Yes, I know that the title of this post is more than a little bit reminiscent of Mindy Kaling's Things I Bought That I Love, but that is intentional because I love Mindy Kaling and her blog. That being said, I've made two delicious recipes in the last few days. I'm not much of a cook, so this is a big deal.
Last Friday, I decided to make cookies. I've been reading about Momofuku Milk Bar cookies all over the interwebs lately. For awhile, I just ignored the references and lived in ignorance, but after hearing about this Milk Bar business over and over again, I just had to know what they were. A few minutes of Googling later, I had several recipes to choose from and they all sounded delicious.
I read the recipe for the real Milk Bar Cookies and decided that it was too much trouble. I then found this delightful copycat recipe and decided to give it a whirl. I made the cookies exactly as the recipe says to do it, except I mixed the marshmallows in with the dough. The cookies are great. If I were to make them again, I would put in a whole bag of chocolate chips instead of just a cup (the recipe says 2/3 of a cup, but that just didn't seem like enough). My 9-year-old nephew was with us over the weekend and he liked the cookies very much and ate several, but did mention that they were a tad salty. I'd tend to agree, but for me, this was a selling point.
I've got a bit of a cold, so yesterday I really wanted to make soup, but I didn't want it to be difficult or time consuming. I am forntunate to live about .75 of a mile from a Trader Joe's at the moment and I rarely shop anywhere else if I can help it. I love Trader Joe's dumplings of all varieties (wontons, gyoza etc.) so I did a google for "Trader Joe's dumpling soup" and came up with this recipe for Asian Soup. I wasn't sure about the cabbage or the mushrooms, but Bob likes those things, so I put them in my cart (already chopped up, of course) along with a bag of TJ's frozen Chicken Cilantro wontons for the dumpling part.
I basically followed the directions as written. I used all of the ingredients the recipe calls for, but cooked them slightly differently. I started by lightly sauteeing the garlic, ginger, cabbage, and carrots in EVOO and a bit of sesame oit and then adding the mushrooms and THEN adding the chicken broth. After that, I brought the whole thing to a boil and dumped in the wontons. The soup seemed to need a little something, so I improvised and put in about a teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice Powder. I think this was the key ingredient. Anyhow, the soup was extremely delicious and easy and it made me feel like a gourmet. I even ate the leftovers for lunch today and I hate leftovers.
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