Category: Food

Congress forced the Nameless Entity to establish a telework program last year, so most Tuesdays I work from home. This made today’s lunch possible, which consisted of
• Blueberry yogurt
• Roasted tater tots with creole seasoning
• Smoked and grilled cold salmon fillet on toast with cream cheese

A casino has bought a BVM-shaped pretzel for $10K. This is the same outfit that bought a grilled-cheese sandwich with a resemblance to an image of Our Lady.
Nobody’s offered me anything for this sandwich of Fr. Sibley, but maybe I should keep it a little longer:
Y’know, I think I’ve figured out what they’re doing. They spend $10K and get a lot of free mentions in the news. It’s probably a reasonable price for a media buy. They don’t need to do anything with the actual item they’ve bought. Maybe shellac it and keep it in the office. Besides, they’re an Internet casino; they may not even have a place where they could display anything.

On the food front:
I knew there was some fundamentally wrong with the order of the world when I walked into a Krispy Kreme shop the other day and the place was empty: not a soul on this side of the counter.
Apparently I’m not the only one to recognize something’s not working for the doughnut maker.

I’ll let you know what happens with it.
UPDATE: Wife.com is baking bread. She started while I planned music from next Sunday thru the 4th Sunday of Advent. It smells *great*
UPDATE 2: And it tasted great. We had a meal of pork loin, fettucine with home made pesto and fresh bread. What a woman I’m married to.

(from my great-grandmother)
Technically, these are really molasses cookies – but my family has always called them ginger snaps. They don’t have the acrid, overly intense spiciness of many ginger snaps. Rather, like good bread, they have a pleasant outer crust and a moist, satisfying crumb beneath.
You can chill the dough in the freezer for about an hour, or let it refrigerate for up to two days (wrap the dough in wax paper to keep it from drying out). If you refrigerate it, for easier handling you can take out the dough 20-30 minutes prior to forming the cookies.
Rolling the cookies in tubinado sugar – you know, Sugar in the Raw – gives the cookies a little more initial flavor, and compliments the molasses taste. That is my one minor improvement to this classic Johnson family recipe.
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. dark molasses
1 egg
2 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
additional sugar for rolling, preferably turbinado
DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, melt butter in the microwave until it is warm, but not hot.
3. Add sugar and molasses to the butter; add the egg.
4. Put all dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk them together.
5. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and stir until well-combined.
6. Chill the dough.
7. Form the dough into 24 small balls.
8. Roll the cookies in sugar until their entire little bodies are completely covered.
9. Put the cookies on two 13×18” ungreased cookie sheets. Parchment paper is optional. If you like a flatter cookie, you may gently press down on their tops with the heel of your hand.
10. Bake 8-12 minutes. If they still have that “raw” look on top, they aren’t done. If they’re stiff, they’re overdone. Remember, they will harden somewhat after they come out of the oven, so take them out when they’re still moist.
11. Remove them from the sheet to a cooling rack.
12. Consume.