Chocolate and other food groups

If you are a gum chewer, you have probably tried the sweetener Xylitol. It is about as sweet as sugar, with a little bit of a fruit taste, and measures spoon for spoon the same. Since we are trying to cut carbs, I tried using some Xylitol in chocolate chip cookies. The recipe called for 1 c. sugar. I used about 2/3 c. Xylitol and 1/3 c. sugar, plus regular brown sugar, plus used fewer chocolate chips. The cookies tasted good, but were a little different. Randy asked if they had banana in them. They didn't, but that sort of fruit taste was noticeable. The other difference is that these did not spread out when cooking, but puffed up a little. Otherwise they cooked about the same. I did undercook them slightly, so they would not be dry. The main drawback to Xylitol, in my opinion, is the price. I paid about $8 for a pound, which is a lot more than sugar. However, I haven't had much success with Stevia or other natural sweeteners, and I don't really want to use Equal or somethi...

How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Food by Nigella Lawson First of all, I have to say this - this woman is nuts! She may be a great cook and a very nice person, I don't know, but honestly, she is nuts. This book, in case you couldn't tell right away, is about baking. She sets it up in several categories: cakes, cookies, bread, pies, Christmas, etc. The pictures are wonderful. But the writing? Wow. It's hard to tell you just how bad it is. So here's an example. "Coconut Macaroons. These are a very English kind of macaroon, the sort you always used to see displayed in bakers' shops alongside the madeleines (those sponge castles dipped in luminous strawberry jam and dredged in throat-catching grated coconut, and so very different from those that inflamed the memory of Marcel Proust). The difference with coconut macaroons is that you need neither to be ironic or self-consciously retro-cool to enjoy them." What? I have SO many problems...