Don't Stand So Close To Me

I have been eating a lot of garlic this weekend. I am not kidding. Am I the only one who can't think of this song without thinking of this now?

Okay, back to the food. Focus. So, I followed Rosie Hawthorne's instructions for making chicken consomme out of the stock that I made last week. Thanks, Rosie! I'm never going back--this is so much better and prettier than regular old stock and look how much I have now!

Then, I used my consomme to make risotto. I'll try to give you some measurements, but I pretty much made this up as I went along, so feel free to adjust if you try this. Here, I have one leek, half of a cup of onion, half of a cup of Baby Bella mushrooms, and half of a cup of garlic (okay, not that much, but a lot), all fairly finely diced. Oh, also--pretty new pan, courtesy of Grambi:

After all of those ingredients sauteed in some olive oil for five to seven minutes, I deglazed the pan with some Meyer lemon juice:

And some white wine (I used Barefoot Pinot Grigio):

Somehow, I forgot to add the rice to toast before I deglazed the pan, so I added the rice after the lemon juice and wine had reduced--about half of a cup of short grain rice:

I added two cups of my heated consomme about one cup at a time as the rice absorbed the liquid, until it was cooked through and then I added some frozen peas:

Dinner is served--salad of mixed greens, Kumato tomato, buttermilk blue cheese, and French dressing, my risotto (topped with fresh parsley and grated Pecorino), and some bread and olive oil. Oh, also some red wine from Languedoc and water with slices of Meyer lemon and clementine to drink:

This was delicious and very garlicky. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Later, I decided to make peanut butter cookies using a recipe from one of Mother of Ken's friends. I usually don't get excited about peanut butter cookies, but these are really, really good.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. peanut butter

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar (divided in half)

1 large egg

3/4 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 c. flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

Beat butter, peanut butter, sugar, and 1/4 c. brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until thoroughly blended. In small bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt; with mixer at low speed, beat into butter mixture until blended. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 c. brown sugar on top of dough; using rubber spatula, lightly fold in so that sugar granules are still visible. Roll heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into balls; place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Using bottom of glass, press each ball into 1/4 inch thick circle. Bake 5-8 minutes at 375 degrees until lightly browned. Makes 3 1/2 dozen.