Happy Halloween Weekend

Cookies

Like Sylvia Plath, I cook when I'm anxious. I hope I come to a better end. Living alone has gotten bothersome. I bake inappropriately. Bread, scones, and cookies in the last twenty four hours. I keep bringing plates full of cookies to David's sister and foisting them upon David. Today chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Without the melting chocolate hard part. I sort of made them up, as much as you can make up a chocolate chip cookie recipe. They go like this:

1 stick of butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Mix these things together. Make tea. Get distracted. Call your father.

1 cup and a tablespoon of flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp cocoa powder

Sift these things into the other things. Mix. Eat a lot of dough. Feel a tad ill. Drink more tea.

Add about 1/2 c. of milk chocolate chips. Mix more.

Bake at 350 for about ten minutes. Maybe less. Check. Eat. With tea. Do not put head in oven and die with your cheek resting on a dish towel. That is a bad bad end.

Do you think baking would be more fun with an Aga? I suspect it would. And the westie could sleep on a little pillow next to it.

and for desert

David's sister made these yesterday. I ate an inappropriate amount of them. If you make me some I'll hug you. For reals.

Bread

They're not lying. That kneadless bread. Mark Bittman is kind of the man. Make it. Eat it. Weep with joy. Awesome bread. No time. No money. Love.

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Buy This

For wearing. Or staring. Or cradling in the hand and petting.

Anthro.

Sparkly Things

I have discovered Overstock.com's jewelry shenanigans. I want a lot of shiny ridiculous jewelry. I don't really wear jewelry that often; going out earrings, the occasional inappropriately large ring. But I really like shiny crazy objet. To look at. Hang on the wall.

1. Luminous Earrings, $169.99

2. Banging Filigree Earrings, $13.94

3. Incredibly Cool Coral Necklace, $20.69

4. Pretty Silver Earrings, $17.99

This Week...

David and I went to Massachusetts for my college homecoming; we hit a three hour detour on 84 in Connecticut; I got food poisoning and cried and threw up; our car broke down on the way back down from CT and we had to spend 24 hours in Vernon waiting for it to be fixed; my westie was attacked by much much bigger dog that bit her in the neck at the kennel while I was stuck in CT; I got home, felt very lonely and cried some more.

Also this week: I got to eat three meals here with David, it's our new favourite place in the country. For serious. I made Giada De Laurentis' Pancetta Balsamic Vinaigrette with pasta, and it tasted like magic. Susie wasn't seriously injured and we spend more of yesterday together snuggling, good excuse; someone referred to me as David's wife, which was nice; we got to spend an extra 24 hours together talking, which was nice. And I discovered Kate Szabone who is now my favourite jewelry designer and makes these insanely awesome bangles. And possibly all her rings. Just saying