Love Story: Fab Food

1 shot of tequila (preferably silver, but gold works as well)
»      ½ shot of Amaretto almond liquor
»      Fresh basil
»      Lemon wedge
»      Heavy splash of homemade sweet n’ sour (directions below)
»      Small splash of soda
*Muddle basil in glass with chopped lemon wedge (extract oils from the rind). Add ice and the rest of the ingredients and voila!
Homemade Sweet n’ Sour Ingredients:
»      Equal parts simple syrup and lemon juice

Zucchini Bread Pancakes

Zucchini Bread Pancakes

1 cup oats

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup melted butter

1 small zucchini, grated

Grate the zucchini. Then between a towel, squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
Combine oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
In a separate bowl combine sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla and butter. Mix. Add zucchini.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Combine.
On a medium heat preheated griddle, scoop 1/4 cup of the batter for each pancake.

Tip!
I used a small zucchini. My thoughts on this are, the more zucchini you use, and the less you wring it out, the more mushy your pancakes will be. So the amount of zucchini you use, is up to you... If you would like them more dry, I would suggest half of a small zucchini.

Watermellon mojito pops. Photos via Cynthia Martyn

Photos via Amour Amour

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie

The New York Time Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies)2 cups, minus 2 tbsp cake flour

1 2/3 cups bread flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 baking powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp table salt (I made this alteration, because I found the original recipe way too salty. See tips)
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
1 cup, plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips (the original recipe calls for 1 1/4lb chocolate disks)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, cream together the sugars and butter.
Then add the eggs one at a time (mixing the batter well between each egg) to the sugar mix.
Add the vanilla. Mix.
Then add the dry mix to the sugar/egg mix. Mixing slowly, or you will have flour flying everywhere! Mix just to combine.
Add the chocolate chips, and stir by hand.
Now you have to do the hardest part...chill the dough for at least 24 hours! Just press on some plastic wrap against the dough, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
When you are ready to bake them, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. This will help to prevent burnt bottoms and the cookies come off so easily. I love parchment paper!
Scoop the cookie dough into golf ball sized chunks on to the cookie sheet. I used an ice cream scoop.
Bake for 16-20 minutes. The longer you bake them, the harder they are. We like them chewy and soft, so start checking them at around 16 minutes.
When they are done, remove them from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack, letting them cool for about 10 minutes.

Tips!

Coarse Salt vs. Table Salt. Coarse salt, which is also referred to as Kosher salt, has larger granules than table salt. So the general rule is use 1/2 the amount if you are using table salt.
- So for this recipe it would be ~1 1/2 tsp coarse salt = 3/4 tsp table salt
- BUT I found even this was too much salt. I would use 1/4 to 1/2 table salt
I didn't use the chocolate disks, I used 2 cups of regular (semi-sweet) chocolate chips.
If you don't have cake flour, you can make the following substitution:
- 1 cup of cake flour = 3/4 cup sifted all purpose flour plus 2 tbsp cornstarch (Joy of Cooking)
There are no good substitutions for bread flour, sorry! Have to buy bread flour.