Combinations

Maybe you know already, but I've got this thing about cooked fruit. I don't like it. Numerous times loving family members have presented me with just-out-of-the-oven homemade pies, and I've remained unmoved. Warm berries? Hot apples? No thanks.

Except for jam. I dig jam. Only, I don't like toast that much (I know, I know, wait until I tell you about my issues with cooking chicken later this week), so I am always on the lookout for good Jam Vehicles. Scones, for examples, are excellent at carrying jam. Lately though, I've been casting my eye in the desert realm. Enter, Jam Thumbprints.


I used Cooks Illustrated's recipe, and first made these around Christmas, and they were eagerly gobbled up by my father and brother. The cookie is tender, moist and dense and the perfect vehicle for the sweet jam. They were a winner from the first bite, and I had to make them again.

The thing about these cookies though? They taste great after dinner of course, but there is an even better way of eating them.


The slightly bitter green tea cleanses the palate and makes each bite taste like the first. I love combination's of food and drink that belong together. Things like apple and gorgonzola in the same salad, or the way feta, parsley and kalamata olives belong together in all kinds of dishes. But I'm also always looking for components of a meal that enhance one another. Like how homemade burritos taste better if I'm drinking a Corona. Or the way clam chowder needs a good sourdough. As the flavors come together in my mouth, they become more than the sum of their ingredients.

As part of my self-education on cooking and food, I'm seeking more of these transcendental moments.