Salted Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
Plus: Carousel with Nik Sharma, Farro Pasta, and Houston's.
Hey everyone,
How was your Oscar Sunday? I was expecting a cringe-fest filled with “slap” jokes galore, but overall I thought Jimmy Kimmel did a nice job and the joy surrounding Everything Everywhere All at Once made the whole night feel special.
Adding to that feeling of the night being special is the dessert that I made… these Salted Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies.
Riffing on an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, I upped the salt quotient and then added even more Maldon sea salt at the end. I don’t know, maybe I’m unique, but I think peanut butter cookies are only good when they’re good and salty. But the fact that these are also chewy make them a total delight.
CLICK HERE for the recipe. And if you make them, let me know what you think!
Last Thursday, I met food writer Nik Sharma for lunch at Carousel in Glendale.
We caught up about each other’s lives while noshing on hummus, Labneh, Mutabal and fried pastries stuffed with Feta.
We also shared these kebabs which rounded out the lunch:
Did we walk across the street to get dessert at Porto’s? We did not. And that’s a mistake we’ll have to live with for the rest of our lives.
I don’t experiment with drugs, but I do experiment with pasta.
I’m currently working on an article for Food52 about alternatives to white flour pasta, so I can’t spoil my findings, but this was a farro pasta I cooked up on Saturday night…
Can you tell that it’s not white flour pasta? I don’t think you can from the picture.
But as for how it tasted, you’ll have to wait for the article. Unless you want to commission me to write an article for you personally, in which case, I’ll be glad to tell you!
Finally, we went to see Sunday in the Park with George at the Pasadena Playhouse with Craig’s Uncle Chris and Aunt Liz. It was a lovely production starring the son from The Good Wife which I binged during the pandemic.
Beforehand, we had lunch at Houston’s and I had the classic grilled chicken salad:
I’ve been ordering this salad since high school, if you can believe it. It’s citrusy and peanuty (hope no one has a peanut allergy, with this particular newsletter) and has crunchy tortilla strips. Everyone else got a burger or a fried chicken sandwich but was I jealous? I was a little jealous.
Now for some links!
New American Bingo (Bon Appetit’s Instagram);
Former Soap Star Arrested for Stealing… Cooking Oil? (Deadline);
Salted Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies (Amateur Gourmet, in case you forgot)
That’s all for today folks!
In case you’re not a paid subscriber, you’re missing out on my daily diet dispatch: Operation Muffin Stud. Just today I squeezed into my skinny jeans after losing almost five pounds.
If you’d like to follow along, simply become a paid subscriber to the Amateur Gourmet newsletter, then enter your email address on the Muffin Stud page and I’ll approve you personally.
Until next time….
Your friend,
Adam
i only saw everything everywhere all at once just recently, and by the end i was crying. i tried to think of a last time a movie made me cry, or feel anything in particular and i honestly couldn't think of...that...ever happening? this way? i keep trying to explain to people what this movie does, but i can't. which is kind of exactly the point i always fail to make about it - that it somehow, some way, conveys a feeling through totally weird lens, that couldn't be conveyed in words or any other way. and it's not a one note feeling like happiness or longing...it's like, encapsulating a lifetime, or maybe several lifetimes, of emotions all rolled into one.
i'm not asian, but perhaps as someone who has a very complicated and fraught but loving relationship with my mom, maybe that was a big part of it. but it was also about the love you share with your partner and...i don't know. it's been a month or more and i'm still processing it. it deserves every award.
ahem....anyway, can't wait to read about the pasta testing! (seriously tho!)