Cooking and cookies

Well hello there, June, and thank you for bringing a blast of heat with you. Last week Tony was in Slovenia and he said the weather was a lot like it was in Washington. Since it was warm here, he didn't pack any long-sleeve shirts or undershirts, and that was a decision he apparently regretted. One morning it was in the 30s! For comparison, when we woke up yesterday it was 83 and while watching tv in the evening it was 93 but "felt like 99." That's in degrees Farenheit, if anyone needed clarification. I just can't wait until July, when it really heats up! Methinks I need to get myself to the pool.

I don't know what on earth possessed me to make cookies in that heat...actually, fine, it was my sweet tooth. Teeth. Whatever. I had a craving. An "envie." A deep-seated desire to just have some dang sugar, already. As we didn't have any ice cream or gelato in the freezer (waaaah), and we were out of chocolate, I decided on a simple sugar cookie recipe. HA. Not only did my use of the oven heat up the kitchen to sweltering, hellish levels, the cookies didn't even turn out that great. They were soft and edible, but very thin and crumbly. I griped on Facebook yesterday that they came out more like pancakes. But that didn't stop me from eating...several...350 Farenheit is about 176 Celsius, for the record. With the cookies, that means I cooked three times yesterday. Tony started us off with a delcious breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. The bacon was nice and smoky and the toast was toast-y, but the eggs were perfect. We've both noticed a difference in the quality of eggs here as compared to what we were buying back in the States. I'm still learning when it's more advantageous to buy produce on the economy versus in the commissary, but generally speaking it's less expensive here. Probably because just about everything is local and fresh. Italy has a requirement to prominently label the origins of all foods, and most everything is Italian. Not all, of course. A great deal is imported from South Africa, among other places.

For lunch I made a quick stir fry with cauliflower, zucchini, onions, carrots mushrooms, and chicken. And for dinner we had couscous. I had mine cold and Tony ate his warm...red onions, zucchini, cucumber, carrots, feta, chicken, and a quick vinaigrette. I got the stirfry leftovers and Tony absconded with the couscous for his lunch today. Yesterday was his first time eating it and he's a convert, so I call the entire day a successful one from a culinary standpoint. What? The cookies were edible, at least.