lots of good-looking recipes.

I was very very tempted to make macaroons, but I wanted to make something more traditional and less time consuming (I will get to the macaroons eventually). When I came across her Kueh Klepon (Coconut Balls), I was intrigued.
Continue Reading »