recipe-a-week #34: herb-cheese palmiers and the 1000th post winners!

Yipee, it's time to announce the winners! Random.org chose comments 1 and 13 to be the soap giveaway winners, so congratulations to Amber and Lauren! I don't think I have either of your addresses, so please e-mail them to me at birchbarksoap [at] gmail [dot] com, along with your preferences for soap types, which I will do my best to accommodate. If I have your addresses before noon tomorrow, your beautifully fragrant wonder packages will be sent out in tomorrow's mail, and if not, it will be next Monday before they'll be sent off as I'm going away for work for the rest of the week. I hope that you enjoy them!

And here is a super-easy, delicious recipe which I took to our civilized ladies' get-together on Friday (where we primarily discussed killing rodents and giving birth). It was a lovely and relaxing time. The recipe is from the current issue of Everyday Food. (There's no 'after' picture, and these were gone in no time. Sorry about that.)

Herb-cheese Palmiers

1. Preheat oven to 375, with racks in upper and lower thirds. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 sheet of thawed puff pastry to a 10"x16" rectangle. Brush with 1 tbsp olive oil, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup extra-sharp cheddar, 3 tbsp grated parmesan, 3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (such as thyme, sage, and oregano) and 1/4 tsp coarse salt. Fold dough lengthwise into thirds (like a letter), then fold in half. Refrigerate until slightly firm, about 10 minutes. Cut dough crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices. (*I used fresh grated parmesan, fresh chives, and dried thyme. I think they would have been better had I used some cheddar as well.)

2. Place slices on 2 large baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. (To store, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 day.) In a bowl, combine 1 large egg yolk and 1/2 tsp water. Brush tops of palmiers with egg wash. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes (mine took just under 20), rotating sheets halfway through. Yum!