Walk in the Glow of Each Other's Majestic Presence

One of my tricks, when searching the net for recipes, is to preface my search with the word "ultimate". It seems to limit the search to manageable levels and tilt it towards actually useful links.

Last week was my mother's 88th birthday and we had agreed that I would make brownies, one of the very few chocolate desserts I enjoy. (For those who weren't aware, I don't much like chocolate, but there are a few exceptions.) I'm pretty sure I haven't made brownies from scratch since I lived at Fenway House, so more than twenty years ago. Searching brought me to this recipe.

These are phenomenal brownies. As the description promises, they are " tall like a cakey-brownie, but dense like a fudgy-brownie." I made them with pecans for extra yum. And I even bought myself a new brownie pan for the occasion, so now I have to make them again!

I couldn't resist the cherries at Russo's this week, but I knew we'd never eat them all in time. So I made this recipe and used some of the awesome chestnut liqueur that we got in France and it is extremely tasty, but not very creamy--I think next time I'll try a recipe that starts with a more custardy base.

As my regular readers know, I've recently started making ice cream and sorbet on a fairly frequent basis. All the containers I've tried using have cracked from the whole freezing-and-being-poked-with-spoons process.

So, what do you store your ice cream in?

I had raspberries desperately in need of use and some white chocolate chunks leftover from another project, so when I found this recipe, it seemed like the perfect solution. It came out beautifully creamy, sweet and tart, and just lovely for these hot evenings.

I finally started using my ice cream maker last summer, but had mostly focused on sorbets for various reasons. I had been thinking for a while that I should try making actual ice cream and thought I would start with vanilla--I like vanilla--but then this recipe jumped out of a magazine at me. It turned out very well. The recipe makes enough for two batches, so I tried two different sizes of dicing the peaches--smaller is better. The second batch was much creamier, for reasons I don't understand that might have to do with the custard sitting in the fridge for a couple of days before being frozen. Further experimentation is clearly required.

( #90 Honey-Walnut Frozen Yogurt )

For Gilly's party, I made five flavors of tropical sorbet. It feels like cheating to count them, but they were new recipes and I did make them, so here they are:

( #91 Mango Sorbet )
( #92 Papaya Sorbet )
( #93 Pineapple Sorbet )
( #94 Banana Sorbet )
( #95 Coconut-Almond Sorbet )

On the day of the party I became concerned that there wouldn't be enough food that wasn't duck or dessert (those of you in attendance will know how foolish this concern was) so I made up three different pasta salads. Oddly enough, I'm not sure that I've ever made a pasta salad before.

( #96 Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad )
( #97 Smoked Salmon Pasta Salad )
( #98 Pasta Salad with Tuna )

I'm getting very close to the end of this project, about two months early. I've really enjoyed the impetus to try new and different things and discover some really excellent recipes. I'm trying to decide what I'll do once I've reached one hundred. Options include:

• keep going until the one-year mark and see how far I get
• do another hundred, under the same guidelines
• do a different challenge (25 New Vegetable Recipes? 25 New Cookie Recipes? 100 New Desserts?)
• go back and re-cook the ones I especially liked, with improvements and more photos
• take on a non-cooking challenge

If anyone has suggestions--things you'd enjoy reading, things you think I'd enjoy doing, things you think I need to focus on--I'd love to hear them.

Today is my father's 87th birthday, so we had my parents over for dinner and made some of Dad's favorites. I made shrimp louis for the first time, but since that didn't involve a recipe and only involves plating a bunch of pre-cooked shrimp on lettuce and putting a dollop of Thousand Island dressing on top, I'm not going to count it.

( #59 Shrimp Scampi )

( #60 New York Cheesecake )

It is always so wonderful to celebrate my father's birthday. He's had some close calls through the years that make us appreciate each one, but while he's definitely aging, he is still with us and that is a great joy.

I decided to host my family for Easter dinner today--any excuse for new recipes!

( #34 Herb-Stuffed Boneless Leg of Lamb )

( #35 Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Greens )

( #36 Greek Style Potatoes )

( #37 Green Beans with Feta Cheese )

( #38 Baklava )

The latter was served with the Oatmeal Carrot Cookies from Friday night and deliciously creamy homemade vanilla ice cream, courtesy of muffyjo. She also showed up bright and early this morning to take the savory cheesecake over to her house for baking. For the many of you who've expressed interest, the recipe for that is here. She also did yeoman work cleaning up.

Anne & G. brought a huge salad (and another guest, Divia) and heliopsis brought biscuits and sartorial splendor to the occasion. bex77 brought beautiful blue hydrangeas and took Alice off for the morning while we were in last-minute prep frenzy.

Special mention also goes to my father, who sat and picked thyme off the stalks for about two hours yesterday. He picked more thyme than I needed--about a cupful--which was just amazing and luxurious!

And many thanks to bookly who dropped by yesterday, all unsuspecting, and ended up snapping all the beans for a meal she couldn't even stay to eat.

Lastly, Jason continues to be my hero--he helped so much all around the edges and listening to me talk out the various decisions and then entertained Alice all evening after our guests had left so that I could get a much-needed nap.

I love making big meals for the family, but it's especially nice for it to be such a joint effort.

#33 Carrot Oatmeal Cookies After my success a few days ago, I decided to go ahead and try this recipe. They're just out of the oven and oh yes, they are the tasty! They're lighter than regular oatmeal cookies and the carrot bits make them look festive and interesting. Right now they're quite moist on the inside and I'm interested to see how they change as they cool more. I'm very glad they turned out well, so that now I don't have to figure out what else one might do with coconut oil.