Happy Macaron Day!  I can’t believe that a year has passed since the last Jour du Macaron.

A year ago I never would have guessed that Helen would be coming out for a visit to teach us all about proper macaron making.  It’s amazing how much can happen in a year.  Helen’s visit was perfect—just in time for us all to hone our skills so that we could properly celebrate today!  This is not a holiday that can be celebrated at the last minute if you are making your own macarons.  My preparations for today’s celebration began several days ago with separating the egg whites for my macarons.  They aged for 24 hours at room temperature, and then for about another 46 hours in the refrigerator.  Yesterday I ground my almonds, and proceeded with making my macaron batter.  Then I carefully piped out little circles of batter onto my silpat and let them rest.

Finally they went into the oven and I did a little giddy dance as they grew feet, and then grew less giddy as the feet turned into skirts.

I had a problem with my macarons sticking to my silpat, so I used a trick that Helen taught me a while back.  I put them back into the still hot oven, closed the oven door, and turned off the heat.  There the macarons stayed until the end of the day.  While I waited, I mixed up a batch of chocolate ganache and a batch of white chocolate plastic (like chocolate modeling clay).  Finally it was time to assemble my macarons.  Their time in the cooling oven had worked its magic, and the macarons peeled qoff of the silpat easily.  They’re not perfect, but they’ll do!

Today is no ordinary macaron day, so I wanted to do something extra special. Now that Spring has arrived (at least it has here in Southern California!), my thoughts have been turning to picnics, and outdoor barbecues.  So today’s macarons are inspired by those thoughts and the most recent Mac Tweets challenge.  I’ve affectionately named them “Big Macs” (pun intended).  I sprinkled the “buns” with sesame seeds.  The hamburger patties are made from chocolate ganache, and the lettuce and tomato are made from the white chocolate plastic (with red and green food coloring kneaded in it).  Ok, enough talking, I’m craving a Big Mac.  I’m off to celebrate!

“Big Mac” Macarons

• Macarons: Helen’s recipe (with the powdered food coloring omitted, and the swirling decoration skipped) for swirly macarons
• Chocolate Ganache Hamburger Patties: Helen’s recipe for Bittersweet Ganache (I used semisweet chocolate instead)
• Lettuce & Tomatoes: Chocolate Plastic recipe from Baking Obsession (I made a half batch, which makes plenty)

This month’s Washoku Warriors challenge was all about tempura!  For the challenge, the Warriors were asked to make

1. Shojin Kaki Age (Tempura Pancakes), p.210.  Then they had the option of also making:
2. Five Flavored Salt, pp.112: for dipping the pancakes in!
3. Tempura Soba (Soba Noodles with Tempura in Soup), p.177
4. Tendon (Rice Topped with Tempura), p.154

Tempura sometimes gets the reputation of being a tricky dish.  Instead of light and crisp pieces of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried, people get heavy oil-laden and gloppy pieces that are less than appetizing.  So how did our Warriors fare this month in the face of such a challenge?  Although they are few in numbers for this challenge, they were mighty in results.  I think some of them even surprised themselves, proving that with a little bit of helpful instruction from Andoh-sensei, even tempura can be easy and delicious!

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Fuji Mama

I loved this challenge on so many levels.  I haven’t made tempura recently, partially due to frustration.  The last time I made tempura in the US, I just couldn’t get the light crispy coating that I liked, and had been able to achieve while living in Japan.  When I was reading through the recipes and information for this challenge, a couple of sentences popped out at me: “When making tempura batter, I prefer using a low-gluten wheat flour for the tender, light texture it gives the coating.  Available in many American markets, self-rising flour (which has salt and baking soda already mixed in) works well.”  (Washoku, p.14)  Aha! With that information in hand, I decided to go all out for this challenge and really test the information Andoh-sensei gives in the book.  I started out by making the tempura.  This ended up being a piece of cake and I was delighted by the texture of my finished pancakes–delightfully light and crispy!  Woot!  With some dipping sauce and sesame salt, the tempura was a fantastic treat.  I made extra so that I could test wrapping them up and storing them in the refrigerator, to be reheated later per Andoh-sensei’s instructions.  I have had leftover tempura before, but it never made for very good leftovers, because it lost its crispyness.  Following the instructions given, it was just as good the next day as it was freshly made!  We had the tendon one day for dinner, and the tempura soba the next day for lunch.  Any guesses as to what Squirrel’s favorite dish was?

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Dawn of Home in the Foothills

I was very excited to join Washoku Warriors after seeing the wonderful looking dishes everyone else had created in the past challenges.  I must admit that my excitement was dampened by a bit of fear when I saw that the challenge was tempura.  I’m a bit nervous working around anything involving hot oil after a deep fryer incident I experienced during my fast food cook days.  However, I decided to use this as a opportunity to get over my fears and make some tasty tempura to boot!  I also made three of the five flavoured salts to dip our tempura in.  I’m very lucky to live near a city where I was able to get all of the ingredients.  Some of the ingredients were labeled differently (Szechuan Peppers = Sansho and Gobo = Burdock) but I took an educated guess.  The three salts I made were the green tea, fragrant pepper and black sesame.  Fragrant pepper was the clear winner in our house with both my husband and my daughter giving it two thumbs up!  The pancakes themselves turned out well.  I did find that the recommended times and temperatures were a little on the high side so I reduced both with success.  For the record, after the first few successful pancakes, I forgot about my fears of the hot oil! Although everyone in my family really enjoyed the tempura, I found the chopping a little tedious and I think I’ll stick to bigger slices next time.  Oh yes – there will be a next time for this dish!

Read Dawn’s full report here!

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Sarah of A Canadian in Meiji Japan

I was apprehensive about this challenge - cooking tempura at home has a bad reputation in Japan, everybody will tell you it is messy and dangerous.  Besides, tempura is so easy to find here – from the good and expensive to the cheap and well… fast food version.  But having my worries proven wrong before with a challenge I wasn’t about to give up, and so forged ahead – we made kakiage (with carrot, burdock root, sweet potato, and lotus root) as well as shrimp and sweet potato slices.  I also made up the goma salt (with white sesame seeds instead of black) and sansho salt to go along with the matcha salt I had in my cupboard already.  The sweet potato slices - freshly made and still piping hot – were the hands down favourite but the kakiage were delicious too, and I’m looking forward to trying out the other two challenge recipes with all the left over kakiage now in my freezer!

Read Sarah’s full report here!

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Sara of Our Private Kitchen

Hi fellow warriors! This was our first foray into Japanese cooking and it was an absolute blast. We had never made tempura pancakes, but honestly figured ‘how hard could they be’? Well my friends it was definitely a FUN challenge, but you’ll have to wait a couple more years for my very own Japanese cookbook. :-) Our technique needs lots of mastering! The vegetables were probably the best I’ve ever had…anything fried is usually better, no?! Unfortunately, we missed the boat on making them visually look like pancakes. They ended up being more like tempura vegetable “shreds”. That was more than fine in our book because the taste & texture was addicting and the dipping sauce (oh..yeah..I think I could have drank that alone!). We did make one slight substitution though. We weren’t able to find burdock root so we substituted a rutabaga. An extremely tasty dish and one we will definitely make again.

Read Sara’s full report here!

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Kim of Life At Big Sky Mountain

I was equally excited and apprehensive about making Tempura. I’ve never had great luck with Tempura batter. I was also excited to use Burdock Root, Sweet Potato, Parsnip, and Carrot to make the vegetarian style tempura pancakes. With the pancakes, we decided to make the Rice Topped With Tempura (Tendon) and all I can say is the dish was absolutely delicious. The combination of vegetables made for an interesting flavor (I love burdock root, I was a bit concerned how my guests and husband would like it, and no worries, they loved it), a blend of roots, sweet and woodsy. The dish was easy to prepare after the tempura pancakes were made, and I was very happy with how the tempura pancakes reheated the next day. Knowing this, I would heartily recommend making the tempura ahead of time, instead of making it right before eating (less mess, less clean up after eating). I give this dish a big thumbs up, and I detailed my experience making the tempura, and the changes I made to the recipe at my blog.

Read Kim’s full report here!

You cut a drained block of tofu into slices, lightly salt and pepper each slice,

spread the slices with grated (or finely minced) garlic,

and then lightly coat each slice with flour.

Then you fry the tofu in a skillet until each side is crispy and brown, and then set the slices on some paper towels to cool slightly and soak up any extra oil.

Then all you do is serve the slices topped with your toppings and garnishes of choice!  For the girls, I drizzled the slices with a tiny bit of ponzu and served it with some kyuri asa-zuke.

Squirrel made quick work of it with her chopsticks and then told me, “Mama, I like tofu!”  I think I’ll keep her.

I topped mine with ponzu, sambal oelek, and sliced scallions.

Two tricks to keep your garlic from burning: make sure your garlic is grated or VERY finely minced (larger pieces are more likely to burn), and if you notice it is burning, turn down your heat slightly!  Some bits will occasionally get a bit dark, but this just gives your tofu a bit of a chargrilled flavor. I recommend using a good organic tofu or making your own, because the flavor and texture will be so much better.  Although you may pay more for a good block of tofu, it is still very affordable when you compare it to other proteins like beef or chicken.  You’ll be rewarded with a light, creamy, and delicious tofu steak!

I love tsukemono.  For those of you not familiar with this category of Japanese cuisine, tsukemono can be loosely translated as “pickles.”  But calling tsukemono pickles is really kind of a misnomer.  Tsukemono are items that have been marinated using some sort of pickling liquid (the liquid can vary from vinegar to plain salt to rice bran).  Unlike the pickles we are used to, they tend to be highly perishable, and are made to be eaten within a few days.  Tsukemono are served as the final course at a Japanese dinner, though often they are on the table for the entire meal at home.  Some are served as a garnish, while others are served more like a salad.  There are hundreds of variations of tsukemono, and the best part is that many of them are easy to make.  One of my favorite tsukemono is kyuri asa-zuke, or Japanese cucumbers that have been lightly pickled.  Kyuri asa-zuke are often sold at Japanese matsuri (festivals) whole and on sticks.

(Enjoying kyuri asa-zuke on a stick at a matsuri in Tokyo back in 2007.)

This recipe for kyuri asa-zuke is adapted from a recipe given to me by my dear friend Yoshiko, who I worked with in Tokyo.  I used mini seedless cucumbers because Japanese cucumbers are harder to come by without making a special trip to a Japanese grocery store.  Japanese cucumbers are thinner than the fat garden cucumbers most of the supermarkets sell here in the US.  They have a thin skin that doesn’t need to be peeled and very inconspicuous seeds.  If you can’t find Japanese cucumbers, you can substitute an English cucumber, mini seedless cucumbers, or a garden cucumber that has been peeled and seeded.

These tsukemono are so easy and are a wonderful refreshing snack or side to a meal.  All you do is wash and dry your cukes, then rub them with sea salt and cut them into slices.

Then you pack the slices into a glass jar,

pour the marinade over them and cover the top of the jar with plastic wrap, and then screw the lid in place.  The plastic wrap prevents the vinegar from touching the metal of the lid (which will affect the flavor of the pickles).

After 12 hours in the fridge, the pickles are ready to eat!

Fast forward to the present.  Last week a tweet on Twitter from @nestlefoodie (Chris Garboski, the Head of Nestle HQ test kitchen) caught my eye:

I decided that it would be fun to make a batch of cookies using the original recipe and a batch using Chris’s method and then compare them side-by-side.  For fun, I also decided to throw in a third batch using some ingredients inspired by a conversation this past weekend with Carrie of Deliciously Organic about using healthier ingredients.

Here are the results—three different cookies all based on the original Toll House recipe.  For all of the cookies, I used a small cookie dough scoop so that I could also have an accurate idea of how the differences in ingredients affected the outcome of the cookies.  Cookie #1 on the left was made using the original Toll House recipe.  Cookie #2 in the middle was made using Chris’s changes: no nuts, and 1/2 the butter called for in the recipe (1/2 cup instead of 1 cup).  Cookie #3 on the right was made using no nuts, 1/2 the butter, substituting whole wheat pastry flour for 1/2 of the all-purpose flour, and substituting sucanat (dehydrated sugar cane juice) for the granulated sugar and the brown sugar.

Cookie #1 spread the most out of the three (due to more butter).  Cookie #2 spread the least, and was chewier in consistency.  Cookie #3 spread slightly more than Cookie #2, was slightly less chewy than Cookie #2 (but still chewier than Cookie #1), was darker in color, and had a stronger molasses flavor to it.  All three cookies were delicious, but when all three were tasted consecutively by different people, there was a clear winner: #2.  While #3 was good, we all decided that the stronger molasses flavor wasn’t what we were looking for in a cookie.  Cookie #3 has potential, it just needs a bit more tweaking!  Everyone like the chewier consistency of #2 and the lack of nuts—we’re all about giving the spotlight to the chocolate.  Even Squirrel liked #2 better—she said it was “the pretty cookie.”

So now the secret is out—the best Nestle Toll House cookie recipe is not the one on the package—it’s @nestlefoodie’s Toll House cookie recipe.  Sorry Ms. Wakefield, but you’ve been one upped!  This delicious chewier chocolate chip cookie is better than the original, even though it’s lower in calories and fat.  Despite the decrease in butter, there is no decrease in flavor!  Note that I have decreased the cooking time to 8 to 10 minutes (the original recipe calls for 9 to 11 minutes), because I found these cooked quicker.  Make sure when you take the cookies out of the oven that you only leave them on the baking sheets to cool for 2 minutes.  If you leave them on the sheets for longer, they will become more difficult to remove!

On Monday I got really brave and went to Costco with both of the girls.  They were so good that I tested my luck and took them to the grocery store to finish up the grocery shopping.  I shouldn’t have been so brave, because I was rewarded with a Queen-sized temper tantrum from Squirrel in the middle of the grocery store.  One of the joys of being a mom.  Before her spectacular meltdown, we stopped by a table in the grocery store where they were handing out samples of a delicious Dubliner cheese that was on special. I broke off half of my sample and gave it to Squirrel.  The woman giving out samples watched me do this and then said, “You know that is kind of a strong cheese.  It’s not good for children—they won’t like it.”  I just smiled and replied that my girls would eat anything.  Proving my point, Squirrel chewed and swallowed her half and then greedily eyed my piece.

I then handed a small piece to Bug, which she ate with gusto.  I know the woman meant well, but those types of comments sometimes rub me the wrong way.  Too often we set parameters for our childrens’ palates—delineating between “kid food” and “adult food”—never giving them the chance to try something new and decide for themselves whether or not they like it.  As I wrote in a guest post for Savor the Thyme about sharing cultural foods with kids, never assume that your child won’t like something, you are just setting them up for failure.  Kids don’t know whether or not something is “kid food” or “adult food,” or “weird” or “foreign” unless we act like it is.  When our children are little, almost every meal is a new adventure for them.  There are so many new flavors, textures, and combinations for them to discover, experience, and explore!  This is one of the reasons I love having kids.  Life is so much more exciting when you experience it through their eyes—life is an adventure.

One of the tricks I have learned is to use a few of a child’s favorite familiar ingredients when introducing new ones.  If they see something they recognize and love, they are more likely to want to try something new that is paired with it.  I recently received a jar of marinated artichoke hearts and a jar of roasted red bell peppers from Mezzetta to play with (two of my favorites things on my long list of food loves).

They sat on my counter for a few days as I tried to decide what to do with them.  Then I read a recipe for a Roasted Vegetable Greek Salad on the blog One Tribe Gourmet and I knew exactly what I wanted to use them for.  But how to package the dish so that it would be more likely to succeed with Squirrel and Bug, as some of the ingredients were a bit more unfamiliar for my girls?  The answer?  Feta cheese.  Squirrel has developed a love for cheese—especially feta cheese.  She surprised me a few weeks ago when I placed a container of feta on the counter and she exclaimed, “Oh! Feta cheese! Can I have some?”  Sometimes it amazes me what she can identify.  So I knew that if I put feta cheese in the finished dish, Squirrel would be more likely to want to eat it.

The result was a warm salad that is slightly reminiscent of ratatouille, and combines the tangy flavor of feta cheese, with vinegary kalamata olives and marinated artichoke hearts, and an assortment of delicious roasted vegetables.  This is a fabulous vegetarian dish that makes a great side dish or a delicious light lunch.  And yes, both Squirrel and Bug loved it—feta cheese anyone?

This past weekend is without question going to rank as one of the highlights of my year.  It was the result of months of hard work and planning.  It was the weekend where Helene (Tartelette) finally came to Southern California to give a group of lucky people a crash course in macaron making, food styling, and food photography.  I got ready, dropped the kids off at a wonderful friend’s house, and then drove out to L.A. on Friday afternoon to meet up with Jenny and Helene for lunch and then go out to the location to get set up for the first class.  (L.A. is only an hour away, by the way, but when you have kids, it doesn’t matter if something is only 15 minutes away, it’s still like you’re planning to leave the country.)  We had a macaron class Friday night, followed by a macaron class Saturday morning, and finished up with a food styling and food photography class Saturday afternoon.  Although the weekend was not without glitches (read this hilarious post by Jenny about how NOT to host the Tartelette), it was still fabulous, and I hope that all of our attendees had as much fun and learned as much as I did.

If you have been reading LFM for a while, then you know it is no secret how much I adore Helene and her talent.  She has been putting up with me for a long time—long before I was a food blogger (poor girl).  So you know that she has to be an incredibly patient and sweet person to agree to come to L.A. of her own free will and be subjected to spending a weekend with me.  Luckily she was also surrounded by Jenny, Gaby, and all of the other wonderful people who attended the classes.  Helene was as sweet, wonderful, and amazing as she appears to be online.  If you ever have the chance to meet her or take a class from her—DO NOT MISS OUT.

The classes were held at the Academy of Culinary Education in Woodland Hills.  What a fabulous place!

(Prepped and ready to go for the first class.)

A huge thank you to the owner Chef Cecilia de Castro for her warm hospitality and letting us use her wonderful space.  The location definitely made the classes extra special.

(That’s the amazing Cecilia in the background there. Hi Cecilia!)

Because I’m guessing there will be several posts about the classes from other attendees, I’m just going to highlight some of my favorite moments and things that I learned from the weekend.  One of the things that stood out to me specifically was that Helene emphasized “Time on tool.”  As we learned the wrong way and the right way to use a pastry bag, she explained that spending time with this tool and practicing often, would increase our proficiency and hone our skill.

(Helene explaining the right way to hold a pastry bag.)

The same goes for the macaronnage (the folding of the meringue, confectioners’ sugar, and almond flour together to make the final macaron batter), or any other step of macaron making.  She also emphasized the same concept during the food photography/styling class.  Spend time with your camera.  Play with the settings.  Play with the light you have to work with.  Play with your angles.  Play with your setup.  Get to know your tools.  This sounds obvious, but how many of us have learned one setting on our camera and then just stuck with that one setting because we are comfortable with it?  I know I’ve been guilty of that one!

Another point that stood out for me was Helene’s emphasis on doing what works for you.  She explained that all too often we get stuck in the trap of thinking something has to be done a certain way.  For example, just because Chef So-and-so says that a certain kind of dark chocolate is the best, and that you’d be a fool to use anything else, doesn’t mean that it’s true.  She explained that you should use the chocolate that you love, that works for you, and is in your budget.  She explained that of course she’d like to use the expensive stuff all of the time, but that for the amount of baking she does, it is just not economical.  She admitted to having no problem with using Hershey’s chocolate, and that with the climate she lives in (humid Charleston, South Carolina) she gets reliable consistent results with “good old” Hershey’s.  (She also admitted to being a lover of milk chocolate, by the way.)

She brought up the same concept in the food photography/styling class.  She talked about how she often uses an f-stop of f/22 because she loves the detail that she gets.

(Donna of Dishy Goodness getting a shot.)

So often in the food blogging/photography world you hear about using f-stops in the f/1.8 to f/2.8 range, and getting that “blur” in photos where one specific point of the photo is in focus and the rest is in an artistic blur. (If you have no clue what I’m talking about, see this great tutorial on Aperture in Digital Photography.)

(Shawn of kitchen fervor getting the perfect shot—aren’t those tarts gorgeous?)

Looking at her photography, you can’t really argue with her viewpoint.  If you can get stunning photos by doing what works for you, and not what someone else says is the “right way” to do things, then I’m in!

(I have Tartelette camera envy.)

I came away from the weekend feeling more confident, both in macaron making and in approaching my camera.  Not only do I now know that the proper consistency of the meringue for macarons should be similar to shaving cream,

(Robyn of Earthbound Chronicles and Nancy of A Communal Table checking out perfect meringue for macarons.)

but I know what to look for when I’m folding my ingredients together for my macaron batter.

I’m also excited to relax and just play with my camera, get to know it better, and let go of some of my pre-conceived notions of “rules.”

(Marla of Family Fresh Cooking figuring out what works for her.)

It was a great weekend, full of yummy macarons,

wonderful people,

exciting lessons,

and one amazing teacher.

A special thanks to my cohorts in crime for making the weekend possible. Gaby and Jenny, you’re the best!

If you’d like to hear more about the fabulous weekend, you can read these posts written by class attendees (I’ll be adding posts as they are written!):

• Helen, Tartelette: All The Way Away In L.A.
• Jenny, Devour the World: Mac Attack, Southern Invasion aka “How Not to Host the Tartelette”
• Donna, Dishy Goodness: Tartelette Visits Los Angeles: Food Photography Workshop
• Mercè, Cuina per a llaminers: Fotografia i galetes de llimona
• Food: macaron class, rustic macarons, espresso macarons with mocha buttercream
• knot in the string: gorgeous and yummy and The French Macaron
• Cathy, Show Food Chef: One Day Sweet Tartelette Came To Town…(Part I) + Blood Orange Macarons
• Daydreamer Desserts: Macaron Class with Tartelette
• Nancy, A Communal Table: The Macaron Master
• Mary, The Food Librarian: French Macaron Class with Tartelette
• Marla, Family Fresh Cooking: High Energy Skillet Oatmeal

I’m in an exceptionally good mood today.  I can actually breathe out of one of my nostrils, which I’m thinking is cause enough to celebrate.  But on top of that it’s also Mr. Fuji’s birthday!  I feel lucky to be married to such a wonderful guy who is so good to me and to our little girls.

Then in addition to all of that, tomorrow I am heading over to Los Angeles to spend the next couple of days learning all I can from Helen of Tartelette—macaron maker extraordinaire.  To celebrate my good mood, I’m giving a discount on one of the items in my shop.  One of my favorite kitchen tools is my Silpat (a silicone baking mat).

I especially cannot imagine making macarons or chocolate almond toffee without one.  You don’t have to worry about anything sticking to it and cleanup is a piece of cake!  If you don’t have a Silpat, or need another one, and you’d like to get one, I’m offering a 15% discount on the U.S. Full Sheet Pan Size Demarle Silpat.  Just enter the coupon code “Fuji15″ in the Checkout—Payment Method section (there is a special coupon code box).  The coupon is good for a week (until March 11th, 2010)!

One of my guilty pleasures is reading オレンジページ (Orange Page), one of my favorite Japanese magazines.  I was recently flipping through the February 17, 2010 issue and saw a section on using yakisoba noodles to make a variety of dishes.

One of the recipes caught my eye—a recipe called ピリ辛そばめし (Spicy Sobameshi).  Sobameshi is like yakisoba with rice–a combination of fried noodles and fried rice. “Soba” indicates “chukamen”–the noodles used to make yakisoba, and “meshi” means cooked rice is in the dish.  It looked so good.  A mixture of yakisoba noodles, leftover rice, kimchi, and pork all topped with a fried egg.  The recipe screamed total comfort food to me.  This past Sunday when I was at the height of the cold crud, I whipped up a batch of my own spicy sobameshi.  This dish is SO easy.  I got all of the ingredients at a regular chain supermarket.  The whole thing took about 10 minutes to make.

To prepare the yakisoba noodles you take the block of noodles and cut it into 1-inch sections.

The rest of the “work” consists of frying the ingredients in the pan, starting with some bacon, and then slowly adding in the other ingredients.  This tastes like a spicier version of the yakisoba I loved getting at the matsuri (festivals) in Japan.

Note that this will only be as spicy as the kimchi that you use.  So the spicier the kimchi, the spicier your finished dish will be.  The addition of a fried egg on top is an extra bonus.  I love breaking the yolk and getting a bit of the creamy yellow liquid in each bite.

I’ve been battling a doozy of a cold. One of those colds where everything sounds muffled, you can’t smell or taste anything, you’re achy, and just generally miserable. One of those colds where you would swear you are sicker than you are, except for the fact that you aren’t even running a fever. My plan before I started feeling like death warmed over was to whip up a batch of peach cream cheese muffins that you could make as a special breakfast treat on Hinamatsuri.  Then I lost all my will to eat, let alone do anything in the kitchen.  Last Saturday I was reading The Amateur Gourmet and his post about Momofuku Milk Bar’s Compost Cookies happened to be up.  That boy has a penchant for posting dangerous cookie recipes.  I know.  I’ve been snared by one before.  I should known better than to read his blog when I am experiencing moments of weakness.  Anyways, back to those Compost Cookies.  Something about that post lit a fire beneath my feet and I had this insane urge to make cookies RIGHT THEN.  Maybe it was the fact that you are asked to add your favorite junk foods into the cookie batter, or the fact that you mix the butter/sugar mixture for TEN minutes before adding the flour, or maybe it was just the fact that the recipe is from Christina Tosi (a pastry chef who is a genius when it comes to sugar).  Whatever it was, I had to have some Compost Cookies.  So I made some.  Actually, I first made a pathetic plea to Mr. Fuji, asking him to please go to the grocery store for me and pick up a couple of things.  When he came back with the necessary supplies I got to work.  My junk food items of choice?  Mini chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, pretzels, potato chips, and Rolos.

I cut the Rolos into quarters, and lightly crushed the pretzels and potato chips in a large ziploc bag with a rolling pin.

Then I made the dough, scooped the cookie dough into ginormous balls (the recipe directs you to use a SIX-OUNCE ice cream scoop) and put them into the refrigerator to get cold.

When it was finally time to bake them, I watched in dismay as the balls spread and got very thin in the oven.  In my less than healthy state, I must have done something wrong when making the dough.  But let me tell you, it DID NOT MATTER.  Those cookies are SO good.  Chewy, moist, full of flavor . . . cookie perfection.

You know that NY Times Chocolate Chip Recipe from a few years back that everyone seems to have made?  Yeah, I think this recipe has the potential to become the next viral cookie recipe.  I don’t have much else to say before I return to my prone position on the couch except for this: MAKE SOME NOW.  Oh, and as a thank you for putting up with my crazy ramblings, and as my little Hinamatsuri gift to you, I’ve got some little notecards for you to download designed by yours truly.  (DOWNLOAD THE HINAMATSURI NOTECARDS)