sunday small group

i hosted a lunch for my sunday small group. and it was a hit! :)
i wanted to make some comfort food but on a gourmet level! hahah.
so here's the menu.


organic field greens with avocado and toasted walnuts. a slice of grilled tomato drizzled with olive oil. don't forget the scallion. (it makes it taste so fresh!) dressed with maple balsamic sauce.


fresh baguette with a. black olive pate and b. olive oil/balsamic vinegar.


baked ziti (three cheese with ground beef, onion, mushroom)


and who can forget dessert!?
"after eight" cupcakes



mmmmmm.


i hope everyone enjoyed my meal.


oh!!
by the way!
have you met my new friend?




she's gorgeous, isn't she?

double chocolate cookies

very beautiful batter. it was very very nice to work with. :)


the first batch in the oven, i sort of over baked -- i followed the instructions and did 15 minutes. but that's way too much! i was busy washing the dishes, i didn't pay attention. 11-13 minutes seems enough for these cookies.


these were way better. :) yummmmmay!

Double Chocolate Cookies

makes about 3 dozen
recipe from i love milk and cookies

ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp coarse salt
110g bittersweet chocolate (60-70% cacao)
110g milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
110g cup unsalted butter
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

instructions

• Preheat oven to 180°C degrees.
• Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
• Melt bittersweet chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.
• Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl and mix until combined.
• Gradually fold in the flour in two batches until just incorporated.
• Fold in chocolate chunks.
• Using a 1½-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.
• Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 (i recommend 12) minutes (cookies should be soft).
Let cool on parchment on wire racks.

hiya

yeppppp
it's been a while.
i guess ive been quite busy, but quite frankly just plain lazy too. hehe.
this blogging thing is definitely not as easy as i thought it would be.
im not much of a journaler to begin with, so it's pretty hard to keep at it. but of course i will continue to try my best. :)

ANYWAY.
today i baked a whole lot of chocolate chip cookies for my mom to take to korea. i baked some for my cousins when i visited in december, and they loved it so much that i decided to send it over again. and incidentally, my mom is a huge huge fan too. hehhe.
she made sure i made enough so that she could enjoy them in korea as well.

i took a couple of pictures, but the camera is downstairs, so i'll post em up next time.

what i really wanted to write about is that i have an EXCITING new project at school! im taking Book Design and we got to pick our own topic, and of course of course, i picked a COOKBOOK! hehe. well, we don't want just any plain cookbook, of course, but something different, something unique. so what i decided to make was a cookbook that's more than just recipes and photographs, but a personal, narrative-like cookbook -- yes, much like a food blog! it'll be slightly cultural perhaps, say, with suggestions of various music to bake by, anecdotes for each recipe. and the best thing is that all the recipes are sarah's-test-kitchen approved!

i'm really excited to see what it would turn out to be. i really hope i do a good job.

anyways. that was a long post. i wonder if anyone would have read all that. haha.
oh well.