Cookie-Dough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookie Dough Chocolate Chip cookies & musings about androgynous dressing

I love cookies! For a time I kept on baking them back in Bangkok but never really ate them, giving them away to friends because of fear of being fat. Today I still wont eat a full cookie, but I can eat atleast 1/2 without the guilt - it's a wonder how growing old helps you forget about meaningless numbers like height, weight, age, salary. It's a wonder as well how a partner in life who genuinely appreciates you for more than just your looks can help normalize abnormal habits and beahviours. Andy often teases me that 1/2 of the reason of why he married me was because I was hot - ofcourse it is a joke as I truly do not think I am...the other 1/2 is because I am crazy, artsy-fartsy and a good cook. He also says I do not have a mean bone in my body...maybe that is why my cooking is so sweet!

In life - really you can have your cookie, and eat it too!

The secret to making a really good cookie are 3 things!

1 under cook it, 6mins only instead of the usual 8min;

2 Make BIG balls 1/inch in diameter, they make the cookies fat and moist inside; and

3 Once you make the dough, refrigrate, I dont know why but it makes it chewier

I made these tonight during our barbecue for a friend leaving for NZ - no one wanted to bring home the cookies because they were too yummy!!!!

Ingredients

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips

* combine sugars, vanulla, eggs and softened butter (I melt this in a pan)

* combine APF (I use whole wheat), salt, baking soda and salt

* FOLD in the wet inside the dry

* Refrigirate for 30 mins!!!

I am currently in love with all the fashion I am seeing in http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ aaaahh, love, love , love. All the androgynous dressing and male shoes make me love my Oxford Steve Maddens and Boyfriend Jeans even more.

Cooking and Art

Cooking and Art

The bad thing about being in Dubai is this artificial place lends you inable to go out and do the things you are passionate about w - being in a lovely yoga scene, shopping in markets, cheap massages, friendly people and observing and participating in the ever interesting asian fashion! The good thing about the absence of these distractions and hobbies is that I am forced to concentrate on married life, discovering my own self practice in yoga and trying to grow artistically even without very strong external influences. Cooking and Art has taken a forefront in things I wanted to explore and enhance...and by the end of the year, I would want to have tried most recipes I have seen in Tastespotting and Shane's blog, and atleast paint 3 more paintings.

Cooking Breakfast

Cooking to me is something very personal - I just do not want to cook good tasting food but I want it to look appetizing as well. So, I carefully arrange and photo my food - today's breakfast was some Peach French Toast with Salmon, on the side.

Andy also made me a yogurt banana smoothie on the side! YUM!

My Artsy Daily Planner- made by hand

I like to surround myself in art as well, and for this reason i began to make my own personal daily planner. I was scrounging around for a Starbucks one but since they do not sell it, I could not get one - so i made my own. I stuck it with pictures I liked, prints of art, drew some...it's a lot of fun and I am happy with the ouput.

Soups!

Now that the wedding is OVER (whew!) I now have more time to squeeze in some cooking between work, the gym (hmm...more about that next time) and my non existent (as of yet) self practice. Working on the latter since I will be in South Africa without a gym for a week.

Since it's been winter here in Dubai, I have come to want soup and the canned kind is just not good. 2 hits for the week, French Onion Soup (light) and Tomato basil soup. Super easy variations I tweaked from Jamie Oliver and my brother in law.

French Onion Soup

* sautee 1/2 white onion (big) and 4-6 cloves minced garlic in 1tbsp olive oil

* pour 4 cups water, with 1/8 piece of bullion (either chicken, vegetable stock or beef)
* bring to a boil and simmer for 40mins - add 1 tbsp mushroom soup mix and mix

* top with cajun spices, a thick slice of toasted french bread, and 1/2 slice of melted swiss cheese

Tomato basil Soup

* sautee 4-6 cloves minced garlic with 1 handful of shredded basil

* add 1 can of chopped plum tomatoes + add 1 can water

* bring to a voil and simmer for 40 mins - add 1/8 vegetable bullion

* top with cajun spices, a thick slice of toasted french bread and 1/2 slice of melted swiss cheese

Andy's Wedding Gift

I am so rusty at painting but the significance of me being able to sketch and paint again overshadows the quality of the work. Andy and I have gotten married a couple of months ago and I promised I would "make" my wedding gift to him. Ended up painting an abstract with only 2 discernible figures - a huge fish, and a family. I want it put up in the baby's room, if we ever do have one of our own or we adopt, it doesnt matter.

I love you little fish, happy wedding.

I dream in yoga

I have not been painting for awhile. I miss it and it because I remembered how it used to me happy - today (that Andy's gone) I had some alone time to do a couple of sketches.

I found myself drawing some figures of women in yogi poses. It happens to be Shane's birthday so I have decided to dedicate the 1st sketch to her and calling it "Tree Pose" - this still lacks color, but I need another round to do that. I also think I need to fix the figure of the woman show right now as she seems a little bit anorexic. I saw some really cool art that looked like postcards or wallpaper in the 70s which I soooo love, so maybe will color it this way...it's sort of a practice run as well for the 3 canvasses I have for Andy. The idea is to make a happy painting we can eventually hang in the baby's room if and when we ever have one.

Skateboarding pictures

Andy gave me a cool camera for my birthday and I have not been able to use it much. The few times I have used it I realized I like taking photos of people - I really want to take photos of people wherein they know I take their photo but I am too shy to ask because the question is specific, "please dont smile and just look at the camera" The photos posted here are also one of my favorites, I Like taking pictures of odd things put in one frame - these were taken in a skateboarding competition we went to in abu Dhabi. We watched, we're old geezers who can only ride longboards.

Tiger Prawns with Garlic

Ok, so now I am no longer strictly vegetarian. For the sake of harmony and peaceful eating, I have (through Andy's request) began to eat seafood again (won over by the argument that most fish is virtually free-range and scallops have no pain sensors).

I don't look for it, but I do enjoy eating sashimi, shrimps and scallops. I went to dinner with friends in a Japanese restaurant called Zuma (Moustafa, I know you thought it was appetizers, haha) and they served some grilled Tiger Prawns. It looked relatively easy to do so I made some for Andy.

Really easy - all you need to do is

* de- vein the tiger prawn and slide in the middle (so it looks like a butterfly)

* take out the shell if the head but not the inside

* put in boiling water (water should be boiling already), for 15secs (yup this quick)

* sautee garlic, onions and mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

* pan fry the shrimps in high heat (for about 45 secs) on both sides

* top with the sauted mushroom and garlic mix