I baked!

It's been a long time since I took the time to bake, so tonight I got off work early and after dinner made snickerdoodles. The Ultimate Cookie Cookbook has the best recipe I've tasted. http://http//www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0517206439/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-3174206-1068627#reader-link (p.21).
I made the perfect snickerdoodle, in my humble opinion! They were all the same size (cookie scoop!), had just the right amount of cinnamon and sugar on the top, and were crispy except for the very middle, which teases you into thinking they were chewy cookies. Allison likes them chewy, I like them crisp. On the other hand, she lives in a dorm, and she'll eat anything provided for free!

I always whip up a double batch of dough, so I can freeze it, and take it out on the spur of the moment for fresh baked cookies. Then I have several kinds of cookies to choose from. In this cookbook, I also love the buttered lime thins (p.107) and the Cats' tongues filled with espresso chocolate (p.147). I obviously haven't baked every recipe in the book, but I'll work my way through it eventually!

I love to bake, I can't make a decent pie dough to save my soul! I made apple crisp the other night, but the topping was less than stellar. Not sure what I did wrong, brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Maybe I didn't mix it into a crumble very well with the butter, parts of it were just powdery. Tasted good, but not a great topping.

Amber would be disappointed, we had plans for a baking party, and I didn't follow the "rules"! Don't worry, we'll have time!

Sushi

So my friends have been telling me for a long time that I had to try GOOD sushi, fresh sushi. So tonight we went to Rick Shaw Sushi (seven of us) and I finally tried sushi. My all time favorite were the mussels. Okay, technically not sushi, but served on the half shell cooked with some kind of wasabi mayo and hot sauce or something. Very yummy! My other favorite was the Rickshaw: Crystal shrimp, cucumber, avocado, spicy crab & cooked scallop, teri & honey mustard sauce. It was an all you can eat, so with seven of us, I was able to try a lot of different kinds. The Black Tiger was tempura shrimp, seared tuna, unagi and avocado.

We had a great time, I even tried Sake, which I didn't know was served warm, but very tasty. I probably won't go often, no one else in my family will go with me, but I'm really glad I went and tried something new. I kept the order sheet so I could make notes. Course, I'll never know where it is if I go back, but maybe I'll remember what I liked!

January, Already?

Sheesh, where did the time go? Holidays are done, New Year's has come and gone, now settling in to normal life. I spent a week before the holidays catching up on mindless TV, got through Desperate Housewives, now I have to catch up on LOST. I just got season three on DVD from the library, so I can start working on those. It feels kind of weird to not have to run home and jump on the computer and do school work. Feels great, mind you, just getting used to it.

I went through all the board games to make sure they were complete and got rid of stuff, went through the cupboards in the loft and cleaned those out, cleaned out the coat closet, now to get to the garage! Too cold!

Happy New Year to everyone (the two of you that read this!).