Alfajores- it takes two!

On the list of things I just have to cook this year, I placed these yummy little Alfajores cookies from the food blog Chez Pim. These cookies are just gorgeous little shortbread somethings with lovely fluted edges and a Dulce de Leche filling that, surely, came down from heaven. Friends provided the cookie cutters as part of my birthday present, a type of "enablers kit" of goodies that supports my habit. This kit came also with a Madeline pan, which we'll get to soon. I digress.

So the baking begins. I confidently sift, salt and stir. I flour and roll. I toss in the oven, and in ten short minutes I have- a mess. Essentially, the cookies joined forces through some glutenous uprising and formed one giant cookie, without my permission and surely without my fluted edges. This, my friends, reveals my real Achilles' Heel. I do not like missing the mark on a recipe, and the feelings of discouragement are generally prohibitive. I typically do not re-try a recipe that I don't get right the first time. Digging deep, I don't like failure and if at first I don't succeed, I try something else.

So, I slept on it. The delicious Dulce de Leche was chilled in the fridge and my supportive friends waited in the wings hoping for their return on investment. I emailed Pim herself, writer of the recipe. I emailed photos and a play-by-play, and we couldn't come up with a single thing I did wrong. Pim's response? Just try it again. Oh, Pim. You don't understand.

I came home that night and saw my list on the refrigerator. The Alfajores cookies seemed bolded. I thought about my list, and what it meant, and what it means to love food and feeding the ones I love. At that moment, I adopted the concept of...wait for it....Trial And Error. And you know what, I may be the last aspiring foodie to adopt that policy. What took me so long? Oh, I don't know. But I do know that I made those cookies again that very night, and they were flawless. I'm attaching pictures of both, to release my shame and show others that our friends Trial and Error are an integral part of the culinary experience. And it felt sooo good to cross those cookies off my list.

Got something you tried and think you "failed"? Not likely. Ask questions, and even without answers, try again.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,
Charlene

The tragic first try...

Good looking and delicious!

Ready, Set, Re-Resolve!

So I've scratched my idea of 20 new recipes in one year. Why? Because it's May and I've tried so many more than that! They may be little inventions here and there: a quick combination of ingredients I find at the Farmer's Market, or an accidental substitution, but I am beginning to think that goal just is not good enough. So I've decided that making a list of this year's "ultimates" is the better way to go. Things that, on a lazy weekend or early night off of work, I can really commit to working on. That way, recipes that are actually important to me can begin to fold into my core go-to's. I'm making this list, checking it twice, and then taping it to the refrigerator. My suggestion is for you to do the same. Is Grandma's lasagna really dynamite? Put it on your list, and tape it to the fridge. I don't have kids, but I do have a hungry boyfriend- the "ooh, when are we having this lasagna?" commentary is motivation enough to keep it in drive. And eventually, so too will be the glory of conquering a new recipe, and checking things off your list.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

Charlene