Life in the Fast Lane

In my previous life, prior to entering the fast-paced and highly profitable world of food blogging (pause for laughter), I did in-home parties selling baskets and pottery. I loved doing the shows but dreaded making phone calls to book the shows. I hate rejection (who loves it?) and any kind of a "no" felt like rejection. Even the "I'd love to but my house just burnt to the ground and we're living in a tent on the beach so there's no room to have a show" excuse felt like rejection.

Some people, trying to be nice, would go for the delay. "Oh, gosh, I really want to, but the kids are so busy with school and sports and lessons that I just don't have time. For sure call me when school gets out." After years of hearing this, I've learned. Life never gets less busy. It stays as busy as we choose. Those same people when I call them 5 minutes after the closing school bell has rung already have their kids in day camp, soccer camp, and art camp, have out of town visitors scheduled and their two vacations already scheduled. And they say, "Oh, gosh, I really want to, but we're so busy. Life will calm down when the kids are in school. Call me then."

Life is hectic but one constant is that people need to eat. And if you have teenagers, you know they need to eat constantly. Having a good, quick supper in your repertoire can save you time, money (no nasty grab-a-burger-at-the-drive-through-on-the-way-to-the-swim-meet), and your sanity.

This salad is beautiful, delicious, quick, and easy. The lemon gives a bright contrast to the pasta, the broccoli makes you feel healthy, and the chicken says it's a meal. Of course, a vegetarian can omit the chicken and it's still delicious.

Broccoli, Chicken, & Bow Ties
(modified from Barefoot Contessa Family Style)

Salt
8 cups broccoli florets (4 heads)
1/2 lb farfalle (bow tie) pasta
1 whole chicken breast, or 1 large 1/2 breast
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. good olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup toasted pignoli (pine) nuts
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, optional

To toast the pignollis, place them in a dry saute pan over meium-low heat and cook, tossing often, for about 5 minutes, until light brown.

Cut the chicken into strips on the diagonal. Place the chicken in a skillet and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, cover, turn down the heat, and let simmer till chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Don't overcook, or your chicken will be rubbbery.

Cook the broccoli for 3 minuts in a large pot of boiling salted water. Remove the broccoli from the water with a slotted spoon or sieve. Place in a large bowl and set aside.

In the same water, cook the bow-tie pasta according to the package directions, about 12 minutes. Drain well and add to the broccoli.

Meanwhile, in a small saute pan, heat the butter and oil and cook the garlic and lemon zest over medium-low heat for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add 2 tsp. satl, the pepper, and lemon juice and pour this over the broccoli and pasta. Toss Well. Season to taste, sprinkle with the pignolis and cheese and serve.

Lemon Fireworks

To all those in the United States, Happy Independence Day! For me it's a day that's filled with many happy memories of picnics in the park, swirling sparklers, and fireworks lighting up the night. Since moving to the Northwest, most of those memories have been cold, soggy ones. We try to have the proper spirit, but having a picnic indoors, trying to barbecue under the roof overhang to avoid the fire going out in the downpour, and huddling up in wool blankets to watch fireworks just doesn't seem right.

This year, though, we've got a proper Independence Day going. It's clear, sunny, and looks promising. I can see that we'll go through at least 3 boxes of sparklers, a vat of sunscreen, and a tub of ice cream. Good thing I've got The Perfect Scoop on hand!

What better way to cool off and enjoy summer than with ice cream? In a cone, in a bowl, or straight from the tub with a spoon -no other food as completely embodies summer to me. Cool, sweet and refreshing, it's the perfect ending to the perfect picnic on the perfect day. And I've found the perfect summer treat - Super Lemon Ice Cream. It's quick and easy to make. You don't heat up the kitchen or have lots of pans to wash. And it's wonderfully sweet yet tangy. Mmmm, quick, go get a batch going so you can enjoy it, too!

Leave comment and tell me what your favorite picnic / holiday /summer food is. Please put a link, if it's something you've posted on your blog. I'd love to hear from you!

Super Lemon Ice Cream
adapted from The Perfect Scoop - David Lebovitz (of course)

(When fruit is sprayed, the spray tends too concentrate in the skin or peel, so look for unsprayed fruit if you're using the skin)

2 lemons, preferably unsprayed
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)
2 cups (500 ml) half-and-half
Pinch of salt

Zest the lemons directly into a food processor or blender. That way you capture the flavorful citrus spray, rather than flavoring your cutting board. Add the sugar and blend until the lemon zest is very fine. Add the lemon juice and blend until the sugar is completely dissolved. Blend in the half-and-half and salt until smooth.

Chill for 1 hour, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Wonderful Weekend

Wow, what a weekend! First, Ratatouille. 4 stars. It's a winner! Two thumbs up. Run, don't walk to see it. I was amazed at how well Pixar and Brad Bird nailed what love of cooking is all about. Remy is darling and my whole family loved this show. With all the attention to detail, the sweet story, and the beautiful rendering of Paris, this show deserves to be a huge hit.

Then, the main attraction - David Lebovitz! He's amazing. He started off the class sipping on an Odwalla to try to regain his voice as we were the last class he taught on this trip. He confessed that he was missing his own bed and ready to head home, but he still gave us a wonderful class. I promised you bad pics, but the picture that my obnoxious point and shoot took was sooo bad that it wouldn't be nice to post. David was talking to someone and I caught him in mid-expressive face. I wish I could have captured him doing his Giada impression, shirt a bit unbuttoned, leaning over. Hilarious!

The class ran just like a cooking show; David would demonstrate a step and then he'd show us the finished product after steeping, baking, or freezing. He made an incredible variety of food - eleven different recipes from his terrific book, The Perfect Scoop. The book is not just frozen desert recipes; it includes many recipes for treats to stir into ice cream, and David showed us an assortment of those.

He started out with the Gianduja Gelato, the same recipe I taunted you with last time. He stirred in some melted bittersweet chocolate at the very end of churning so the gelato had little chocolate chunks in it. This was served to everyone in the class. One small scoop on a plate next to a small mound of espresso granita, with a dollop of whipped cream. The flavor combination was just right. The espresso cut through the richness of the gelato and gave it a good flavor counterpoint. I'm not a coffee fan, but I'll be making this granita.

When I asked if I could put the recipe on my blog David patiently coached me on how to say Gianduja. John -doo-ya. There. Easy! And not at all what I would have guessed. No Italian in my genes.

Roast banana ice cream was a snap (or David made it look that way) and he served it in tiny, darling profiteroles that he'd gotten up early to bake for us. The puffs were cut in half with a small scoop of Roasted Banana Ice Cream placed inside. I was thinking, "Oh, that's cute," then he ladled Marshmallow Hot Fudge Sauce over the top. I thought, "Oh, heavens, that looks perfect." Then he sprinkled candied, salted, roasted almonds over the top and on the plate. What a masterpiece! I have so much to learn about plating!

Talking all the while, David made a Breton Buckwheat Cake that was not very sweet, a perfect coupling for the coffee frozen yogurt. Offhandedly, during the break, David had taken a square plate and drizzled some melted chocolate in a zig-zag over the corner then put it in the refrigerator. He used this to serve the cake and yogurt, drizzling them with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce. The cake was even an OK item for the lovely and infectiously cheerful, Shauna, the gluten-free girl. She had her camera with macro lens out and was taking pictures of the treats, so I suggest you head over to her site to see some lovely pictures of what we got to see and eat.

David finished up by making Peppermint Patties and showing us how to dress up store-bought ice cream with home-made mix-ins. With the resulting ice cream he made ice cream sandwiches. And I was about to burst. I'd balked a bit at the cost of the class since it was only a demo, not hands on - I hadn't realized I'd be eating a four course ice cream meal!

I'd love to be able to cook like David. His artistry, his flavor combinations, but most of all, his dishwashers. He had two assistants during the class whose sole job was to wash the pots, pans, and plates as he used them and fetch things for him. My kitchen would be so much tidier if I had them. When I made the Gianduja Gelato it took the better part of a day and it looked like a bomb went off in my kitchen!

Some words of random wisdom sprinkled by David throughout the class:

-Sharpen the blade of your food processor. It only costs about $4 and it's like getting a whole new machine.

-Use baking powder without aluminum (like Rumford brand). It's inexpensive and gets rid of that metallic taste.

-Buy your olive oil where the Italians do - Spain. Many Italian olive oils are imported from Spain and repackaged.

- Gelato means "frozen."

- Many comestibles are labeled as "medicine" in France. So the French eat chocolate and marshmallow for their health and avoid the 20% sales tax.

- Because the vanilla bean crop is such a lucrative one in poor countries, people are killed over it. The bean pods are branded, like cattle, so that if the crop is stolen it can be traced.

- A lucrative opportunity. Develop a spray on tart dough. David would use it and promote it, asking only a small percentage of the fortune for the idea.

- His ice cream scoop is The Whacker, whose box said, "The Whacker -it's only limitation is your imagination."

- The reason ice cream is harder coming out of your freezer than at an ice cream place is that the temperature for a home freezer is set lower than that of an ice cream parlor. It needs to be lower for keeping meats and veggies at the correct temp.

- The number one way people mess up in cooking is by not reading the recipe.

Now, for the much anticipated recipe. With David's permission, adapted from David Lebovitz's fabulous book, The Perfect Scoop:

Gianduja Gelato (makes about 1 quart)

1-1/2 cups (185 g.) toasted hazelnuts
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
3/4 cup (170g) sugar
1/4 tsp coarse salt
4 oz dark milk chocolate (at least 30% cacao solids), chopped
5 large egg yolks
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Fub the hazelnuts ina kitchen towel after roasting to remove as much of the papery skin as possible. I put on rubber gloves and rubbed them between my hands. Chop them finely in a food processor or blender.

Warm the milk with 1 cup (250 ml) of the cream, sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Once warm, remove from heat and add the chopped hazelnuts. Cover, and let steep for 1-1/2 hours.

Put the milk chocolate pieces in a large bowl. Heat the remaining1 cup (250 ml) of cream in a medium saucepan until it just begins to boil. Pour it over the milk chocolate pieces, and stir until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set a mesh strainer over the top.

Pour the hazelnut-infused milk through a strainer into a medium saucepan, squeezing the nuts firmly with your hands to etract as much of the flavorful liquid as possible. David says to discard the nuts as the flavor is gone. I'm saving mine in the refrigerator for a coffee cake.

Rewarm the halzenut-infused mixture. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. If you don't have a rubber bottomed bowl, place it on a rubber glove or moistened kitchen towel for the next step. Slowly pour the warm hazelnut mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constanly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constanly over medium heat with a wooden or heatproof plastic spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the straner and stir it into the melted milk chocolate. Add the vanilla and stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze in your ie cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Serve immediately for a soft, smooth gelato. It will firm up if you choose to put it in the freezer. But who can wait?

It's Birthday Season

I have a summer birthday. My husband has a summer birthday. All but one of my children have summer birthdays, and that one is pitied because her birthday is wrong. Too close to Christmas. At Christmas you get sleds and sweaters as gifts. For your birthday you get shorts and water toys. When do you get the cool summer toys if you don't have a summer birthday?

Today is the official kick-off for our birthday season. We've got tickets for the opening day of Ratatouille. Yeah! I can't wait. A Pixar movie about an adorable rodent who wants to be a chef in Paris? I'm all over it!

Then, tomorrow, even though my birthday is a month away, my honey is sending me to the David Lebovitz ice cream class at Sur La Table. Woo hoo! I'm a major fan of his blog (really funny writing and really toothsome recipes), so it was no stretch of the imagination for my hubbie to figure out what I wanted for my birthday when I breathlessly announced that David Lebovitz was coming to town. I'll get to watch him prepare lots of delicious frozen treats and taste them, too. My sweetie did draw the line at the "I HEART David" t-shirt, but I'll take a notebook and my camera, so look for a write-up and my bad pictures on Monday.

In honor of the occasion I made a fabulous ice cream from his new book, The Perfect Scoop. Gianduja Gelato. It has intense hazelnut and chocolate flavor - think Nutella in a cone. Silky smooth and so rich that just a tiny scoop suffices. I wanted a bit more chocolate flavor to balance the hazelnuts, so I added my favorite, The World's Best Hot Fudge Sauce. Oh, heaven in a spoon!

I'll ask David if it's OK to post the recipe. If I get a green light, you'll see the recipe on Monday, along with the write-up. In the meantime, I'll give you the hot fudge sauce recipe from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. This is fabulous stuff. A friend of mine makes it to give as gifts to her friends every Christmas. Lucky friends! This is thick and not too sweet, becoming even thicker when poured over cold ice cream. You can store it in the refrigerator for a week or two, but be wary. It's awfully tempting to just eat it with a spoon straight from the jar!



The World's Best Hot Fudge Sauce

1/2 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp sweet butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
pinch salt
1/2 cup strained Dutch-process cocoa powder (don't substitute - it must be Dutch process for the right color and flavor)

Place the cream and butter in a heavy 1-quart saucepan over moderate heat. Stir until the butter is melted and the cream just comes to a low boil. Add both sugars and stir for a few minutes until they are dissolved. (The surest test is to taste; cook and taste until you do not feel any undissolved granules in your mouth.)

Reduce the heat. Add the salt and cocoa and stir briskly with a small wire whisk until smooth. (If the sauce is not smooth - if there are any small lumps of undissolved cocoa- press against them, and stir well, with a rubber spatula.) Remove from the heat.

Serve immediately or pour into a straight-sided glass jar to cover and store in the refrigerator. To reheat slowly, spoon the sauce into the top of a double boiler over hot water, or in a heavy saucepan over the lowest heat. My favorite way to reheat is to spoon just as much as I'll use into a small microwave-safe container and heat on high for just 8-10 seconds.

The directions say that if it looks too thick on reheating, stir in a bit of hot water, adding very little at a time. But seriously, too thick??

Sequencing

Sequencing. Sometimes it just defeats me. Sequencing can take a tiny, easy chore and turn it into an onerous, unscalable mountain peak.

Here is an entirely fictitious example*:

My husband has a craving for a home-cooked Italian meal. No problem. I can whip that up easily. Except that I'm out of garlic. Which means a quick trip to the store, because who ever heard of Italian food without garlic? But it would be a waste of gas to go to the store for just one bulb of garlic. So I need to write out a shopping list. And to do that I need to do a little menu planning for the next couple of days.

Thinking about what I want to make for dinners, I remember that my daughter has been begging me to make the fabulous dish we saw in the Gourmet magazine that came last week. I add that to the menu, and then recall that I can't add the ingredients to my shopping list as I loaned that magazine to my neighbor, Gladys, to read the amusing article about shopping for truffles in Paris.

I can't go ask for the magazine back unless I take back to her the little slugger baseball cake pan that I borrowed from her 2 months ago, saying I needed to make that cake for one of my son's baseball games. And tomorrow is his last baseball game. And if I'm going to take it tomorrow, I'd better make it today so I'll have time to frost and decorate it. So I spend the rest of the afternoon baking the cake and serve boxed macaroni and cheese for dinner.

The best of intentions defeated by sequencing.

Now to the real life example. In one of the multitude of cookbooks I've looked through in the last 3 months I saw a recipe for cookies with white chocolate and macadamia nuts. It looked yummy, but I never have macadamia nuts on hand. So I tucked that into my brain - "buy macadamia nuts!" It sat there dormant in the back of my brain until I was walking through the produce section at the grocery store and spotted bins of bulk nuts. Aha - they had macadamia nuts! Even though I sucked wind at the price, I bought a largish bagful because "It's for the blog."


So I brought my nuts home and tucked them away in my baking drawer, nestled between the flour and the sugar where they would be safe from little snackers. There they languished as I moved on to the next item in the sequence - white chocolate. That required a special trip. Of course I couldn't make a trip just for white chocolate, so I had to wait for the next time I was making a Trader Joe's run to pick up a chunk of Ghirradelli white chocolate.

And home to make the cookies! Or not. Where was that recipe??? I scoured my cookbooks to no avail. I went to the library and looked through books I'd recently checked out. What's the deal? Why does no one have a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe? So I adapted one that I'd found for a white chocolate pecan cookie. Close enough.

I got all the ingredients together, measured, chopped, mixed, and just before adding the nuts realized that they were salted. Aaack! Were my cookies going to be too salty? They should post these things on the bins! "Roasted, SALTED macadamia nuts." Too late now. I figured that white chocolate is quite sweet and maybe the flavors would balance out. Maybe they would be wonderful together. Or not.

As I scooped out the cookie dough I tasted a macadamia nut. It was bad. Bad like rancid, seriously old and stale. I don't know if it was bad when I bought it or went bad while I was waiting to make the cookies but this was the kind of bad that takes over every other flavor. I had hopes the white chocolate would mask the rancid taste - it didn't.

So today I give you a wonderful recipe for cookies which will taste fabulous - if you don't use bad nuts! Buy your nuts in a sealed package. Store them in the freezer. Taste before stirring them into your dough. Because, aside from tasting foul, these are wonderful cookies.

White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut Cookies (adapted from Mrs Fields Best Ever Cookie Book)

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 sticks salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz macadamia nuts, chopped (about 1 cup)
8 oz. good white chocolate bar, coarsely chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)

1- Preheat oven to 300 deg. F, with the racks dividing the oven into thirds.

2- Into a medium bowl sift together the flour, soda, and salt. Set aside.

3- In a large mixing bowl mix together butter and sugars. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as it forms a grainy paste. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

4- Add the flour mixture, macadamia nuts (quick taste test for freshness first), and white chocolate, and blend at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

5- Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches between dough mounds. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets top to bottom halfway through baking. Take out when the cookie edges just begin to turn golden brown. Use a spatula to transfer cookies immediately to a cool, flat surface (like a clean countertop). This keeps the cookies moist on the underside.

Makes about 3 dozen

* (Disclaimer: My husband does not, nor has he ever, to the best of my knowledge craved Italian food. I do not have a subscription to Gourmet magazine. I do not have a neighbor named Gladys. I do not have a son that is currently playing baseball. While I have been known to make boxed macaroni and cheese, I would never admit it.)

The Perfect Couple

Sometimes the urge to play Cupid is irresistible. When you know two great people and you just know they are perfect for each other, isn't it unkind to deprive them of their shot at happiness together?

I met my husband to be when I was in college. He and his best friend were in the marching band and they and a couple of other band buddies were going around one night, offering to play for beer. They were across the street at a fraternity and a girl from our house yelled to them that we didn't have beer but we had Diet Dr. Pepper. Well, they wanted beer, and Diet Dr. Pepper is nasty stuff, but we were of the female persuasion, so they came and played for us. We met, sparks flew, and two years later we were married.

In the meantime, I got to know his best friend as well. I knew he loved racquet sports, had a wacky sense of humor, and liked strong women. I happened to have a good friend who was smart, strong, funny, and was looking for a racquet ball partner. So, of course I had to set them up. As with any blind date, it could have been an awkward nightmare, but they hit it off and they have now been married almost as long as we have. Sometimes you just know when it's a good match.


So what does this have to do with food? Well, one of my favorite pairings is chocolate and peanut butter. I adore each one individually, but put them together and I am in heaven! These cookies are extra wonderful because they have two kinds of chocolate paired up in a peanut butter cookie. The cookie has a sandy, moist texture, and the bittersweet chocolate ribbons through it, giving a wonderful taste and texture contrast. I adapted this recipe from Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book. I substituted 70% bittersweet chocolate for the semisweet chocolate called for. I could say it was because I wanted a more sophisticated tasting cookie, or, I could tell the truth - that I was out of semi-sweet chocolate. In any case, it ended up being delicious.

Double-Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies


makes about 2 dozen

6 oz. semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
12 oz. (about 2 cups) milk chocolate chips

1- Arrange racks in oven to divide it into thirds. Preheat oven to 300 deg. F. In a double boiler, melt the semisweet chocolate over hot, not simmering, water. Set aside to cool to about room temperature.

2- In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

3- In a mixing bowl cream the butter and the peanut butter. Add the sugars and beat until creamy and smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture and the milk chocolate chips, and beat until no streaks of flour are visible.

4- Pour the melted chocolate over the dough and drag a wooden spoon through. You want to just marbleize, not combine. Leave streaks of chocolate.

5- Drop the dough in 3-Tbsp mounds 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 23 minutes, or until just set but still soft. Rotate the baking sheets, top to bottom, halfway through cooking. Cool on the baking sheet for 30 seconds then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

What Goes Around Comes Around

I don't know if Mrs. Fields Cookies are global, but in the US, the cheerful little red booth with white polka dots, wafting a powerful aroma of baking cookies is a mainstay of malls. I heard a story of how Debbie Fields got her start. As a teenager, she had a friend who was anorexic. Every day Debbie would come home frome school and bake cookies to take to her friend in an attempt to lure her into eating them. With all that practice, her cookies got better and better until someone suggested she should open up a shop and sell them. From her first shop she ended up with a chain of cookie shops and a line of spin-off products, all because she cared about her friend and wanted to help her. I don't know if the story is true, but I like it.

One of the great things about baking a lot is that my kitchen overflows with treats. And rather than wolf it all down and feel ill and waddle like a hippopotamus, I pass a lot of it along. I send cookies with my daughter when she's meeting up with friends. I take baked goods to friends and neighbors. My chiropractor is always delighted with the packet of treats I bring to my appointments. Yesterday at a doctor's office I was greeted with, "You're the cookie lady!"

I say this, not to toot my own horn about how generous I am. Looked at cynically, you could even say I'm very selfish because I want the fun of baking without the calories on my own thighs. But whatever the motivation is, the result is wonderful. When I share my kitchen bounty, something good always splashes back on me. I love the happy squeals when I take a plate of blog fodder to a friend's house. The tree overhanging the property line is somehow less of an issue if banana bread is involved. And my chiropractor never has his eye on the clock when he's happily munching a cookie.

So, with this in mind, I share World Peace Cookies. They are from my favorite cookbook, Baking, and this is the recipe that convinced me that I needed to own this wonderful book. Dorie Greenspan says that they were given the name World Peace Cookies by a neighbor who, upon tasting one, said that if everyone in the world had one a day, there would be world peace.

These are amazing cookies. Simple to make, impossible to resist. The secret ingredient is sea salt. I used the Celtic Sea Salt my sweetie gave me for Mother's Day. The large, delicate crystals lurk in the cookie, giving a surprising crunch and the tingle of delicate salt against chocolate.


One note: I have my mini chips stored in a plastic bag in a bin with other chocolate products in plastic bags. One of those other bags contains white chocolate mint wafers. Only recently did I discover that the mint is so strong it seeped out of it's bag and contaminated all the neighboring bags. (Note to self: store mint-flavored items in separate closet!) This adds a very subtle, but not unpleasant mint taste to my cookies.

Try these wonderful cookies and spread a little love in your world.


World Peace Cookies

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick plus 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp fleur de sel or 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips (mint flavored, optional)

1- Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugars, salt, and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes more.

3- Turn the mixer off and add the dry ingredients. Cover the mixer with a pouring shield or drape a kitchen towel over it to protect your kitchen from flying flour. Pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time, Once the flour on the surface of the dough is incorporated, remove the towel and continue mixing at low speed for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough. Work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added. It's OK for the dough to look a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

4- Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking - just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

5- To bake; Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 324 deg. F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

6- Using a sharp, thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. Don't worry if they crack as you cut them, just moosh them back together . Place the rounds on the baking sheet, leaving 1 inch between them.

7- Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes. They won't be firm or look done, but that's just right. Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm. You can serve them then, or let them reach room temperature.

Note: Since my cookie jar had another species of cookie in it already, I stored these in a plastic tub on the counter with a kitchen towel over them. In our humid weather they absorbed moisture and became almost fudgy-moussey, while still being sandy. I liked them that way, too, and a contractor that was over thought they were a-maz-ing.

Almost Instant Gratification

In the world of comfort foods, I think cookies rank #1. Small enough to nestle in your hand, they're not as big a commitment as a piece of cake or pie. You don't even need a plate or fork to eat one. They can be eaten warm, fresh from the oven or cooled, out of the cookie jar. You can nibble on one daintily, or wolf down a handful. Packed in a lunch box, a cookie is a piece of love from home. Dunked in coffee, it's a pick-me-up indulgence. Where would we be without cookies? I shudder at the thought.

When the urge for a small calorie splurge strikes, it's nice to have a recipe in your repertoire that you can make using only what's on hand in your pantry. This recipe is so easy, it's perfect for beginners, and so satisfying that you'll make it again and again. Review the tips that I gave last time and in under 1/2 hour you can have delicious, moist, chewy, satisfying Snickerdoodles. Plus, they're whole wheat, so they're healthy, right?

The key to making these so that they're chewy and not crunchy is to seriously underbake them. When you remove them from the oven, they should be just set, still a little moisty looking in the middle. Also, this is not a good recipe to make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate. It does best if you mix and bake without delay.

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles (from Taste of Home)

1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg plus 1 egg white

Topping:
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

1- Arrange racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F.

2- In a small bowl combine the flours, baking soda, and salt.

3- In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter until fluffy. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula several times.

4- Add egg and egg white; beat well.

5- Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well.

6- In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients. Using a small scoop, shape dough into walnut-sized balls; roll in cinnamon-sugar. (I always run out of the cinnamon sugar, so you might make more in the 3 to 1 ratio of sugar to cinnamon.)

7- Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies will puff up and flatten as they bake. Remove just after they have set. If the centers of the cookies looks slightly underdone, let the cookies rest for a few minutes on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook as they cool. Remove to a wire rack to continue cooling. Or straight to your hand for munching.

Makes about 5 dozen.