TWD: Chocolate Sorbet

I must be crazy. Many bloggers who parlay their blogging into a career go one of two directions - they write a book or they start their own business. From Homeroom to Plate to Pixel, you see success everywhere in the blogosphere nowadays. Now, it's 100% because they worked their asses off, put everything on the line, and had amazing talent and drive. You can't be jealous of them. You can only be in awe of their motivation, their success, their passion. And those who are in the restaurant business and writing about it? They scare the living daylights out of me at the same time that they are inspiring me. How does that even work?

I must be crazy. I don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I see those success stories, those tales from the trenches, and I can't get one thing out of my head. For each of those successes, there are dozens of people who strive, day in and day out, but never get that lucky break. They quit their job, start a bakery, and end up thousands of dollars in debt with nothing to show for it. They submit pitch after pitch to editors and are continually rejected. Me? I'm pretty positive I'd be one of the latter. If, that is, I even made that leap. Which is highly unlikely. Why? Because that's not how I would define success and happiness for myself. Where others want to use their blogs to get the chance to demo recipes on tv, to write articles for the newspaper or a website - I'd be ecstatic if I ended up as a cog in the wheel. Because for every bright and shiny talent, I figure that there needs to be people like me. People who would love to just get shit done that needs getting done. Not the exciting things, definitely not the bolt of lightning brilliant ideas.

I must be crazy. Who actually enjoys the day-in-day-out slog? I've had conversations with friends about this, because well, we're engineers. And as engineering students, we were told over and over that we had the ability to be entrepreneurial! To be revolutionary! Going to interviews, we were told that we must brand ourselves as self starters, as independent thinkers, as movers-and-shakers. No one ever told us that those aren't the people that actually get shit done. For every person with a brilliant idea, dozens of others must be there at every step along the way. Making task lists, making timelines, determining production realities and efficiencies. Troubleshooting, as that brilliant idea needs some major work before it's red carpet-ready.

I must be crazy. Because every time I see people out there, making their dreams come true, I cheer them on. But on the inside, I'm just glad to be out there, working 8 to 5, and coming home to dinner and a scoop of chocolate sorbet. Yep, that's exciting enough for me.

Last Week: Chestnut Scones, but I made Melting Chocolate Meringues
Next Week: Cocoa Almond Meringues (don't bake these for the full hour at the bottom of your oven. switch the sheets so they burn. who knew?)

Melting Chocolate Meringues

I hit the second half of my twenties last Friday, and you know what? Meh. Really, the most exciting part was investigating the iPad2 a fellow traveler next to me had. For, you know, when I'm not poor anymore. Grad school is not where the money's at. But hey! Having fellow travelers means that I was going to / coming back from somewhere, right? Right! Colorado is a veerrry nice place to spend a couple days, I have to say. While J was bemoaning the humid 100*F heat they had in Chapel Hill last Tuesday, I had a very respectable high temperature of 85*F with minimal humidity in Boulder. With rain! Full-on thunderstorms! Given that NC is in a drought currently, this was much more exciting than it really should have been.

Oh, and look! Cookies! Because J always tends towards cookies, it was fitting that my dad's note on this birthday gift was "This is probably more for J than for you." I'm much more of a cake and frosting sort of person. Which means whoopie pies basically have a lifetime of -0.003243 seconds in this apartment. But when I want to bake but don't want to directly apply butter to my ass, I make cookies for J. So the day after getting this book as a present, I decided to finally do something about the stash of egg whites in my fridge. Not that it helps deplete the stash in my freezer, but still. Progress.

Just a couple notes about these cookies. Room temperature egg whites definitely whip up with more volume, and to help them out, stick with metal or glass bowls rather than plastic ones which are more difficult to get squeaky clean (and fat free). On the subject of ridiculous kitchen mistakes, don't triple the amount of sugar because you read the amount of nuts instead of sugar. It doesn't lead anywhere good, which made me very glad that I had such a large stockpile of eggs in my fridge. Whoops? Mine baked for 7-8 minutes, on the low end of her suggested baking time, and are fudgier (Blogger tries to correct this to "pudgier." Blogger would probably be correct.) than you might expect meringues to be thanks to the amount of cocoa butter. They are a definite win in J's book, in case you were wondering. After a bite or two, even I was a bit swayed towards them, although they will never replace my love of cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting 4 ever!

Your eyes do not mistake you - I didn't make this week's TWD (chestnut scones) due to the complete dearth of chestnut flour near me. I'm not really prepared to purchase a couple pounds when I barely need any for the recipe, and I already have a dozen or two of scones in my freezer ready for impromptu breakfasts. I'll be back next week with a lovely chocolate sorbet though!
 
Melting Chocolate Meringues
adapted from Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-mouth Cookies

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
60 g egg whites (approximately 2 egg whites), at room temperature
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/4 cup sugar (not 3/4 cup, like I tried the first time. That... doesn't work so well)
3/4 cup almonds

Preheat the oven to 350*F and move racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Toast the almonds in the preheating oven, 10-15 minutes or until you can smell them. Let them cool before roughly chopping them. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate - you can use a microwave or a double boiler, but I just set the chocolate directly in a pot over medium-low heat. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn. When it is almost completely melted, take the pot off the heat and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.

In a large (metal or glass - not plastic) bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt. Once they reach a soft peak stage, continue beating while slowly adding the sugar. Stop once they are glossy and firm but not dry. Pour in the almonds and chocolate and carefully fold together until no streaks of egg white or chocolate remain.

You can't let this batter sit, so portion out tablespoons of batter (I used a small cookie scoop) onto the cookie sheets, leaving an inch between each one. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the tops look dry but are still quite fragile to the touch. Rotate the cookie sheets about halfway into the baking, top to bottom and front to back. Transfer the parchment paper with the cookies on it to cooling racks and let cool completely before storing. They are good for (at least) 2-3 days.

Makes ~30 cookies

TWD: Currant Cream Scones

Thank goodness people. Thank goodness. For every no-good very-bad day, there is a day that is so full of rainbows and sparkle ponies that I don't know what to do about it. And when they're just a few days apart? Win. Three days ago, I woke up sore, groggy, and not at all interested in my early Saturday routine of run-farmers market-local coop-grocery store-breakfast-baking-ohmygod is it really only 11a? Not one bit. I made it to the market, where I scored adorable little cherry tomatoes, sweeter than candy. On to the co-op, where croissants were purchased. Then to home, where croissants were eaten and coffee was sipped. But after that? Yeah, um NO. I moved on to wallowing. Snacking on things while watching episode after episode of Angel. Napping with Annabelle. Eating cereal for dinner. While nice, it doesn't make me feel as good as my normal Saturday routine.

Thank goodness for Sunday though. A 2 hour hike and a deli lunch made up for the computer glitch which caused the outdoor fire alarms at our apartment to go off for over 2 hours that evening. but dinner was, again, cereal. But Monday? Monday had it down. After almost 9 hours of sleep, it was time to rock it. My LC/MS behaved, so I was able to get dearly-needed data to a group member for an article submission. It was sunny. Coffee was fresh. And even when I went to check my samples and a glitch had caused it to conk out? I just started laughing and reset everything. (People, that is not my normal reaction.) My advisor had forgotten that we would all be scattering to the four winds (me to CO, them to ATL) over the next 2-3 weeks, so I got an impromptu birthday lunch with the group. I brought in cake and shared it with the awesome people I've come to know over the last year (!!year!!). Birthday cake quickly turned into engagement cake, as I found out that a friend in the department had just gotten engaged that weekend. My run at the end of the day had an unexpected mile tacked on, just because I felt like it. And J? J made me dinner. It was wonderful.

I'm not sure if it was because of my attitude when I woke up, or whether I just made my mind up in the shower that Monday would be a good day, but it didn't matter. Because Monday was a good day, and that's all there is to it. What more do you need? Stop questioning, just tell yourself that today will be a good day, and get to it. Jump in, feet first, eyes wide open, mouth grinning. And while some days will be less than wonderful, I seem to be having a higher than normal proportion of sparkle pony days.

As for these scones? Guys, these scones have been vetted over the past few years. I've mentioned them only twice, but am quite sure I'd run out of fingers and toes trying to count how many times I've made them since buying Dorie's book. With raisins, scones, blueberries, dried cherries, and plain, these suckers are good. I've mentioned all of these before, but I'll say them again - freeze and grate your butter, work them as little as possible, and keep some shaped, unbaked scones in the freezer for brunch emergencies. They are always, always a hit.

Last Week: Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Mini Muffins
Next Week: Chestnut Scones

TWD: Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Mini Muffins

I feel as if my life is constantly in flux. Continual re-evaluations of life, of school, of research, of friendships. Not that it's a bad thing - we're currently doing a pretty significant re-evaluation of a rather long-held assumption of mine, which (unfortunately for you) hasn't yet finished and probably won't be until this fall. When a decision is made, I'll be sure to mention it. I am a chronic over-sharer, you know! In the meantime, the little things are being thought through again as well. Since moving to North Carolina, I've completely changed up my eating habits, my use of free time, and my workout schedule. (Okay, I guess those aren't really little things, huh?) It's been pretty freeing, actually. Instead of a very regimented daily schedule, planned out to the minute, I wake up when my body makes me and go onto campus when I feel like it. Now, that does mean that I tend to wake up around 5:45a and get onto campus by 7a, but by not forcing myself to get up that early, I'm quite a bit happier rather than incredibly groggy for the first hour or so that I'm awake. There's something to be said for listening to your body, although I generally stop listening to it if it says that it would rather have ice cream five times a day rather than go on a run. Sometimes, my body is stupid.

As for my exercise habits, I went from doing 1-2 hours of intense cardio a day, 5-6 times a week just a year ago to something, well, quite a bit less. Not that I'm not active for a large portion of the day, it's just that it tends to involve walking everywhere I possibly can rather than going to a fitness class at the gym. It turns out that if I'm tired, it's difficult to motivate and go on a run, but not so difficult to get off my ass and walk around for an hour. Same amount of exercise, just a bit more low-key.

And the eating? Well, it changed quite a bit too. Thanks to J, I'm eating way more protein than I used to, which has had one side benefit of a bit more muscle development than I had pre-NC. And one of the ways that I get exercise has been to mosey into the local co-op market on those mornings that I don't have to be on campus at 7a and have coffee and a croissant. It takes me nearly an hour to eat my croissant, since I obsessively separate each layer and slowly unspiral the flaky, yeasty, buttery deliciousness that is a freshly baked croissant. I catch up on blogs, respond to emails, and generally get a nice start to the day. And that's pretty indicative of my eating habits now. Where once I used to mechanically eat nearly the exact same thing, day in and day out, I've begun enjoying my food a bit more. I experiment with dinners more frequently and try to be more present when eating so that I appreciate my food a bit more fully. For some reason, it makes me stay fuller longer, and the times when I'm hungry just one short hour after eating a meal have gone down significantly.

And these ramblings just seemed to make sense, given that Bridget chose this week's TWD recipe. She and I have had a few conversations on the subject, and both of us have talked on our blogs about the constant struggle for balance. Thanks to her, I know I'm not the only one who struggles with that balance, who constantly re-evaluates habits in order to be healthier and happier. And thanks to her, I've been eating chocolate muffins for breakfast for the past few days. What more can you ask for in a friend you wouldn't have met except for the internet?

Last Week: Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies
Next Week: Cream Scones (my go-to scone recipe for the past four years)