My Mountain of Books-5/14

I love to to read. As a kid, I would disappear to my room for hours to read a book. Thankfully, I read quickly and can create vivid pictures of the setting and events of books in my mind. I grew up with books stacked in every room in our house and now I have done the same. Over a decade ago, I joined a book club created by my friend, Kim, and when I taught at Rock Springs Elementary, I led a book club of staff members. When I stopped teaching, I didn't want to stop having book club so a teacher friend and I still meet. We met today and I made two cookie recipes from this month's Food and Wine for our snacks. The cookies were good but I thought the book was better. It was titled "Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism" by Temple Grandin. This book was very non-traditional, as you would imagine a book by an author with autism would be. The story was rarely narrative, more often written as a factual article, expressing the research and musings of Ms. Grandin. The sequence of the story often jumped around and at times I, as a reader, had to go back and reread a section to follow the author's train of thought. Despite these differences, the book was fascinating. My godson, Connor and my cousin's son, Owen, are both autistic and I found her analysis of the mind of someone with autism accurate and enlightening.

Don't get me wrong, the cookies were good but food doesn't last with you as long as a good book. I have books on my shelf I will always treasure. Cookies rarely last a day. I initially planned to make the Pecan Shortbread with Chocolate Drizzle on page 126 but when I realized that this recipe only made 8 cookies, I needed more. So I made the Granola Cookies with Chocolate Chips on page 128 as well. The Pecan Shortbreads were very tasty but very very crumbly. I lost one cookie in the transfer and did some early taste testing. I think this was a result of the ground pecans. The nutty flavor was great, though and for a small gathering, these would be perfect.

I was a bit more worried about the Granola Cookies, mostly because I made a few substitutions due to lack of correct ingredients. First of all, I had no butter and used shortening instead. I didn't notice any ill effects and actually the shortening mixed in well without warming it to room temperature. The second substitution was more visual. I didn't have chocolate chips so I cut up a chocolate bar. The chocolate taste was still there but not as well dispersed and there was not the familiar lumps of the chips. My final substitution was dates for apricots. I think this one was a one for one trade and simply changed the flavor a bit. I liked the dates, a common ingredient in many granola bars anyway. Despite a whole lot of substitutions, these cookies disappeared. They were great. The first batch got a little crispy and so I shortened the cook time to 14 minutes and this was perfect for chewy, chunky granola cookies. I'll be making these again.

The last recipe was not the afterthought it looks like on this blog. I made the Shaking Beef on page 68 last night and didn't have time to blog. Since it was one recipe by itself, I decided I could add my thoughts on it here. I liked the dish. You really can't go wrong with filet mignon. But that was part of the problem. This dish wasn't stand out enough to justify spending $14 on one pound of meat alone. It was basically an Asian beef dish with a soy-vinegar sauce. There are much cheaper ways to get this flavor without buying filet. The watercress was simply a bed of greens and though yummy, could have been baby spinach and not made that big a difference. I still like the book better!

Pecan Shortbread with Chocolate Drizzle-A-

Granola Cookies with Chocolate Chips-A

Shaking Beef-B