CoSkay.com

Who hasn’t played that game?  It was a staple of sleepovers, along with hairbraids and gossip.  I was reminded of it last night while baking cookies…I know you’re thinking how does one go from sleepover games to cookies?

Well, it started while I was downtown buying my sister’s wedding gift.  Since I have never met a mall I didn’t like, I stopped by the local Williams Sonoma and peeked inside to check out the fall goods.  Then what caught my eye made me quite excited…cacao nibs!  These have been more difficult to anticipated to find and I actually had forgotten about them after an unsuccessful search in Cambridge a few months earlier.  So of course I left with two boxes and $20 less in my pocket (not the cheapest cooking ingredient, but at least I know where to find them in the future!).

Well I knew immediately that I was going to be making some meringue (rochers to some) cookies with the cacao nibs!  They are one of my favorite types of cookies, and to be honest, I’m usually scared to make them because my version never compares to a bakery!  So once I got home I starting mixing away (ok..not right away, I watched the season premier of The Office first).

So I whipped the egg whites to form stiff peaks (ok, maybe not quite like a board)

but I produced some cookies light as a feather (which were subsequently devoured)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been anxious to try Starbucks’ latest venture to return to personalized service, the Clover, ever since reading about it in Wired a few months ago.  Therefore, I was ecstatic to discover my local Starbucks (which, for the record, might be my favorite branch ever) was going to be debuting this coffee contraption.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Clover, it is essentially the $11,000 version of your office Flavia coffee machines.  The extra $10,800 is a bit pricey, but the coffee isn’t from a packet either.  In addition to using freshly ground beans (measured out precisely to the tenth of a gram), the machine boasts customizable temperature and brew time settings.  Starbucks also offers an additional coffee selection specifically used with the Clover.  Swoon.

As you can probably tell, I’m a coffee fan.  My entire family has it pulsating through their veins.  Now I’ll be honest though, I’m not a huge fan of Starbucks’ drip coffee.  I find it bitter and unappealing.  I much prefer their lattes and teas.  This is why the Clover piqued my interest; coffee, made freshly for me, in front of me and with really cool technology!

And yesterday was the big day (which was celebrated with balloons outside the shop).  I sauntered in on my way home and checked out the offerings.  After a few seconds of debate, I selected the El Savador Pacamara, a coffee from Latin America with hints of lemon and dark chocolate (cool, huh?).  I should note all of the “Small Batch Coffee” offerings had a fruit influence, a bit more variety would have been appreciated.  The barista measured and ground the beans in front of me as we made small chat about the new item.

About a minute later, I had a fresh cup of coffee in my hand.  Stop. Sniff. Sip. Burn Tongue. Oops, I got a little too excited and forgot that coffee is served hot.  A few minutes later I repeated the exercise.  Freshness, not bitter, not unappealing, and not $4 like the Wired article said (it was ~$2.50 for the tall).  In fact, I rather liked it.  I was able to taste the distinct flavors and I did not need sugar to mask bitterness.

Did Starbucks make the right choice in purchasing the entire Clover operation?  That is still a question to be answered.  The coffee was superior to the usual drip that had been sitting around, but I question the Clover’s versatility.  This Starbucks was located in the outer part of Kendall Square in Cambridge, it’s never ridiculously crowded and the baristas are genuinely friendly.  I feel this particular one corresponds to Starbuck’s vision of returning to their roots and focusing on the customer.  Here, the Clover fits.

I question its usability in metropolitan places like Manhattan and Chicago.  A place where there is a Starbucks on every corner and people have finished their coffee before they’ve paid.  A place where I always have had to wait in line to get coffee…imagine what the extra minute per person would do to those lines?! Disaster.

Although at $11,000 each, I’m sure they would not be set up in all those locations just yet.  For now, I’m still excited to have the Clover in my neighborhood so I can try out the other coffee flavors and see if they also live up to the hype.

*Yes, I realize this line has probably been used to death

I have a new found respect for those who bake pie completely from scratch.  Growing up, my mom made pie, but *cheated* by using the store bought pie crusts (which are pretty decent I might add).  So I was never exposed to the true art of making a pie completely start to finish.

This weekend I was ambitious.  My friend Ted had people over for dinner (where he made homemade pizza; delicious by the way).  He mentioned Key Lime pie was his favorite, so I thought I would give it a go.  The recipe seemed [relatively] straightforward and I like trying new things, so why not?

Ok, two day process here we go (I’m a busy girl and didn’t have that many consecutive hours to devote to pie!).   I made the crust a day in advance, a long procedure that would have been easier with a food processor, but more on that topic later.  After mixing, refrigeration, rolling, a glass of wine, and more refridgeration the dough was finally ready for some oven time…ahh golden brown goodness.  I could already tell that real crust is more satisfying to eat than store bought.  The time, effort, love and sweat that went into that pyrex dish was intense.

Fast-forward to day two.  I zested, squeezed, boiled and simmered over medium heat to produce a custard-like filling that tasted pretty damn good (in my humble non-biased opinion).  Into the pie shell it went!  Next…meringue!  Not hard to make, but when directions tell you to dump the entire batch on the pie it becomes intimidating.  What if it doesn’t spread out over the pie? What if mixes with the filling or worse…SINKS IN THE MIDDLE?  These thoughts crossed my mind, so I cheated and put a little bit on at a time and somewhat connected them together.  Then pretended I was artistic and made some of those fancy peaks and valleys before putting in the oven again…and Voila!

Now here is where I would like to say it was a huge success and I have orders coming in to make more.  Sadly, something, somewhere went wrong.  The pie never solidified and had a viscosity somewhere in the range of ketchup.  Defeat. It was disappointing to introduce new friends to my cooking with a pie disaster.  They were awesome sports about the whole lack-of pie incident and most everyone still ate it, even though Alex picked up an ice cream cake (seriously, it’s like he had ESP and saw this coming).   And then they even gave it a decent review, calling it, “Key Lime Pudding.”  I tried it as well, it wasn’t terrible and the crust was actually pretty good, but it was pudding and not pie…oops.  Perhaps in the future I won’t make new friends guinea pigs for my cooking, but what’s the fun in that?  (Sorry guys)

Going back to pie as an art form, it seems that just about everyone has their own family recipe.  So not only is it art, but a family heirloom as well.  I mentioned my disastrous pie to a couple of friends and they immediately offered alternative recipes.  One friend said her grandmother had an easy key lime pie made with a graham cracker crust and didn’t require any eggs.  Another mentioned her family recipe was a favorite and loved by everyone who has ever tasted it.  The great part about these heirlooms is that most people are willing to share them, so they can be incorporated into your own family and passed on for others to enjoy.