Tuesdays With Dorie - French Pear Tart, or “Tarts and Crafts”

THINGS ABOUT THE FRENCH PEAR TART

1) I could not find a properly-sized tart pan, so I made four mini-tarts instead.
2) I am the world’s worst fruit-chopper, and so every tart ended up with two massive hunks of crazy pear.
3) Rachel (another kind of tart) proclaims that the pear tart is “the best thing [I've] made yet.”

Pictures forthcoming eventually, but not sure if it’ll be today.

Since I made last week’s cheesecake-related post, I have accomplished exactly Nothing in unpacking or putting together the apartment. Blame it on the holidays if you want, but I’m going to stick a thumbtack of plain, old laziness in it.

In lieu of finishing our move, last weekend was a movie weekend. We watched Tropic Thunder, The Pianist, Valkyrie, Wagons East, Timecop, Bolt in 3D, The Incredible Hulk, and The Signal. With possible exception of Wagons East, which was just okay, the rest were pretty great. I especially recommend Timecop, especially if you are in the mood to see people get TIMECOPPED, or maybe just some neat splits of the non-banana variety. Click on the “Ugly Movies” link at right for slightly more detailed reviews, or do something else with your time! It’s a beautiful day! Etc!

Tuesdays With Dorie - All Purpose Cheesecake

Is this what the cheesecake is called?  I don’t know.  I can’t remember.  I don’t currently have the Internet.  I am posting this from a coconut shell.

ALTERNATE TITLE:  Cheesecake?  Oh, PLEASEcake!

I have not tasted this, and it’ll have to wait until New Year’s Eve’nin.  If the batter is any indicator, it’s better than any batter I ever batted at, but you can’t judge a cheesepie by its batter (this sentence copyright (c) 2008 Rachel)

Anyway, it’s a short one tonight (that’s what she said).  Please refer to last post in re. dinner recipes.

Yours most truly,

The best,

Around,

Mike S. Poodles

P.S. I AM GREAT

Moving Right Along

Muppety.

I’ve officially moved out of my parents’ house. Now Rachel and I have an apartment, and it’s a lot bigger and nicer than I had expected. Of course, my college apartment was a bit of a trash heap, so it wouldn’t take much to impress me.

I’m currently in the process of assembling furniture. It’s a lot easier than I thought. I put a bed together in an hour, and banged out some kitchen chairs, bookshelves, and tables. I put a screwhole in the tabletop (oops), so I have some fixin’ to do.

Most of my packing and unpacking consists of newfound fascination with old things I forgot I had, so I’m not making any progress on the other end. Some day we will be box-free! The dream.

Despite enjoying my new home and new company, I miss the old one just as much. That’s the way it goes, I guess.

I can’t promise I’ll have Tuesdays With Dorie up on time, but I promise I’ll try my best!

Until then…anybody have favorite recipes that they can link/send me? Preferably dinners, not desserts please (I certainly have enough of them). Please leave them in comments! I’ll blog them if and when I make them.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Butterscotch Pudding

I don’t mean to be a hooligan, but I have to say it:  screw Dorie’s chocolate pudding, screw Dorie’s creme brulee, and screw Dorie’s rice pudding.  This is bar-none the best pudding I’ve ever tasted, and probably the easiest I’ve ever made.  Sure, I still have a damn leaky food processor, and I don’t know how to follow instructions worth a dickey-bird (a lil bit too much milk).  It still turned out awesome.  I felt emboldened when I went to the liquor store to buy my tiny carry-on bottle of single-malt scotch.

Take a look at “Ugly Movies” on the right.  I just updated with a bunch of new reviews.  I loved Wall-E, by the way, and the two most recent Muppets specials were surprisingly good.  The big move is on Saturday, and I hope to be set-up to do next week’s TWD on time.  WE’LL SEE.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Buttery Jam Cookies

These cookies came together very quickly, and I got to Hulu some “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” in the meantime.  I used strawberry jam, because that was what was in my mom’s fridge.  Dorie recommends eating these cookies with tea.  For those of us too hardcore to drink tea, these cookies will go well with a tall, frosty glass of motor oil.

Next week will be my final “Tuesdays With Dorie” live on location at my parents’ house.  A week from Saturday, Rachel and I move out on our own, where we will fatten ourselves up on cookies and share with no one.  I gave Rachel free domain of the interior decorating, which works out really well for me because that means I have free domain of NOT interior decorating.  I will take this duty with much gusto.

In the meantime, hold on tight to your shoes.  You never know who you’ll have to throw them at.

100 COOKIES

HEY MIKE, WHAT DO 100 CHOCOLATE CHUNKERS LOOK LIKE?

Tuesdays With Dorie - Sugar Cookies

This is my favorite Dorie recipe yet.  It’s easy, it’s tasty, and it’s fairly mess-free.

Welp, that’s all for this week.  I accidentally spent all of Monday night watching It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Thursdays With Dorie - Holy Linzer Sables, Batman!

Pardon my lateness.  Look at these cookies.  They are in the shape of little Batarangs!  I was so excited to see that this week’s recipe used cookie cutters, because the Batman cutter is a classic.

I ended up using walnuts for the dough, and the filling is sugar-free strawberry preserves.  I was thinking about busting out my more savory “gourmet” fillings.  I have Peach/Hot Pepper Preserves and Jalapeno Jam.  However, I wanted other people to try these things too, so I filled them with the boring ol’ strawberry.  They do look all cool and bloody, though, so there’s that.

Maybe you would like to look at my last post.  In it, my ladyfriend and I make some faces, and then I talk about a bunch of stupid stuff!

Crazy Larry’s Photo Fun Post

So what is new?  Well, for starters, Rachel and I are moving in together on December 27.  I have a bunch of newer Wii games, and I’m really rediscovering my love for video games.  I’ve been watching Looney Tunes on DVD because I am a toddler.  I got six Jean Claude Van Damme movies at Wal Mart for $13, which is a hell of a value.  Looks like everything is coming up Milhouse for ol’ Mike.

Work is going well, although everything is moving very slowly.  I’d prefer a much faster pace.  The amount of work I put into pasing my tests is the same amount I put into college (not much/any).  Every once in a while my knowledge of the movie “Leprechaun” is put to the test in the middle of a class, but otherwise I’ve discovered that you can do the New York Times Crossword ON THE INTERNET.  Saves me the cost of a newspaper.

It seems like everybody at work has developed their own little cliques, which is kind of depressing.  I’ve never worked anywhere that didn’t seem like one big, happy family, and this seems like a bunch of little groups that barely tolerate each other.  Half of the people even seem miserable.  Maybe that’ll change in time.

My five-year high school reunion was last weekend, and it reminded me how little I enjoyed high school.  I spent the evening with people I currently hang out with frequently, so it wasn’t much of a reunion.  To be fair, I don’t know if people recognized me (since I looked like this in high school).

I had two very good Thanksgiving feasts (my mom’s, Rachel’s mom’s).  Other food-related stuff:  my friend Brad makes a good from-scratch spinach pizza (with pesto sauce).  Just really, really great.

I tried okra tonight for the first time.  I did not know what okra was.  The back of the freezer bag said “Ingredients:  Okra.”  This did not help me very much.  I know that southerners enjoy okra, and I know that southerners also enjoy deliciousness.  They did not fail me with okra.

Forgive this post.  It’s midnight and I am bored.  Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?  Anything fun coming up?  Is everybody happy with their lives?

Tuesdays With Dorie: Oops

My mom’s birthday was last night, so I’m taking a mulligan. I’ll still be baking this week’s cookies, but it’ll have to be Thursdays With Dorie for ol’ Mike this week.