Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon

These cookies were recently dubbed "Weirdly Excellent" by my good friend, Dr. Smith. Two of my favorite adjectives, especially when used together.

A good question another friend, Erin Weston, asks when her notions about good food are challenged:"Is it good or is it gross?" a rhetoric, to which she always answers (herself & whoever is nearby) "Well, if you have to ask..."

The idea of Bacon in dessert can often fit snugly into the latter category, but here it actually works, that's a promise.


Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

If you beat the egg into the batter for the full three minutes, they will have a lighter texture. You can spoon these directly onto a baking sheet once the batter is made, or you may hold onto the dough in the freezer, wrapped in 1 ½ inch diameter roll to bake off as you want to eat them. They’ll keep frozen for about a month, refrigerated for a couple of weeks.

3 strips thick cut organic bacon, cut in half crosswise
2/3 cups sugar
1 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest(optional)

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon, cook until it just begins to brown, strain the fat and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Be careful the sugar and bacon don't burn. Remove to a baking rack to strain (it would stick to paper towel)once the bacon is crisp and golden. Let cool, crumble into tiny pieces, set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, soda and salt, set aside
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and remaining sugar together until lightened. Add the egg and beat until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the extract. Mix in the flour until just incorporated, stir in the chips and bacon.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two baking sheets. Place 1 tablespoon mounds of dough or ¼ inch thick slices of the log about 2 inches apart on an parchment lined baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden, rotating pan halfway through baking, about 12 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.

STRONG TIP

When I'm filling a Ziploc bag, I always turn the edge of it over to form a cuff.
That way, stray pieces of food don't get caught in the zipper part and interrupt the seal.

Panzanella with Raspberries

The raspberries were such an intense color at the greenmarket today. They looked like they’d dye your eyes inky pink just by staring at them. I’d be a bad cook if I ignored a single good tomato in August, especially with the blight of their people. Here are the results…

Panzanella with Raspberries
serves 2

½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 cups fantastic ripe tomatoes, cut in chunks or cherry tomatoes cut in half
¼ cup raspberries
3 cups 2 inch cubes of bread
1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon chopped chives
5 large basil leaves, torn to pieces
1/3 cups extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup ricotta cheese (optional)

in the bottom of a salad bowl mix the salt and vinegar. Add the shallots, let sit for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients except ricotta. Toss to combine. Let sit for an hour. Serve topped with a big spoonful of ricotta cheese.

Chantarelles

A few weeks ago, I was on my way to a dinner. I realized I was about half an hour early, so I set into the woods for a quick walk. I stood by a waterfall. I had a thought, about some guy I was seeing. I got really mad. (Formerly I had just been sad, so this was an improvement...)I turned to go back, and there was a field of Chantarelle mushrooms right in front of me!

I made my sweatshirt into a bundle and collected about three pounds of them. I always wanted to have a magic abundant rare mushroom bonanza! We sauteed a bunch at the dinner. Some people were scared of things randomly found in the woods, by a city girl no less. But I'm still here, we all survived. They were Chantarelles. I dried some on strings on the rafters of the house.
Corn and Chantarelle Hash
Serves 2

1/4 cup good butter
2 small red onion or shallots, chopped
8 chantarelle mushrooms, chopped
kernels shaved off two fresh ears of corn
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon fresh chives, chopped
salt and pepper

Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add butter, mushrooms and shallots,sauté until fragrant and the shallots are translucent, about 7 minutes. Add corn, sauté until corn is just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Stir in thyme and chives. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Eating Off Season Tomatoes

We're so close. So close. I can almost taste it and it's summer boiled down to a sweet tomato. I worry about people out there, eating grainy tomatoes in the dead of winter. Or in the summer when they almost taste good but they're missing the dewy earthly flavors they have when they're in season. But people do it and I just can't fight it. So I'll help. Here's some tomato tips:

If you have some pale and sad tomatoes, put them in a brown paper bag overnight with a pretty ripe banana. Close the bag, in the morning they'll be redder inside and out, they may even taste a bit better.

If you eat tomatoes off season, it's best to dry them out in the oven for a number of hours at a low temperature with some herbs, sea salt and a sprinkling of olive oil.

Smaller cherry and plum tomatoes are always more sweet and rewarding off season.
They are best slow poached in the oven, swimming an inch of olive oil with herbs and sea salt.

If you smell a tomato and it smells like one, it has a better chance of tasting good.


When is tomato season? In my book it's very late July to early September, when they look like they're about to burst and often do in the bag on the way home from the Market.