Getting All Domestic

I love cooking. In particular, I love baking, casseroles, and desserts. I go through spurts where I do a lot of cooking; last night, I decided to make not one but two desserts.

The first thing I made was coconut cookie bars, out of 1001 Cookie Recipes. (I love that book! My copy was a gift from a former manager, who somehow ended up with two. He had baked rugelach from it, and since I loved it he gave me the spare.)

I enjoy the cookie bars, but I think they're a bit too yeasty. Next time, I think I'm going to use half shortening, half butter, instead of all shortening, but my husband loves them. Maybe I'll fix it the same way and eat it with a glass of milk; I liked it that way.

The rice pudding was adapted from In a Persian Kitchen by Maideh Mazda. It's my favorite Middle Eastern cookbook. I increased the sugar very slightly (by about half a tablespoon) and put three whole cardamom pods into the milk during the first fifteen minutes of cooking. I think I should have removed the cardamom earlier and increased the rose water, but it was still tasty. It's also very healthy for a dessert. Nice bonus.

Anyway, I hope to keep trying new recipes so we aren't so tempted to eat away from the home!