The Microwave Has Left The Building

by tyler

I always think about how wonderful it would be to have every grain in your kitchen, in bulk, waiting for you for when you need it. Spelt or millet, its there (and so would be the quinoa flour). How great it would be to look into your recipe index, pull something out of the blue, and only need to go to the market for fresh produce and cheese. I imagine my home will be something like that one day. For the time being, I usually have to go to the market for just about everything (I usually have enough flour to get the job done but that’s all I can count on).

Overall, this past month has been pretty high stress—worrying about my teacher certification tests, my thesis, bike racing, Spanish, ComD research, and where I’ll end up teaching (or if I’ll end up teaching) next year. So today I decided that after I finished my Spanish midterm (something I was not excited about), I would take the day off. That means no Art of the Book. So, I went home and worked on my thesis for a while (not really work) and watched West Side Story (amazing!). After I ate some chili and leftover white bread (from the cucumber sandwiches) for dinner, I thought I would spend the rest of the night reading The Road (book club meets this Sunday). However, I had a bit too much energy so I had to think of something to do. Well duh, I’ll bake something. That idea hit me at about 8:30. Now remember folks, I’m usually in bed by 9:30-10 and asleep soon after, so this is a little crazy for me. At first I thought I would use that package of dry yeast in my baking box, but who has time for that, even on the weekends? (Megan, don’t answer that). I didn’t think there was much I would be able to make with what I had (see above). Then it hit me…oatmeal cookies.

So I decided oatmeal cookies would be perfect for tonight. I always have plenty of oats, enough flour for any last minute project and ample butter (always organic, unsalted). It so happened I had enough brown sugar and everything else to accomplish this mission. Wait… hold the phone… not enough raisins. What is a boy to do? Well, improvise. I’m sure many of you (how many people read this thing?) have heard me talk about (and maybe even tried) my scone experiments. Well, if you haven’t, as a constant, I only make currant scones. I figure how can you know if the basic scone recipe is a success if one day you make currant scones and the next day you’re making cheddar cheese and mushroom scones? Point being, I had plenty of currants in the house. So I made oatmeal current cookies with fennel seeds.

I pulled down my nice, new, nickel Kitchen Aid stand mixer and got to work. Up until now, I had kept my stand mixer on top of my microwave, which is on top of my refrigerator. And like my scone recipes, you have probably heard me talk about how I want to get rid of my microwave (as I do my television). I mean I only used it for melting butter and bringing cream cheese to room temperature. Well, I did it. I took it down and put it by my door for starters and currently it’s sitting in the outside hall waiting to be brought downstairs. So I cleaned the refrigerator and realized how much more room I have. I feel like my kitchen is now 10% more efficient. I was able to move the slow cooker onto the fridge and use that room for other dried goods.

Now back to the cookies. So I had made cucumber sandwiches for Pats opening Monday night and used one of my cookie sheets to bring them over. Well, I didn’t take it home. So, I’m stuck with one 13x9 cookie sheet to bake these bad boys. That means batches of 6 at a time. Oh well, I just put the second-to-last batch in… in a half hour they should all be done.

Anyways, I just ate one and they’re pretty tasty. The cookie is dense like an oatmeal cookie should be while the currants are a bit sweeter than a raisin would be, and the fennel seeds bring that nice… um… fennel flavor? They’re good, okay? Its just too bad no one can join me in eating them.

I plan on bringing them into work tomorrow so I’ll post pictures then, I promise.