RainDropStitches

It’s June! Somebody should tell Sun, because I think she forgot about us up here in the Pacific NW. We’re not expecting anything but rain and clouds for at least another two weeks. Hey, Rain, I like you. I do. But it’s time to take a break and let Sun shine for a while. We could all use it around here.

Despite the rain, last weekend we were able to walk down the trail with Esther. Here’s who we met along the way:

Oh, lots of other things have been happening around here this past month. (And I’ll post it in bullet form.)

• I had my first blog meet up with Chara Michele for one. We had coffee and talked and she was lovely.
• Last weekend me and two of my girlfriends went to see Sex and the City. It was like meeting old friends again. At first everything seems completely different, but then as you talk with them more, you realize that nothing has really changed.
• I turned 27. The big day was celebrated by dinner with the two aforementioned girlfriends followed the next night by dinner with the Boy.
• My garden is growing! This year, instead of planting seeds, we planted starters. Thus, we have a steady supply of basil, sage, and thyme. And we actually had parsley from last year. Nobody was kidding when they told me to set the parsley aside and neglect it, because it was full and lush when I went to clear the planters for this year’s seedlings.

I have another post brewing fairly quickly here, but I felt the need to give an update beforehand. If you’re in a part of the country that is in the midst of a heat wave, please send me some love as I shiver here in the cold.

I can’t believe that I haven’t posted about this yet: For my birthday, which is still two weeks away, Boy gave me a KitchenAid stand mixer (Pro HD in chrome). *squee* This past week, I’ve been baking to my heart’s content. Since I broke my wrist, it has been very difficult for me to knead bread dough or make anything else that involves stirring a firm dough. I had to really cut back on baking, so you can imagine how exciting it is for me to be able to do these things with a flip of the switch.

And now to the cookies! Yesterday, I made cookies using the Jacque Torres’s Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from, you guessed it, Martha Stewart. (I’m really on a MS kick lately, aren’t I?) Of course, I slightly modified the recipe, because we really didn’t need 8 1/2 DOZEN cookies sitting around the house. Here’s my version:

Jacque Torres’ Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies V2.0 (or should that be V.25?)

• 1 stick unsalted butter (or pareve margerine) at room temp
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg at room temp
• 3/4 cups pastry flour
• 3/4 cups ap flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 8-10 ounces of the best semi-sweet chocolate you have, chopped into small chunks. (I broke out the Scharffenberger 63% for this.)

1. Preheat oven 350 F
2. Cream together butter with sugars, add egg and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Reserve 2 T of mixture. Add the remaining dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients about a quarter cup at a time, mixing until well incorporated.
4. Toss chocolate chunks with reserved dry mixture (this helps keep the chocolate from sinking, not too important with cookies). Fold into dough.
5. Using a tablespoon, scoop dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 15 mins, until golden, but still a little soft. Let cool on a rack (I never knew how important this step was until now!).

• Makes about two dozen, or less if you are like me and swipe a bit of cookie dough every time you pass the bowl.

In reducing the recipe, the ratios changed slightly. If you actually want 100 cookies, then I’d follow the recipe as given (but really, unless you’re doing a bake sale or some other event, why would you want that many cookies?). Also, because I didn’t have any bread flour on hand, I used all-purpose flour. The cookies turned out deliciously and beautiful. I apologize for the lack of a picture. We’re having issues with our rechargeable batteries at the moment. I’ll try to post a pic before the cookies are gone. Now with picture-y goodness above.

* As a side note, I’d like to say how much I like Alton Brown’s approach to recipes. This is a cookie recipe. The ingredients may change, but the method for combining the ingredients is the same as most other cookie recipes. You cream the wet stuff, you add the dry stuff, bake it up, and voila, you have <insert your favorite> cookies! I just might start writing that from now on when I’m (re)writing a recipe.

The most common searches that bring visitors to my blog are about Jewish embroidery. This makes me feel a little bit guilty, because I don’t actually have much in the way of Jewish embroidery.  I’ve mentioned a few projects here, but nothing more. So, I thought that I would be useful and post an embroidery (or appliqué or heck coloring page). The part where I got to play with my newfound toy, Inkscape, was just an added bonus. (I *heart* Inkscape!)

Download the pdf: MagenDavidHearts