Monday, June 26, 2006

Until Later Today, When All I'll Want To Do With Cookies Is Toss Them

I felt so nauseous after dinner that I decided to just go to bed, so at 2:00 am I was wide awake. I’m having odd cravings lately, but if I don’t satisfy them immediately, they’re often replaced by mild-to-severe aversion a few hours later.

It was under these circumstances that I came across Bridgette’s entry about baking and food and a photo of possibly the most delicious-looking chocolate chip cookies ever.

I was so pissed.

Pissed that she didn’t live closer, so I couldn’t just go over to her house and demand that she hand over the cookies now and no one gets hurt. Never mind that I’ve never actually met Bridgette and it was nearly 3 in the morning, but if she lived within 20 minutes of my house, I would have gone knocking, all greasy-haired and twitchy with cookie-jonesing.

The only cookies in the house are some Chips Ahoy Bump had stashed, but Bridgette’s looked all soft and chewy and warm, so I knew those crusty crunchy Elf cookies wouldn’t do.

I don’t have any room temperature butter, so I couldn’t just make my own damn cookies. Plus, it was 3 in the morning, and I wasn’t sure how Bump would respond to my clanging around the kitchen making cookies. (Who am I kidding? If Bump woke at 3:30 to the smell of chocolate chip cookies, he would come tearing out of the bedroom, squealing like a middle-school girl over Orlando Bloom. He would then proclaim me the Most Fabulous Woman Ever. Or, he would blearily ask me what the hell I was doing, clanging around at 3 am, I’m gonna wake up the baby already.)

Moot point anyway, I wasn’t making cookies.

But! A few days ago I sent Bump to get the makings for rice krispie treats, because I needed some immediately. Predictably, I lost all interest in the thought of rice krispie treats some time later and have had marshmallows and cereal sitting on the counter ever since.

The Le Crueset dutch oven was still out from dinner, so it seemed like a good idea to use it. (White Trash meets Foodie! It’s like Lumpyhead, only less of a metaphor!)

I felt really smart when the marshmallows and butter melted beautifully. "Ha!" I thought, "Why doesn’t everyone use enameled cast iron to make rice krispie treats? This is great!"

Once I added the cereal and had to transfer the sticky, warm goo to a pan, I realized why the craze for making rice krispie treats in Le Creuset hasn’t swept the nation. Holding enameled cast iron in one hand while trying to pour a hot, clingy substance into another vessel is rather tricky. Difficult, even. That would be why all the recipes recommend a saucepan. (A saucepan, dumbass.)

But I completed the task and you know what? Picking warm marshmallow-coated rice krispie bits off the pan? At 3 in morning? Awesome.

And the dutch oven cleaned up really easily. If you can just find someone to help you hold the pan, I highly recommend using Le Creuset for your next rice krispie treat adventure.

So, now that the rice krispie treats are cooled and ready to be cut? I don’t really want one. I want one of Bridgette’s damn cookies.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

No problem, right after I can find the $215 for the one I want.

daddy in a strange land said...

fyi, check out Mario Batali's line at Sur La Table, it has a 6-quart enameled-cast-iron dutch oven (a la Le Creuset) for like a hundred bucks. Gave one to my dad for Father's Day (not that I'm cheap or anything, but c'mon!). Don't know how it cooks yet, but other pieces in the line that I have (deep lasagna pan, heavy grill/panini pan) work great. :)

Anonymous said...

Lodge makes a similar line -- usually they do the old-school granny-style cast-iron frying pans, but they've started selling enamel-coated to compete with LeCreuset and the likes. I got a "seconds" one from the outlet store for about $100 and it's the love of my life.

www.lodgemfg.com

Lumpyheadsmom said...

Is that Lodge spam?

Anonymous said...

Okay, Lodge spam is almost cool.

daddy in a strange land said...

You think somebody's job is to type "Le Creuset" into google or technorati all day and then post anonymous comments about Lodge? :) Hey, now you should ask for free stuff like MetroDad gets--shouldn't be all get free pans now? Or at least Batali's people should be paying me...