Thinking Big

If seventy-five percent of Americans do not have passports, it is not surprising that George Bush was  popular when he defended America’s right to global supremacy at the expense of other countries. Before he became president, Bush hadn’t even traveled to Europe let alone Canada. And one doubts he would have dipped his toe into Mexico had it not been so culturally, financially, and historically linked to Texas.

Travel is said to broaden people’s perspectives, so I say give every American a passport without them having to sign up for it: if you’ve paid taxes, the passport is in the mail.

Imagine a world where Americans actually understand the problems of others and learn to empathize with them. Maureen Dowd, the journalist I hate to love, recently dropped some of her mordant commentary to wonder at the perversity of American’s love for everything big. “How big do we need to be to still feel American?…How big can our cars be? And how big is our clout abroad these days? …How do we come to terms with the gluttony that exploded our economy…how do we  make the pursuit of the American dream a satisfying quest rather than a selfish one?”

That world imagined above might just be dawning. It is as if president Obama read Dowd’s questions and answered it at the G20 summit yesterday, in response to a question from a foreign, er, Chinese, reporter. He said, “Look, I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the president of China. It is also my responsibility,” he added “to lead America into  recognizing that its interest, its fate, is tied up with the larger world…Unless we are concerned about the education of all children and not just our children, not only may we be depriving ourselves of the next great scientist who’s going to find the next new energy source that saves the planet, but we also may make people around the world much more vulnerable to anti-American propaganda.”

And that is exactly what Bush accomplished, if he accomplished anything: a world full of anti-American propaganda. The worst thing the press can do is discuss the “American way of life” or the maintenance of our life-style as if it were either deserved, God-given, or the be all and end all of a person’s, let along the world’s happiness.

Americans are capable of thinking big. And this economic crisis may be the best thing to have happened to America in generations. It provides the greatest opportunity we’ve ever had to show just how big we can think: by having a not-exactly humble, (perhaps reasonable is a better word) and brilliant president who acknowledges that our strengths are also our weaknesses: Michelle’s taboo breaking but instinctive and natural arm around Queen Elizabeth showed that genuine affection trumps protocol; Obama’s acknowledged  fumble regarding “foreign” journalists corrected immediately,  humorously, and unselfconsciously  by saying “well, foreign to me ” shows that we all make the same mistakes and are all capable of learning and moving on.

So before we call for a chicken in every pot, let’s rally ’round a passport in every pocket. In that way, foreigners can be turned into friends, “foreign” countries “familiar”, and “US interests”, “universal interests.”

Big, Bold and Delicious Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups walnut pieces

1 cup oatmeal (not instant), divided in two

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp coarse salt + 1/2 tsp sugar mixed together

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Place nuts on one baking sheet and the oats on another.
3. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly brown and fragrant. Watch the oats carefully. They should get lightly browned
4. Remove both pans from the oven.
5. Toss the butter into the nuts to coat, then sprinkle with the salt and sugar. Cool.
6. When cool, chop the nuts into slightly smaller than pea-sized pieces.

Meanwhile:

1/2  cup jumbo raisins

3 Tbsp Jack Daniels bourbon whisky

1. Mix together in a heatproof bowl and microwave for 45 seconds. Stir and set aside.
2. Grind the remaining unbaked 1/2 cup of oatmeal in a food processor until finely ground.

3/4 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1 large egg

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Place both in mixer and beat on medium speed until fluffy.
2. Add the cinnamon, salt and nutmeg and mix well.
3. Add the egg and vanilla and mix. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and mix again.
4. Mix the  ground oats, flour and baking soda together.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture in the bowl.
6. Mix on low speed for one minute.
7. Add the toasted nuts and oatmeal, raisins and chocolate chips.
8. Mix only until the chunky ingredients are incorporated.
9. Scoop the dough onto a piece of parchment paper into a log about 18″ long.
10. Roll into an even log and cover both ends.
11. Refrigerate for 24 hours.
12. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F.
13. Using a sharp chef’s knife slice into 1/2″ rounds.
14. Place on baking sheets and bake for about 9 minutes or until browned around the edges.
15. Cool and enjoy!

Outrageous!

I will never associate the word outrageous with a recipe again. Meaning  “gross injury or wrong” or “grossly offensive to the sense of right or decency”, “passing reasonable bounds; intolerable or shocking,” a  recipe that bad, won’t see the light of day but rather the dark of the trash bin.

Outrage is the mot de jour describing the AIG executives who passively, and without protest or  public acceptance of responsibility for the current financial crisis, accepted millions of dollars of bonus money transferred into their accounts last Friday.

At last something has happened to make the American people, including President Obama, more outraged than calling for the head of Bernie Madoff, who, as immoral as he was, still harmed only a small fraction of mostly very rich (and very vocal) people.

The outrage aimed at him always surprised me given the fact that the banks and AIG have behaved not too differently from Madoff: both suggested for years that they had assets they didn’t; the growth and success of both relied on the willing suspension of disbelieft of experts;  both rested on business models no one understood.

The venom spewed at Madoff came from his victims and from people who saw him as the epitome of greed during a time of unbridled excess, which of course he was.  We could see him, his houses, yachts, family and jewelry. The Madoff story-from rags to riches to prison duds- was picked up on the celebrity channels whose usual fodder is Hollwood’s excess.We sucked it all up because he was a living, breathing example of someone who got caught. This was legitimate and guiltless scheudenfreude.

How  the press misled us all, including President Obama. Madoff was the fake bunnie all the press dogs were chasing while out in the real world the wolves were decimating our life savings. The “bankers” and  AIG “executives”  to this day remain faceless even as the news of their “outrageous” bonuses surfaced on Monday. Executives who have left the company even after receiving-somewhat cynically one would hope-”retention bonuses”, still are at large without bearing any sense of responsibility, not just to return the money but to let the world know who they are.

Suing them, asking them to do the right thing and return their bonuses while remaining anonymous are small penalties.  Making them come forward and identify themselves to their families, friends and neighbors, and then the general public, just as Madoff was forced to do, associates flesh and blood people with their actions and allows us to hold them accountable.

Only then can the level of outrage be directed where it belongs: to the people who have lost any sense of civic responsibility and connectedness. Let them suffer the isolation, scorn, and revilement that public humiliation brings. It is a higher cost than losing their bonuses and might actually make them think twice before finding a safe haven for all those dollars abroad.

President Obama used outrage first. Pre-election people worried that his inexperience would impede effective handling of foreign affairs. We marveled at his coolness under pressure. It didn’t occur to us that a global financial meltdown would be, as one New York Times letter writer puts it today “his Katrina”.  Now is the time  we need to see youthful heat and passion, genuine anger and actions that deal with outrage in its true sense of the term. Without any of these from the administration (forget Congress, they’re so tied up in this mess you can’t believe anything they say), we are forced to relie on words when in fact words will no longer do.

Outrageous…Outstanding Gluten-free Chocolate Nut Bars

1 cup  250g      all-natural nut butter, drained of any excess oil

1 cup 220g       dark brown sugar

2 heaping Tbsp cocoa

1/2  tsp            kosher salt

1/2 tsp             cinnamon

1                        egg

2 tsp                vanilla

5 oz             chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Line a 8″x 12″ pan with parchment paper.
3. Place all the ingredients except the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle.
4. Beat on low speed until a smooth mass is formed.
5. Add the egg, vanilla, salt and cinnamon and beat until incorporated. It   will look crumbly, but don’t worry.
6. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until incorporated.
7. Pour the crumbs into the pan and press evenly into the corners.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes but no more than 20 or else they will be too firm.
9. As soon as they come out of the oven, slice them into squares and let cool.

Eat one of these and call me in the morning….

Do you feel better when your doctor wears a white lab coat or street clothes? Do you read books recommended by The New York Times book review or by a friend? Do you believe in magic?

I ask these questions because as President Obama has assembled the most impressive brain trust, dream team, intellectual powerhouse cabinet, call it what you will, there’s still no sign that any of them have “the answer”.

Things are so bad that most of us are relieved that the White House is at least throwing solutions at the economy even if we don’t know why they’re supposed to work and they don’t know if they will work.

We want badly to  believe that the experts know something we don’t, know far more than we do, and will therefore somehow save us from this terrible mess. But fund manager Eric Sprott  recently pointed out  that the experts are trying to revive an economy based on behaviors that got us into this miasma in the first place; they’re not creating a new paradigm; they’re saving something dysfunctional and asking us to continue being enablers when it’s the last thing we should be doing.  He does not, however, supply any answers himself. Another expert with expert experience and opinions, but without a recipe for renewal.

And that’s why I asked the questions above: we want to take the advice of people who society says are experts: doctors in crisp, white lab coats bear the symbol of their knowledge and experience even though they are frequently baffled by the body; book reviews in the Times have the imprimatur of wisdom and intellectual range, even when the books are duds; and while there are many  things we can’t explain, like Bernie Madoff’s amazing investment returns, we still want to believe in those experts even if we don’t believe in magic.

It’s chilling to think that all those geniuses in Washington throwing money at every institution that’s too big to fail cannot predict the outcome of their actions.

And so it is with baking. Experts abound and none with more scientific credentials than Shirley Corriher who in two books-Cookwise and Bakewise- provides the scientific background for how and why ingredients behave the way they do.

Despite the fact that a much-touted cake recipe which heralded her book in that expert of expert venues, the Wednesday New York Times food section, was disappointing, tasting more tore-bought cake than homemade,  I bought Bakewise in the hopes that the cake recipe was more a matter of personal taste than of philosophy.

And so I baked expert Corriher’s Chocolate Crinkle Cookies which she describes as “slightly crunchy on the surface and gooey chocolate inside…oh yum!” What she fails to mention, although she does elsewhere in her book, is that she loves sugar, not only how it performs in baking, but how it tastes.

The cookies look great but they released hardly any chocolate aroma while baking, a sure sign that something was amiss. And while the look and texture are as she describes them, to my palate, they are a disappointment: all that expertise and a lackluster cookie. That said, my SO thinks they’re tasty.

I have bolstered the recipe by calling for bittersweet chocolate and adding cocoa nibs for additional crunch and  chocolate flavor.

Shirley Corriher’s Adapted Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

3 dozen

1 3/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

8 oz finely choppped bittersweet chocolate, melted

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 Tbsp corn syrup

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup cocoa nibs

1 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. Blend in the bowl of an electric mixer the sugar and oil.
   
4. Add the eggs, corn syrup and vanilla. Mix until blended.
5. Add the chocolate and mix well, scraping the sides and bottom.
6. Add the flour and mix only until the dough comes together. It will be stiff.
   
7. Chill for an hour covered.
8. Preheat the oven to 325F.
9. Roll the dough into golf ball sized rounds.
   
10. Roll each ball in granulated sugar and then icing sugar, coating completely.
11. Place 12 to a tray and bake about 12-14 minutes or until puffed and crackled on top. They will deflate.
12. Remove from the baking tray after 1 minute and cool on a rack.
    

Chocolate Stimulus Handouts

Have you, like me, lost count not only of the number of bailouts Congress has doled out since last December, but the amounts? There was the first Bush “initiative” to the banks, then the one to save Fannie & Freddie’s combined butts, then came the auto-makers and then this latest one of, what? $700 billion? Did I miss one somewhere? Now there is talk of another one of 1 trillion? How many zeros is that exactly?

This week’s congressional haggling over the stimulus bill, yet more money desperately needed to get the economy percolating again, was an embarrassment: the Republicans had nothing to contribute except stale sound bites that were about as exciting as chewing gum that’s lost it’s flavor. How many times do we have to hear them slap “earmarks” on anything and everything they don’t like, and “national security” on things they do?

As for the Democrats, with Obama making one bold pronouncement after another, they can’t seem to keep up with his vision. You would think after 8 years of being (mostly) in the minority, they would have picked up some strategy tips from the Republicans, but I guess it’s hard when you’re being told to play nice by the president.

You have to have pity not just on Obama but on poor Congress who must feel like they’ve stumbled into panhandler’s hell. Everyone is crying for something.

I know how they feel. A few nights ago I left work late, hurrying, head down anticipating a freezing cold blast only to be slapped into focus by balmy (relatively speaking, that is)  weather.

Surprised I looked up from the rivulets of slush, and saw a well-dressed young woman standing in front of me, crying. “Can you give me money for a train ticket home?” she whimpered.

This is not the first time I have been asked this. Most of the time, a disheveled  individual who can barely stand up asks for $.50 to take the bus up north, way north making the request less than credible. Or someone sitting outside a Tim Horton’s Donut shop asks for enough change to buy himself breakfast; or someone sitting beneath a blanket in front of Port Authority in New York says nothing, his fetid and filthy condition saying it all.

Usually I give something: a dollar to the guy going north, no doubt to the liquor store;  a crisp apple to the New Yorker, only to have him grimace and shout at me “You think I can eat this? I don’t have any teeth!”;  coffee and a donut to the guy in front of the coffee shop who snarled at me “F!@#&ing C$%^! I asked for money.” You’d think I would have learned my lesson but as long as someone asks, I am inclined to give, just like Congress to big business.

But there was something different about this young woman. First of all it was her attire; secondly she seemed really in distress, and thirdly, she said  “I need to go home. You can call my mother. She will pay you back.” Something like the car companies saying “if you give us the money, we will make those fuel efficient cars we’ve never made before.” Yeah, right.

“Where do you live? I asked. She mentioned a town I had never heard of near a town that I knew.

“How much do you need?”

“$8.10,” she said.

“How much money do you have?” I persisted.

“$.25″ was the reply, tears streaming down her face.

“Why so little?”

“Because I just left my boyfriend and don’t want to go back. I have nothing. I just want to go home. If you call my mom, she will pay you back,” she repeated. It occurred to me to ask for her mother’s number but that would have prolonged the encounter and suggested that I didn’t trust her. I couldn’t do that. Instead, I opened my wallet, gave her two tired five dollar bills and hurried home to dinner. Kind of like Congress signing the latest bailout bill and…heading home to dinner… only with 12 more zeroes.

Now I know how Congress feels: It’s hard to say no these days.  Will the stimulus work? Did she make it home?

Some things we have to wait to find out, some things we’ll never know. What I do know is that on this recipe there is broad consensus: it’s awesome.

Chocolate Stimulus Handout Cookies

Yield: Approximately 12 blobs

2 oz/56g Unsweetened chocolate
5 Tbsp/60g butter
2 1/2 oz/70g bittersweet chocolate
1 Tbsp cocoa
3 eggs
1/4 cup/50g sugar
1/4 cup/55g brown sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp finely ground espresso coffee
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup +1 Tbsp flour
135g/4 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate chunks
1/2cup/94g cocoa nibs
2.5 oz/70g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt the unsweetened chocolate with the butter and bittersweet chocolate.
3. Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Add the salt and espresso.
4. Add the eggs, and vanilla. Mix until glossy.
5. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated.
6. Add the chunked chocolate, nibs and walnuts.
7. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
8. Drop 1/2 cup scoopfuls on a parchment lined baking pan.
9. Bake 10 minutes. Do not over-bake! They will puff and be soft in the center.

10. Cool on the sheet. Remove with a metal spatula.

11. Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for about a week.

Obama Bars

Isn’t it breathtaking how with the stroke of a pen, but more importantly, a commitment to high ideals and the rule of law a new president can, overnight, change the way a government behaves?

In one bold stroke after another President Obama (oh how wonderful that sounds!)  put a deadline on closing Guantanamo, ended rendition,  forbade the CIA from torturing, put new restrictions on government employees with regards to future lobbying positions, restored funding to international organizations distributing contraception, and committed himself to giving the press forthright answers on a regular basis. And all this happened on his first three days in office, without any reference (although the inferential silence was deafening) to George Bush and his cronies. It was astonishing only in that prior presidents (including Democrats) of recent memory never thought to do it or had the courage to do it.

Would that you could change people’s tastes as quickly. No matter how many desserts a bakery may offer, the top sellers are always brownies, chocolate chip cookies, apple pie, lemon bars, pecan pies, date/apricot bars, gingersnaps, sour cream coffee cakes, and chocolate fudge cake. All of them about as American as, well, apple pie.

Why? Because they are easy to make at home, easy to store, inexpensive for the most part, don’t require a lot of ingredients or experience, and are, in a word democratic in their appeal. And when they’re not homemade, they offer the comfort of Mom, even if, like Hilary, she didn’t stay home and bake cookies.

So when President Obama, the first president to use a Blackberry, restores so-called, old fashioned values, it’s time to celebrate with a recipe that does the same.

Nothing satisfies me more than a warm brownie or chocolate chip cookie, but why do I always have to choose one or the other? With this recipe, I don’t: a chocolate chip cookie dough is dropped amidst a sea of brownie and baked to fudgy, chewy goodness. It reminds me that life isn’t about black and white, be it skin colour or political opinion, but about creating something much better together.

Obama Brownies

The recipe for brownies comes from my book The Brownie Lover’s Bible. The recipe for the chocolate chip portion, is adapted from Flo Braker’s new book Baking for All Occasions. Both of us use unorthodox methods to create our recipes:  she uses an old baker’s method for mixing ingredients, while I melt the butter with the sugar, not the chocolate. Both small changes create big differences in texture and flavour.

You can, of course, divide the batters in half, and you will have three distinct baking possibilities: brownies, chocolate chip bars, and Obama Bars. All three store in the fridge or freezer for a long time, so if you only feel like making one today and another next week, don’t worry; wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and foil, refrigerated or frozen, you can pick up where you left off a week or a month later.

Lisa Slater’s Classic Brownies

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2  cups granulated

12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

6 eggs, whisked lightly

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 tsp kosher salt

1 Tbsp espresso powder dissolved in hot water

1 cup instant flour

1 cup chocolate chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 350F if baking Obama Bars. 300F if baking only the brownies.
2. Line a 9″x 9″ x 13″ x 2 1/2″ pan with overhanging parchment paper, if making the Obama Bars. The height of the pan is important: there’s a lot of batter, these are thick bars and otherwise it won’t all fit.
3. If making only the brownies, line a 9″x9″ pan with overhanging parchment paper.
4. Place the butter and sugar in a large saucepan over low heat.
5. Stir from time to time to incorporate the two. You don’t want the butter so hot that it gets oily.
6. When the butter is fully melted and the sugar well integrated into the butter, you will have a thick mass. Remove from the heat.
7. Add the chopped chocolate and stir gently with a rubber spatula until the chocolate is melted. If there are still bits and pieces of chocolate, set the pan over low heat and warm for a few seconds.
8. Use a metal whisk to stir the eggs, vanilla, coffee and salt into the chocolate mixture. At first the batter will feel flabby but with constant stirring it will come together into a thick, shiny mass.
9. Add the instant flour and whisk only until blended.
10. Add the chocolate chips and mix to incorporate.
11. If you want to bake some brownies, pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake no longer than 30 minutes until the center is slightly puffed.
12. Remove from the oven and cool, then chill before slicing.
13. Or, if you’d like to store the batter, put it into a sealed container in the fridge or freezer until ready to use. Let it come to room temperature before using since it’s hard to work with chilled.
14. If you are making Obama Bars,  take large scoops of chocolate chip dough and place them randomly in the bottom of the pan. Fill the open spaces with equal amounts of brownie batter.
15. Top the chocolate spread with a small spatula to make a more or less even layer.
16. Scoop the remaining chocolate chip dough over the brownie patches, and the remaining brownie batter over the chocolate chip dough. Spread as evenly as possible without mixing the two batters.
17. Bake for about 45-55 minutes. Because the bars are so thick, there is a risk of over baking. Shake the pan from time to time to see if it is liquid underneath; if it is, it’s not ready. As soon as it stops jiggling, remove the pan from the oven. The bars will continue to bake as they cool and will firm up in the fridge.
18. Refrigerate until completely chilled and slice into 24 big, tall, bars.

Flo Braker’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 Tbsp finely ground espresso coffee

1/2 tsp baking soda

8 oz butter, room temperature, cut into 1″ cubes

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chunks

1 cup total toasted pecans and walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. If making a chocolate chip cake, line a 9″x13″x2 1/1″ pan with parchment paper.
2. Preheat the oven to 350F.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle, mix on low speed the flour, sugars, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and coffee.
4. Drop the butter into the dry ingredients, a cube at a time, mixing only until the dough looks crumbly, about a minute or two.
5. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for about 1 minute. The dough will be thick.
6. Add the chocolate chips and nuts and mix for about 1 additional minute.
7. If making Obama Bars follow from step #14 above in the brownie recipe.
8. If making the chocolate chip cake, drop blobs of dough into the prepared pan and spread to an even layer with an offset spatula.
9. Bake for about 35-40 minutes: the centre will puff slightly. Do not overbake!
10. Remove from the oven and cool. Chill. Remove from the pan by running a knife around the edges and lifting the ends of the parchment paper. Remove the parchment paper and slice into 32 pieces.