Food for thought

It's Wednesday, and as most of my foodie lovers know. Wednesday is the day that the New York Times runs it's dining in/out section in their paper. I love reading this every week. It features great recipes, and I the articles keep me up to date on what's going on in the food world.
The highlight of my week is reading this section, its my escape into the world of food which is my happy place.
This week was different, this week after reading the article Love Food? Think twice Before Jumping In . I felt like my reality check had just bounced! The article is a cautionary tale of starting your own restaurant.
Its purpose to warn those who have dreams of leaving their day jobs in search of a glamorous career in restaurant ownership. The message is don't quit your day job! Which I understand, there is a very harsh reality that people need to know before starting your own business. The article is right not everyone is going to have the success of Ina Garten or Paula Dean.
But one think I know for sure you'll never succeed at your passion if you don't try! Everything in life is a risk. Who to say that your "day job" will be there tomorrow. Nothing is guaranteed in this life.
I felt like that article was talking to me, saying hey cubicle girl wake up and realize that your dream of running some sort of food based business (haven't figured out what I want to do yet, but taking suggestions) is just that a pipe dream. I was pissed off and sad and felt trapped!
But what I realized, that I do know for sure. Is your dreams will never come true if you don't follow them. It's like hoping to win the lottery yet never buying a ticket! Where would Ina and Paula be if they hadn't followed their passion? What if they listened to everyone and every statistic that said that their dream was doomed to fail?
I think I'd rather try and fail, then leave a life of regret wondering what if? When, I do figure out my food calling (besides just eating) I hope I have the courage to pick up the phone.

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Last night I made the other half of the Shortbread cookie dough. It dawned on me that I should share the recipe for my loyal readers to try next time you need a great cookie. I hope you enjoy the Barefoot Contessa's cookies as much as I did.

Note: I find the edges of shortbread are ever so slightly sharper if you chill the cookies for ten minutes before you bake them. Shortbread can also be cut into shapes and refrigerated for a week and then baked the day you serve them.

Yield: 24 cookies

Ingredients:
3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut with your choice of cutter. Place the cut-outs on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

If you try it let me know how it turns out.

The Way the cookie crumbles

For those of you who don't know I have a tendency to fixate on things. If I get an idea in my head I can't let it go until I've either expressed it (about a million times) or resolved it.

Last week at work we had lunch catered by Panera bread Company. The last two times we've (and by we I mean me) ordered lunch from there, they brought these AWESOME shortbread cookies. Normally I wouldn't give a shortbread cookies a second look. But since I wasn't impressed with the chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies. I decided to give Panera on more shot to redeem themselves and tried the shortbread cookie.

After the first bite I was blown away by the buttery flavor, and flaky crispy texture. It had just the right about of sweetness and was rich enough that I only need half a cookie to satisfy me. Last week after my second go around with the cookie. I thought to myself, these seem pretty easy I bet I can make these myself!

Then the hunt was on for the perfect, shortbread recipe. Of course I waited until I got home from work to do this search and not look for it on company time ;) . After many recipes I found it. I was not at all surprised to see it was from my cooking and entertainment idol Ina Garten. 

The beauty of this recipe is it only has four ingredients, Butter, flour, sugar and vanilla extract. Things that most bakers have on hand. I was excited because I didn't even need to go the store.

Well, I sat on the recipe for about a week and on Tuesday night I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to make the cookies, I was like a woman on a mission.  The once the dough is made you have to chill in the fridge for thirty minutes. It was late so I figured I'll bake off the cookies tomorrow. 

I got up the next morning and found my dough was rock solid. It had frozen in the back of my fridge overnight. I was sad because I thought I ruined my dough. I got home tonight and thought well try thawing it out and see what happens. After thirty minutes on the counter the dough was still too hard to roll and completely crumbled every time I tried to roll it. I was just about to toss it out and try again. When it hit me let it sit for a little longer and give the butter a chance to melt. 

When I came back I found that indeed the dough was now rollable but it still kept crumbling on me. At this point I thought just roll it out slowly and see what happens. To my surprise I got it rolled out and cut out the cookies. I still was nervous not sure if they would taste any good. The timer went off and the first batch was out and they were so GOOD! They tasted as good if not better than the ones I had at Panera. I am glad I didn't scrap the dough and I stuck with it! Now, I can move on to my next food obsession!

I am baaaccck!

Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time since I've updated my blog. And as an avid blog reader myself I know how annoying it is not to have new post from your favorite bloggers. Then again it's not like you my loyal readers have been hounding me for a new post either. Only one reader asked about a new post? Where's the love?

Well, I am back and I promise to be more consistent with my updates. I'll do my part to write the food blogs if you'll do your and read it and tell your friends about it. Okay enough with the shameless pleas for readers. Now on to what I've been up to.

I haven't just been lazy the last few weeks, I've been busy. The last week in July I returned to the good old Land of Enchantment for a friends wedding. My mom came to visit me in California the week after that. Work has been busy and I even worked in another weekend trip to Palm Springs! 

Even though I haven't been blogging about food lately, doesn't mean I haven't eaten and made some great food while I was away.  My goal this week is to give an update on what I've been up to in the world of food lately. Here are just a couple of topics I plan to tackle. New easy desserts for summer, wedding cakes and Cory's addiction to Salsa and New Mexico Chile! So come back and see what I've been up to! In the meantime I am going to give you a foodie word of the day to hold you over until the next new post. The foodie word of the day is...

 Cruciferous vegetables - The scientific name for a group of vegetables that research has proven may provide protection against certain cancers. Cruciferous vegetables contain antioxidants. These vegetables , which are all high in fiber, vitamins and minerals, are: broccoli, Brussels spouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kale, mustard greens rutabagas and turnips.

If you have any foodie words you want the definition for drop me a line in the comments and I'll be happy to post it! 

More updates on the way :)