A road trip and the easiest cookies ever

Flourless peanut butter cookies

G and I are heading to Montreal this afternoon and there's nothing I like more than a road trip.
It's about a 6 hour drive from Toronto to Montreal---not so long that you dread it, but long enough to justify packing some road trip food.
I've stocked up on water, apples, junk food (I won't pretend otherwise) and some Flourless Peanut Butter cookies. The recipe calls for the addition of chocolate chips, but as you can tell I opted to leave them out.
Just this time though.
Because I love me some peanut butter and chocolate.
And let me tell you that I have never put together a batch of cookies so quickly and with such little mess to clean up afterwards. Five simple ingredients (6 with the chocolate chips) and you're good to go.
So satisfying.
They're peanutty without being overly rich and they're perfectly moist despite the complete lack of butter.
It's like magic.


So, I've got cookies in hand, the GPS is in it's place on the dashboard and the Ipod is fully loaded. I'm ready to hit the road.

See you in a few days.



***********
Flourless Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip cookies from Epicurious
If you've got a perfect peanut butter cookie recipe already, that's great. But I am always happy to find recipes that give good results for minimal effort. This is the kind of recipe you keep on hand in case of emergency. Sometimes an impending road trip (or a cookie craving) just doesn't want to wait for the butter to come to room temperature.
If you know what I mean.

Time passes but there are still noodles

I could eat these everyday

I may not be so good with posting lately but people, I am still cooking and I am definitely still eating. So what's the deal? Well sometimes a girl just goes through phases. After 3 years writing this blog I guess you just have to go with the flow a little bit. What surprised me most was how often G kept nudging me with the constant question "Did you post today?". Until he finally just up and said "I miss your blog."
If that doesn't surprise a girl, I don't know what will.

So I figured it was time to get my butt in gear. Thankfully I had this picture I had taken of some peanuty noodles that I seem to make on a regular basis these days. I give all the credit to Heidi--this recipe is so easy to throw together and is now on constant rotation in our household. The beauty of it is that you can adapt it with whatever leftover vegetables you have in the fridge--and you can throw in some tofu or chicken or whatever strikes you. Of course, hers looks much prettier than mine but my tastebuds were quite content. And G lapped up a good 3 bowls full the first time that I made it for him. This is the man who instead of admitting that he is a picky eater declares himself a "supertaster". (insert eye roll here)

So listen. Without much fanfare the 3 year anniversary of my blog went by. Three years! In that time I have posted from apartments in 4 countries. I certainly don't feel like the same person I was when I started this blog and I keep thinking that I need this blog to catch up with me a little bit. It served it's purpose as a bit of a food/travelogue and a way to keep in touch with family and friends back home but now that I am back in Canada it needs to serve a new purpose in my life. Perhaps I've ignored it a bit these last few weeks because I'm still working out it's identity crisis.
But I think I've got it figured out now people.
And it won't be so long until the next post. I promise.

Until then, you've got some noodles to make.



*******************
Heidi's noodle recipe

I baked it myself

Soda Bread from Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food

It's not the best idea to stay up until 3 in the morning listening to music with a friend when you've got another friend coming by for Sunday morning breakfast at 10. You set the alarm for 8 and in a sleepy daze you set about making pancake batter and then you remember that your breakfast guest is a vegetarian so you put the bacon back in the fridge with a mild sense of regret and longing. If anything can put a spring back in your step it's the smell of bacon in the morning.
And then you start questioning whether she'll even be in the mood for pancakes, maybe she'll just want toast and eggs. Or yogurt and fruit. And then you realize you are a bit of an obsessive host and that maybe you should just sit down for a minute and have a cup of coffee.

I'm not sure what logic went through my mind when I decided that it would be too much work to walk to the shop to get bread for breakfast (which is a mere 2 blocks away) and opted instead to bake a loaf at home to save myself the trip.

But I tell you, Alice Waters' soda bread is really that kind of bread. It's so easy to throw together that by the time I would have walked the 2 blocks to the shop the loaf would have already been in the oven. Since it uses baking soda instead of yeast, there's no waiting for it to rise, and there's just enough kneading to make you feel accomplished.

It looks nice, don't you think? It's got a dense and chewy crumb and a nice crunchy crust. Top it with a little jam with the longest name ever (Red Lavender Strawberry Merlot Jam) and you can't go wrong. Sure, compared to a yeasted bread it is a little soft on flavour, but it's quick and easy and homemade, which makes it taste awfully good to me.

Because I don't want to mess with the goddess that is Alice Waters, I will not post her recipe. Instead I will direct you to a website where someone has already gone to the trouble of posting it. So click below for the recipe.

Alice Waters' Soda Bread
from the Art of Simple Food