Leitourgeia kai Qurbana: Contra den Zeitgeist

As I posted in a comment yesterday, no, I’m not an ex-blogger. What I am, and why there’s been something of an involuntary (or at least unintended) radio silence for the last month or so, I’ll hopefully be able to post about tomorrow. It’s actually a good thing I haven’t had as much time for blogging as I used to, but it’s still something I want to do, so I’m trying to figure out the balance at the moment.

For the moment, here are a handful of culinary discoveries made over the last few days —

1. Homemade maple creme cookies are absolutely freaking awesome. Get the recipe here, get maple extract here, get the maple leaf cookie molds here, and buy one of the 750ml bottles of real maple syrup from Trader Joe’s. The result is a million times better than anything storebought could possibly be, and they are not all that difficult to make. I highly recommend using real maple extract and syrup. It’s somewhat more expensive, yes, but it will still be less expensive in the long run than the storebought cookies, which I guarantee you are made with artificial maple flavoring even if they are made with real syrup. I also would prefer to find an aluminum maple leaf mold, as I’m not sure how long these plastic ones are going to hold up (they’re already warped after one round, despite being marketed as oven-safe up to 375 degrees).
2. If you’re an iPhone user and do any cooking whatsoever, the Whole Foods Market Recipes app is for you. It’s free, the recipes are great (so far), and there’s a terrific feature called “On Hand” where you can punch in what ingredients you have handy, and it will match recipes. The Savory Sausage and Cheddar Breakfast Casserole and the Red Lentils with Garlic and Onions (an “On Hand” match) have both been winners; also, it’s handy having a cookbook that doesn’t require room on the too-full shelf.
3. Yesterday I had occasion to go to Trader Joe’s for the first time in about three years. There isn’t one in Bloomington and the nearest one is in Indianapolis, and I don’t typically go to Indianapolis without a reason (like, say going to see The Dark Knight in IMAX, but never mind that now). To be honest, I was less impressed than I remembered being three years ago; while I got certain things I can’t leave Trader Joe’s without (namely, real maple syrup that isn’t priced like gold, as well as port, to say nothing of some other necessities), on the whole, I found their inventory to be a lot more prepackaged than what I try to buy these days. Ah well.

OK, enough for now. Must… read… Greek… forensic… oratory…