Carol's Cookies: YUM!

Yeah, my post titles are creative like that. I've got yum, delicious, and tasty in my repertoire. These cookies were all three of those. Originally $10 per box of frozen cookie dough, Central Market apparently wanted to get rid of these cookies by selling them off at $2 each. There were only 2 boxes left when I bought them last weekend. So I assume there are none left at this point. Either way, if the goal was to make me want to search out their website and contemplate buying more cookie dough, they succeeded. Here's a link to buy some cookie dough: http://products.peapod.com/249723.html

Eating the frozen cookie dough, I found myself unable to stop. That was also the case when we put the cookie dough into the oven. After it had cooked through and cooled and all that jazz. Something in this mix was truly addictive. I don't know if it was the butterscotch or the white chocolate I detected, but yum. I think it was the butterscotch. The box that ended up in my freezer was the toffee chocolate chip cookies. I'd like to try the traditional chocolate chip recipe next time. According to the box and her website, Carol spent 20 years perfecting this chocolate chip recipe. I could understand that. Pure addictive deliciousness.I actually may have liked the cookie dough better in it's frozen form. I can't decide. I say bake half and save the rest for munching.


I didn't think about taking pictures till these cookies were almost gone. Here are some pictures of the last bite.

Yes. That's spinach. That's right.
That's how I eat my cookies. Or the cookies
distracted me from the spinach. Who knows?

Go to Carol's website and check out her story. Who doesn't like a cookie story?

http://www.carolscookies.com/

Follow her on Facebook or Twitter. I read something about Facebook discounts:

https://twitter.com/#!/carolscookies

https://www.facebook.com/CarolsCookies?sk=wall

A SQUIDlicious night at Zio Cecio Cucina Italiana

Zio Cecio - 5*s


When I heard¹ that one of the 2 brothers that started Arcodoro Pomodoro had branched out to form his own restaurant, I was psyched. They have apparently been open for around 10 to 11 weeks. Just like the aforementioned restaurant, the website for Zio Cecio makes references to a Sardinian form of Italian food. I love Arcodoro Pomodoro. It's one of those restaurants I have photos on my computer just begging to be added to a blog post so I can share my finds with the lovely people of the world. But I'm a slacker. This place, at least judging from what we ordered, might even be better than Arcodoro Pomodoro. Sadly though, The Cupcakery isn't next door.

Overall ... delicious! The fish all tasted so fresh. As a calamari aficionado, (we all have to have our obsessions, right?) I think this may be one of the best plates of it I've had. I'm the kind of girl who orders calamari every time I see it on the menu. I'm often the same way with queso. And the color yellow. Anyways. You could test the freshness of the fish through the breadcrumbs. Fish that was wonderfully salted and seasoned. My dining mate said it was very interesting as I inquired whether he tasted olive on the calamari. I couldn't figure out whether this taste was in the calamari or the cocktail sauce or in my mind. So I sought out a manager, a.k.a. a man in black (a suit). He informed me that the calamari is made from a variety of fish (which is apparently what Paranza means): shrimp, squid (the usual fish in calamari), and the like. It's also worth mentioning that I was quite enjoying the red sauce accompanying the calamari. Not that the calamari needed any sauce. I should say that even the less calamari-obsessed were won over by Francisco Farris's rendition of the Fritto Di Paranza.

I think I'm going to stick with the English for menu items. As much as I may pretend when ordering, I don't speak Italian. Though I do know fritto means fried! I mean, golly. Who doesn't crave some fried fish? Another appetizer that everyone was fond of was the Baby octopus with squid ink and homemade orzo pasta. Mmm. Ink. What's not to love? Like Scott Reitz before me, I also felt that the only thing wrong with this dish was that it needed more squid. More squid! More squid!! Oh oops, he was referring to that other squid dish. I may get things wrong. I may misquote. I might make up words. Forgive me. I'm just an unpaid blogger, after all.


The inky sauce was delicious. It even made me enjoy the pumpkin seed shaped pieces of pasta. I'm not a huge pasta gal. It bores me some. So sue me. My recommendation would be for the dish to focus more on the squid and less on the risotto-like pieces of pasta. Not that they tasted like risotto. Image wise they just reminded me of risotto. But objectively, these are very well made, delicious pieces of pasta. A Plus.

Tentacles..

Not only did we get one squid-ish appetizer, but we got TWO. The second one had roasted tomatoes and was supposed to be spicy, but really wasn't. Thus, we stayed friends - as saucy a gal as I may be, I'm not a spice fan. Though I still like cinnamon and the like. I can't even think through the spice. I try to be objective, but my brain signals me the thumbs down. And I think 'why?' This was quite a nice dish. Though not as impressive as that ink. The squid was tasty, as were the tomatoes accompanying them.