Saturday, January 07, 2006

Is cooking fun?

This afternoon, as I puttered around the kitchen.

T: What're you making?
Me: Oh, these cheese crisp things with sage and a bit of red pepper in them.
T: What are they for?
Me: Nothing in particular.
T: Just for fun?
Me: Yep.
T: [silence for about 15 minutes as I continue making the crisps, bake them, and bring him a small plateful with some artichoke dip. He'd worked hard clearing the driveway this morning, I figured he could use a few extra calories in his system!] Then ...
T: You know, if I were to make a list of all the things I'd like to do for fun, you know, just when I had some spare time and wanted to enjoy myself, I wonder how far down on the list "cooking something" would appear?
Me: Would it even make the list?
T: I don't know. Probably not.

And there you have it. The difference between him and me, in a nutshell.

The crisps turned out great, by the way. Light, a little crumbly, with the slightest bit of heat from the cayenne pepper but majoring on butter, with just a hint of cheese flavor. But there was no noticeable walnut flavor at all. Next time I might leave the walnuts in bigger chunks, or use pecans or almonds. Pump up the cayenne a tad. They would be great for a theme party, since they're made with cookie cutters. Stars for the 4th? Trees for Christmas? Sombreros for Cinco de Mayo? What holiday shapes would you use?

Recipe

The last thing I ate or drank was a handful of these crisps.

2 comments:

Someone said...

Is the dough soft/smooth enough to put through a cookie press? Pampered Chef has a recipe for some cheese things that you use their press for. Your crisps look yummy. You could use little mouse-shaped cutters (or cut a heart in half) with a carrot curl for a tail and a slice of something for an ear.

Hmm...can you tell I've just been reading Family Fun magazine??

Cate said...

Those look great - printing now...