Recipe…for Pasta Disaster

I don’t know what it is…but every few months or so I go back to cooking pasta in the slow cooker.

It never EVER ends well.

Most pastas just don’t take very well to long and slow cooking. And the type of slow cookersco use don’t have timers.

I get excited when I find the perfect recipe for bechamel or cream sauce, whip up a batch, dump it along with uncooked pasta in the cooker, then set it and forget it.

Two hours later…

The result is usually some cheesy sodden mush that would likely impress children, but not their parents. Which is a damn shame given the time and dollars I wasted sourcing the best ingredients…only to have it end in an ugly overcooked pile.

So this is a note to self: stop making pasta in the slow cooker.

And before I embark on that slow cooker lasagna recipe…do more research!

Recipe: (Almost Great) Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Oh yeah…this is (almost) it. The perfect chocolate chip cookie is within my grasp…if only I can make it sugar-free, but there’s something marvelous in the chemistry of brown sugar + white sugar that results in the texture and taste of an awesome chocolate chip cookie. Sugar-free sweeteners just can’t compare, not to mention they can’t nail down the molecular magic that comes from using real sugar.

After poring over tests, photos and baking instructions in the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Guide and tweaking King Arthur’s gluten free recipe, I’ve come up with this list of ingredients and baking guidelines that is repeat baking-worthy, even if it doesn’t provide instant gratification (u