Huevos Rancheros

I have never really been much of a breakfast person. On the rare occasion that I find myself going out to brunch, I bypass all the breakfast options and head straight to lunch. I suspect this is because I will almost always choose savory over sweet (probably unexpected from someone who wants to open a bakery), and most breakfast foods have a hint of sweetness to them -- french toast, pancakes, waffles. I'm also not a huge fan of eggy-flavored things, so omelettes, fritattas, and even simple scrambled eggs don't particularly excite me. But one thing I do love? Mexican food! So, it should come as no surprise that I adore huevos rancheros (the egg is balanced out with a tortilla and salsa), and it is at the top of my list for making weekend breakfasts when Husband comes to visit.

Huevos Rancheros

Ingredients:

• 1 can seasoned black beans
• 1 cup salsa of choice
• 4 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
• 4 eggs

Directions:

1. Heat black beans in a sauce pan over low heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Spray frying pan with nonstick cooking spray. Heat one tortilla until golden brown, then flip. Sprinkle a quarter of the cheese over the tortilla and let it melt.
3. Break one egg over the melting cheese, using a spatula to help hold the egg yolk on top of the tortilla. Once the egg white starts to set, quickly flip the tortilla over. Cook 2-3 minutes on the opposite side, until yolk firms, and then flip back upright onto a plate.
4. Repeat with remaining tortillas and eggs.
5. Serve with salsa and black beans.

Broken Heart

My grandfather just had a heart attack. Well, correction, my grandfather had a heart attack nearly 48 hours ago, but for reasons which I will refrain from ranting about now, no one bothered to tell me until 30 minutes ago. So really, I just learned that my grandfather had a heart attack.

My grandfather is 90 years old, and in better shape than most people I know my own age. He lives along a golf course and walks the entire length every day, collecting lost golf balls for my father. He uses the cardio equipment in his retirement home. He walks to the grocery store instead of driving. He makes very healthy food decisions, is not a smoker, and only drinks on occasion. He is in such great shape, the past two times he has had surgery, his recovery has taken less than a third of the time he was told it would take, to the shock and amazement of his surgeons. My grandfather has always been indestructible, and at his last physical, was told that he should easily live to be well over 100.

My grandfather just had a heart attack. He isn't a candidate for stents and the surgeon thinks he is too old to undergo bypass. He was essentially told today that his heart is a ticking time bomb -- they can't predict when, but he'll have a massive heart attack and drop dead.

And do you know what he said in response? That all he wants is to live one day longer than his wife, so she never has to be alone for a single day.

I think my mean old heart of coal just broke in two.

My grandfather, brightening my world since 1983.

Time Warp

Frequently I find myself starting at my reflection in the mirror, unable to recognize myself anymore. The grey streaks of hair, the dark circles under my eyes – who is this person? Surely, I am not this old yet. It’s not that I find 27 to be old by any stretch of the imagination, but rather, my shock comes because it feels like time hasn’t moved over the past six years. Certainly, I am still just 21, fresh and wide-eyed out of undergrad, because I have nothing of accomplishment to indicate that six years have slipped past.

Looking around me, I accept that my friends are moving up in the world. They have new jobs they love, new promotions and pay raises, and are starting to accumulate the signs of achievement – purchasing a new car, moving to a better apartment or making the down payment on a house, having children. Friends who, in the amount of time I’ve been going into the same lab everyday and trying to force my protein to cooperate in the exact same assays, have held a job for several years, left to go back to graduate school, and returned to a different job. Friends who are already on child number two. Friends who discuss monetary investments and where to purchase property and retirement funds. And yet, there is nothing to indicate my passage of time. On the contrary, it’s like I’m moving backwards. I started out graduate school with a roommate. A few years later, I found myself married with a husband… who shortly left for residency in Philadelphia. I spent a year living on my own, and now find myself back to square one, living with a roommate, informing the surgeon’s receptionist that no, even though most individuals bring a spouse to the consult, I will be attending alone because for all intents and purposes, I am single once again (note: this has nothing at all to do with my husband not wanting to be there, but rather, the inability for him to take time off to travel to DC).

Husband’s best friend’s wife mentioned over a cookie baking session this fall that that they have decided to “pull the goalie.” A recent conversation with said best friend implied, though did not directly state, that his wife is pregnant. If it is the case, I am thrilled – overjoyed even – that they will be expanding their family. When I look at them, I see so many milestones of achievement. He went to graduate school and earned his first masters’ in New York City, then returned back to Philly, worked for a few years, and is now back in school again for a second masters’ degree. She has been through two lucrative jobs and recently left to start her own business as a personal chef and is thriving while completely loving what she does (a novel concept). Now, they are working on expanding their family. Both their lives are marked with achievements, personal and professional, indicating their successes over the past several years.

I look in the mirror and see grey streaks of hair and dark circles, but what I cannot see are the accomplishments that I find in all my friends. Six years into graduate school and I have no first author papers, and none coming up in the pipeline. I cannot even make a remote guess as to when I will graduate, other than to assure you that it will not be this May. Because I have no first author papers, I have no job prospects for after graduation. Not residing in the same state as my husband, there is no point in even discussing things like purchasing property or having children. I wonder, at which fork in the road did I make the wrong decision, and wind up stuck in this time warp of unachievement? Because certainly, a time warp must be the only explanation – I cannot possibly really be 27 and yet still be stuck exactly where I was at 21.

Super Sugar Cookies

Rolled sugar cookies have long been my nemesis in the kitchen. I suspect it is because my grandmother has handed down the World's Best Gingerbread recipe, and this declaration comes from someone who doesn't particularly care for gingerbread in the first place. The dough is soft, easy to roll out, not sticky, doesn't spread in the oven, and stays soft for days. I've been searching for the sugar cookie equivalent for YEARS, and nothing was quite right. Some rolled out well but were too crunchy, some tasted great but didn't roll well, and some... some were just utter disasters spreading into amorphous blobs. But finally, FINALLY, just when I was about to give up all hope... I noticed my bookshelf. All these years, I've been searching the internet for the ultimate recipe, and yet there it was, right in my apartment the whole time, hiding inside my copy of America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. Why, oh why, did I not think to look there in the first place? America's Test Kitchen has never let me down, and this is no exception.

These cookies are, dare I say, my definition of perfect. The dough is soft enough to roll easily, not remotely sticky -- no flour necessary to roll them out, which helps them hold their shape better (adding extra flour to the rolling surface and rolling pin often cause cookies to spread). They sat out Friday night cooling and Saturday night drying, uncovered, and are still perfectly soft today. And, they're not too sweet, which I like, since royal icing is just another layer of sugar on top.

Instead of the standard creaming sugar and butter and then adding in the flour, these cookies use reverse creaming. The butter is added to a flour and sugar combination, which eliminates all those little air pockets that tend to make cookies balloon up. The recipe also calls for superfine sugar; if your grocery store doesn't care it (mine does not), process 1 cup of granulated sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds, then measure the appropriate amount.

And, of course.... HERE WE GO, STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!!

The Perfect Rolled Sugar Cookie
Source: America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 16 tablespoons softened butter, cut into half-inch pieces
  
• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, adding one piece at a time. Mixture should look crumbly and slightly wet
   
2. Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla until the dough begins to form large clumps. Knead the dough in the bowl by hand several times until it forms a large, smooth mass.
   
3. Divide dough into two even pieces. Form into a 4-inch disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or up to two days (dough can be frozen at this step for up to a month).
   
4. Roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper to a 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness, no flour necessary. Slide the dough, still between parchment paper, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate 10 minutes. This firms the dough to ensure a perfect cut with the cookie cutters.
   
5. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
   
6. Remove dough from refrigerator. Carefully remove top piece of parchment paper and cut out cookies. Transfer the cookies to the baking sheet, spaced one inch apart.
   
7. Bake the cookies until light golden brown, approximately 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transfering to a cooling rack. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.
   
8. Repeat with remaining dough. Dough scraps can be re-rolled up to two additional times (ATK claims once, but I re-rolled mine again afterward and the cookies still held their shape perfectly).