Looks aren't everything

[yendi]

So, as I mentioned in my New Year's post (located over here), one of the things I wanted to do more is cook. At halftime, in honor of the righteous ass-thrashing the Jets were giving the Colts, I decided to cook some chocolate chip peanut butter bars to honor them. And yes, I know this was baking and not cooking. Some people make a distinction. As far as I'm concerned, if it happened in the kitchen and it's not sex, it's cooking. So there.

The cooking went fine, aside from some minor hand cramping (we really need a good mixer, or at least a better whisk). And the bars taste damned good (with peanut butter, chocolate, and sugar as key ingredients, that was kind of ensured).

But they're ugly. Butt-ugly. The picture shows a nice set of cookie bars of uniform heights, with the chocolate spread perfectly on the top. My bars are uneven -- before the chocolate was spread on them, they looked like a close-up of the surface of Mars. And the chocolate didn't exactly spread evenly over them.

But they tatste yummy. And as long as I'm not trying to sell them at a bake sale, that's really all that matters.

But damn, they are ugly. I may have to stick to stews or other things that just aren't meant to look pretty.

Comments

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Bakeries get things looking perfect, but they mostly don't taste as nice as they look. Rough and funky looks more homemade, and therefore more promising taste-wise.

They sound yummy!

[hotcoffeems.livejournal.com]

It's usually far more trouble than it's worth to make things look Martha Stewarty when baking. My cheesecakes are ugly as homemade sin, but I've never gotten any complaints, and people eat 'em up.

Bread puddings always look like something that came out of one end or the other of a dog, but taste great. You should bake one next; no one will expect it to look nice. Stick lots of rum sauce on top, and it could probably TASTE like it came out of a dog and no one would care.

[yendi]

I love bread puddings, but I suspect that it's not something shadesong or ELayna would eat, making it less likely that I make it. Ditto creme brulees, which is too bad, as I'd love an excuse to buy a blowtorch.

Re:

[hotcoffeems.livejournal.com]

Dude, you need an excuse to buy a blowtorch? Go get you that blowtorch! Nothing beats a blowtorch!

And sometime very soon I'll make a bread pudding, of which you will partake.

[mfree.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, it's the ugliest food that tastes the best :)

Hell, the chicken I made today was so pale it would put a sheet of paper to shame; the whole outlook changed when I cut through it with a *spoon*...

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Sweetie, we have a mixer! It's in a white cardboard box on the bookshelf with the cookbooks....

Save me some cookie bars, 'k?

[10dimensions.livejournal.com]

My mom and I have a cake we bake each other for our bdays, it is *the cake* I grew up with. And we always say the more it looks like someone sat on it, the better it will taste. It was especially delicious the year I had to hold the top layer onto the bottom layer with toothpicks.

[melvh.livejournal.com]

And yes, I know this was baking and not cooking. Some people make a distinction. As far as I'm concerned, if it happened in the kitchen and it's not sex, it's cooking. So there.

If it involves heat and making something that is completely different AFTER the process than it was BEFORE the process, then it's cooking. (Even if it's sex.)

Besides, if baking isn't cooking, then why are the recipes still put in COOKbooks?? huh?