After weeks of trying to get everything balanced on these cookies, I think I’ve got it. While I love my new oven, my biggest complaint is how wildly off its temperature can be sometimes. I made an adjustment to bake temp and they are finally perfect. Domed, golden around the edges, soft in the middle but with a light crunch from the lightly golden edges and bottom. Time to make a delivery run!

How do you plan out dinner? Do you make a weekly plan, come up with something in the morning, or decide last minute? I’m more of a morning planner or I get an idea later in the day that trumps what I thought of in the morning. I was going to make Greek lemon chicken and potatoes but then just remembered I have shrimp. Plans have now changed. Gambas Al Ajillo with quick discard baguettes brushed with a garlic parsley butter, and a Crema Catalan are on for tonight. Should be good!

Wood is best. ✨❤️ I have researched this many times over the years (decades) I have been cooking. I have used all three materials over the years. I do not use plastic anymore, for many reasons. There are 3 main surfaces for cutting boards: wood, plastic and composite. 📄 COMPOSITE Composite is not hard wood. It’s essentially paper. “Non-porous fibers are bound with resin under heat/pressure. Bacteria stay on the surface or in knife marks, similar to plastic. There is no meaningful absorption/desiccation effect. Hygiene depends on thorough cleaning and sanitizing. One comparison summary of the Cliver data noted bacteria thrived longer on composite surfaces the way they do on plastic.” Epicurean is one of the most popular composite brands. It comes in many convenient sizes and shapes. I have used it for years, precisely because I can throw it into the dishwasher. BUT NOT as my main cutting board. I mostly use it for quick cutting of limes or bread, when my main cutting board is being used. 🙅‍♀️ PLASTIC “Plastic keeps contamination on the surface and in cut grooves, where it can persist or grow if the surface stays moist.” “On plastic, bacteria were readily recovered for hours and could multiply overnight if humidity stayed high. “Household surveys reported higher aerobic and Enterobacteriaceae counts on plastic boards than on wood, though pathogen presence can occur on either if cleaning is poor.” 🌳 WOOD “Lab work led by Dean Cliver (UC Davis), found that bacteria from meat juices are harder to recover from wood than from plastic, mainly because wood absorbs them.” “Clean wood usually absorbed the fluid within 3–10 minutes; at levels typical of raw meat or poultry, the bacteria generally could not be recovered afterward. At much higher loads, recoveries after ~12 hours were reduced by at least 98% and often more than 99.9%.” “The main mechanism reported is capillary absorption: wood draws liquid and bacteria below the surface into the fiber structure, where moisture and nutrients are limited, so the organisms die over time rather than remaining viable on the surface.” 🌲 WOOD TYPES Scots Pine Heartwood (Pinus sylvestris) consistently ranks #1 in lab comparisons. A 2017 BioResources study explicitly concluded "Pine Heartwood had the strongest antibacterial effect of the extracts" against MRSA, E. coli O157:H7, and S. pneumoniae. The active compounds are resin acids, pinosylvin, and free fatty acids concentrated in heartwood. Japanese Cypress (Hiba / Sugi) is arguably the strongest for cutting boards, because it contains hinokitiol — a compound that actively kills E. coli and Salmonella on contact. It's become the go-to recommendation among professional chefs in Japan and increasingly in Europe/North America. Oak is the top hardwood contender, with high tannincontent driving its antibacterial effect. One study found oak showed "the highest decrease rate in bacterial titre" among seven European species tested. ❤️ ALL IN ALL Proper cleaning and drying matter for all materials. ✨ Deep knife scars on plastic are a practical weak point; wood’s advantage is mainly lower surface recovery of viable bacteria after absorption, not a guarantee against cross-contamination if the board is left wet or heavily soiled. Wood is best, ✨ as long as you wash it properly right after and let it dry fully. 👩🏻‍🍳 MY PROCEDURE I have one large cutting board that I use every day for many things, cutting vegetables, bread, garlic, cheese, prep. I DO NOT cut meat on it. I have a few other smaller boards I and my family use for other smaller tasks like cutting limes or a bagel or an apple or something. I have one or two other boards I use PRIMARILY to cut meat on. They are used away from my main cutting board area. Upon completion, they are put in the sink and quickly washed off into the sink and then later properly washed and dried. > source: grok, et al Food for thought. ✨❤️