New book and baked apples!

All day I was agonizing over what to cook. I wanted payback for my Johnny Cakes disaster, so I went looking for a good cooking technique book. Not one that just had a bunch of “how to make such and such”, but literally “How to… sauté, make stock, bake, braise, you name it.” I found what I was looking for at Borders, and what a find I made! Le Cordon Bleu’s own “Complete Cooking Techniques”. Oh yeah, it’s on now babe!
The rest of my day was spent pouring over the possibilities. Blessings really do sometimes come disguised as mis-made Johnny Cakes.

Before I knew it, it was 11:00pm and I had nothing going on. So I put down my new treatise on culinary technique mastery, and wandered into the kitchen, somewhat aimlessly.

It was too late to bake anything really (the mixer would probably wake up the building), Or was it? Everything I’ve done so far has been a main dish, savory and usually somewhat involved. I wanted something sweet, comforting and easy. Baked apples to the rescue! I tossed some fresh grated nutmeg and a cinnamon stick into my coffee-mill turned spice grinder, and made enough noise to only wake up three or four neighbors, instead of the entire city block. A few chefish-like ninja moves with a couple knives, and halved apples, chopped toasted pecans and raisins, some brown sugar and butter had made a nice little flavor bomb for my apples. Into the oven they went.

Apples went in, bliss came out. Pure, sugary, nutty, tangy bliss. The apples were still a bit firm, not puddles of mush, and the skin had a nice tartness to complement the sweetness of the filling. Next time, I’ll dress it up with some Ice cream!
I’m glad I got another dish done. But I’m so excited about this book, I wonder if I’ll sleep (?). If I do though, I’ll be headed to my dream kitchen anyhow, so for now, all is good and right in the world.
494 to go.