A wonderful Christmas to ye all

Wild berries, Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris

Dear readers (yes, all three of you). Sorry I haven't posted anything for more than a month now. Life happened: I have quit my job (and am now serving an extended notice), learnt more French than I thought possible for a previous Francophobe, done tons of Christmas shopping and wrapping, worked, worked, worked and of course, cooked on the quiet.

Things are still frenetic, but how can I let this season pass without wishing all of you the very best Christmas ever? Thank you for your supportive presence, blog friends. And everyone else, thank you for being in my life and putting up with me!

Peace, blessings and LOTS of good eats in the new year.

The way the cookie crinkles

My sisters and the little bubwits (i.e. nieces and nephews) are really Cookie Monsters, and have been after me for weeks to make one of their favorites--chocolate crinkles. So I did, following a standard recipe I got off the Web somewhere (Betty Crocker I think).

The cookies turned out delicious--I used good-quality chocolate, mixed in all the right ingredients in the correct quantities in the correct order, and even refrigerated the dough overnight (the recommended maximum).

But I'm not satisfied, not moi. I want my choco crinkles to be perrrrfect! What's wrong with the cookies above:

a) the shape is not as rounded and compact as I would like it to be
b) the "crinkle"isn't dramatic enough; one big zigzag down the center would have been much better
c) the cookies were quite fragile--they needed to be lifted with care.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix these, please let me know!

P.S. Totally off-topic, did Proust really have madeleines with his tea? One Slate columnist begs to differ.

My first carrot muffins

As a beginner cook, I find my tastes leaning toward the simpler recipes, whether it's sweet or savory stuff. I must be lucky in that I don't have a problem resisting the temptation of many scrumptious Pinoy dishes that are a cholesterol watcher's hell. Adobo? I have the occasional craving, and then only for chicken adobo. Mechado? Kaldereta? Morcon? Tocino? They all form a large part of my childhood memories, but easily resisted in the present day. And perhaps it's not really that difficult, since I made the decision more than a decade ago to virtually cut out all red meat from my diet, for health reasons and some form of nutty compassion for pigs and cows. (I know, I know, what about fish and chicken? Ah well, it's a half-baked commitment what can I say).

Learning to bake, I am more fascinated by the prospect of making simple yeastbreads and sourdough loaves than cakemaking. The transformation of flour and water into the simple goodness of bread - it's almost magical.

Muffins are another darling to make. So easy and healthy! These carrot muffins are based on a recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Collection: Bread cookbook. I used a miniature muffin pan because I've always thought the standard size somewhat intimidatingly large!