Sometimes, a person comes across something so intriguing that action must be taken up at once.

I had that moment recently, and it was called Peanut Butter Rosemary White Chocolate Chunks cookies. Peanut butter and rosemary? When a blogger mentions being a trained pastry chef in a meme, you don’t take such odd recipe posts lightly.

Asano-mama didn’t sound very optimistic about this recipe, which only fueled my determination. I set about making these cookies, starting even with the rosemary powder.

I think the rosemary powder is an excellent idea in general. However, I admit that it was my stumbling point. After one whole hour, I only had 3 tsp of rosemary powder. Why? I was using a tea strainer as my “fine mesh” accessory, and this tea strainer had really, really small mesh holes. Plus, the strainer was a little deep for the size of my hands, which just made an arduous task more difficult. o_O

The most evil part of the whole night? Realizing when I went to bed that I had a strainer/skimmer that would have been the perfect size for the task. *facepalm*

Oh well, 3 tsp was pretty close to the original 3 1/2 tsp requested in the recipe. The cookies came out just fine.

So, back to the idea of peanut butter and rosemary – wow, they paired really well! Once I smelled the cookies baking, I knew that there was no question regarding the yumminess factor of these cookies. Straight out of the oven, the peanut butter pretty much was the dominant flavor. If I hadn’t known that rosemary was in my cookie, I might not have noticed it. The rosemary was delightfully subtle. Overnight, the rosemary flavor has gotten stronger, but nothing to worry over. Without question, I’m keeping this cookie recipe in my favorites.

cookie recipe here – http://clumbsycookie.blogspot.com/2009/03/pbrwcc-cookies.html

rosemary powder instructions here – http://clumbsycookie.blogspot.com/2009/03/rosemary-powder.html

And then this morning, I tried a batch of Trader Joe’s Cranberry and Oatmeal cookies. They’re “break and bake” cookies, except without the breaking part. These cookies are frozen in their individual, pre-measured amounts. And you know what? They’re wonderful. Great for when you need to impress people (or in my case, share with my cello classmates) but with very little effort. Such a stark contrast to my one-hour-making-rosemary-powder! Plus, it’s a nice change from chocolate chip break and bake cookies.

Thumbs up for Trader Joe’s. ^_^

(I admit, there are a number of Trader Joe’s products that I’m in love with. I’m considering posting reviews and pictures of them. I haven’t totally decided yet.)

~Mikan

I guess, if there is one, the theme of my cooking attempts this week has been “rosemary.”

It started with baking cookies for a friend’s birthday. This friend is most near and dear, and I wanted something that I thought he’d like and something that didn’t require a whole lot of effort. He’s tasted my cooking… oh, only the one time I think (plum pie), and for some reason my head thinks this is an insult to my cooking abilities. Or something like that.

Well, if my weakness is for the color blue, then his is for the taste of rosemary. So, when I came across a recipe for rosemary butter cookies, there was no question in my mind. He was getting rosemary cookies for his birthday.

I made a half batch, just in case this experiment went terribly wrong, and had the household sample it. Plumduff, Asano-mama, and I were strangely addicted. Stealth Eater said they weren’t bad, but the rosemary confused her tastebuds. She kept saying that they were “interesting.” When prompted, she wouldn’t say good-interesting or bad-interesting, just “interesting.”

I was impressed enough, and the birthday boy was given a baggie of little cookies. The result? Well, he asked for the recipe (which I forgot to give to him), so I think that’s good sign.

Another good sign was yesterday at work. I made another half batch since I had too much rosemary still in my fridge, and subjected my co-workers to my baking efforts (last time, it was sesame seed cake which was so “meh” in my opinion that I wanted to redeem myself). They were very, very well received. Wow!

So, now I’m thinking about making another batch of rosemary cookies, just because I can.

Recipe came from here – http://foodloveswriting.com/2008/09/03/rosemary-cookies-from-heaven/

And although there are no pictures of it and I don’t plan on making a more official post on it, I also used the rosemary for some fish tonight. I tried my hand at fish en papillote – I used salmon, salt and pepper, slivers of sweet onion, bits of portobello mushrooms, a large sprig of rosemary, and a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar. I cooked it a little too long, but overall I was pretty happy with the results. Onion and portobello with rosemary was delicious. The salmon didn’t pick up the rosemary as much as I would have liked, but it was still there and yummy. Next time, I should sandwich the rosemary between the salmon and the onion/mushrooms.

But yeah, still good. And I am very full.

~Mikan