Again, I have neglected my blog. I’m a bad, bad Mama. I think I have a good excuse though. I am taking a photography class at The Light Factory in Charlotte and I’m having a big, big time. I have high hopes of improving my skills.
This past weekend we had our 2nd Charlotte Chowdown. It was a huge success and so much fun. We had lunch at Dim Sum Restaurant on Central Ave. in Charlotte. I had received a list of must try dishes from a local woman who is known about town as a dim sum “expert”. She was kind enough to email me suggestions and to speak to the restaurant owners to arrange for a group reservation for our 17 food lovers. I had never been to Dim Sum before and was eager to go because I had heard such good things about the food and experience.
The servers pushed metal carts loaded with dishes throughout the dining room. They would stop at your table and explain what dishes they had. Roast pork buns, shrimp-stuffed eggplant, leek dumplings, sticky rice w/ roast duck, etc. My favorites were the shrimp-stuffed eggplant and the baked roast pork buns. The buns were dessert to me. Tender pork in a sweet sauce on soft warm buns – yum. Chicken feet are a very common dim sum dish but oddly, they never offered any to us. When we asked for them, the server laughed and returned with a cart full of stainless pans loaded with chicken feet. I imagine they didn’t think they were to our liking. Wrong! The chicken feet were batter-dipped and deep fried and then coated with a sweet sauce. This was my first experience with chicken feet and I had prepared myself the night before. I watched youtube videos so I would not only know how they would appear but also how to eat them. Yes, I’m a dork. You bite off the toes at the knuckle and carefully spit out the bones. As expected, they tasted like chicken – although, there really wasn’t much to eat besides skin and cartilage.
Deep-friend chicken feet
We really had a terrific time. This group is expanding quickly and it’s amazing how well we get along with one another. We all met on Chowhound, a foodie messageboard, and it’s been great fun matching the online personalities with the real people. We are anxious to begin planning our next lunch. Vietnamese? Malaysian? Indian? Who knows!
I made a batch of cookies a couple of days ago. I had a log of frozen cookie dough in the freezer from a batch I had made a month or so ago. I don’t know what prompted me to want to make chocolate snickerdoodles, but that’s what I had. They’re actually good and remind me of Mexican chocolate with the cocoa powder, cinnamon and sugar. You roll the dough into 1-inch balls, roll them in cinnamon sugar and bake. The finished product is a thick, crackled cookie that is not too sweet but very comforting.
Chocolate snickerdoodles
Chocolate Snickerdoodles
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Preheat oven to 400F. Combine sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs. Mix well. Stir in flour, cocoa, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Blend well. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.
Roll dough in sugar/cinnamon mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set. Immediately remove from cookie sheets. Yield: 3 dozen
