Dear Girl (that sat next to me on the plane last night),

Hi.  How are you?  This is just a quick note to let you know that you sat on my glasses.  I know that you know that you sat on my glasses.  You did, after all,  hand them back to me crazy mangled.  I trust that you know what shape glasses generally assume.

I understand that there are two active parties in this tragedy.  There’s the person that accidentally left her glasses in the middle seat next to her while she properly stowed her purse under the seat in from of her…. that’s me.  There’s also the person that was in such a hurry to get into that second row middle seat, that didn’t let the girl with the glasses on the aisle properly acclimate before barging in… that’s you.  So, you sat on my glasses.

My favorite part about you sitting on my glasses, was how you showed exactly zero remorse for the damage you caused.  That was awesome.  Hey… remember that part when I was very obviously trying to bend them back in shape in front of you?  Yea… that was pretty fun too.  That was me being passive aggressive.  I bet that was your favorite part.

Oh well, they’re just glasses, right?  Next time, I’ll watch where I put my glasses if you watch where you put your body.  Deal?

Sincerely,

Joy

And now… dark chocolate cookies.  Let’s do this.

I love big, soft, brownie-like cookies.  These are them.  Hot dang they’re satisfying.  Get your hands on some good chocolate for these beauties.  I used a Valrhona 70% chocolate.   When it comes to mix-ins, I went for walnuts and golden raisins.  Maybe you want to try dried cherries and white chocolate, or pecans and walnuts, or chocolate chunks and dried apricot.  Dream it up and go nuts.  Thanks for the Twitter inspiration on these Roberta!

Dark Chocolate, Walnut and Golden Raisin Cookies

adapted from King Arthur somewhere

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8 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate , 60%-72%(chopped or in chips)

3 Tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) butter

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 cup golden raisins

In a double boiler, or in the microwave, gently melt together the chocolate and butter.  To avoid heating the chocolate too much and possibly burning it, the best method is to heat till the butter is melted and the chocolate has partially melted, then remove from the heat.  Stir until all the chocolate melts.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs till they’re thoroughly combined.  You don’t need a mixer, just do it in a medium sized bowl with a wooden spoon.   Add the melted chocolate mixture, then stir in the remaining ingredients, including the chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins, if you’

re using them.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets, three if you have them.

Drop the cookie dough by the tablespoonful (about the size of a small ping pong ball) onto the prepared baking sheets.  A tablespoon cookie scoop makes this task extremely simple.  Leave about 2? between the dough balls, as they’

ll spread as they bake.

Bake the cookies for 11 to 12 minutes, until their tops are shiny and cracked.  They won’t crack until the very end, so keep a close eye on them; when they’re cracked all the way across the top surface, they’

re done.  The point is, you want these baked all the way through, but just barely; additional baking makes them more crisp rather than chewy.  Remove the cookies from the oven.  Wait 5 minutes then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Dear Future Husband and Future Children,

While it’s clear that the universe hasn’t yet pressed us together into a family mold, I think it prudent to get a few things about our life out in the open.  You know, for the sake of transparency.

Future Husband!  In all likelihood, I think you’re the coolest guy around.  You’re awesome.  While I’m certain there are things you do that drive me a little mad, the fact that you help me with the dishes and make me tea in the morning just makes me swoon.  I’m a little quirky.  You’re probably a little nutty too.  That’s only  fair.  You should know that I sometimes show my love in… pancakes, piles and piles of warm pancakes.  Pancakes for breakfast.  Pancakes for a snack.  Pancakes for dinner.  Pancakes.  It’s important that you like, no, loooove pancakes and understand that when I make giant plates of them for breakfast, I’m just trying to show you how much I love you.  Deal?

Future Children!  You’re super cute.  You must be just adorable.  You should know that I want to squeeze you constantly.  When I mix up your names, you should know that it’s not that I don’t know your names… it’s just that things get a little complicated when I’m trying to wrangle all y’all.  Eat your broccoli.  It will make you beautiful, or at least that’s what my Mom used to tell me.  When you feel mortified by my very presence in your teenage years, just realize that that’s all part of the game.  I’m actually not that uncool and you’ll realize that at some point.

Also, like I told your father, I’m going to make you piles and piles of pancakes some mornings.  Eat them, because I love you and you love me, and we love pancakes.

Thanks Future Husband.  Thanks Future Children.  I love you like crazy.  K.  Thanks.  Bye.

Future Wife/Future Mother,

Joy

We know what crazy deliciousness happens when fluffy pancakes meets carrot cake.  What could go wrong when fluffy pancakes meet oatmeal raisin cookies?  Nothing, just sheer delicious, breakfast times.  These pancakes are not overwhelmingly sweet, but have just the right balance of fluff, oats, cinnamon and raisins.  With pure maple syrup, these are out of this world!  Show some love.  Make someone pancakes!

Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes

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makes loads of pancakes, enough for four people

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

heaping 1/2 cup old fashioned oats

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

healthy pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

2 cups buttermilk

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup golden raisins

oil or cooking spray (for cooking)

Step 1: In a large bowl beat eggs. Add buttermilk, butter , maple syrup and vanilla and mix well. Add flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Mix well until mostly smooth. Fold in raisins and let batter set for a few minutes.
Step 2: Heat griddle or pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil to the pan or spray with cooking spray. You can test to see if the pan is hot enough by adding a few drops of water,  when the drops start to dance its hot enough.
Step 3: Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter onto the griddle. Cook on the first side until bubbles that form start to pop. You can also gently lift up the pancake to make sure the bottom is not overcooking, if it is the pan may be too hot and you will need to adjust the heat. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook until golden brown. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Let cooked pancakes rest on a heat proof plate in a 200 degree F oven until ready to serve.

I woke up this morning ready to celebrate Friday.  This, despite the fact that I’m convinced that I’m due at least fourteen hours more sleep, and moving past the idea that I deserve a sleep re-do for having fallen asleep with all the light on, teeth unbrushed and (gasp!) bra still on.  I don’t get a do-over, or more sleep… but I do get a Friday, and that’s a little bit of all right with me.

This week, I overheard someone say “Whatever… you know that Thursday is the new Friday.”  Hm… I don’t know where they work, or how they pull that off, but to me “Friday is the same, old Friday”… and sometimes “Saturday is the new Friday” making “Sunday the new weekend”.

Wanting to celebrate Friday as the same, old Friday got me thinking about all the great little moments I had during the week.  You know… the little things- getting a card in the mail from Mom, or finding a crumpled ten dollar bill in your back pocket.

What are the three best things that happened to you this week?   Think on it.  Here’s what I’m workin’ with.

1. I dropped a cake I had just baked on the floor.  We can talk more about that later,  but thought to myself:  ok, well that shouldn’t happen again for another few months.  I’m glad that’s out of the way.  Then I wanted to yell and swear, but there was no one around to hear it, so I didn’t bother.  This restraint for lack of an audience later made me laugh at myself.

2.  I’m sitting here, in this very moment, enjoying a cup of hot tea and a few of my dad’s buttermilk biscuits.  It’s quiet and sunny and just warm enough to not regret my warm covers in the other room.  Quiet simplicity is a week highlight for sure.

3.  I’m going up to Oakland this weekend.  I’m going to wear a dress.  Don’t try to stop me.  Both things are going to happen.

In the meantime, I think you should take these Cinnamon Raisin Pull-Apart Muffins for a spin.

These Pull Apart Muffins might be a problem.  See, they’re as fun to eat as they are delicious.  They’re basically, a pizza crust recipe, patted down, doused with flour, cinnamon and sugar, then tossed with a buttery brown sugar mixture, cut into chunks and packed lightly into a greased muffin tin.  They bake up into loose muffins made up of doughy, spiced chunks of yummy breakfast goodness.

Cinnamon Raisin Pull Apart Muffins

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makes about a dozen muffins.

3 cups flour (can replace up to half of this with whole wheat flour)
2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (may need up to 1 or 2 tablespoons more)
2  tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 Tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

handful of golden raisins (optional)

more flour, granulated sugar and cinnamon for dusting

Stir dry ingredients, including yeast, in a large bowl. Add water and olive oil, stirring mixture into as close to a ball as you can. Dump all clumps and floury bits onto a lightly floured surface and knead everything into a homogeneous ball.

If you are finding this step difficult, one of the best tricks I picked up from my bread-making class is to simply pause. Leave the dough in a lightly-floured spot, put the empty bowl upside-down on top of it and come back in 2 to 5 minutes, at which point you will find the dough a lot more lovable.  The dough should looks like this after the first knead.

Knead it for just a minute or two. Lightly oil the bowl (a spritz of cooking spray perfectly does the trick) where you had mixed it —

one-bowl recipe!-dump the dough in, turn it over so all sides are coated, cover it in plastic wrap and leave it undisturbed for an hour or two, until it has doubled in size.  I placed my bowl of wrapped dough in the fridge overnight instead of leaving it out for two hours.

Dump it back on the floured counter (yup, I leave mine messy), and gently press the air out of the dough with the palm of your hands. Fold the piece into an approximate ball shape, and let it sit under that plastic wrap for 20 more minutes.  If you’ve left your dough in the fridge overnight like I did, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, place the covered bowl of dough near the oven, or on a stovetop burner that doesn’t get too hot, bringing the dough to room temperature faster.  After it’s been out of the fridge for about 30 minutes, dump it onto a floured counter, press the air out and knead the dough into a smooth, happy ball.  Return to the down to warm up a bit more, and rise just a bit more, about 30 minutes more.  Your dough should be doubled in size from the previous night.  The dough should look like this after the second knead.  Smooth!

Grease a muffin pan with vegetable shortening and dust it with flour.  Set aside.  On a well floured work surface, dump out the dough.  Press out with your hands until your dough is about 3/4-inch thick.  The shape doesn’t matter so much.  Begin to cut the dough into small chunks.  Mine were just smaller that one inch chunks.  If the dough sticks to your knife, just flour you knife a bit.  Once cut into chunks, sprinkle the pieces with a bit of flour, a handful of granulated sugar and a generous dusting of ground cinnamon.  Toss on the counter top.

In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, flour, cornstarch, raisins and cinnamon until well combined.  I brought my mixture together with my hands.

Fill the muffin tin to the halfway point with dough chunks, softly packing them in.  Top with about a tablespoon of the sugar mixture, then top with more dough chunks, packing lightly.  Finish with more sugar mixture.  That’s four layers for each muffin.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 12-15 minutes, keeping an eye on them after 12 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes.  Run a sharp knife around the edges of each muffin then gently scoop out of the muffin tin.  Enjoy!

Something happened last night-

It involved me, my space heater, a few comforters, season one of Pushing Daisies, a spoon, and an entire container of chilled rice pudding.

I realized two things last night. One: while Pushing Daisies is beautiful and charming, it’s almost too sweet. It is still, however, an effective way to wish away three hours of a Sunday evening. Two: Yes, my stomach does have the capacity to hold about 8 cups of rice pudding. How awesome is that!?

I ate the whole thing. Fact. Every last creamy, soft, raisin studded, vanilla bite. And the truth? I’d do it all again tonight if I could… and I can… but I won’t. Does that make sense?

This Rice Pudding might be best shared with your family. It’s Super Comfort.  If comfort became a super hero and came to save the day, it would come in the form of this rice pudding.

If you do have to eat the entire thing by yourself, under your covers on a cold night, well…that’s not such a hard cross to bear, is it?

The Best Rice Pudding

The Gourmet Cookbook

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serves 4 to 6

2 cups water

1cup long grain rice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

4 cups whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, split open

1 cup golden raisins

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Stir in lemon zest, salt and long grain rice and return to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer the rice, covered, until all of the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Once rice is cooked, place it in a bowl and rise out pan. Add 4 cups of milk, sugar and vanilla bean to the pan. Bring to a low boil, stirring often so the milk doesn’t burn. Add the cooked rice and raisins to the hot milk. Stir often, until the milk cooks down and the rice is creamy, about 20 minutes. Place in a large bowl or serving dishes to cool. Serve cold or at room temperature.