Thai Chicken Pizza.

It seems like any dinner-type recipe I post is of the pasta/pizza variety.

Not necessarily a bad thing, but since I've found my go-to recipe for tomato sauce and pesto, I'm looking beyond classic Italian flavours to incorporate into my pasta/pizza. Variety being the spice of Life and all.

Think Taco-style Mac-and-Cheese, Thai Chicken Pizza, Nutella Pizza and their tasty kind.

Making pizza dough seems like a daunting, Herculean task as a newbie but I humbly ask you to try it. Homemade pizza crust CANNOT be beat, not even by the likes of French Loaf. With some yeast and flour, you'll create something that belongs in the hallowed wood-fired ovens of gourmet pizzerias.

You can get Dry Yeast at any semi-decent supermarket. When you do, check the previous chatty post I've done on the perfect pizza crust. One recipe makes four LARGE thin crust pizzas, so I make pizzas out of half the dough and freeze the other bit for a rainy (really, any) day.

 Thai food was an obsession of sort with me four to five years back. This petered out due to frequent unavailability of kaffir lime/lemon grass/curry pastes... and the prohibitive prices of Benjarong/Lotus/HipAsia. I still love my Satays with peanut sauce, phad thai and this amazing Tom Yum soup that Masterchef Machi makes.

However, my parents took us to Bangkok at an age when we were too young to appreciate local food/culture (wasn't precocious like Today's ten-year-olds). At Pattaya, I was allowed precious little. No Parasailing for Rabia! I could draw on the sands, roasting away in thick jeans (no butterfly applique on my jeans! Mum shopped at the same Ruff'N'Tuff counter for the brother and I... girls' wear largely consisted of butt-ugly frothy frocks back in the nineties).

As for the food, I could slurp down oysters, wasn't-that-fun?! There was also the added pressure of not looking at the other beach-revellers strip down to their bikinis and sip on their Heinekins (my mum warned us that our eyes would rot like oozing spoilt grapes if we looked at Alcohol or scantily dressed women. I believed her for the longest time).

So I survived the trip on Kinder Eggs (nothing like the piece of plastic crap that's sold for 30 bucks at India), prawn crackers and coconut cake.

The coconut cake and the floating markets of Bangkok are what I still vividly remember. Both were insane and incredible. A dense-moist-yet-spongy cake sold by a lovely Thai lady on the Bangkok version of a "platform" (Challenge to self: replicate cake or better yet, go back and try it again before I hit *gasp* thirty).

The floating markets were loud, bustling, chaotic and beautiful rolled into one.

Which brings me to the Dish of the Day (That meant something else before the blog was born!)

Thai Chicken Pizza. A copycat version of California Pizza Kitchen's Thai pizza with a little help from Ms Rachel Ray. A mish-mash of flavours and textures, all loud-bustling-chaotic and most importantly, beautiful.

(Note: You can use any Asian Sweet Chilli sauce, including Maggi's Hot'N'Sweet sauce, but if you can't track some down, make your own. Have added the recipe for a not terribly authentic, but a easy and tasty Sweet Chili sauce!)

Thai Chicken Pizza:
(Makes two large pizzas)

1 batch pizza dough
or 6-8 small premade pizza bases

For the chicken:

For the marinade:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 rounded tablespoonful peanut butter

2 teaspoons red chilli sauce

2 teaspoons grill seasoning (which has salt)

300 grams boneless chicken, cut into 2" cubes 

For the sweet chilli sauce

1/4 cup tomato ketchup

2 tbsps honey or brown sugar

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp red chilli sauce

2 tbsp water

1 or 2 dried bird's-eye chilli, whole

Toppings

1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced

a bunch of coriander/cilantro leaves, chopped

a few Thai basil leaves, chopped

3/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped.

1 cup bean sprouts

1/2 cup of scallions/green onion, chopped (can use sliced red onion)

2/3 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

dried chilli flakes

Method:

Preheat the oven to 250 C or 500 F for not less than 30 minutes. Make sure you preheat the baking tray in which you plan to bake the pizza, as well.

For the chicken:

If you have only crunchy peanut butter, you might have to pick out the big bits and throw them on along with the roasted peanuts at the end.

Marinate the chicken in the all of the ingredients mentioned for about 15 minutes. Grill the chicken until done, and slice it after it's been rested. You can also cook in a saucepan with all of the juices on medium heat. Do not overcook. Break up the chicken as it cooks.

For the sauce:



Use deep dark sugar or honey for a more caramel-ly taste.



Combine all over the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.

De-seed the chilli if you don't like very spicy food. Stir, as the sauce thickens, for about 7 minutes. Taste to see if it needs more chilli sauce or sugar, as per your liking. Add more water if you're using very pungent vinegar.

For the pizza:

Roll out the thawed pizza dough on a well-floured surface. Transfer it to a baking sheet/aluminium foil sheet that has been greased with oiled and sprinkled on with cornmeal or semolina/rawa/sooji. This prevents the pizza from sticking.

Kindly excuse my ugly-ass baking sheet. I tell myself that it's the mark of a true baker to have a burnt, overused sheet.

Keep all your toppings in one place so you won't forget to add one or the other.

On top of the rolled out dough, spread some of that sweet chilli sauce. Strew on the onions, peppers, bean sprouts and mozzarella cheese. I tend to not add the chicken, as it dries out and becomes stringy/rubbery in the oven.

Brush the edges with some Olive oil, some extra sauce on top and pop it in.

Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges are golden and the cheese has melted/is bubbly.

Take it out. Strew on cooked, shredded chicken, crushed dried chilli flakes, coriander, basil and peanuts. Add a few random drizzles of the sweet chilli sauce and you're done!

Absolutely delicious, was the unanimous verdict. Each bite was a revelation: you get the cheese, then the hit of the chilli flakes, the nuttiness of the roasted peanuts, the herbiness of the cilantro, the crunch of the onion. Even the pickiest of eaters wolfed it down with no complaint.

My brother did not notice that I had thrown regular sprouts instead of their traditional, infinitely tastier, crunchier white bean sprout counterparts. That, in my book, is a flaunt-worthy success.

Minced Meat Pizza/Breakfast-AND-Dinner of Champions.

I love pizza. I love breakfast.

Scratch that. I love good pizza and great breakfast.

Idli and filter coffee, frittatta and fruit, pancakes and espresso. Great breakfast.

Homemade pizza dough, bursting with three types of cheese, a rich tomato sauce and chunks of meat. Goooood pizza.

So, today, after all the dessert, Vegan and miscellaneous girlie food, I thought I'd post a recipe for minced-meat (kheema) pizza. You can use any ground meat, but the cooking time will vary depending on whether it's chicken, lamb or beef.

This recipe also does not require you to make a separate sauce or break the bank (non-existent in my case) on an expensive bottle of Ragu/pizza sauce. It's a stew on its own, which can be eaten with naan or Pav bread or over some Penne tossed with olive oil. It's versatile, one pot and man-approved. Win-win-win situation for us all.

And whether you want to top it with an egg is completely up to you. Some would love the yolk oozing over the beef and creating a hearty breakfast pizza (does the intro make sense now?) But make sure the people you're cooking for can take eggs, meat, cheese and bread in one go.

For a flavour boost, I'd suggest you used either stock cubes or packaged stock or if you can lay your hands on some, rehydrate porcini mushrooms in the hot stock. Yum.


Minced Meat "Breakfast" Pizza:

Ingredients:

Ground/minced meat - 400 grams (I used beef)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
400 grams tomatoes, pureed*
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 tbsp red chilli sauce
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 vegetable/beef bouillon cube
1/4 cup water
Dried oregano and basil-1 tbsp each.
Salt-to taste

To assemble:

1 onion, cut into thin slices
1 orange/red pepper, cut into thin slices
Tomato ketchup, mustard- to spread
Olive oil, for greasing
Egg-1 per pizza

*Tomato puree to be made in the mixie after boiling the tomatoes for around a minute, skinning them, deseeding them and removing excess water.

Method:

In a big pan, heat the olive oil on medium-high
.

Add in the minced meat after the pan has completely heated up. The meat should sizzle when it hits the pan.

Saute the meat for around 2 minutes, after which you can drain the excess fat.

Add in the onion and garlic. Saute over medium heat until the meat has browned and the onions have lightly browned.

Reconstitute the stock cube in 1/4 cup boiling water. Add it into the meat mix and cook until the water evaporates.

Add in the tomato puree, salt, ketchup, red chilli powder, pepper and sauce. Give it a good mix. Let it cook down on low heat. At this point, you can taste and see if your meat needs any extra seasoning.

Sprinkle in the dried herbs after the mixture has cooked downed.

To assemble:


I do not approve and wouldn't ever use this type of a pastry-ish white pizza base if I had my way.


Spread the pizza base with olive oil.

Coat it with 1 tsp tomato ketchup + 1/2 tsp mustard.

Add a portion of the meat.

Strew on the onion, bell pepper and cheese.

Bake in a preheated oven at 225 C for around 8 minutes.

Take it out, break an egg over the pizza (if desired) and bake for another 5 minutes. If you're not adding the egg, just bake until your cheese is gooey and the edges are browned.

Sprinkle on extra chilli flakes, hot sauce and oregano.

Dig in! And I mean it literally.

P.S. To the good people of Blogger. It's chiLLi, not chili, where I live. Annoyance.

"Mmm. Food." tries Vegan!

I'm a big believer in chocolate and butter and sugar. That's how the world goes around.

But my favourite type of thing to eat? Grilled chicken breast on top of a hearty fattoush salad. Broiled teppanyaki-type fish with wilted greens and rice. Nutella.

I absolutely love light, healthy food, cooked with the freshest of ingredients and minimal cooking techniques. I abstain from posting these from the blog, because my Stats-meter always shows heavy leanings toward Falooda and Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

Even then, if the dish is good enough, I will break my own rules and post it for the world to see. Case in point: Oven Roasted Chickpeas, Muhammara and Garden Pesto Pasta.

My family is another whole story... they don't go a day without eating poultry, meat, fish or worst-case scenario, eggs. And I go rogue. I make Vegan food.

You heard me. Vegan. No meat. No eggs. No dairy. No honey, even!

The sister-in-law said even "poor" people didn't eat this way... and that she wasn't brought up eating "this type of food". The brother said he was 99.99% sure that it was unlawful to shun all that God made rightful (Muslim men love bringing up religion when it suits them). On a side note, annoyingly-ignorant match made in heaven. I told them that I wouldn't be offended if they didn't taste, and that I'd make enough only for me and my health-freak of a mother.

So for today, I give you a savoury dish and a dessert... the tiniest steps you can take into Vegan-dom. There are plenty of amazing, exclusively Vegan food blogs like Chocolate-Covered Katie (from where both recipes du jour have been adapted from) and Oh She Glows. However, if you're hesitant about starting with Chia seeds and Virgin coconut oil, these two dishes could be your happy crutches into the land of all things Vegan.

The first is my excuse for Nutella. I'm a Nutella-holic. I make my own from peanuts. I buy bottles of the stuff from a whole-sale retailer. No lie.

The second is an Italian spin on Hummus. Pizza hummus! I had to add Parmesan cheese and de-Veganise it, but that's just me.

Chocolate-Banana-Peanut butter fudge:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut butter (can substitute with extra peanut butter)
80 g over-ripe banana
a pinch of salt

Method:

If you want to make your own coconut butter, just whiz around 3 tbsp of freshly grated coconut in the mixie/food processor until it forms a smooth buttery/chutney-like mix.

Add the peanut butter, salt and cocoa powder, and blend some more.

Add in the overripe banana, and give it a final blitz.

Taste the mix, to see if you'd like a teensy bit of brown or white sugar.

Pour it out into a bowl and freeze until firm. You can also refrigerate and eat it like frosting/Nutella.

Pizza Hummus:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup garbanzo beans, drained (chickpeas that have been soaked and pressure-cooked)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (sub with nutritional yeast to keep it Vegan)
1 cup cherry tomatoes (or regular)
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 an onion (un-chopped)
1/4 tsp dried basil
2 tsps tomato paste/ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Microwave or boil the tomatoes until the skin bursts.

 If you're microwaving, poking all over with a fork prevents them from splattering out.

In a medium sauce, heat the olive oil. Add the peeled, deseeded tomatoes, half an onion (unchopped) and the garlic with some fresh basil (if available).

Let it stew on medium heat for around 15 minutes.

Once this has cooled down, remove the onion. Blitz the rest of it in a mixie/food processor, along with the ketchup. Add in the chickpeas/garbanzo and blend will until no chunks remain.

Add in the dried basil and the cheese and give one final whirl. Taste it.

Add more olive oil for richness, extra salt, pepper and ketchup to taste. You might need more of the "pizza sauce" if the consistency isn't that of hummus.

Serve with crackers or veggie sticks.

My sister-in-law, the veggie-hater, ate the whole bowl, albeit with plenty of extra shaved parmesan.

My brother nearly cut his hands trying to get the last bits of the Chocolate-PB fudge out of the mixie cup.

I'd be more smug about the whole thing if they had bothered to save me some.

Of Non-Halal Pizza and Liquor-filled Dessert/Papa John's and 5enses!

It's been a while since I did a review. Most restaurants tend to let me down by serving substandard food (arty-farty alert) and take all of my money. True story. And I really don't like trashing people who work with food and health care.

The fact that all of the photos and reviews of the places I've been to are from a few months back is another matter. What if they've gone downhill or decided to clean up their act (the latter is highly unlikely) since then?

So, I'm doing a quick review of a couple of places The W and I went to, less than 48 hours back.

The W is one of your typical born-and-brought-up-in-Saudi kids. He can wax eloquent on the cheesiness of Burger King's double-patty burgers and the crispiness of Al-Baik's chicken nuggets. But what he really, really misses are the pizzas.

I don't mean the fancy wood-fired thin crust pizzas you get at The Park or Tuscana. I'm referring to the American-origin chain-restaurants' DeepDish/Pan Pizza concoctions. The ones where you have to search for the toppings with Sherlock Holmes' hand-lens. Not in Saudi, though (according to W, everything is big in Saudi).

Speaking of chain restaurants, Pizza Hut in India is NOT HALAL. I didn't know of this for the longest time. Post-discovery, we had to submit to the rules of Pizza once a month at home and the very occasional Tuscana run.

So when we spotted Papa John's Pizzeria on Nungambakkam High Road (erstwhile Marks & Spencer building), we made a beeline for it. Nobody would expect a non-Halal outlet on an a densely-Kilakarai populated offshoot of Khader Nawaz Khan/Shafee Mohammed/Wallace Garden Road to be lucrative, right?

We weren't sure if it was open, having seen no full-blown advertisements in the papers or the Internet. I pore over the supplements for over an hour each day, savant-style. I'd be one of those people who answers Duggu correctly in The Hindu adverts, except that I'd know about the UPA and Baichung Bhutia as well, because we get three newspapers and I read them like they're going to help me save lives... there's such joy in procrastinating course-material work in favour of knowing what is happening in every body's life.

Back to Papa John's. It looked functional and festive, so we assumed it was open for business. We were told, however, that today was the By-invite-only opening (spotted a couple of Page 3 celebs!) and that they would start in a couple of days. The surprising part was that they invited us to join them anyway, and give our honest opinion.

We gave them our honest opinion then, and I'm giving it now.

We decided to order the Meal for Two, motivated by the photo of the drool-inducing Chicken Sausage Pizza.

Sadly, Papa John's is NOT Halal. The staff told us just in the nick of time. The meat is machine-cut, so there's no assurance. They do not serve Pork, so it was easy to assume that the place is Halal, but, the moral of the story is that it isn't.

Sigh. Is there any point in continuing the review/meal, we wondered. I mean, I'm strong enough. I was practically Vegetarian throughout school, as all but two of my friends were (are) Vegetarian. And by that I mean they haven't ever tried a carrot or mushroom in their lifetimes. I could totally eat corn and cheese in ten different isomeric forms. I can, and I have.

The W? Whose Pathani blood forbids the eating of cattle-feed? Well. Surgical residency has eliminated any last vestige of picky-ness.

We ordered basic things:

The Meal for Two consisted of a medium-sized pizza, potato wedges/chicken wings and two sodas.

We asked for Pepsi. Guess what it tasted like? Pepsi!! When was the last time you've had "fountain" Pepsi that wasn't 75% water and 15% ice? +1.

The wedges were fluffy inside and crisp outside, with a dusting of salt and herbs. I tentatively asked if they were baked. What do you know? Turns out that they are baked! +100. This little snippet of information ensured that I did not share any of it with the W.

You get a jalapeno and a mustard-butter to dip them into. And the ketchup, obviously.

And then came the piece de resistance. The Barbecue Corn Pizza.

Corn, I take back every sarcastic thing I said about you. Can we be friends again?

When baked under a blanket of melty, gooey mozzarella and smothered with a killer Barbecue sauce, you taste pretty fine.

The pizza base was fantastic. I don't know if it's because it was the first base ever baked for a customer in that outlet. It was spongy, doughy, yummy and most importantly, fresh.

The entire meal reminded me of dining out in the '90s. Pizza Hut was the coolest thing to have happened to Madras. Standing in the queue for hours; pitchers of coke, baskets of cheesy garlic bread and pizza doused with oregano and chilli flakes crowding the tiny tables; everybody fighting for the last slice of pizza left over. Some of the best memories I have of family.

I'll repeat: this isn't olive and feta-topped pizza with a herb-infused dough. It's a fresh, delicious version of Chain-Restaurant Pizza with fantastic sauce and generous cheese. All under four-hundred bucks.

Not that they'd take any money from us. The meal was on the house, since we were the first customers (and I mentioned I was a food blogger).

You should take a bunch of teenage boys who've won the Under-16 Basketball tournament there. They'd win more. You should take your little sister and her posse. So they'd have memories like you do. You should take your Madras-bred, non-high maintenance date: a little bit of the late nineties/early noughties environment will ensure you have loads to talk about.

As for us, since we technically didn't spend any money, we decided to splurge on dessert and headed over to 5enses.

The place had a live band playing. The lighting was dim, the setting cozy and possibly, romantic. As for the food:

Really glad we ate quite a bit beforehand, because while the portions of food are very elegant and pretty, they are tiny. Maybe if a whole of bunch of people went, for the sole purpose of having a nice night out and wear their best duds, YES. Not for a hungry person who just returned three back-to-back surgeries or The Girl with Four Stomachs and/or an ?Insulinoma.

Dessert there was a bit of a bust. Most of the dessert had liquor/liqueur in it. The tiramisu had Kahlua. The Cheesecake had Amaretto, and so on. Exasperating after the whole no-meat thing.

Could not leave without any dessert, though. So out of the limited options, W had the Dark Chocolate (Callebaut) Gelato with Callats.

It was GOOD. Costs Rs. 190 for a scoop. With a butterscotch tuille and all.

 Only excusable because it had real Callebaut in it.

I had the Dark Chocolate-Hot Chocolate with butterscotch bits.

It was really, really bad, especially since each millilitre costs 2 bucks (the tiny cup will set you back by Rs. 190). The chocolate hadn't dissolved completely, it was not at ALL dark, the milk wasn't creamy or frothy... it was, quite simply, bad. In retrospect, I should've marched over to the kitchen and taught them how to brew an actual mug of Hot Chocolate (Mocha, I miss you).

However, the place was lovely, the company was lovely (and by that I mean me, of course. Kidding!) and there was free food and chocolate and All's-Well-Ends-Fantastique.

Blogoversary, Part One/Walk in The Park!

It's been a year.

This exact day, one year back, I wrote a semi-narcissistic piece on how much I love food. Should I be worried that not a thing has changed? No. I'll save that for the quarter-life-crisis I'm due for next year.

A full year of cooking, taking bad photographs and borderline-raving to the gourmands of the blogosphere... and I'm hungry for more. Sigh. Beyond help.

The first few posts averaged around 15 views, on a good day. That didn't deter me. I continued eating, writing, eating whilst writing. Over the course of a few months, thanks to friends (and mum's friends) and word-of-mouth, the Stats-meter took an uphill journey. I still don't understand why anybody would be interested in reading a paragraph on the nuances of sour cream versus Greek yogurt versus creme fraiche. It's madness.

I get recognised as the "food blog girl." I get asked about what brand of cocoa powder to buy and what steak to order, more than I do about nebulizers and antibiotics. I get so many heart whelming "I loved your strawberry scones". All this for food-blog-hopping and baking brownies! It's insane and amazing, but mostly insane.

Oh, I've had brickbats, as well. "A doctor like you shouldn't be wasting time","why this obssession with food" and similar. But for the most part, I'm doing what I love and nothing makes me happier than being recognised as the "food blog girl."

So here's a huge thank you to all the like minded people who come here to indulge their inner fat-child. I will continue to ply you all with all the butter and demerara sugar Nilgris has on its shelves.

This calls for a celebration: I'll be reviewing the best food I've eaten this year today, as well as posting the recipe (as Part Two, tomorrow) for Salted Peanut, Triple Chocolate, Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies. It's one of those things that give you food-gasms and epiphanies... and there are no controlled substances involved.

Jettez un coup d'oeil (that's the last of the rudimentary French garnered at school: roughly translates to "Cast your eyes") on photos taken during a meal at 601 at The Park and dessert at Latitude 13 by The Park.

The Park needs no introduction. I don't have to talk about the brilliant hospitality, the classy interiors or the college-educated waiters (at least at 601). I, especially, do not have to mention the prices (they're pretty high, I'll stop at that. Like the Salvatore Ferragamo pumps on magazine spreads that just have "Price on Request" underneath them).

W and I had saved The Park for a special occasion. As usual, we just ended up going there dressed in work wear (not good when you work in a hospital) while on the hunt for a clean loo.

The clink of cutlery and Hunger (my omnipresent, un-imaginary friend) steered us in the direction of 601.
Hunger also dictates you order basic things that fill your soul and stomach. So. Pizza and Fish-and-chips. Sat back, in preprandial glee, almost saying "show us what you got. Entertain us."

Soon after placing the order, we were served with the bread basket filled to the brim with soft, delicate little dinner rolls brushed with butter, sprinkled with Sea Salt and grains and baked to a gorgeous golden-brown.

Carbaholics that we are, we finished the whole basket. We weren't going back there any day soon, so appearances didn't matter. The open butter chiplet should confirm the fact.

And the pizza that made me a convert from a only-deep dish-please girl to a thin-crust-can-taste-this-good? girl.

Chunky, juicy chicken.

Yummy jalapenos.

Gooey mozzarella.

Sprinkled with a wee bit of dried oregano and chilli.

This is better than the pizzas I've had at Tuscana. And it costs about the same.

As for the fish-and-chips.

Golden, non-oily, breaded-to-perfection fish fingers.

Fries that were almost a metre-long; crisp on the outside, tender and steamy on the inside. One thing I have to mention is the palpable grains of salt coating the fries. Nirvana. Hello, hello, hello!

The in-house tartar sauce and ketchup? Drinkable. Ask for refills. You're paying enough.

All I needed was a huge glass of chocolate milkshake with a striped red straw and I'd be done with good food for life.

The two of us finished every single morsel on the plate. That left us with no room whatsoever for dessert.

So on another occasion (Eid, to be precise), the cousins and I hit Latitude 13 by The Park on Wallace Garden Road.

The bill wasn't frighteningly high here, as we ordered the Hi-Tea combo. For 190 bucks (exclusive of taxes), you get a mug of coffee/tea and a dessert.

I got the Chocolate Truffle Cake, because it was Eid, and calories don't count on Eid.

Sarbee had an Apple-cranberry (I think) tart with vanilla ice cream (?gelato).

Love the chocolate syrup and condensed-milk zig-zags.

Also love it when ice-cream speckled with vanilla beans forms a cold puddle over flaky tart.

N joined us after dessert #1 at Sandy's Chocolate Laboratory, so she just had an apres-dessert sorbet. I'm blessed with crazies in the family; girls who do not fuss about one-dessert-per-day limits and the like.

The tea was a mug of garden-variety English Breakfast.

But my Cafe Mocha, with a thin almond biscotti, was delicious. If you discount the alarming smiley face.

Here's to biting into the new year!

Tomorrow, all you lovely people get to feast your eyes on the aforementioned triple-chocolate-chip-peanut-butter cookies.

Auf Wiederhausen! (yes, I treat myself to late night masochism in the form of Project Runway, cookies on the side).

P.S. Before I forget, thank you all so much. Again.