My Food Geek

Actually, make that seven mice.

Yes, my kitchen has been invaded by mice. I thought I kept a neat and tidy kitchen, but those little buggers managed to find their way in and sample every item on my metro rack. I lost everything including a nice stash of Guittard chocoalte, 10kg I’d guess. If you remember this photo:

I lost THREE of those, one half eaten. Add to that about ten pounds of flour, a pile of assorted snacks, and some Asian noodles and you can start to imagine how mad I was. I have since removed all the fouled food and washed, cleaned, and sanitized just about every surface and item in the kitchen.

The mice appear to have been coming in from a few cracks the basement which I have since patched up with spray insulation. The mice are now being forcibly removed with snap traps and peanut butter. I really didn’t want to exterminate them, but they carry all sorts of bad things AND I owe them for getting into the chocolate. If we ignore all the bad things they’ve done, the score stands Jef 7 - Mice 0.

They ate my chocolate, I don’t feel bad about it anymore.

Crispy Pie Dough

PLUS

Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

EQUALS

COOKIE PIE!

Cookie Pie

1 recipe of your favorite crispy pie dough (pate sable)

2 eggs
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. finely packed brown sugar
1 c. butter, melted and cooled
6 oz. chopped chocolate

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Line tart pans with dough and set aside.

In large bowl, beat eggs until foamy. Add flour and both sugars. Beat until well blended then mix in melted butter. Stir in chocolate. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

EAT!

The eater always tells me I make the best sandwiches. My formula for a good sandwich starts with good bread. Leave the Wonder bread for toast and find something good - something with a good crust, something with an unusal flavor, or something with a nice airy texture. I then try to match the ingredients in the sandwich with the bread. You can never say too much about good, fresh vegetables or top-quality deli-meats, don’t skimp here! Finally, to hold everything together, you need a good spread. Dry sandwiches just aren’t any good so find something to bind it all together and marry the flavors. To top everything off, garnish the sandwich with something fun, like olives, and pile on the potato chips…mmmmm, potato chips.

Here’s one I almost deleted and didn’t show everyone.

• Whole Foods focaccia bread
• Fresh mozzarella
• Homegrown sprouts
• Red leaf lettuce
• Ripe, hydroponic tomato (hey, it’s still winter in New England)
• Olive tapenade /mayo mix

It was a damn good sandwich, I can’t lie.