After an email from MJ who discussed intentions to bake Mrs Fields style choc chip cookies I got a craving to do the same. Well actually I got a craving to just go over there and eat them.
I am not much of a Kitchen anything, instead relying on the efficiencies of various appliances to heat up food and clean up the mess afterward. The closest thing to making food from scratch is beef koftas or tacos or other meals that require 500g minced beef, loads of spices and a hot frying pan.
Of course it's all my parents' fault. They were the ones who insisted I studied hard whilst they cooked all our meals. The smell of garlic in hot oil and the sounds of wok and wok charn clattering away busily are motifs of my childhood.
Later as my mum suddenly realised that time had passed so quickly and I was now of marrying age she told me to stand by her and the stove so that I may absorb some good housewife skills. Unfortunately I yawned and dreamed of real estate and stocks instead. My loss indeed.
When I moved out of home mum gave me a 30 years old brand new National brand rice cooker with matching HK-Australia power adaptor. She also gave me 25 identical china cake dishes which she had hoarded over the years. Both gifts have been very useful.
These days it is my good fortune to still enjoy mum's meals, occasionally appearing on my front veranda in air tight containers and encased in 2 plastic shopping bags. The last time I nearly missed it sitting on my little veranda seat away from the front door 'so that the ants near the front door I saw last time I visited don't get to it'. Inside were 3 serves of fried noodles with beef and snowpeas.
Lately, I have been visiting her one night a week for a meal and I have even started jotting down recipes with seasonings relayed from years of experience as 'add salt so it tastes a little salty'. Seeing me take interest at long last she replies that there is really no need to write it down, 'I make for you'. Without saying so much, in my family and many others, food is the way love is expressed to children. End Amy Tan moment.
A few months ago, after putting up with the late 80's oven, the stove top, range hood and oven were upgraded. The main reason was that pizzas took way too long to cook due to the crazy whims of the oven thermostat only ever having one setting of 'Lukewarm'.
Having spent a small fortune buying and installing it all so that pizzas could be timely, I thought it was time to use the oven to cook things, rather than to reheat things. I made a roast for the first time and that turned out great and roast potatoes tossed beforehand in olive oil, rosemary and salt are also replacing supermarket bought sacks of oven fries.
I had a free afternoon today and with MJ's baked goods in my mind, I tried my hand at a googled choc chip cookie recipe. The first step of beating the butter and sugars together had the butter pieces flying about a little because my definition of softened butter was sitting it on the table for 2 minutes followed by holding the pack in my warm hands for 30 seconds. After a while it did in fact become 'pale and creamy' and I was delighted by the amount of choc chips the recipe allowed.
The fan forceness of the oven worked well with two levels of cookies on the go and afterwards I scoffed down 3 of the misshapened ones and they were quite moist and downright delicious.
http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/2007/11/chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe_24.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment