C is for Cookie...which is not good enough for me.

I don't care what letter "cookie" starts with.  All I care about is eating them.  Right now, I am sitting on top of Cookie Mountain.  I baked a dozen vegan chocolate cookies this evening (a lot for this household, as we don't normally have that many goodies around--I have no control over my sweet tooth when they're present), and I'm pretty sure this is the best batch I've ever, ever, ever made.  I used the same recipe I always use, but this time the cookies came out fluffy and baked so evenly.  Here is the one difference in what I did: I used a baking stone instead of an aluminum pan.  A few months ago Joe bought a stone because he got into baking bread.  If you haven't written your letter to Santa yet, you should totally ask him for a baking stone.  I don't care if you only bake cookies (or scones, or bread) once a year--you NEED one in you artillery.  I mean, check out how golden brown these suckers turned out!

NO BURNED BOTTOMS!!!

Perhaps now you have the Cookie Monster song in your head.  Here's a link to the video for your further enjoyment.

In other deliciousness news, Joe made some awesome food over the weekend, including, but not limited to, a white bean soup and adzuki bean salad.  The soup warms my tummy and makes my taste buds smile.

And the salad is just damn good. Yum, radishes!

Recent Kitchen Endeavors

Joe and I have this really great thing going, in my opinion at least, that on Sundays he cooks 5 or 6 dishes for us to eat throughout the week, and I clean.  I would rather clean a toilet than cook (or do laundry, while I'm being honest).  I'm just really lazy about the goings on of a kitchen, and Joe enjoys cooking, so it works.  And just for the record, I help with the dishes.  Anyway, this past Sunday he made paella.  It's the third or fourth time in the past year that he's made it, and I think it gets better and better every time.  He even bought a special fancy pants paella pan.  For those of you who know us, he obviously doesn't add any meat to it, but he does add (get this) HOMEMADE seitan.  What a guy!  Check it out, and if you want a recipe just let me know.

In addition to the paella, I've been meaning to post the apple pie we baked on November 9 in honor of Carl Sagan's birthday.  If you're not familiar with the famous quote, here it is:

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. --Carl Sagan

Joe often says this quote, in Sagan's voice--it's priceless--so baking an apple pie only seemed appropriate.  Now, I do have to disclose that I've never really been an apple pie person.  I know, I know!!  I'm basically not a real American, but for not liking apple pie, I can definitely say that this one turned out damn good.  We had a goal of doing a lattice crust, and I'd say we succeeded.  Is your mouth watering?