It feels like a Wednesday. . .

Probably because I'm sitting here eating falafel and blogging.

I just went out to do all my shopping for the party - most of it, anyway. I'm getting the nice people at the deli counter at Fortino's to do the veggie and fruit trays for me. I stopped on my way back to buy some falafel and some tabouleh salad, which I'm going to use as the dressing for my pasta salad for the party. I've tried this once before, just to use up leftovers, and it was awesome, so tomorrow I'm trying it for company. Hurrah for cultural exchange! An italian-style pasta salad using a Levant-style parsley and tomato salad as dressing. Good stuff, and really healthy. Much more so than the cheese ball and paté, anyhow.

Adventures in Cookie Land

The recipe will follow tomorrow, with pictures - I promise! But the original cookie exchange said do it by the 30th, and that's today, so here are my experiences with my (very rare) foray into the world of baking.

1) This shortbread recipe is really, really good. Melt-in-your-mouth good. Make-every-weekend-until-you-grow-out-of-your-pants good. After playing with it for a while, I developed a few variations I like. I didn't put the baker's chocolate in the recipe at all, because I don't like baker's chocolate. Instead, I used the milk chocolate chips and some baking gums in a few creative ways. Right at the end, after melting some chips and dipping dried apricots in them, I used the leftover melted chocolate to mix into the remaining cookie dough. The result was marble shortbread, and boy, was it ever yummy!

2) I need to find a way to not burn the bottom of my cookies. All but the last batch were slightly darker than I like.

3) It is very important to ensure sufficient counter/table space before beginning. Cookie-making takes a lot of space.

4) The Guy Gavriel Kay book can wait until the cookies are done. It is a VERY bad idea to finish the paragraph before checking on the cookies once the timer has gone off. Along that path lieth burnt cookies.

5) Dipping fruit is fun. Eating too much of it during the dipping process is fun while it lasts, but probably not a good idea.

6) When you need it, use every available surface for cooling cookies. This includes the piano, the high chair tray, and the top of the fridge. It does not include the stovetop; that is hot from the oven and therefore, cookies do not cool when placed there.

That's it for now. Recipe and pictures to follow before the party tomorrow. Right now there's a very messy kitchen awaiting my attentions. (Messy kitchens are my biggest reason for baking so rarely.)