Cause two out of three ain't bad.

Had a bit of a cooking frenzy yesterday. Made a variation of the "no knead" bread, using 2/3s white wheat flour and 1/3 standard white bread flour. I also used a bit less water than I should have, and I actually kneaded it just a little bit. The result was great: the crust didn't shatter like the no-knead bread usually does (needed more water, I think), but it was a bit denser than the standard no-knead, which usually comes out with really big air pockets throughout. This was pretty much perfect sandwich bread texture.

If you've never made bread before, the no-knead recipe is a great way to start. It's very easy and very forgiving.

Then I made a boiled cider pie, which is a somewhat ominous name for what is simply an apple custard pie. Boil 2 cups of apple cider down to 2/3s of a cup, add two grated Granny Smith apples, eggs, butter, lemon juice, sugar and drop it into a pie crust. Really, really good. Tart and appley, and just a bit rich.

And finally Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, which is basically chicken legs, baked in a sealed dish with garlic, celery, tarragon and a splash of vermouth. This was not fabulous. Chicken legs can be a drag with all their tendons and cartilage and other gnarly bits, and cooked this way, they come out an unappetizing gray, as if they weren't really cooked at all. The meat was tender and moist, but you have to fight the chicken's anatomy to get to all of it. Worst of all, the flavors just weren't great. The celery cooked down to mush. The tarragon was too much. The vermouth was weird. The garlic (obviously) dominated, but there's only so much baked garlic a person can eat - even when spreading it on fresh, warm, whole wheat bread.