So, yeah, I got a wild hair (harhar) this week, and bought a box of pink hair dye at Sally’s Beauty Supply, because I have unlimited funds and pink hair is completely necessary.

I’m actually quite pleased with the results…I was worried it might come out baby-pink (aka: lame).   I’ve had previous experiences with pink hair, disasterous experiences that produced an odd, orange-y, salmon-y (all real words) color that faded to an even more unpleasant uncooked salmon color.   Here’s to hoping this one fades a little more gracefully.

I also found a delightful new recipe for sugar cookie bars (found here)

Disclaimer: if you have a condition that prohibits you from eating things that are high in fat, carbohydrates, calories, or awesome, this recipe probably does not meet your dietary needs.

Crust (this was adapted from Smitten Kitchen; however, I doubled mine because thin and crispy really isn’t my thing)

3 Cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast.
1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce

About 20 oz canned tomatoes (diced, crushed, puree…doesn’t really matter)
6-10 oz canned tomato paste
Assorted herbs and spices (oregano, thyme, basil leaf, etc.)
1 onion, diced very small
1/2 clove garlic, crushed.
2 tablespoons olive oil
If you have the means of obtaining one, a sweet chipolini onion, minced.

Whatever Pizza Toppings You Desire

I used sliced provolone, grated cheddar, mozzarella, picorino romano, assiago, gruyere, prosciutto, and pepperoni.

Preheat oven to 450/500.  Place a pizza stone on the center rack and dust with cornmeal.

For the crust, stir all dry ingredients in a large bowl (including yeast).  Add the water and oil and stir… I highly recommend doing this by hand, with a wooden spoon, instead of going through the hassle of rigging up your mixer with the dough hook.  This dough really does not require rigorous mixing.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead all of the mixed dough and dry crumbs into a homogeneous ball.  Place in an oiled bowl (a quick spritz of cooking spray is good enough) and turn once to coat.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap or washcloth and place in a warm area to rise.  When dough has doubled in size (this should take an hour or two) turn back out onto floured surface and punch to deflate.  Cover it with the plastic wrap and let it rise about another half hour…plenty of time to make your sauce.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine your olive oil and onions.  If you have garlic (which, if I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t…I used garlic salt.  For shame!) add it a few minutes after the onion, so as not to burn it.  When both the onion and garlic are lightly browned and slightly translucent, add your assortment of herbs and seasonings…as usual, I didn’t measure anything,  just seasoned to my heart’s content.  Cook the herbs with the onions a few more minutes, add your tomato and paste, and increase the heat to medium high.  When sauce begins to bubble, turn heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes.

After you have let the dough rise at least another half hour, turn it out onto a piece of parchment paper and roll into desired size and thinness.  I made a stuffed crust with mine, by brushing a very thin egg wash around the outer edge and folding cheese into it.  Spread your sauce however thick you like it (I had a LOT left over) and add toppings.  If you want a really shiny, crispy crust, brush it with a lightly beaten egg white.  Slide the pizza (using the parchment, or a pizza peel if you have one) onto the preheated pizza stone and cook until it’s as brown as you want it…mine took no more than 20 minutes.

Eat until you’re full or your arteries turn to stone, whichever comes first.

Yeah, that’s right, I’ve been working for the weekend.

So, I’ve had my first really busy weekend as an official caterer lady: The aforementioned Mary Engelbreit cake, then a cobbler and banana pudding for a friend of my mom to take to her family reunion, and finally an entire spread for a local piano recital.

I’ll soon be uploading a post containing the recipes for all of the stuff featured above, as well as a super delicious homemade pizza and the mixed berry cobbler/banana pudding.

At this particular moment, as I am running on a cup of yogurt and absolutely nothing else, I have little to put into this post, excluding pictures.   Suffice it to say that I am extremely proud of this cake, considering the fact that it’s my first actual attempt at a tiered fondant number.  I got asked, based on my prevous sugar cookie contributions, to create something Mary Engelbreit-inpired for our local Children’s Librarian, who is relocating to south Louisiana…I think I pulled it off pretty well.

In the act of making these cookies, you are putting yourself at risk to eat them til you die.  You’ve been warned.

Finding a recipe for a great, reliable chocolate chip cookie was like finding a needle that won’t spread in the oven in a needlestack.   Before I arrived at this one, my cookies were consistently flat, too crispy, sunken in the middle, and as a result, pretty un-tasty.   This recipe, adapted from Nook and Cranny’s butterscotch cookies, is the only one that has produced really nom-worthy results every time I’ve made it.

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 tbsp butter, melted and cooled (please make sure you use a heatproof bowl to melt butter, unless you’re just really sick of having fingertips)

1 cup brown sugar (I like to use dark brown for a richer, butterscotch taste)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

About 2 1/2 cups of fillings (chocolate chips, nuts, mini marshmallows, M&Ms…in the immortal words of T.I., you can have whatever you like.  And really, is there a such thing as too much stuff in a cookie?)

Preheat oven to 350-370…the higher the temp, the puffier the cookies.  I bake mine at about 365…just remember to reduce your baking time as you raise the temperature.  Line 3 or 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside.  In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg and yolk with the brown sugar until well combined (if you’re using an electric mixer,  beating the two until the mixture is voluminous and pale will produce a fluffier cookie.)  Add melted butter and vanilla, stirring well to combine.  Fold in the dry mixture until the flour is well incorporated.  Add the mix-ins- I used white chocolate, milk chocolate and mini marshmallows, cause that’s how I do things.

Scoop heaping tablespoons (my 2-inch ice cream scoop is tremendously helpful, I highly recommend investing in one) onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10 minutes (for 370 degrees) to 14 minutes (for 350 degrees.)   I usually get about 4 dozen cookies out of this recipe.

I didn’t follow any  actual recipe to make this, so a lot of the portions below are somewhat eyeballed.   The gnocchi I used was of the store-bought vacuum packed variety, as I was lacking the ambition to start from scratch.  Feel free to get ballsy with yours though; I think this would be really delicious with ricotta gnocchi  (really, what isn’t made more delicious with a bit of ricotta?)

1 lb Gnocchi

1 cup chopped asparagus

1 bell pepper, diced

1 cup sliced mushrooms (I used baby bellas, which I would highly recommend, but whatever floats your boat)

8 tablespoons butter or margarine

3 tablespoons olive oil (I wanted to use black truffle, but my heart hurt at the thought of wasting a six thousand dollar bottle of oil)

Zest of one lemon (two if your lemons are wee)

Various seasonings…I used garlic salt, thyme, basil, chives, sea salt, and pepper.

First things first:  cook the gnocchi.  This is ridiculously easy to do, as gnocchi is a very cooperative dumpling and floats to the surface of the water when it’s done.  2-3 minutes in about 2 quarts of boiling water should do the trick.

Drain when the little guys start bobbing up.

For the butter sauce, I melted six tablespoons of the butter with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat, and set aside.   I sauteed the bell peppers, asparagus, and mushrooms in remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and a tablespoon of the olive oil, in a large skillet- this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, depending on how soft you want your vegetables; I prefer mine crispier.

I reduced the heat under the vegetables to low, poured the butter and olive oil mix over them, and added the salt, pepper, lemon zest, garlic salt, basil, chives, and thyme…I honestly couldn’t tell you the exact amount.  Basically, just season until it tastes good.  I then added the gnocchi, tossing to coat.

Hopefully you can figure the next step out…remove from heat (turning the burner off, as I often neglect to do) and serve.

The response I got was generally positive, from a highly esteemed culinary criticism team known as Me and My Older Sister.

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