It’s nice to experiment with different grains, & coincidentally found a post on different grains at Food Blogga @ Susans‘…‘How Many Whole Grains Can You Name? Hmmm…test your knowledge there; I was surprised to hear of so many whole grains! A little about corn…the word “polenta“ can be used to refer to the ground cornmeal itself, or to a prepared dish after boiling cornmeal with water. Corn is a good source of vitamin B1, vitamin B5, folate, dietary fiber, vitamin C, phosphorous and manganese.
I’ve adapted these cookies from The Great Big Cookie Book…a book that keeps me endlessly entertained . The original cookie is the ‘Sultana Cornmeal Cookie’…little yellow biscuits from the Veneto region of Italy. I didn’t used sultanas coz the boy won’t touch them anymore…so I substituted them with pistachios. Made a nice chunky cookie with a crunch to it! I didn’t have Marsala, so used vanilla extract instead. Go ahead & use Marsala…am sure they’ll taste wonderful! Made some nice biscotti with cornmeal too, but will post that another day…
Chunky Cornmeal Pistachio Cookies, adapted from The Great Big Cookie Book, pg 86
Ingredients:
Finely ground yellow cornmeal – 1/2 cup
Plain flour – 3/4 cups
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Pinch of salt
Butter – 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar – 1/2 cup
Eggs – 1
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp (or Marsala – 1 tsp)
Pistachio nuts – 1/2 cup; roughly chopped
Method:
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Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease 2 baking sheets.
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Sift the cornmeal + flour + baking powder + salt. Set aside.
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Cream the butter & sugar; beat in the egg, followed by the extract/Marsala.
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Add the dry ingredients & pistachio nuts & stir until well blended.
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Drop heaped teaspoonfuls & bake 12-15 minutes till cookies are light golden.
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Cool on racks. The cookies will continue to harden as they cool.
My almost ‘poifect‘ Macaroons a la espresso
Looks can be deceptive. Take a look at my almost perfect macaroons, no cracks & beautiful from above. But somethings missing…. 
Popped them into the oven to bake & went off to do a chore for a couple of minutes & heard a shriek from the son, ‘There’s something alive in the oven…& it’s bubbling!!”. Almost had a heart-attack, but raced with macaroon-like poise to see all the cookie batter bubbling away merrily, in an ocean like gooey slime in a witches cauldron, & little macaroon caps floating on top. I was too shocked to take pictures then, but did manage to salvage all the airy (literally full of air) tops! Take a look…
Disaster. What lay beneath my very airy macaroons…just air!!
Can’t imagine what happened coz I followed the recipe to the t. Any clues anybody??? My only regret was the waste of precious almonds & my dreams of an opera macaroon floating away. The kids were too happy to oblige & quickly devoured the light left-overs. To make something out of nothing, am gonna send this off to Food Nerd who is graciously holding an appropriate event...“Blueberries on the Ceiling” is your chance to write about your most disastrous (and hopefully hilarious) kitchen mishap.