How was that for a first line? I am a master of wit. Seriously though, I keep drifting from hobby to hobby, and knitting, baking, and cooking seem to be the only ones that stick. Therefore, I spend a good majority of my time from about 3 to 4, when my brain becomes totally inundated and mushy from cubicle work, trolling blogs. I figured I spend so much time taking in information, I may as well give some back. That's right. It's Hammer Time. And Miller Time. Weird how those times coincide.
So, without further ado, I present you with my blog, Amusing Bouche (aka Dropping Edible Science). As you can probably tell from the name, I'll be spending most of my time focusing on food. My abridged history with food is that I love it. So much so, that over the years, most of my money has gone to it. Being a college student at NYU, a rather expensive school in a rather expensive city, I found myself chasing luxury on a budget. I didn't care that I had a pizza hut downstairs! I wanted a roast chicken with fingerling potatoes, damnit! When I graduated, I took another look at my budget and decided that my entry-level salary wasn't enough to support my taste. I had to start cooking for myself.
Now, this was no small feat. My mother's idea of cooking dinner was microwaving leftovers from the previous night's chinese takeout. So, I sat myself in front of the Food Network, took in what Mr. Brown, Mr. Batali, and Ms. Dean had to teach me (basically, use butter), and began my adventures in the culinary arts. After a little bit, I began to realize that the food coming from my tiny kitchen was pretty darn tasty!
One of my New Year's Resolutions is to cook a new recipe every other week. A NEW recipe. It has to be something I could learn from, whether it's using a new ingredient or using a new technique. I hope that by documenting the process, I can actually be held accountable for my culinary ambitions. When I do cook one of these special dishes, I probably make a big, annoying fuss about it.
So, enough talk about me, and on to the food! The super bowl is this sunday, and I know a few Steeler fans (shout out to TOOD! WHOOOOOOO!). So, I decided to make a few munchies in support of the Pittsburgh steelers. Tonight, I bring you:
Black and Gold Cookies
Inspired by the Black and White Cookies from Gourmet, Feb 2002
For cookies, I used the recipe as is, but I doubled the ingredients (I'm feeding football fans!)
I altered the icing recipe a bit. I omitted the lemon juice and increased the water (I used hot water to even out the consistency) to 2 1/2 tablespoons. Then, I reserved 1/3 of the icing, and added the 1/4 tsp. vanilla to the larger batch. A little red and a lot of yellow food coloring later, and I had my gold icing. It's more of a glaze than a frosting, which is just how I like 'em.
For the chocolate side, I didn't have dutch-process cocoa powder on hand. Luckily, I had this:
I melted the chocolate up with a little cream and added it to the reserved third of the icing.
Then I flipped the cookies over and frosted the flat side. I also had a glass of red wine to help me with the process. A little sloppy, but yum!
