Chocolate Chip Cake

Today, in many ways, is a day of reckoning for me. One of those ways is: I have cooked the last recipe from The Recipe Book. A Chocolate Chip Cake courtesy of Cos & Jackie Renzi, some very close friends of Josh's parents, to be exact.

It's been, it turns out, almost exactly a year. I did my first entry on Monday, March 9, 2009, and I put this thing to bed today, Monday, March 8, 2010. I didn't plan it that way at all. In fact, I expected to be done a couple of weeks ago, before some last submissions made it in under the wire. It was only just now as I was typing this that I checked the calendar and discovered the date of that first entry.

In the past year, a lot of things have changed, but many more of them are the same. I'm still chipping away at being a freelance writer (screen and otherwise). I'm still hanging out on a daily basis in my basement with naught but the dog and cat for (excellent, very supportive) coworkers. Josh put in a pet door so that I don't have to have the back door hanging open all day for the boys, alternately causing me to freeze/melt depending on the weather outside. That makes things much nicer down here. The cat's a little snugglier, and Josh and Big are as wonderful as always. One day I hope very much to be able to once again earn enough money to spoil them all as they deserve.

As for cooking? Again, some things change and some things stay the same. I definitely am more confident in the kitchen. I now have a couple of go-to recipes, some things I know how to do well, and even at times without a recipe in front of me. I am more comfortable, I like eating at home more than I did, and I am developing the ability to look at what I have in the refrigerator and use those items instead of buying new ones and letting what I have go to waste.

And yet, I still, and I think forever, can be counted on to make the wrong decision when faced with two choices--kitchen wise, that is. This isn't a 'poor me' or 'Murphy's Law' sort of thing. It's just how it is. I will always wonder if an odd instruction is a typo or an unconventional way of doing things. I will always try to multi-task too much and wind up burning the wall. And getting everything to be finished around the same time is a skill that may take me a lifetime to master.

But still, I'm happy I did this. When it looked like I was going to finish a couple of weeks ago, I got nervous. I wasn't ready. I was thinking of what I could cook my way through next. After all, I like the structure; without it, I find myself back where I was, wondering without direction what to have for dinner. The freedom that comes with having no 'choice,' just having to cook the next thing in the book provides the perfect amount of direction for me. Especially when you can ignore it and make what you want when the yen strikes on other nights.

But when I got those last recipes from Cathy, I got a reprieve. And now I am ready to be done. At least for the time being. Josh and I are going away for a couple of weeks for our fourth anniversary (time, oh it does fly), and it's nice to have it sorted now.

I haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to do yet when we get back. I mean, there are a couple more wrap up type entries I have in mind, but once those are done, do I want to embark on another round? My old roommate Catheren was a pastry chef, and as a wedding present, separate from this Recipe Book, Catheren put together a Recipe Book of her own for us, a Catheren's Creative Cooking Solutions for Newlyweds or something like that, with her favorite recipes. It was thoughtful and sweet, and having lived with Catheren and eaten her food, I can only imagine a lot of what is in it is terrific. Plus, it's a pretty natural extension of the Recipe Book.

Or do I want to open the pool, and now accept new recipes from current readers? It's only been four years since this first recipe book was put together, but even in that time there are so many new friends. Would it be fun to try my hand at new submissions from them?

Or should I tackle a more established cook book? We have a couple of Moosewood Cookbooks lying around. I suppose eating primarily vegetarian fare for a Recipe Book project would be interesting, and possibly quite healthy for me.

Or, is the prospect of another month of soups or breakfasts too much to bear? Maybe it's just time to go out on my own.

Whatever I wind up doing, I want to say thank you to everyone for reading and commenting. Without the pressure of knowing you were waiting for me, there is no question in my mind that I would have fallen off long ago. And your comments, compliments, and interest have been utterly sustaining. Thank you all for being my family, my readers, and my friends. I hope I have entertained you. And possibly, through my fumblings, found you some things you do want to eat.

Much love,
Heather, Los Angeles, 8 March 2010

Anyone else wonder how the chocolate chips
didn't melt in the oven? Or is that just me?

Chocolate Chip Cake

(one stick) unsalted margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 pint (one cup) regular sour cream or plain yogurt*
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups unsifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 large bag (about 2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
mixture of 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, sour cream (or yogurt) and vanilla. Crack one egg so enthusiastically that the entire thing, shell and all, goes flying into the mixing bowl. Fish out most of the shell. Nice.

Check, double check, and triple check conversions, at which point you determine that one pint of sour cream is actually two cups, not one. Wonder which is the correct measure, the pint or the cup. Decide you really have no idea on this one, so split the difference and go for a cup and a half.

Mix flour, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon. Add to other ingredients. Beat well. Add half of the bag of chocolate chips (about 1 cup).

Grease and sugar a 13x9" pan. Or else the round springform because damn it you like that one, all unsnapping the outside of the pan when you're done. Also, sugar the pan? You have never heard of this before. Interesting.

Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Sprinkle the other half bag (1 cup) of chocolate chips on top. Weird.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out free of batter, which it turns out is way longer than that if you use this springform pan. Cool on rack (hot chips will burn mouth). Muck it up with some failed attempt at frosting.

Eat. Determine that you probably should have gone with the pint instead of the cup for the sour cream. But everyone else likes it and proclaims it very tasty, even if you think it is kind of bland. Of course. Would you have your last entry go any other way?

Finis

*This is a physical impossibility.