One Girl Cookies

I recently took a vacation to visit my family and escape the NATO craziness in Chicago. While I was in Omaha I went to one of my favorite places, The Bookworm in Countryside Village. My Mom and I love the bookstore and the coffee shop, Village Grinder, attached to it. I ended up buying a couple of books this time around (support your local independent businesses!!). One of the books I purchased was a recipe book called One Girl Cookies from the bakery in Brooklyn of the same name. Today I made the recipe that made me want to buy the book...Apricot Jam-Filled Almond Butter Cookies. Apricot and butter...Y-U-M! My apartment smells like butter...and the cookies taste wonderful. The book is filled with great recipes with wonderfully simple ingredients. My next recipe to try will be: Honey Apricot Granola.

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Melomakarona

The best treats are only enjoyed at certain times of the year, and that's what makes them special. That's true of these delicious Greek Walnut cookies – Melomakarona. You can get them at the market around Christmas and Easter... and then they're gone. I suppose we could try making them at home, but that would mean we could have them anytime, and then what would I look forward to? Get them while you can!

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Cookie Sampler

It's not even my birthday and I got this awesome box of cookies today. In an effort not to be a total cookie monster, I cut them into quarters (except the lemon curd thumbprint : ) and made a little cookie sampler. From left to right: peanut butter and jam, chocolate brownie chunk, lemon curd, and classic chocolate chip.

Thankyou Prosecco!

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Is it over yet?

A sneak peek for my pals Broccoli and Fusilli. Lemme know when the detox is over!

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St. Patrick's Day Birthday Cookies

My brother was born on St. Patrick's Day, 30-something years ago today. Happy Birthday Brat! Since I'm currently unemployed and couldn't afford the big bag of cash he asked for, I sent him a homemade gift instead. I made bite-sized-ish Peanut Butter Blossoms from this recipe. My oven is a bit wonky, it tends to heat up extremely fast and stay H-O-T so I blackened the first cookies that were in the oven. The recipe called for 10 - 12 minutes of baking time in a normal oven, but mine, after a few rounds of trial and error in the oven, needed only 6 minutes and 30 seconds until they were done. It made for an entertaining evening.  I had so many Hershey Kisses left over and Jif Creamy Peanut Butter from making my brother's cookies that I made another batch of cookies and gave some to my doorman, to one of my clients (got me 2 more projects by stopping by their offices with cookies) and brought the rest to the girls of the wedding dress weekend.  They went over very well...everyone loves surprise cookies.

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"Aus-some!" #2

"Australia's Favorite Cookie" is still on the shelves courtesy of Pepperidge Farm at Target until March 2009.  I wanted to try the caramel flavor since I tried the chocolate flavor back in December.  The Caramel Tim Tam has the same chocolate covered thin layers of cookie with the chocolate creme now surrounding the caramel.  It reminds me of a Twix bar.  Hurry, hurry! March is right around the corner!  Go here to get a coupon for a $1 off and for U.S. residents to enter to win a trip to Australia!

P.S. While you're picking up your Tim Tams pick up something from this new (and my favorite!) collection at Target!

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M-M-M-My Verona

A Valentine care package from my parents brought these yummy cookies to me.  They showed up on a cold and rainy Chicago afternoon today when I had a lot of freelance to get through. Trust me, you can't eat just one of these (I was warned!)...they are flaky butter cookies with a delicious fruit middle.  They come in a variety of flavors:  Strawberry, Blueberry, Apple Caramel, Mango Peach and the one I received was filled with two of my favorite flavors combined...Apricot Raspberry. 

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"Aus-some!"

I first heard about these cookies on Oprah.  Hugh Jackman  brought a box for every person in the audience of the original Australian Arnott's cookies while on her show promoting the movie "Australia". So it seems Pepperidge Farm has brought the Tim Tams to the U.S. according to the linked article, they are available at Target stores until March 2009.  If you can, go out and buy them, they are sooo good.  Chocolate covered thin layers of cookie and chocolate creme in the middle!  ONLY 11 Tim Tams in a package...stock up.

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Christmas Dinner: Dessert

Christmas Cookies!  Two fabulous words. First, clockwise, sugar cookies in the shape of train engines, boxcars and cabooses.  Trains are a big thing in my family, well, on the male side of the family.  Don't get me started.  Next are salted peanut chews (YUM!!!).  These are one of my favorites and Mom made many, many batches of these for the wide variety of bake sales during my high school years. The pumpkin cake/bread with a cream cheese filling and the peppermint chocolate cookies round out the rest of the canape plate.  I was able to take some of these cookies back to Chicago and yes, there are still some left...but who knows for how long!

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More than just cookies...

Every year around the holidays, the Chicago photographer, Lisa Predko shows up with fabulous holiday cheer in the form of cookies that she makes for her clients/friends.  The cookies are delicious and are usually chocolate chip and/or white chocolate chip macadamia nut and because they are so yummy they do not last very long.  It's not just the cookies that are fabulous but the amazing photo she comes up with every year to put in the top of the great boxes she gives too. I think I have about 4 or 5 of the photos (you can see 2 of them on her website, click on "page 3") and their boxes saved from previous years. One of the boxes holds various recipes I've collected over the years and one of the other boxes holds wine/champagne corks I've kept for fun or from special occasions.  One of Lisa's cookie photos even became part of my holiday decorations this year. It's taped to the inside of my door with Chicago's Snow & Graham mittens as garland. You'll notice in this year's picture from Lisa that the Santa from the previous year's photo is in the background lounging on the sofa. 

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