I’m not usually one to make cookies (much to Martha’s dismay), but when Cook’s Illustrated claims to have created “Perfect” chocolate chip cookies, the boast could not be ignored. Cook’s is based on perfecting recipes, but their claims are not usually quite so bold; more along the lines of ‘Ultimate Coq au Vin’, ‘Perfecting Berry Trifle’, and #$@%ing Awesome Hollandaise’. Simply ‘Perfect’ is a higher claim and an outrageous one, all the more so when made about chocolate chip cookies, a recipe with a thousand variations and everyone’s mother’s is the best. Such claims cannot go untested.

A lot of people don’t like Cook’s Illustrated because they find their recipes a little too, let’s say, particular. I agree although am not bothered by it personally. This recipe for chocolate chip cookies was, however, atypically reasonable. There were no strange or overly fussy ingredients; just flour, baking soda, butter, white sugar, brown sugar, salt, vanilla extract, eggs and chocolate chips, with nuts optional. Just one kind of fat, no pastry flour and no need for vanilla beans.

The one part of the recipe that seemed a little, well, precious was also the point of departure for this recipe, when it went from standard to superfluous cookies: browning the butter. After melting most of the butter, you leave it on the heat a bit longer until it turns golden-brown. It occurred to me just how brilliant this step was as my apartment filled with the rich smell of toffee.

Another step seemed a little odd: after whisking together the wet ingredients, wait three minutes, then whisk for thirty more seconds, and repeat twice more. There are some who would balk at setting a timer and repeating this ritual, but in my experience resting batters and doughs can save mixing time, and it gave me time to do the dishes. I cannot testify personally as to whether you need to do this step, but I will defer to Cook’s. They test this stuff!

The dough came together really beautifully, leaving nary a dust of flour un-moist. At this point, Cook’s suggests dividing the dough into 16 portions  of 3 T each, either by measuring the individual tablespoons or with a #24 scoop. I decided I would out-Cook’s Cook’s by measuring the mass of my dough and dividing by 16, then using my scale to make portions of exactly the same size, by mass. I had 972 g of dough, which works out to 60.75 g per cookie. This makes pretty big cookies.

They go in a 375°F oven for 14 minutes, rotated once in the middle of baking. They come out looking and smelling good.

So, were they perfect? Without getting into all the implications of the word, these cookies are damn near close. Definitely the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. Nothing really stands out about the flavor, they just taste exactly like a chocolate chip cookie. What’s most impressive about these and any great cookie is the texture. The great cookie texture divide falls along people who prefer crispy cookies and those who prefer chewy. As I fall firmly on the crispy side, my first bite of cookie was a slight disappointment since the cookie was only chewy. I had made the mistake of breaking my cookie in half (for the photo, I admit) and taking my bite only from the center. For my next bite, I attacked both the edge and the center. And thus the genius of the ‘Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie’ was revealed: the edge was crispy enough to satisfy my needs and, my crispiness needs sated, I was free to enjoy the chewiness of the center. A chewy cookie lover would be so happy with the center that they wouldn’t object to the crunchy give of the edge. This cookie managed to create a perfect harmony of crispy and chewy without compromising on either. If that is perfection, then this was the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

The first weekend in May marks the opening of my farmers’ market of choice in Minneapolis, the Midtown Farmers’ Market. Because our national food media is so dominated by California and New York, I had all kinds of high expectations for tender asparagus, fresh peas and other spring goodies. As it turns out, that is unrealistic for Minnesota–we are only now starting to see sure signs that life will return to the fields, but evidently nothing is ready to eat yet. As far as I could tell nobody was selling fresh vegetables unless you count Honey Creek Farm, who were selling plants from which vegetables might one day grow.

Despite the lack of fresh produce, there were quite a few vendors. There was the usual group selling crafts, which I avoid (no offense to them, just not my thing). Brett Laidlaw was there with his real bread which I was very impressed to learn (last year) is all produced in a home oven. At least two vendors, who I didn’t recognize from last year, were selling home-canned produce.  Another bright spot among the new faces was the SalsaLady who was selling four kinds of homemade salsa: mild, green, chipotle and habanero. I’ve complained before about the lack of a good replacement for Jack’s salsa in Minnesota, but I think I may have found it and then some in SalsaLady. I bought a half-pint of the green salsa, but not for being very tempted by the chunky habanero.

Being that this was the opener, there was a slightly more festive atmosphere than usual (although, it’s always pretty festive). There was a petting zoo that featured a rooster who kept cock-a-doodle-doing as well as what I took to be an adult and baby goat. It’s more than a little perverse that upon seeing a cute baby goat the first thought in my mind is, “Mmm… I bet that cabrito would be tender.”

I had also heard that (Minneapolis mayor) RT Rybak was making an appearance to christen the activities. I must have gotten there a little early because he wasn’t speaking when I arrived. As I was leaving, however, I passed a pleasant looking white-haired man who, instead of doing the standard Minnesota greeting of averting his eyes looked at me and said “Hi, how are you doing?” I knew this had to be a politician! (I more or less answered with the standard Minnesota greeting, I’m afraid). Consultation with field guides upon my return home confirmed that this was a Rybak sighting.

Given the lack of fresh vegetables this early in the season, I left with just a few items. I almost always end up buying some form of meat from Chase Brook Natural Farms; in this case I was lucky as I was looking for a small chicken and those were just the kind of chickens they were selling. I am also a fan of the ground mutton from Native Oaks Farm; it has more flavor than ground lamb, none of the textural problems associated with mutton since it’s ground and is priced to move at $4/lb. Lastly, as mentioned before, I couldn’t resist a half-pint of the SalsaLady’s salsa verde.

Not exactly an impressive bounty, but it’s still a bit early in the season. I’ll be back next weekend–cross your fingers for asparagus!

I’ve read a lot about “IKEA hacks” online but I’ve never attempted one myself. In fact, it’s probably still true that I still haven’t. I had help (the hands you see in the pictures below are my friend Rod’s), and it was more of a careful edit than a hack. Last month I came home with two Frösta stools from IKEA. Though I liked the shape, I was dubious about their quality, considering past experience with IKEA’s wooden chairs (background: Tom bought four Ivar chairs for his apartment while we were still in college. We used them at our dining table here in Minneapolis [see left] until one collapsed under him when we had friends over for dinner last fall… we were able to return them as IKEA’s staff determined they were defective… since then we’ve been using two blue Steelcase chairs I got for $10 each at the University of Minnesota Reuse Center). I brought the Fröstas home with the idea of test driving one; I left the other in its packaging to make for an easy return if necessary. My hope was that they’d make for great extra seating when we have guests, but my hesitations proved correct. With four legs, the stool was really wobbly. And, even though I had tightened the screws really well, the individual legs wiggled badly. With a 90-day return policy ahead of me, I decided to hang onto the stools until it made sense to make the drive out to IKEA again.

The stool and its still-packaged partner sat in the corner of our dining space until I read this post at Door Sixteen. Anna at Door Sixteen has a great eye, and this time she featured several Artek designs, the company Alvar Aalto, his wife Aino, and two others founded in 1935 (Artek meaning Art + Technology). Many of IKEA’s designs are inspired by Modernist classics, but I didn’t know of Frösta’s “inspiration” until I read Anna’s post. It’s pretty clear (Left: Frösta, Right: Aalto 60):

Frösta is made of Birch, just as the 1933 Aalto 60 is; it’s the finish on the Swedish-Chinese stool that makes it differ from the Finnish one as well as the height. Frösta is just a bit taller than the Artek stool. And the price… we can’t forget about the price. When she learned about my project, Anna from D16 pointed out that Aalto also designed 4-legged versions of the stool (the E60) and asked if I might be tempted to leave them as-is. The wobbles were driving me nuts, though, and I kept thinking back to math class: 3 points make a plane! With 3 legs instead of 4, I expected to reduce the wobbles significantly. Then the idea of glue arose as a solution to the wiggles. This is where my friend Rod came in…

Once decided, I asked Rod if he wouldn’t mind helping me make the change, and he very graciously said yes, telling me to bring the stools to him straight away the following day. After seeing the images of the Aalto 60, Rod agreed it would be an improvement to lose a leg on each stool and quickly went to work. First he measured and marked each stool’s seat, using one set of original holes to guide him. We didn’t measure out 120° angles, instead Rod estimated it would end up being about one foot between the points. This turned out to be almost dead-on. With a 1/16th of an inch adjustment we had evenly balanced lines. Next he created the holes. To control the depth of the drill, Rod attached a piece of black tape around his bit to avoid going through the stool’s seat (you can see it in the picture below left). Clever, no?

Once the new holes were finished, it was time to attach the legs. Rod added some Gorilla Glue before attaching the screws to make sure they’d really hold.

The verdict: three legs are better than four. This was a major improvement. Thanks to Rod!

The weather in Minneapolis has been a bit off-and-on lately. That is, spring is definitely on its way in, but after a couple of amazing 70 and 80 degree days, 50 starts to seem chilly! That just means it’s time for a little chili! We first tried this Vegetarian Chili on a Friday during Lent and really liked it. If you’re looking for some spice on a cold spring day, it’s worth a try.

As you can see my preparation was not vegan, but it could easily be made so. We topped our bowls with plain yogurt, cheese, and scallions. The trick for this meal was to attempt eating an entire bowl without using silverware. I’m not sure the “Fritos Scoops Challenge” is a healthy choice, but they were just the salty-crunch we needed (I lost… I gave in and used a spoon).

The recipe (via Whole Foods’ website)

• 2 tablespoons olive or canola oil 
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped 
• 1 large carrot, chopped 
• 1 stalk celery, chopped 
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped 
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped 
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
• 1 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped chipotles in adobo 1 tablespoon dried oregano 
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin 
• 1 tablespoon chili powder 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 
• 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid 
• 3 cups cooked red kidney beans, drained 
• 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans, drained

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, peppers and garlic and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until vegetables are softened but not browned. Add chipotles, oregano, cumin, chili powder and salt. Stir to blend. Add tomatoes and 4 cups water. Gently simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Add beans and simmer an additional 30 minutes. Garnish individual bowls with green onions or sour cream [we used yogurt], if desired.

As winter slowly releases its icy grip on the north, I get pretty desperate for any vegetable that isn’t a root. It is pretty exciting when green things start to reappear in the grocery, even if they have to be trucked in from California in late April. So it is with fresh fava beans, a clear indication that it’s spring somewhere.

And at only $2.99/lb, they’re a steal. Well, not quite. Most vegetables entail some amount of waste, and in the case of fava beans it’s a whole lot. The beans are encased in pods, like peas, and then each bean has a thick shell around it that also needs to be removed. 

How much waste is this? The total weight of everything was 9 3/8 oz (although the Wedge charged me for 10 1/4 oz–I wonder whose scale is wrong). The weight of the edible beanswas 1 5/8 oz, while the weight of the pods and shells was 7 7/8 oz (slight discrepancy here due to my scale being accurate only to somewhere more than 1/8 oz). Only 17% of what you buy is edible. $2.99/lb? In terms of food you can actually eat, it’s more like $17.50/lb. Yikes! Such is desperation for at the end of a long winter.

This wouldn’t seem so bad if you could come up with a useful way to employ the pods and shells. Anybody have any ideas?