Angel Hair with Homemade Marinara and a Dollop of Mascarpone

Pretty self explanatory but...

...so delicious!!

Okey Dokey Artichokey!

I love artichokes hearts more than any other vegetable.  They have antioxidants, they're good for your liver, and they're even supposed to lower cholesterol!  I could probably eat them unendingly with various preparations forever.  Did you know they can even be made into liquor??  Usually I just cook them up on high in a saucepan with some olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper, but today I decided to kick it up a notch!

I mainly followed the recipe on the can.  I minced a clove of garlic and heated it in about a half a tablespoon of butter on low heat so it wouldn't burn.  (I usually burn it, but no longer!)

Then I drained and quartered my can of artichoke hearts and sauteed them in my butter with some salt, pepper, paprika, lemon juice, and a little bit of ground ginger.  Yummy!

To flesh out the meal, I assembled an English Muffin pizza with a bit of sauce, store-bought pepperoni, grated sharp cheddar, and a little oregano on top.  I baked it on 350 until the cheese was melty and the muffin was warmed through.  E voila!  Lunch!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been questing to make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies ever.  You know the ones- crispy on the outside, gooey in the inside, with the perfect cookie/chip ratio and golden brown color...  All of my teenage life I used a standard Mrs. Fields recipe which is darn good, but not The Absolute Best cookies in the World!

Tonight I tried out this recipe.  I mean, it won an award in Canada so I figured, they're probably pretty good, eh?  At first I used my handy baking spray with flour in it so they wouldn't stick to the pan, but this caused them to spread out too much and get crispy on the edges.  With a little help from the internets, I found out that I should roll them into balls before putting them on the cookie sheet and stick the dough in the freezer between batches.  This led me to the adorable little "silver dollar," sized cookies in the picture- thick enough to be chewy on the inside, but small enough to be two-bite sized.

I had to sub semi-sweet chocolate chips for milk this time, but next time I definitely won't because I think it will make a delicious difference!

**EDIT 3/14: The recipe ended up making 40 cookies and my roommates (with the help of a couple friends and a couple beers) devoured them all by morning.  I think that's a pretty good testament to their deliciousness.