Cookies

When Alex and I were first conceiving ways to make this project more complicated than necessary, one of the ideas was to add some element to the "cookies" recipe to make it seem as though they had been pulled out of a trash can. In the game, you can dig around the garbage in town (don't get caught though, people uh...don't like that for some reason) and sometimes pull out useful things and there are often cookies next to Evelyn and George's house.  My personal theory is that Evelyn is such a masterful, perfectionist, Michelin-star-craving baker that many batches of perfectly good cookies end up in the bin. At least that's what I tell myself while gifting them to some other random townsperson. At any rate, I had been mulling over various things I could sugar-glue to a batch of chocolate chip cookies to give it an edible yet trashy sheen for several months when my 10-year-old came home from school and said "I want to make chocolate chip cookies." And letting her do that seemed a lot easier than, you know, whatever nonsense I was planning.

Since Anna was the one making the recipe this time, it didn't make sense to record her reaction to it.

ASSESSMENT: Chocolate chip cookies are a perfect food, and I feel very good indeed about having created a small human who can provide them for me.

PROJECT STATUS: Delegated

Farmer's Lunch, Coleslaw

Things got very theme-y this week as I decided I was due for a Farmer's Lunch, having embarked on some Actual Gardening Out of Doors. I have to admit I wouldn't have thought to pair an omelet with a side of parsnips, but then I've never been a farmer before, have I?

Worth it just for the reminder that I can eat eggs midday anytime I feel like it

Anyway, I wasn't about to waste a +3 Farming buff on a day when I wasn't literally attempting to coax living things out of the ground, come on.

No reaction shot from the children, because they were enjoying non-farmer's lunches at school at the time, but let's see how my beautiful pea shoots feel about it:

No complaints

I also threw in some coleslaw this week, which as you may recall I kind of tried to make in July? Maybe? Anyway, I included all the listed ingredients this time, and also made some schnitzel, which I highly recommend!

Appraisals of the coleslaw were mixed, with Anna presenting a favorable rating with a face betraying a deep well of ambivalence, and Ivy giving it a so-so rating that she seems quite confident about. The schnitzel was enjoyed by all.

ASSESSMENT: I'm so excited to be a farmer now! Real salt of the earth type. I expect any day now someone will come to a diner and interview me about my political opinions.

PROJECT STATUS: Sowing, reaping, etc.

Ice Cream

Look, I think we allllll deserved a break after the snails, I'm not a monster. I'm just an anxious person with weird coping strategies. Clearly the people around me, many of whom are innocent elementary-aged children, were due for a Stardew recipe on the pleasant end of the spectrum. I, on the other hand, was in a mental space that required some culinary hair-shirting, and "ice cream" seemed like it provided the most baroque possible path to having a treat. It's also a fun way to celebrate the fact that summer will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never end.

Yum!

Since the only ingredients listed are milk and sugar, I had to decide what flavors would be represented by pink, green, and white ice cream all on one cone. I considered several combinations, some of which would have been amusingly unappealing, but finally landed on raspberry, lime, and vanilla. (I did goose the color of the lime ice cream with a couple drops of green food coloring.) 

And then. I made. The cones.

*Hold for applause*

ASSESSMENT: "It's hard to find someone who doesn't like this." My sample size was admittedly small, consisting of one husband, two children, and one mother-in-law, but as far as I can tell this is accurate. 

PROJECT STATUS: Going to go distribute these to the townspeople, finally make some friends

Escargot

I would not characterize my children as especially picky eaters, but they do tend to be deeply skeptical eaters. Any dish that is set before them is met with concerned frowns and many, many questions: what is in this, what else is in this, what is that red thing, what are those green flecks, is that onion, is that sausage, is the black pepper spicy, etc. etc. It doesn't mean they won't then proceed to eat whatever concerning combination of ingredients I have given them, it just means that all meals have to run the gauntlet of inquiry first.

UNLESS...

I say "I need you to try this Stardew recipe so I can take a picture of your reaction." In which case, they will just...do it? Without asking questions? Even if my follow-up sentence is "It's SNAILS" with absolutely no reassurances attached?

It's SNAILS

Although Ivy did hang back a little bit on this one to gauge her sister's experience first.

 ASSESSMENT: Snails are an inoffensive yet slightly expensive delivery system for a stick of butter and some garlic when you consider that those things could just be smeared on a baguette instead.

PROJECT STATUS: Probably going to start claiming that every meal is a Stardew recipe just to elide ingredient-suspicion going forward.