gah backlog

Okay, let's start with the four dozen or so cookies I baked for the NSC. Between the snickerdoodles and the chocolate chewy cookies, the chocolate was absolutely superior (despite the fact that a coach who sampled one of the snickerdoodles was all exclamatory about how "tender" they were, which I didn't know was a particularly positive quality for a cookie to have). It's not that cinnamon isn't delicious, but chocolate remains the most toothsome of dessert flavors. I lowered the sugar content on this recipe and increased the cocoa content; additionally, I prefer dough to chips, so I lowered the dough-to-chip ratio. If I make them again--well, let's face it, when I make them again--there will be no chips at all.

Oh, and as an aside... the tournament went splendidly. This was triply gratifying: I worked substantially on the set, it's delightful to see the immense knowledge those darn kids are accruing (insert link to photo of the Watkins pole here), and it was probably the last tournament in which I'll play a substantial part. In short: Quizbowl rocks.

Anyway, upon arriving home at about 2 a.m. Monday morning thanks to the vagaries of Dulles, I had no desire to post about that, which is why I've got a few more recipes to discuss. First, lemon meringue pie... with a photograph!**



See that cookbook? That cookbook contains my favorite pie crust recipe ever. Sure, I could go find one that uses lard and would probably be flakier, but I refuse to ingest lard (knowingly), and this one is easy, delicious, and perfectly serviceable. My one criticism is that a single recipe's worth of dough isn't quite enough for a single-crust pie, so it's a good idea to make 1.5 portions. The meringue and lemon filling were in sufficient quantity, though, even if the lemon filling was mysteriously runny (it wasn't like that the last time I made it from the same recipe). And the meringue was dry-eyed, thereby satisfying the most important criterion for a successful meringue pie.

The pie came after a meal of spinach and Swiss cheese crepes, with a bit of nutmeg and a splash of lemon juice thrown into the spinach filling. I also made hasselback potatoes (described in a question from this past weekend as "that most destabilizing of starches," a turn of phrase that I particularly enjoy), because carbohydrates are fun! The meal was tasty enough to eradicate the fact that the lock on our door mysteriously jammed and we had to pay an absurd amount of money to have it fixed and replaced, the latter of which it turns out the landlord would have preferred we not do. Sigh.

Also, despite the fact that I'm starting my tutoring "full-time" tomorrow, I'm committed to baking desserts at least twice a week and bread at least twice a week. Hold me to that. Perhaps tomorrow I'll try out some pita, or just get going with that sourdough starter I've been swearing to myself I'd prepare one of these days.

**These photographs are going to improve starting tomorrow, I swear it.