alex's chocolate chip cookie recipe

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

4½ c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
16 tbsp (2 sticks) salted butter, browned
8 tbsp salted butter (1 stick), solid, cut in chunks
1 c white sugar
1½ c brown sugar
5 tsp vanilla
2 tsp salt
2 eggs + 2 yolks
1½ c chocolate chips

blueberry buttermilk smoothie

Blueberry Buttermilk Smoothie

by Alex

March 2021

Ingredients

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 giant handful fresh spinach

1 capful turmeric (more if you can stand it)

1 capful powdered ginger (or 1 inch peeled, grated fresh ginger)

1/3 bag frozen wild blueberries from trader joes

1 glug maple syrup

(click "read further" under the photo for directions)

How To: Madam Vice President sweatshirt

Here's how I made my Madam Vice President sweatshirt.

Browned Butter Cinnamon Rolls

When I was a little girl, Christmas morning was the one day a year we weren't required to eat something healthy for breakfast. Whoever found the small green pickle ornament, hidden among the Christmas tree branches by my mother, would get the first cinnamon roll. Somehow I made it to age 30 without ever having baked a cinnamon roll myself, and now I'm pleased to report that I've officially mastered my friend Brittany's amazing browned butter cinnamon roll recipe. Y'all ready?

Alex's Chocolatiest Hot Chocolate

This hot chocolate is not for wimps. 
Dark, rich, shockingly chocolatey. 

Super Duper Ultra Fancy Much Too Much Hot Chocolate
(inspired by Melissa Clark's NYT hc recipe)

2 c milk
3/4 c heavy cream
3 T dutch process cocoa powder
One bar of Trader Joe's 72% fair trade Belgian dark chocolate, chopped finely
1/4 c brown sugar
1/3 c white sugar 
Pinch of salt

1. Heat milk in a deep saucepan, whisking rapidly, and add the cocoa powder and chopped chocolate.
2. Once smooth, whisk in sugar. Taste and add more as desired.
3. Add the cream, followed by a generous pinch of salt, and stir. Remove from heat and stir out any remaining lumps
4. Serve in small glasses. Top with whipped cream.

Frog and Toad collaged

 

“They came to the top of the mountain. The shadow of a hawk fell over them. Frog and Toad jumped under a rock. The hawk flew away. "We are not afraid!" screamed Frog and Toad at the same time. Then they ran down the mountain very fast. They ran past the place where they saw the avalanche. They ran past the place where they saw the snake. They ran all the way to Toad's house. "Frog, I am glad to have a brave friend like you," said Toad. He jumped into the bed and pulled the covers over his head. "And I am happy to know a brave person like you, Toad," said Frog. He jumped into the closet and shut the door. Toad stayed in the bed, and Frog stayed in the closet. They stayed there for a long time, just feeling very brave together.”

– Frog and Toad Together, Arnold Lobel

Paper, cut and glued. Sourced from Frog and Toad Together, Trees, loose botanic illustration, loose children's nursery rhyme book

2020

Alex's not-exactly-a gift guide

I never get much use out of gift guides myself, but that has never stopped me from overdoing it on holidays. I'm a know-it-all with strong opinions, which naturally qualifies me to write this list. Cheers.

(real live small businesses indicated with a ** )

Things I own, love, and gift often:

• PTR rose stem cell mask for everyday use, and Soon sheet mask** for a special occasions 
• the perfect camera strap**
• a house portrait** from Celeste Clark
• What Kind of Woman** and/ or The Sun and Her Flowers**
• Penzey's Vietnamese cinnamon**
• My favorite of all my kids' baby blankets

• The perfect accessory: a color wheel pendant**



A few things on my wishlist:

• The Greenish Home guide**
• A bread box that would look pretty on the counter
• White-on-white Chuck Taylor All Stars
• A custom embroidery** of a meaningful stretch of road 

• Daisy sweater



A few things I'm buying for loved ones:

• The Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook**
• Anything at all from Marine Layer
• White linen dresses** for my little women (via Courtney)

• an Instax mini  + film

• a beautiful egg tray**

And a few razzle-dazzles just for good measure:

• a disco ball!**

• gorgeous California olive oil**
• a quilt coat** omg. I'd wear the heck out of this

• strawberry charm + ruby necklace** 

• fancy plant lady



And you know, a portrait session makes a great gift – send me an email to gift one!

:)

Lucy, Christmas 2016. Fairway, Kansas. Hasselblad 501c, Portra 400 film.

Alex's Thanksgiving Table // 11/17/2020

There's a lot of pressure to get a Thanksgiving turkey right. In 2016 I hosted my first Thanksgiving, and having never cooked a turkey before, I spent weeks researching cooking instructions and reading strongly-worded articles about what *must* be done to achieve the perfect bird. I narrowed it down to two crucial techniques: 

1) dry brining 

2) flipping the turkey. 

• Why to dry brine and how to do it. 

• A great recipe for a dry brine. (Just the ingredients, not the method.)

• How to prep, flip, and carve the thing.

Four turkeys later, I am smugly batting a thousand. I have, however, had to Facetime my mother every time I remove the giblets and neck.

Pro tips: 

1. Buy an organic turkey. Worth it. Special occasion. Also tastes better. I've gotten my turkeys at Trader Joe's in the past. I usually buy them a week before Thanksgiving and keep them refrigerated, not frozen.

2. Here's a chart to figure out what size turkey you'll need. 

3. Recruit two people with strong arms to do the flipping. Not easy, but easier with three people helping. I recommend some meat weapons like these to assist with a successful flip.

a Friday collage //

On Friday I gathered my collage materials and spread them all out around me on the floor with my back propped up against the couch. I cut a few more pieces out of a Free People catalog that came earlier that day. After about an hour or two this is what I came up with. 

I like collaging. I get a satisfying gut feeling when I've created something I like. It's nice to have a space where I don't criticize myself or wonder what others will think/ say about it. 

Made with paper (Renoir painting reprinted, catalog, magazine, coloring book), stickers, rubber cement.

Blackout poetry: The Unknown Degas and Renoir // september 2020

I bought a bunch of used art books for my birthday to cut up for collages. The other night I got to the end of The Unknown Degas and Renoir and decided to grab a sharpie and try out some blackout poetry on the table of contents.

It takes a surprisingly long time to find the pieces of something else in something that's already there. I'm no Austin Kleon, but it was therapeutic to puzzle these out. Who knows if they're any good. Done is better than perfect.

Make stuff you love: today, it's a collage

Here's a collage I made a couple weeks ago. I sat at a big table near a window with magazine pages spread out all around me, trimming and organizing into categories like animals, letters, etc. I flipped through a used art book and chose a Degas painting as my foundation, then covered it with bits and pieces.

I felt so creative and inspired. It was an amazing feeling.

There's a lot of cutting in collaging. The more precision and care you use, the better your collage looks. I'm naturally untidy. I rush. I eyeball things. Collaging requires me to take deep breaths and slow my pace down from 60 mph to about 5.

Here are a couple collages I made: my first one this year and one I never glued down.

Some collage makers I love are Austin Kleon and Bri Gawkoski. 

I'd like to be better at collaging (and so many other things). I'm going to keep practicing.

Fried Chicken by Alex

July 7, 2020

Two summers ago I listened to a podcast about fried chicken and promptly pulled an Alex, which is where I scour every (free) thing I can get my hands on, combine all the things that sound great to me, and make my own "perfect" version of that thing. This has happened with ice cream, Thanksgiving turkey, and chocolate chip cookies so far. The fact that I am a vegetarian is not relevant to this post. The fact that I'm a major know-it-all is.

This recipe doubles well if you're feeding a crowd!

Before we begin, you will need:

– A buddy. The frying is WAY easier with a second set of eyes to watch the temperature. And friends are fun.

– A candy thermometer that can hang out in the frying oil and let you know when to adjust the heat. The oil temperature is the non-negotiable key to success of fried chicken.
– Some chill. I am known for getting worked up over this recipe. Try to be cool.

And now, the recipe:

Jen's Sweet Potato Tacos

The best thing my sister-in-law Jen gave me before she died was her sweet potato taco recipe. She never wrote it down, as far as I know, but this is how I remember her making them. Neither of us ever measured the ingredients, it's all just a ballpark of whatever tastes best to you. Jen was always encouraging everyone to do the things that made them the happiest.

Jennifer's Sweet Potato Tacos

1 sweet potato per person
Cumin
Garlic (fresh minced or powdered)
Chili powder
Salt
Shallot or onion
Lime
Cilantro
Feta
Avocado
Pepitas
Honey

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Wash and peel the sweet potato. Dice into bite size chunks. (Feel free to use pre-cut sweet potatoes if your grocery sells them. This step takes the longest.)

2. Add sweet potato to a cast iron pan or baking sheet. Generously drizzle olive oil or coconut oil, then coat sweet potatoes with cumin, garlic, and chili powder. Add salt to taste. Bake for 20~ minutes, or until potatoes feel firm, not mushy, when poked with a fork. They'll be brown on the edges. Remove and squeeze lime over the whole pan.

3. While sweet potatoes cook, saute onions or shallots in olive oil until brown. Add salt and set aside.

4. Prepare other toppings: chop the cilantro; crumble the feta; wedge the limes; slice the avocado; set out the pepitas; warm the tortillas. Set out in bowls or dishes for family-style taco assembly.

5. Assemble your tacos! The honey is the Jen's finishing touch.


I'm not a food stylist, so no photos of tacos for you here.

But here's my favorite portrait of Jen. I'm pretty sure I took this on the same night she taught me this recipe. I wish I could ask her.

Jennifer Dawn Magstadt Steele. Hasselblad 501c, Kodak Portra 400 film. February 2015. San Clemente, CA.

The chocolate chip cookies. // feb 2020

I've been crowing about my chocolate chip cookies for weeks in my newsletter. 

I went to the UPS store and scanned my very butter-splattered recipe. I also took a few photos of it. This recipe is not **mine** per se, this is just my copy of it. Some guy at Cook's Illustrated named Charles came up with it. I may or may not have named my son after him. It's fine.

They explain how and why these cookies come out so great! 

My notes:
*Don't overdo it when browning the butter. I've made this recipe maybe about forty times, and whenever I get overzealous on the darkness of the butter, the dough turns out sticky and the cookies are flat and chewy. My best ones are always when I pull the butter off the heat a moment after the white foam shows up on the top of the pan. Right when it starts to smell good.

* A heaping cup of chocolate chips is plenty for a single batch.
*Vanilla bean paste may be used, but doesn't make any enormous improvement.


(The images are clickable if you'd like to enlarge them.)