garlic

Been using the oven a lot lately, mostly because a) butter finally went on sale and b) lettuce never appealed to me as the main vegetable in a salad, so instead I bake vegetables.

Had a week of baked butternut squash and carrots with broccoli crunch slaw, turned out well so trying a week of focaccia with baked zucchini (not much relation I know).

It's off to a good start as the zucchini is delicious, thanks to the generous helping of garlic. I ought to have a bottle of garlic infused olive oil on hand, I'm a firm believer that it makes any baked vegetable delicious (like those Kale chips from way back).

On the butter-y side, I'm 4/3 cups through 4 cups. So far it's mostly been these chocolate chip cookies.

To be honest, I've had enough for now. Yes they're so so delicious straight out of the oven, but the keyword here is straight out of the oven. Once they begin to cool, the cookies become very hard. It's impossible to eat any the next day without microwaving them wrapped in a damp paper towel. Thus, to maximize the delicious-ness, I end up eating at least 5 of them right after, which lead to the inevitable feeling of ughhhh.

I tried refrigerating the dough, to decent success. The dough, already very dry to begin with, becomes difficult to work with after sitting in the fridge. It does warm up in your hands, so you can squeeze them into little balls.

Taking a break from cookies, tried making a pear cake.

First thing I would change, layer the chocolate under the pear. Otherwise it's all good. This is more labour intensive than most cakes, as the eggs need a good whipping, butter needs browning, and pears need to be chopped (this took forever). Is the result worth it, mmm I guess. It's not overwhelmingly delicious, but the cake does have a good texture. Going to retry next time substituting apple for the pear, and forgoing the chocolate.