Pan Roasted Clams - Delish!

Made this for dinner last Wednesday for C and I as a predinner to the Japansese curry we were also cooking. The recipe is from David Chang's Momofuku cookbook for Pan Roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS but since I'm too scared to cook with mussels (ever since Tony Bourdain said he does not eat them in restaurants because of the unknown of how they are stored and held), I substituted clams. C loved them and said they were really good.

Now that I have more free time with school being done (did I mention I was taking grad classes--I got a 4.0 this semester) and it is lonely cooking for one, I have been trying to cook Sunday night dinners for some of my friends. This past Sunday, I made my own duck ravioli and then 12 pounds of clams. We ate almost all of them, but saved a few for my roommate who was at work at the time.

I forgot to take a picture of the homemade ravioli because I was busy cooking everything else. I did not love them, but my dinner guest said they were good. I served it with a demi-glace sauce. I also saved a lot of the duck fat to be used another time. Mmm..

Dulce de Leche Duos

From Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours, she had a recipe for dulce de leche cookies and I just had to make them. I made my own dulce de leche (peeled off label from a can of sweetened condensed milk, put two tiny holes on top, put it in a sauce pan and made sure it was constantly filled with water 2/3 way up and let it cooked for about 3 hours), but the store bought stuff worked just as well and is way faster.

The recipe is a little time consuming because the cookies are small and you have to spread dulce de leche on each one to make a sandwich. I used a teaspoon to drop my cookies, but someone had suggest pipping them- just make sure you don't go much bigger than a teaspoon because the cookie does spread and when they are too big, they are a little too crispy.

It is rare that I eat a lot of my own baked goods, but these were so delicious that I must have eaten a good amount of them myself before sharing. They were so good that I made them twice that week and everyone LOVED them. I highly suggest these!

Dulce de Leche Duos
by Dorie Greenspan from Baking From My Home to Yours

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 sticks (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups dulce de leche, plus more for filling
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft. Add the 3/4 cup of dulce de leche and both sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Don't be concerned if the mixture looks a little curdled- it will smooth out when the flour mixture goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into
the batter.
Spoon the dough onto the baking sheets, using a heaping teaspoon of dough for each cookie and leaving 2 inches between them.
Bake the cookies 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front the back at the midway point. The cookies should be honey brown with a light sugar crust, but they will still be soft, so remove the sheets from the oven but don't touch the cookies for another minute or two. Then, using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature.
Repeat with the remaining dough, making sure you cool the baking sheets before spooning the dough onto them.
When the cookies are completely cool, spread the flat bottoms of half the cookies with a small amount of dulce de leche, and sandwich with the flat sides of the remaining cookies.
Makes about 30 sandwich cookies

The Lovely Bones- December 11!

I read The Lovely Bones when I was in high school and loved it. I did not know they were making a movie out of it until yesterday. It has a pretty decent cast- Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz (love her!), Mark Wahlberg (not a fan) to name a few.

The book is about a daughter who has been raped and brutally murdered by a neighbor. The story follows the girl as she watches and follows her family deal with her death and she learns more about the man who killed her. The whole plot is just so interesting, captivating, and sad.

I hope the movie doesn't ruin it. The trailer looked good though, so I'm excited to see this in a few months. Apple trailers won't let me embed it directly to my blog so you can click here to watch it.

Side note: When I was looking up movie posters for this, I found out that Ryan Gosling was suppose to be the father, but three days before shooting, he quit due to creative differences. Saaad. I much rather watch a Ryan Gosling movie than Mark Wahlberg.

"Wolf Pack" Eye Candy

I'm not a Twilight fan. I saw the movie on Thanksgiving because my sister raved about how much she was in loved with Edward Cullen. I did think he was pretty hot in the movie, but I don't dream about him being my boyfriend as some other girls do. But I did read the Wikipedia summaries of the book series so I kind of have an idea of what's to come in the next few movies, and that's the werewolves.

USA Today had the first look at the new group of guys who are going to be playing the wolfwolves and they are all Native Americans, as in the book. They look young to me, but I guess they are suppose to be in high school. Nonetheless, they are still very hot. I like the one on the far left.


[image via USAToday.com]