Monday, October 23, 2006

Guinea Pigs love cookies


I invited friends over to test some recipes on Sunday and I served Grandma's Butterscotch Cookies and La Vida Dulce's Chocolate Shortbread with vanilla ice cream and Michael Chiarello's Balsamic Caramel Sauce. We didn't start with dessert but this might have been the best course. Remember, these friends were guinea pigs and I'm not so sure the main course came together like I planned so I'm going to leave the rest of the menu for a later post.

First, if you only make one cookie this holiday season make it the Chocolate Shortbread. It is so incredibly melt-in-your-mouth rich and quite easy. Too easy if you ask me because you can throw this together in a moment's notice and who needs that sort of temptation.

Now if you really want something different do try the Balsamic Caramel Sauce. I wasn't too sure but the sweet of the ice cream balances the balsamic vinegar. I had a little push back from a few of the guests but won over one of them. Hey, I surprised myself, too. It was good.

So, what did I learn? Sometimes you need to step outside your apron and try something you've never cooked before. Now Doodles says she has a Roasted Pears with Caramel sauce recipe on her del.icio.us ... and I have all this leftover sauce, hmmmm, sounds like something new.

4 comments:

wheresmymind said...

Balsamic Caramel, eh? I do dig Balsamic...but sometimes the smell can be a bit much

barb said...

I have two pears that are near ripe.

Deborah Eley De Bono said...

Jeff, I felt the same way but when combined with something sweet like the caramel and ice cream it is quite interesting.

La Vida Dulce said...

Ooh, so glad you like the chocolate shortbread! The Scutterbotch are amazing, thanks for recipe. Gotta try that caramel, sounds delicious.