Enter the Women’s Law Student Association annual bake sale, a three day event with the proceeds benefitting a very good cause.  Now that I have an excuse to try out recipes and not have to eat all of the results, I’ve been baking up a storm.  I wish we could have bake sales every week.

At the top of my list of things I wanted to bake were these Compost Cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar, which I found on The Amateur Gourmet.  They’re called Compost Cookies because you can dump in ingredients of your choosing from around the kitchen – baking items and snack foods.  Some of the suggested snack foods are potato chips, pretzels, and goldfish crackers, and it was the potato chips that really sold me.  Salty and sweet in cookie form?  I’m in!

You get to add in 3 cups total of baking items and snack foods, so I added pretty much equal parts chocolate chips, caramels, pistachios, potato chips, cheez-its, and bacon.  The bacon was kind of unnecessary, but once I had the idea in my head it would not go away and I had to go for it.  To avoid upsetting any vegetarians at the bake sale I made labels warning of the possible presence of bacon.  It’s unfortunate that they had to miss out on some great cookies.

Compost Cookies

From Momofuku Milk Bar, recipe available here

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tbsp corn syrup (I skipped this)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups baking ingredients (chocolate chips, candies, pb chips, caramels, nuts)

1 1/2 cups snack items (potato chips, pretzels, crackers, bacon – that’s a snack food, right?)

Cream the butter and sugars for a couple minutes until fluffy and pale.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.  Turn the speed up to medium-high, set a timer for 10 minutes, and let it go.

It will get even lighter and fluffier after the 10 minutes and look similar to this.

During the 10 minutes of whipping, you can get the other ingredients ready.

I had some salted caramels laying around that I chopped up into smaller pieces.

The baking ingredients: chocolate chips, caramels, pistachios.

Plus chips and cheez-its.

Plus about 1/4 cup bacon.  I used more potato chips to fill up the measuring cup to hit the 1 1/2 cups mark.

Snacking + baking goodness.  

When the 10 minutes have gone by and the mixture is light and fluffy, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Beat for 45-60 seconds until all of the dry ingredients have been incorporated, but don’t overmix.

Add the baking and snack items, and beat on low speed until just incorporated.

Use an ice cream scoop or a big spoon to scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  The original recipe tells you to use a 6-oz ice cream scoop, and I have no idea what size that is so I just scoop out portions that were about the size of a kiwi.  A kiwi?  I’m not very good with coming up with comparison sizes.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for anywhere between 1 hour and 1 week.  Do not bake immediately!

When the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 400.  Arrange the balls of dough so they’re 4″ apart on the baking sheets.  Bake for 9-11 minutes, browned on the edges and starting to brown on the center.  The cookies pictured above and below?  Not quite done.  I had to throw them back in for a minute or two.

These cookies are really, really, really good.  They’re wonderfully chewy and full of exciting treasures.  Remember those candles they sold in the 90s with charms and doo-dads that revealed themselves as the candle melted?  These are those candles in cookie form.  Next time I will probably skip out on the bacon and use pretzels or crackers, but experimenting by throwing in random ingredients from the cupboard is half the fun of it.

I spent most of the flight staring at food photos and getting hungry, and I knew I needed to cook something once I got home.  After splurging all weekend and eating next to no vegetables I was leaning toward something on the healthy side.  The recipe that really jumped out at me was Eggs in Purgatory with Artichoke Hearts, Potatoes, and Capers from Bon Appetit.  I made my own version by swapping out the artichoke hearts and capers for green chard and serving potatoes on the side.  Add a hunk of crusty bread, and you’ve got yourself a meal.

Eggs + Chard in Purgatory

4-5 leaves green chard

1 small-medium onion, diced

1 28-oz can tomato sauce

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp (or more) red pepper flakes

4 eggs

Grated parmesan (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Rinse and dry the chard.  Sorry for the terrible photos – this problem should go away once my birthday present arrives in the next few days!

Chop the chard into 1/2-in strips.  I discarded the thick stems, but only because the weren’t looking so great.  If yours are OK, throw ‘em in.

Heat a little oil in a (preferably oven-proof) skillet over medium heat, and add the onion.

After a few minutes add the garlic, chard and red pepper flakes.  Saute for a few minutes until the chard softens a bit.

Add the tomatoes.  I used a can of chunky tomato sauce that was in my cupboard, but diced tomatoes would work, too.  If you use diced tomatoes you might want to drain off a bit of the liquid.  Simmer for about 15 minutes until the sauce thickens a bit.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add more pepper flakes if needed.

If you’re using an oven-proof skillet you can make four wells in the sauce and crack the eggs right in.  Otherwise, transfer the mixture to a baking dish, make wells, and crack the eggs in.

Bake for 12-16 minutes, until the whites are set.  I would pay more attention to the time than to the looks because, at least in my opinion, baked eggs never look quite as done as fried egg whites, even when they’re completely cooked.

Carefully spoon the tomato sauce into a bowl and top it with an egg or two.

A little sprinkle of parmesan is the perfect finishing touch.

You live in a zoo”

That’s the song that my dad sang to me this morning.  He stopped after two lines.  It was really special.  Thanks, Dad.

Yes, today is my birthday.  Nothing too exciting going on.  Matt took me to Potbelly for lunch.  My parents sent me flowers.  I got a free latte at the coffee shop in my building.  I treated myself to a couple of cupcakes at Yum.  YUM!  I went on a shopping spree at Whole Foods and bought exciting things that I wouldn’t buy on a normal day.  At least not all at once.

Chocolate raspberry.

Chocolate.

I was going to get just one, but I couldn’t make up my mind on flavors.  Yum cupcakes are so good.  I plan on sharing.

Whole Foods treats –> Dinner

Hope you all enjoy my birthday!

Now on to the food.  Every meal we ate while in ATL was great.  My friend Sarah and I both got in around the same time Friday afternoon and after we dropped our bags off at our friend Katherine’s we headed to Octane Coffee, recently named in Bon Appetit as one of the ten best boutique coffee shops.  Two thumbs up.

Following our caffeine jolt we headed back to Katherine’s to make seafood paella so we could feel like we were back in Toledo.   It’s been six years since our semester in Spain, and although I’ve had paella a handful of times since then this was my first time (participating in) making it.  I always thought paella was something that took hours and hours to make, probably because so many restaurants warn you of an increased wait time for ordering it, but the recipe in Katherine’s Spanish cookbook made it seem far easier.  It makes sense, considering my host mother would make paella every Sunday, if not more often.  After a successful first attempt I think all three of us will be making this more often.

Seafood Paella

From Culinaria Spain, with a few adjustments

A couple fillets of any mild, white fish (tilapia, grouper, halibut)

12-15 large, uncooked shrimp

1-2 dozen mussels, scrubbed

2 tomatoes

2 cups long-grain white rice

4 cups seafood stock

1 cup chicken stock

Pinch of saffron

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

While we cooked and sipped champagne we snacked on assorted olives…

…as well as crusty bread and mahon.

Sarah started by dicing the tomatoes into little pieces.

Katherine partially cooked the shrimp in a little oil in a big skillet.  When they’re about halfway done you take them out of the skillet and set them aside.  They’ll finish cooking later when everything gets thrown together.

We cut a couple tilapia fillets into about 1″ pieces, partially cooked them in the hot skillet, and then set them aside with the shrimp.

Add the rice, tomatoes, garlic and seafood stock to the skillet.  In a separate bowl combine the chicken stock with a large pinch of saffron, stir to combine, then add the mixture to the skillet.*  Bring the mixture to a boil, and cook for about 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat and cook for about 10 more minutes or until the most of the liquid is absorbed.

*We skipped this step thinking it was completely unnecessary and later realized that it’s there to make sure the saffron kind of dissolves into the liquid and spreads its flavor around.

Add the mussels, the shrimp, and the fish and cook for just a couple more minutes.  Season with salt.  We stuck the skillet under the broiler for a couple minutes at the very end, but it’s probably not entirely necessary.  Serve with red wine and crusty bread to sop up any juices.  ¡Buen provecho!

The paella on Friday night set the bar pretty high for food for the weekend, but the remainder of our meals did not disappoint.

Katherine, Sarah, and I, along with Katherine’s roommate Shailika, went to Murphy’s for brunch on Saturday where they garnish Bloody Marys with pickled okra.  I love the South!  The Bloody Mary both revived me and helped wash down my crab cake benedict with jalapeno hollandaise.

Sarah and Shailika.

Me and Katherine.

I didn’t take many more pictures, but I can’t write about my ATL trip without mentioning Saturday night’s dinner at The BookHouse Pub.   The four of us started with smoked trout mac & cheese and collard green egg rolls to share, and I had a juicy burger with blue cheese for my meal.  As much as I loved the burger, the smoked trout mac & cheese was the most unforgettable part of the meal.  Either that or the company.