Monday, March 17, 2014

Monogrammed Sugar Cookies

I love making cookies - chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, shortbread...you name it, I've made it. However, sugar cookies are at the bottom of my list - I just haven't cozied up to them. I just find them too bland and you almost always have to ice them, which I have always sucked at. When my mom asked me to make some monogrammed sugar cookies for my cousin's kid's baptism, I died inside. I pictured monstrous-looking cookies with clumsy icing that a 4-year-old had made, but decided to give them a shot anyway. I made two kinds: regular vanilla sugar cookies and chocolate sugar cookies. The vanilla cookie I got courtesy of allrecipes.com and the chocolate cookies were from my go-to website joyofbaking.com

Vanilla sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups butter (room temp)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and slowly beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly. The dough will be VERY sticky but just cover and chill the dough for 2-3 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Since my dough was still a bit sticky, I rolled it out between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut your shapes with a cookie cutter and stick it back into the fridge for 10 min so the cookies hold their shape. Bake for about 8 minutes and cool. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.


Chocolate sugar cookies

2 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs slowly and finally the vanilla extract. In another bowl, add flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly. Refrigerate the dough for 2-3 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Since my dough was again a bit sticky, I rolled it out between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut your shapes with a cookie cutter and stick it back into the fridge for 10 min so the cookies hold their shape. Bake for about 8 minutes and cool. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

I cut shapes out of a Wilton store-bought fondant, made some royal icing and voila! I wouldn't bother with the vanilla next time because the chocolate was so delicious, but not bad for my first try, eh? 









Sunday, March 16, 2014

Italian 101

Gusto is a gorgeous space built out of an old garage, sporting exposed brick, industrial lighting and vintage license plates. Immediately as I walk in, I think okay, modern-Italian cuisine - bring it. We started off with some vino and the Aracini balls, stuffed with arborio rice, wild mushrooms and fontina. I can never say no to Aracini balls but I've had some pretty bad ones in my day, so I sit praying that these would be above average. Verdict: They were mad delicious and held their form very well. Great start!


For some reason, I was feeling like a meatless main (GASP!) so I ordered the Fettuccine ai Funghi (portobello, porcini and oyster mushrooms) in a light cream sauce with truffle paste. This was comfort food at its finest - although quite heavy, I wasn't reaching down to unbutton my pants. So that's good right?



The other main I tried was the Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia, a medley of manila clams, shrimp, calamari, mussels, baby scallops and peperoncino....that was a mouthful! Compared to my mushroom pasta, this wasn't even close. The flavours were too light for my palate and I thought it needed something to bring it together. Also, where the hell was the rest of the dish? Portion size was an issue here. Two people at our table ordered the same dish - one got a regular size, the other got a midget size (no offense to midgets).




I couldn't eat dessert since I gave it up for lent so I watched (in agony) as others did. The one thing that did stand out from the menu was the Cioccolato, which was a chocolate quinoa cake. Intriguing no? I asked how it was. This is what was said: "It was okay, not memorable at all. I'm trying to forget it". Ouch. I thought I was mean.


As much as I tried to love Gusto, I didn't. I didn't find anything modern about the food, except for the quinoa cake, but we all know how that turned out. It was beginner-level Italian at best, nothing was particularly exceptional, it was just passable. It has a nice private room though....stick with the Aracini balls and wine and you'll be fine.