Thu Oct 07 2004 19:57 PST (Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate) Quick Fixes: I wanted to note two easy recipe substitutions I have used recently. The best part is, they were both recipes I already use often and have memorized. The first is the Mornay sauce I used when we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. It's really just cheese sauce with Swiss cheese. (1 T butter -> 1 T flour -> 3/4 c. milk -> 3/4 c. cheese).

The second is the cream cheese frosting I used on the Pumpkin Spice Muffins John and I made this weekend. I had never made cream cheese frosting before, so we looked it up in a cookbook and I discovered it's really buttercream frosting with cream cheese instead of butter. Go figure. 3 oz. cream cheese -> some milk -> some vanilla -> enough powdered sugar to make frosting. I didn't measure, sorry.

Thu Oct 07 2004 19:57 PST (Susanna Chadwick) Quick Fixes: I wanted to note two easy recipe substitutions I have used recently. The best part is, they were both recipes I already use often and have memorized. The first is the Mornay sauce I used when we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. It's really just cheese sauce with Swiss cheese. (1 T butter -> 1 T flour -> 3/4 c. milk -> 3/4 c. cheese).

The second is the cream cheese frosting I used on the Pumpkin Spice Muffins John and I made this weekend. I had never made cream cheese frosting before, so we looked it up in a cookbook and I discovered it's really buttercream frosting with cream cheese instead of butter. Go figure. 3 oz. cream cheese -> some milk -> some vanilla -> enough powdered sugar to make frosting. I didn't measure, sorry.

Thu Oct 07 2004 22:57 EST (Susanna Chadwick) Quick Fixes: I wanted to note two easy recipe substitutions I have used recently. The best part is, they were both recipes I already use often and have memorized. The first is the Mornay sauce I used when we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. It's really just cheese sauce with Swiss cheese. (1 T butter -> 1 T flour -> 3/4 c. milk -> 3/4 c. cheese).

The second is the cream cheese frosting I used on the Pumpkin Spice Muffins John and I made this weekend. I had never made cream cheese frosting before, so we looked it up in a cookbook and I discovered it's really buttercream frosting with cream cheese instead of butter. Go figure. 3 oz. cream cheese -> some milk -> some vanilla -> enough powdered sugar to make frosting. I didn't measure, sorry.

Fri Oct 08 2004 02:57 PST (Susanna Chadwick) Quick Fixes: I wanted to note two easy recipe substitutions I have used recently. The best part is, they were both recipes I already use often and have memorized. The first is the Mornay sauce I used when we had Chicken Cordon Bleu. It's really just cheese sauce with Swiss cheese. (1 T butter -> 1 T flour -> 3/4 c. milk -> 3/4 c. cheese).

The second is the cream cheese frosting I used on the Pumpkin Spice Muffins John and I made this weekend. I had never made cream cheese frosting before, so we looked it up in a cookbook and I discovered it's really buttercream frosting with cream cheese instead of butter. Go figure. 3 oz. cream cheese -> some milk -> some vanilla -> enough powdered sugar to make frosting. I didn't measure, sorry.

Mon Oct 18 2004 13:39 PST (News You Can Bruise) LowbrowRustic Cheese Puffs: When I was younger I sometimes tried to make choux puffs and put pudding or ice cream in them for a dessert. But since they always came out flat it was difficult to put things in them. For my birthday party back in July I made savory choux puffs with cheese, and Sumana loved them so much that I kept making them, and eventually I had paid my puff-making dues and my puffs started actually coming out puffed.

Sumana wanted me to put up the recipe even though there's nothing special about my recipe, so here it is. Maybe I can help with technique.

The recipe uses my patented "1 of everything" measurements. I call them Rustic because to save time I dole them out with a spoon instead of a pastry bag, so they are a little lumpy. As all restaurant-goers know, Lumpy equals Rustic and vice versa.

• 1 cup water
• 1 pinch each salt and pepper
• 1 stick butter (only half a cup, but at least it's 1 of something)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup of eggs, at room temperature (nb. since a large egg is about 2 ounces this is 1 cup of eggs! But you probably won't remember that.)
• 1 cup semisoft cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the butter, salt, and pepper in the water and boil it. As soon as it comes to a boil, dump the flour in and stir it into a big ball. Transfer it to the mixer bowl, or use a hand mixer, because you're really going to need to clobber this dough. I'm pretty sure that insufficient clobbering was the cause of the flatness of my earlier attempts (my other guess is cold eggs; I haven't yet run an experiment to see which it is).

Start clobbering and add the eggs one at a time. Once the mixture looks thoroughly clobbered, add another egg. Then add the cheese and clobber some more.

Scoop with a spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Parchment paper or a Silpat mat on the cookie sheet help a lot. Knife the puffs when they come out of the oven so they don't get soggy. Then either eat them or let them sit a while, cut them open, and fill with something. My favorite filling right now is duxelle (basically sauteed mushrooms and onions) and MORE CHEESE. I am trying to think of something with kalmata olives. For truly lowbrow cheese puffs you could just fill them with Cheez Whiz.

This makes 24 cheese puffs, or 2 cookie sheets' worth.

Mon Oct 18 2004 13:39 PST (News You Can Bruise) LowbrowRustic Cheese Puffs: When I was younger I sometimes tried to make choux puffs and put pudding or ice cream in them for a dessert. But since they always came out flat it was difficult to put things in them. For my birthday party back in July I made savory choux puffs with cheese, and Sumana loved them so much that I kept making them, and eventually I had paid my puff-making dues and my puffs started actually coming out puffed.

Sumana wanted me to put up the recipe even though there's nothing special about my recipe, so here it is. Maybe I can help with technique.

The recipe uses my patented "1 of everything" measurements. I call them Rustic because to save time I dole them out with a spoon instead of a pastry bag, so they are a little lumpy. As all restaurant-goers know, Lumpy equals Rustic and vice versa.

• 1 cup water
• 1 pinch each salt and pepper
• 1 stick butter (only half a cup, but at least it's 1 of something)
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs, at room temperature (nb. since a large egg is about 2 ounces this is 1 cup of eggs! But you probably won't remember that.)
• 1 cup semisoft cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the butter, salt, and pepper in the water and boil it. As soon as it comes to a boil, dump the flour in and stir it into a big ball. Transfer it to the mixer bowl, or use a hand mixer, because you're really going to need to clobber this dough. I'm pretty sure that insufficient clobbering was the cause of the flatness of my earlier attempts (my other guess is cold eggs; I haven't yet run an experiment to see which it is).

Start clobbering and add the eggs one at a time. Once the mixture looks thoroughly clobbered, add another egg. Then add the cheese and clobber some more.

Scoop with a spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Parchment paper or a Silpat mat on the cookie sheet help a lot. Knife the puffs when they come out of the oven so they don't get soggy. Then either eat them or let them sit a while, cut them open, and fill with something. My favorite filling right now is duxelle (basically sauteed mushrooms and onions) and MORE CHEESE. I am trying to think of something with kalmata olives. For truly lowbrow cheese puffs you could just fill them with Cheez Whiz.

This makes 24 cheese puffs, or 2 cookie sheets' worth.

Mon Oct 18 2004 13:39 PST (Leonard Richardson) LowbrowRustic Cheese Puffs: When I was younger I sometimes tried to make choux puffs and put pudding or ice cream in them for a dessert. But since they always came out flat it was difficult to put things in them. For my birthday party back in July I made savory choux puffs with cheese, and Sumana loved them so much that I kept making them, and eventually I had paid my puff-making dues and my puffs started actually coming out puffed.

Sumana wanted me to put up the recipe even though there's nothing special about my recipe, so here it is. Maybe I can help with technique.

The recipe uses my patented "1 of everything" measurements. I call them Rustic because to save time I dole them out with a spoon instead of a pastry bag, so they are a little lumpy. As all restaurant-goers know, Lumpy equals Rustic and vice versa.

• 1 cup water
• 1 pinch each salt and pepper
• 1 stick butter (only half a cup, but at least it's 1 of something)
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs, at room temperature (nb. since a large egg is about 2 ounces this is 1 cup of eggs! But you probably won't remember that.)
• 1 cup semisoft cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the butter, salt, and pepper in the water and boil it. As soon as it comes to a boil, dump the flour in and stir it into a big ball. Transfer it to the mixer bowl, or use a hand mixer, because you're really going to need to clobber this dough. I'm pretty sure that insufficient clobbering was the cause of the flatness of my earlier attempts (my other guess is cold eggs; I haven't yet run an experiment to see which it is).

Start clobbering and add the eggs one at a time. Once the mixture looks thoroughly clobbered, add another egg. Then add the cheese and clobber some more.

Scoop with a spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Parchment paper or a Silpat mat on the cookie sheet help a lot. Knife the puffs when they come out of the oven so they don't get soggy. Then either eat them or let them sit a while, cut them open, and fill with something. My favorite filling right now is duxelle (basically sauteed mushrooms and onions) and MORE CHEESE. I am trying to think of something with kalmata olives. For truly lowbrow cheese puffs you could just fill them with Cheez Whiz.

This makes 24 cheese puffs, or 2 cookie sheets' worth.

Mon Oct 18 2004 16:39 EST (Leonard Richardson) LowbrowRustic Cheese Puffs: When I was younger I sometimes tried to make choux puffs and put pudding or ice cream in them for a dessert. But since they always came out flat it was difficult to put things in them. For my birthday party back in July I made savory choux puffs with cheese, and Sumana loved them so much that I kept making them, and eventually I had paid my puff-making dues and my puffs started actually coming out puffed.

Sumana wanted me to put up the recipe even though there's nothing special about my recipe, so here it is. Maybe I can help with technique.

The recipe uses my patented "1 of everything" measurements. I call them Rustic because to save time I dole them out with a spoon instead of a pastry bag, so they are a little lumpy. As all restaurant-goers know, Lumpy equals Rustic and vice versa.

• 1 cup water
• 1 pinch each salt and pepper
• 1 stick butter (only half a cup, but at least it's 1 of something)
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs, at room temperature (nb. since a large egg is about 2 ounces this is 1 cup of eggs! But you probably won't remember that.)
• 1 cup semisoft cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the butter, salt, and pepper in the water and boil it. As soon as it comes to a boil, dump the flour in and stir it into a big ball. Transfer it to the mixer bowl, or use a hand mixer, because you're really going to need to clobber this dough. I'm pretty sure that insufficient clobbering was the cause of the flatness of my earlier attempts (my other guess is cold eggs; I haven't yet run an experiment to see which it is).

Start clobbering and add the eggs one at a time. Once the mixture looks thoroughly clobbered, add another egg. Then add the cheese and clobber some more.

Scoop with a spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Parchment paper or a Silpat mat on the cookie sheet help a lot. Knife the puffs when they come out of the oven so they don't get soggy. Then either eat them or let them sit a while, cut them open, and fill with something. My favorite filling right now is duxelle (basically sauteed mushrooms and onions) and MORE CHEESE. I am trying to think of something with kalmata olives. For truly lowbrow cheese puffs you could just fill them with Cheez Whiz.

This makes 24 cheese puffs, or 2 cookie sheets' worth.

Mon Oct 18 2004 20:12 PST (Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate) Chocolate Covered Pretzels: John asked me very nicely to make him some more chocolate-covered pretzels, so I did. They are so yummy! Here is my recipe: Melt some chocolate in a double-boiler. Dip pretzels in chocolate. Lay on tin foil, shiny side down. Put in freezer. Eat!

Mon Oct 18 2004 20:12 PST (Susanna Chadwick) Chocolate Covered Pretzels: John asked me very nicely to make him some more chocolate-covered pretzels, so I did. They are so yummy! Here is my recipe: Melt some chocolate in a double-boiler. Dip pretzels in chocolate. Lay on tin foil, shiny side down. Put in freezer. Eat!

Mon Oct 18 2004 20:39 PST (Leonard Richardson) LowbrowRustic Cheese Puffs: When I was younger I sometimes tried to make choux puffs and put pudding or ice cream in them for a dessert. But since they always came out flat it was difficult to put things in them. For my birthday party back in July I made savory choux puffs with cheese, and Sumana loved them so much that I kept making them, and eventually I had paid my puff-making dues and my puffs started actually coming out puffed.

Sumana wanted me to put up the recipe even though there's nothing special about my recipe, so here it is. Maybe I can help with technique.

The recipe uses my patented "1 of everything" measurements. I call them Rustic because to save time I dole them out with a spoon instead of a pastry bag, so they are a little lumpy. As all restaurant-goers know, Lumpy equals Rustic and vice versa.

• 1 cup water
• 1 pinch each salt and pepper
• 1 stick butter (only half a cup, but at least it's 1 of something)
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs, at room temperature (nb. since a large egg is about 2 ounces this is 1 cup of eggs! But you probably won't remember that.)
• 1 cup semisoft cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the butter, salt, and pepper in the water and boil it. As soon as it comes to a boil, dump the flour in and stir it into a big ball. Transfer it to the mixer bowl, or use a hand mixer, because you're really going to need to clobber this dough. I'm pretty sure that insufficient clobbering was the cause of the flatness of my earlier attempts (my other guess is cold eggs; I haven't yet run an experiment to see which it is).

Start clobbering and add the eggs one at a time. Once the mixture looks thoroughly clobbered, add another egg. Then add the cheese and clobber some more.

Scoop with a spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Parchment paper or a Silpat mat on the cookie sheet help a lot. Knife the puffs when they come out of the oven so they don't get soggy. Then either eat them or let them sit a while, cut them open, and fill with something. My favorite filling right now is duxelle (basically sauteed mushrooms and onions) and MORE CHEESE. I am trying to think of something with kalmata olives. For truly lowbrow cheese puffs you could just fill them with Cheez Whiz.

This makes 24 cheese puffs, or 2 cookie sheets' worth.

Mon Oct 18 2004 23:12 EST (Susanna Chadwick) Chocolate Covered Pretzels: John asked me very nicely to make him some more chocolate-covered pretzels, so I did. They are so yummy! Here is my recipe: Melt some chocolate in a double-boiler. Dip pretzels in chocolate. Lay on tin foil, shiny side down. Put in freezer. Eat!

Tue Oct 19 2004 03:12 PST (Susanna Chadwick) Chocolate Covered Pretzels: John asked me very nicely to make him some more chocolate-covered pretzels, so I did. They are so yummy! Here is my recipe: Melt some chocolate in a double-boiler. Dip pretzels in chocolate. Lay on tin foil, shiny side down. Put in freezer. Eat!

Tue Oct 19 2004 20:16 PST (Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate): We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner (I know I've been lazy this week). John really loved the soup, though. I made it with milk instead of water and added about 1 t. basil. Ta dum! Creamy Tomato Basil Soup! (the easy way).

Ok, just to excuse myself let me say that I've had a terrible headache for two or three days. And my car has refused to start after work. Twice. Yesterday I called AAA, jumped it, had my battery tested, fine. So I didn't worry about it. Today some guy from the maintenance dept. at work and a friend from our ward who works there came out and stood in the rain with me. We decided it was dirty battery cables affected by the sudden drop in temperature, so he cleaned it with a wire brush and the car started on its own. If it happens again, I really am going to the dealer.

So after trying to leave work early with a terrible headache and waiting in the rain for an hour for my car to work two days in a row, I didn't feel much like cooking. Sorry, honey. *whine* But the soup really was good.

Tue Oct 19 2004 20:16 PST (Susanna Chadwick): We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner (I know I've been lazy this week). John really loved the soup, though. I made it with milk instead of water and added about 1 t. basil. Ta dum! Creamy Tomato Basil Soup! (the easy way).

Ok, just to excuse myself let me say that I've had a terrible headache for two or three days. And my car has refused to start after work. Twice. Yesterday I called AAA, jumped it, had my battery tested, fine. So I didn't worry about it. Today some guy from the maintenance dept. at work and a friend from our ward who works there came out and stood in the rain with me. We decided it was dirty battery cables affected by the sudden drop in temperature, so he cleaned it with a wire brush and the car started on its own. If it happens again, I really am going to the dealer.

So after trying to leave work early with a terrible headache and waiting in the rain for an hour for my car to work two days in a row, I didn't feel much like cooking. Sorry, honey. *whine* But the soup really was good.

Tue Oct 19 2004 23:16 EST (Susanna Chadwick): We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner (I know I've been lazy this week). John really loved the soup, though. I made it with milk instead of water and added about 1 t. basil. Ta dum! Creamy Tomato Basil Soup! (the easy way).

Ok, just to excuse myself let me say that I've had a terrible headache for two or three days. And my car has refused to start after work. Twice. Yesterday I called AAA, jumped it, had my battery tested, fine. So I didn't worry about it. Today some guy from the maintenance dept. at work and a friend from our ward who works there came out and stood in the rain with me. We decided it was dirty battery cables affected by the sudden drop in temperature, so he cleaned it with a wire brush and the car started on its own. If it happens again, I really am going to the dealer.

So after trying to leave work early with a terrible headache and waiting in the rain for an hour for my car to work two days in a row, I didn't feel much like cooking. Sorry, honey. *whine* But the soup really was good.

Wed Oct 20 2004 03:16 PST (Susanna Chadwick): We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner (I know I've been lazy this week). John really loved the soup, though. I made it with milk instead of water and added about 1 t. basil. Ta dum! Creamy Tomato Basil Soup! (the easy way).

Ok, just to excuse myself let me say that I've had a terrible headache for two or three days. And my car has refused to start after work. Twice. Yesterday I called AAA, jumped it, had my battery tested, fine. So I didn't worry about it. Today some guy from the maintenance dept. at work and a friend from our ward who works there came out and stood in the rain with me. We decided it was dirty battery cables affected by the sudden drop in temperature, so he cleaned it with a wire brush and the car started on its own. If it happens again, I really am going to the dealer.

So after trying to leave work early with a terrible headache and waiting in the rain for an hour for my car to work two days in a row, I didn't feel much like cooking. Sorry, honey. *whine* But the soup really was good.