event: market-inspired summer dinner with chef tom call

You guys, something very fun and exciting is happening. My good friend, Tom Call, is an amazing chef in San Francisco (you can read all about him here). I should know—cause he practically lived at our house in SF—and would always cook for us. My roommates and I would be all whiney and complainy about how we didn't know what to make with our four random ingredients and he would whip up the most amazing, delicious, legit meals. You have some tomatoes, corn, cheese and potatoes? Oh, perfect. Tom will hand-make some gnocchi with polenta and a tomato sauce. AND BLOW YOUR MIND. Just to name one of many examples. Anywho, he and his lovely wife, Sarah, and their awesome new baby are coming out here in June, and he is hosting a pop-up dinner. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept—it's basically a dinner that is not in a restaurant, but in a private location and that is prepared by a legitimate chef. He has started to do these in SF, and will be gracing us with one here. And guess what? I'm helping. I'll be supplying the desserts. I'm very excited and a lil' nervous about making something that is good enough to be paired with his food. Let me know if any of you would like to reserve a seat. Or just RSVP to Tom@FoodMadebyTom.com.

Ok, that's all for now... I'm going to go rack my brain about what I can make. I'll be testing recipes all month, so if you iz my homie, you'll probs get some taste tests within the next few weeks. Hope you are hungry...

peanut butter munchies

A new friend of mine from work came over the other day, wanting to have a baking night. We were looking through some recipes I had pulled a while back of things I wanted to try. She was feeling peanut butter, and you know how I'm always down for the peanut butter. I had printed out this recipe that I found via foodgawker, and boy are we glad we made them! They are really easy to make and so much easier to eat. We brought a few to some friends and the rest to work the next day, and if you like chocolate and peanut butter, these are THE cookies for you. If you don't, well then I don't think I can help your special kind of problems...

Peanut Butter Munchies

Chocolate Cookie Dough:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Peanut Butter Filling:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat together butter, both sugars, and peanut butter until creamy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; mix well. Beat in dry ingredients. Put dough in refrigerator while you make up the peanut butter filling.

In a medium mixing bowl mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar until smooth. It will be the right consistency when you can shape it into balls. Shape the mixture into 32 small (2 cm) balls.

On the palm of your hand flatten out a ball of the chocolate dough like a pancake, place the peanut butter ball in the middle and wrap the chocolate dough up around the peanut butter ball until it is covered. Repeat for the rest of the dough and peanut butter balls. Place balls on cookie sheets (about 2 inches apart).

Bake cookies in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until they are just set and the surface begins to crack. Let cookies stand for 1 minute, transfer to a wire rack to cool.