This recipe is based on the Joy of Cooking Quick Oatmeal Cookies recipe (1st edition), but modified to make chewier cookies.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream in a bowl:
   • 1 cup butter
   • 1 cup white sugar
   • 1 cup packed brown sugar
3. Beat in another bowl, then combine with butter mixture until thoroughly mixed:
   • 2 eggs
   • 1 egg yolk
   • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
   • 4 tablespoons milk
4. Whisk in another bowl and gradually add to wet mixture:
   • 2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
   • 1 teaspoon baking soda
   • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Use a teaspoon to drop cookies on a silicone-lined or greased-and-floured cookie sheet, two inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

I usually make raisin and chocolate chip cookies from the same batch of dough, because J- doesn’t like chocolate and I don’t like raisins. (I bear a grudge towards raisins because raisin cookies often masquerade as chocolate chip ones. Disappointing!). Instead of mixing the raisins or chocolate chips into the cookie dough, I press raisins or chocolate chips into the cookies by hand. I usually make the raisin cookies first, since they’re not as popular as the chocolate chip ones. After I finish adding all the raisins, I can then manually add chocolate chips to each cookie, or dump chocolate chips into the cookie dough and mix it some more.

Cookie photo © 2008 Pink Sherbet Photography Creative Commons Attribution License

Finally, a chance to sit down after one solid morning of baking! We
made cream meringue tart cockaigne and devil’s food cake cockaigne,
both from the first edition of the Joy of Cooking. The cream meringue
collapsed a little bit when we took it out of the oven, but the
meringue tasted yummy. I can’t wait to add the strawberry whipped
cream filling. I’ll practice baking this cake until I can do it
consistently well. It was W-‘s third time to make the devil’s food
cake. The cake came out beautifully thanks to the spring-loaded pans.
I’ll insist on using those pans the next time I bake a cake. ;)

I know that I can get prettier cakes from any supermarket, but those
cakes won’t have stories baked into them. Cooking is a terrific hobby.
It not only keeps me busy and learning, but also increases the
pleasures of eating and entertaining. It’s a good way to develop my
ability to track multiple things and to adjust when something doesn’t
turn out according to plan. It’s a hobby that will grow with me. I’m
looking forward to finding out what I’ll be like when I’m seventy!

Getting back to the two cakes: I don’t know how many people will come
later, or at what time they’ll arrive. But at 3:00, we’re going to
assemble, cut, and serve the cakes, because *we* definitely want them.
=)

Random Emacs symbol: eshell-process-wait-milliseconds – Variable: *The number of milliseconds to delay waiting for a synchronous process.

It seems very inefficient to use the Broil/Grill function on the oven
to heat up a peanut-butter sandwich, but this suite has three rice
cookers and no toasters. Go figure. =) I won’t have a toaster at the
other side yet, either… I’ll add a toaster oven to my wish list.

I’m a little uncertain about the prospects of living off peanut butter
sandwiches for the next few weeks. My mom told me stories of managing
it when she was in college, though, so it can’t be *too* bad for me.
I’m looking forward to having a proper kitchen, though! I will be very
slow and very careful about buying things, but I’m looking forward to
properly doing once-a-month or once-a-week cooking.

I hope to get the paperwork for the lease together in time. Thursday,
I’m going to run around and pick up paperwork. I’m looking forward to
eating more than peanut butter toast…

Random Emacs symbol: minibuffer-window – Function: Return the window used now for minibuffers.

One of the simple joys in life is waking up (relatively) early on a weekend morning and preparing a proper breakfast. I made myself a twice-baked potato that was pretty decent, although it wasn't as good as the ones I enjoyed in childhood. The idea is to scoop out the insides of a baked potato and mash that up with cheddar cheese, then bake it again until the cheese browns. I settled for microwaving the potato for 7 minutes, mashing it up, mixing it with grated cheddar, and broiling it for a short while. I also cooked bacon bits on the side.

Ah. Happy girl.

Whenever I get organic large rolled oats (not quick-cooking!), I keep
telling myself that ah, this is life, this is what oatmeal is supposed
to be like. It's actually a *joy* to eat.

Someday, I might even take pll's advice on preparing them perfectly.
<laugh>

One of these days, I'm going to try properly following the recipe for
curried chickpeas. I like curries – Japanese and Indian-style curries
in particular. Apparently, cooking curry isn't just a matter of mixing
water, flour, and curry spice. Or at least I *think* it's curry spice.
I inherited it from my very first roommate here last year. The jar
didn't have a label, but I vaguely remembered that I had curry in my
cupboard somewhere, and it was in either that or the jar labelled
“pepper”.

Right. Someday I'm going to learn how to do a proper curry.

The chard that showed up in my Organic Good Food Box worked out quite
well, though. I actually followed a recipe this time around, instead
of treating it as some random leafy green. Joy of Cooking gave a
recipe for chard sauteed with garlic and seasoned with red wine
vinegar, which turned out to be pretty nice and easy to prepare.

As for carbs: I've decided to work my way through the frozen bread
that I've accumulated over several months. The oval pita I picked up
on sale reheats quite well under the broiler. Ah, for a little toaster
oven instead of these less-flexible slice toasters. (Although I
suppose slice-based toasters make it harder to burn toast unattended.)

My mom will be pleased to know that I've gotten back to regularly
taking vitamins. I'm also succumbing to peer pressure and becoming
semi-vegetarian. ;) Not for ethical reasons, mind you, but for purely
practical ones.

• I'm less likely to give myself food poisoning as long as I stay away from dangerous plants.
• It'll be easier to entertain friends, many of whom are (aspiring) vegetarians/vegans.
• I can get through the Good Food Box and other food arrangements faster.

That said, I still like bacon and eggs, and I'll have to work my way
through the chicken in the fridge eventually.

As long as I make sure I cover possible deficiencies in a vegetarian
diet, I should be fine. =) Besides, I don't mind eating meat when I go
out. I just want to learn how to cook veggies in a way that makes me
want to actually eat them. ;)

Last Saturday (2006.08.12) was my birthday, and every Filipino knows
that birthdays mean lots and lots and lots of food. Things didn't go
exactly according to plan: they turned out even better! It was the
first time I tried cramming over 15 people into my suite, and it
worked out surprisingly well even though we were constantly washing
mugs and everything.

Plan A was to spend the morning preparing a traditional
merienda of Philippine delicacies. I woke up late and spent the rest of
the morning celebrating my birthday with a virtual party thrown by my
family and friends in the Philippines. That was totally worth it.

Plan B: buy traditional delicacies from a Filipino bakery or something
like that. Except I had *no* idea where to find one of those downtown.
Google wasn't helpful, either. The one Filipino restaurant I
remembered along Yonge turned out to have closed a while ago. I asked
Joey de Villa, but he couldn't think of any
off the top of his head. Meep.

Plan C, of course, was to declare cookies and brownies traditional
Filipino treats. ;) As long as the other Filipinos played along, I'd
be home safe! Also, I was totally craving tropical fruits, so it was a
good excuse to splurge on mangoes, pineapples, and other good things.
Richi Plana and I raided Chinatown and
Kensington Market for assorted foodstuff, also picking up ingredients
for champorado and palitaw.

What could be better than that? Plan D: Have your *guests* cook! ;)
That was just amazing. Friends demonstrated their l33t pineapple
carving / brownie making / champorado-from-scratch cooking /
dishwashing skillz. I did actually manage to cook something: palitaw,
one of my favorite Filipino snacks.

Palitaw

Glutinous rice flour, shredded coconut, sugar, sesame seeds

1. Add boiling water to glutinous rice flour, kneading it into dough. Don't make it sticky!
2. Roll the flour into balls and flatten them with your hands into small pancake-like shapes.
3. Slip the cakes into boiling water.
4. Scoop the cakes out when they float.
5. Toast sesame seeds until they turn golden.
6. Mix shredded coconut, sugar, and sesame seeds on a plate.
7. Coat both sides of each cake with the mixture.
8. Enjoy!

Preparing all this food kept me a bit too busy to connect with
everyone, and I wish I had a bit more time to spend with people who
had to leave early. Maybe I'll figure out a better way to do this next
time…

Anyway, after I made sure everyone had something to eat, I took a
break from the kitchen and got to the main part of the party. I talked
about the past year and how my 22nd year of life was mainly about
learning to live on my own. I then asked them to help me brainstorm
cool things to do in Canada so that I can make the most of my time
here. I also asked for help figuring out what I can do after
graduation, and I got a number of suggestions that I hadn't considered
before but which seem like pretty good fits. I'll blog about these later.

I asked for letters instead of gifts, and the letters I got were
really, really, really heartwarming. =) I also received some
absolutely wonderful chocolate, an interesting book, and a beautiful
set of cat-themed dishes. (I'm behind on my thank-you cards and
letters, but I'm looking forward to catching up soon!)

I demoed my strange street-performing-ish hobbies, too. (Thanks,
Kathy, for getting me into that stuff!) Then we headed over to the
Linux Caffe for dinner and more relaxed conversation. I *love* the
Linux Caffe to pieces. It's so nice knowing and being known by a
place…

Anyway, that was how I spent my birthday. I can't think of any better
way to celebrate finishing a year and starting a new one than in the
company of such good friends. =)