Fool-proof recipes : THE CHALLENGE

At the very least, her chili deserves far more attention and scrutiny than the size of her ass.

Now, if certain people wouldn't try to throw Willie Hortons toward my potato taco campaign, maybe I can win some spice lovin' hearts out there.

the, uh, sickness was related to a family emergency type situation and the fact that my nerves have been shit lately. knowing this, maybe spicy foods werent the best idea.

Nope -- pour the wine in, the wine simmers, soaks into the potatoes and onions, steams the chicken, but still lets the chicken crisp. (And the starch from the potatoes leeches into the wine as it reduces to thicken it ... almost a very thin gravy.)

(Contemporary traditional coq au vin would boil the chicken in the wine, but I like crispy chicken, so I do it this way. For seasonings I like tarragon, mustard seeds, and green peppercorns, but that veers away from foolproofity.)

1 pistolette, or in pistolette-free areas, 1 roll that's about 2/3 the size of a soda can, chewy, and not Wonder Bready
a few slices of mild semisoft cheese, ideally Bel Paese
a few pats of cold premium "European-style" butter (but not actual European butter, cause it's pretty stale once it gets over here). Making sure the butter is cold is key.
a little black pepper

Wrap roll in foil, bake until very hot, slice open, layer cheese and butter, sprinkle with pepper, rewrap, bake another 3-4 minutes until cheese is mostly melted but butter has not liquefied.

- Tep has gallbladder surgery with minor complications
- Tep is put on liquids-only diet for first couple days in hospital
- Tep starts feeling a little better, shows some color, starts getting wicked into the Miami Vice reruns on TNN
- Tep gets upgraded from the liquids-only diet to the low-fat diet beginning next morning
- Next morning, Tep uncovers breakfast tray to discover a Close Encounters-worthy mountain of scrambled eggs, two sausage patties, and a biscuit with gravy.

I'm hoping to get most of the cookbook put together these weekend, btw, folks. I forget which thread I mentioned it on, but it'll be free electronically (PDF or Rich Text) to them what wants it, and cost-of-printing to anyone who wants it squarebound.

No, seriously. Make this.

teeny (and others, but teeny's who I remember) have mentioned a St Louis concoction called "gooey butter cake" a few times, and tonight I thought, "Hey, hmmm..." and hit the web, and everything I saw called for yellow cake mix. I didn't have any cake mix. It's Sunday, so everything had closed at like 6pm or something silly like that. So I figured, hell, I can float this one, and fiddled around, and Southernized it a little, and --

Gooey Buttermilk Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have a pie plate or square pan of that size (9x9, whatever) ready. No need to grease it or anything. Make sure it's empty.

Combine with a fork 2/3 cup flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1/2 stick (4 tbsp) softened butter. Pat into bottom of pie plate. Bake for five minutes.

Meanwhile, combine 1 1/4 cups sugar, 3/4 cup (6 tbsp) softened butter, 1 egg, 1 cup flour, 2/3 cup buttermilk, and a dash of salt. Pour over the slightly-baked crumb crust thingie. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until it doesn't jiggle very much when you wiggle it.

Let cool at least long enough for you to be able to eat a piece.

I still haven't had St Louis gooey butter cake, so I don't know how this compares, but it's damn good.

Now, if -- like most folks -- you don't have any buttermilk but you do have the rest, I think you can substitute an equal amount of sour cream or plain unflavored (and unsweetened) yogurt. I'm not certain, since I haven't done it. But both are cultured dairy products, like buttermilk, so they shouldn't do anything crazyweird. The sour cream I'm especially confident of, since I've made a zillion different cakes and pies with sour cream.