Not your average Chinese Almond Cookie

This recipe ended up being one of two items that I decided to bring to my company's potluck lunch. I'm dubbing these not your average cookie since there's a key ingredient missing from the authentic taste of these cookies, the almond extract. Having moved to this area about a half year ago, my kitchen boxes are still in quite a sorry state of disarray and while I know I have at least four bottles of almond extract, none of them chose to materialize today. So, I swapped out the almond extract with another extract in my pantry, lemon extract. I suppose then the name would surely change to Lemon Almond Cookies, but who has really heard of those things?

Both Fred Meyers (owned by Kroger) and Trader Joe's didn't have any blanched almonds in stock, so I decided to pick up a few whole raw almonds and blanch them myself. Despite just about every online and cookbook resource that says this is easy to do, it really isn't. In fact, peeling the damn almonds was more time consuming than baking the entire batch of cookies. Ugh. The dedication to cooking I have for a mere garnishment... anyhow.

To blanch almonds, simply put your almonds into a heatproof bowl. Barely cover them with boiling water. Let the almonds sit for about a minute, drain, and rinse with cold water. Have fun peeling the almonds.

The almond cookie recipe is almost a standard sugar cookie ratio, except it has almond meal in the flour mix. It is traditionally made with lard, which is hard to get, make, or find fresh these days.

Ingredients
3 c. unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 c. almond meal (or finely ground fresh almonds)

1 c. unbleached cane sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3 tbsp water
1 tsp almond extract (if you wanted to make real almond cookies)

about 1/4 c. raw whole almonds, blanched (skins removed)

1 egg, beaten (optional egg wash for top of cookie)
1/2 tsp almond extract

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, almond meal, and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar together, blend in the egg, water, and almond extract.
3. Combine 1&2 together to form a dough.
4. Form dough into 1-inch balls, and flatten slightly with your fingers onto the cookie sheet. The cookies spread out a bit, so, space them at least an 1-2 inches apart.
5. Press a whole blanched almond into the center of each cookie.
6. (optional) Brush each cookie lightly with an eggwash.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until the tops and edges of the cookies are light golden brown.

I used an egg wash (1 egg whisked together with 1/2 tsp almond extract) on this batch, but it's not necessary. It's for aesthetics only.

Imagine if you could if you had everything listed in this recipe except for the almond extract. While I could have used vanilla extract, that'd just be boring and I wouldn't learn anything from the experience. So, in went lemon extract. There you have it, not your average Chinese Almond Cookie. There are almonds in the recipe, but that's not what comes to mind for the name. It's the aroma and pleasing scent of almond extract that everyone remembers; not the almonds themselves.

Pix:

A light mustard vinaigrette

I've been using this combination on my salads. I thought I'd write it down before the brain cell that stores this bit of info decides to go on vacation. It doesn't taste as acidic as some off-the-shelf vinaigrettes, probably because the mustard mellows out the flavor. Servings: 1 or 2 salads Ingredients: 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp white wine mustard 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar freshly ground black pepper Whisk together in with a fork in a small dish. Pour onto a salad and toss. The serving size is debatable. I use it on one salad, but the salad size I prepare can feed two people.

Freshwater fishing gear

I suppose at some point I need to buy some fishing gear, seeing how I live near the Columbia River and a lot of lakes. I bought a freshwater fishing license (only $22/yr) because when you do, the state tosses in a complimentary annual vehicle use permit (an $11 value). I got it because I needed to buy a vehicle use permit to visit the state-run water access parks. Would love to catch some trout since it costs quite a bit at the supermarket, they are plentiful here, and could probably be fished from shore.

Also, my shellfish and seaweed license permits me to harvest crawfish, among other things. I have yet to actually get out to the coast (it's 2.5 hours away!) but there are lakes nearby with freshwater non-burrowing crawfish.

Mmm.. fresh fish..

Only interested in the following: brown trout, rainbow trout, bluegill, yellow perch, and maybe largemouth bass.

I suppose I'll also have to figure out what gear to get and what locations to visit for clam digging, crab/crawfish/shrimp harvesting. You'd think that the Pacific NW conjures up images of cleaner landscape, but it isn't so. Oregon is much worse in this regard, where none of its rivers and lakes even meet state regulations for clean water. I can't, for example, harvest catfish in the Washington lakes because of agriculture pesticide run-offs. Ewww...

So, gear suggestions? Bait? Line weight? Pole size?

I've fished before, but with other people's gear. If I am to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, I think I need to know how to fish, assuming of course that there are still fish to fish.

Dark chocolate molds

So, I have this flat sheet mould that I used to make the chocolate fish. The mould was from a kit to make soap, but that's a crafty adventure for another post.

Directions to melt chocolate

1. Water-bath / double boiler method

a. chop chocolate into smaller pieces and put it in a heat-proof bowl that fits snugly on top of a saucepan that has been filled with water.

b. Bring the saucepan to a simmer and stir the chocolate until it melts completely (it should look smooth and shiny); be sure to have the stove heat low enough so that the water doesn't boil. Turn off the heat once the chocolate has all melted.

Directions for Tempering Chocolate

The Cooking for Engineers blog has a good explanation of how this is done and why it is different than just melting chocolate.

Filling the mould

Spoon the chocolate into the mould, but don't overfill it. If the chocolate is still warm, you can gently swirl the spoon around in the melted chocolate to fill the detailed parts (like the fish's fins). Tap the mould on the counter to settle the surface of the chocolate as well as release any air bubbles.

Refrigerate the mold for about 30 minutes until the chocolate has set. Invert the mould onto a wax paper or parchment paper and chill it again.

Now then, I need to find a natural way to keep this chocolate from melting at room temperature. They look fine after having set in the refrigerator; but there's not a whole lot I can do with it.

Banana bread notes

Lately I've just been obsessed with making bread in this antiquated bread machine I nabbed from my parents' room-of-lost-and-forgotten appliances. I made banana bread last night and the dough did some crazy rising, mushrooming over the top of the baking bucket thing. I think the two ripe bananas (instead of 1/3 c mashed banana) made the dough extra gassy and I only mixed up two of the bread machine recipe book's recipes.. a sweet butter bread and banana bread. One calls for 1/2 c water, the other wants 1/4 c water; since I didn't notice that until it was too late (1/2 c water was the first ingredient in), I thought I'd add an additional 1/4 c flour. I also didn't add the full 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast 'cause I didn't want to open another packet of yeast just for the 1/4 tsp. That didn't seem to affect the bread at all.

Tastes great and it's not like any moist banana bread you'd get at a store. It's not dense or heavy. It's airy, moist and very banana scented. I can't think of a bread texture that this reminds me of.

The curry bread still sits relatively untouched in my fridge. I don't think that the woodland creatures near me would be interested. I should let it dry out and crumble it to make something else...