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02/14/2006
Being Julia
My friends, it is time to move on. Taking a page from Julia, whose breezy determination is a model for us all, I will wrestle the conversation into less turbulent channels by posting a recipe and a photo of a cute child.
This recipe is for what I call miscarriage cookies. They are that good. They have seen me through dark times on more than one occasion. These cookies are magnificent on their own, better with a glass of port, and better still with a vintage Percocet.
Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Toffee and Dried Cherries
From Regan Daley's In the Sweet Kitchen
Makes 40 large cookies (or 4 dozen if you're using my largeish cookie scoop, or none if you eat the batter raw, which I have been known to do).
2-1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. butter, at room temperature
1 c. tightly packed brown sugar
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 lg. eggs
1-1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. plump, moist dried sour cherries
1 c. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, in chunks the size of the cherries
1 c. Skor Bits
- Preheat oven to 350º. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.
- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. (I use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.) Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the side of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla. Incorporate the flour mixture in 3 increments, blending just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in the chunky ingredients until they are evenly distributed.
- Do what you need to do — baking one sheet at a time, changing the position of your oven racks, selling plasma to afford an expensive convection oven — to assure even baking. Drop batter by heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheets and bake them in the middle of the oven for 15-18 minutes, or until barely set in the center and just firm around the edges. Cool on baking sheet for 3–5 minutes and then transfer to rack to cool completely, or stuff great molten handfuls into your mouth until your tongue is naught but a blistered, meaty slab. Your choice.
There. Now I can close and selectively prune the comments on the previous post, hopeful that we will all be too busy baking, drinking, or abusing narcotics to say any more on that matter.
Thank you all so much for your kind birthday wishes. This morning I tried to remember how I spent my birthday last year, and I couldn't. (Research reveals that I've blocked it out for good reason.) This year is better in every way. This is where the cute kid comes in. Picture it, if you will...
Charlie books it down the hall towards the bedrooms, looking back over his shoulder to make sure I'm crawling after him. I am, in the least suspenseful low-speed chase since OJ made a break for it. I let him reach the bathroom before I do. I hear the tumble of the spindle as he pulls a long ribbon of toilet paper off the roll. I let him go at it for a moment, then scoop him up into my arms and threaten to indenture him to the Blue Man Group. By way of apology, he makes a sweet and mournful sound through his PVC tubulum as I carry him back down the hall.
As Julia might say, isn't he sweet?
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Yes, he is. You're a lucky woman. Happy Birthday again.
Sigh. I like good cookie recipes. I lurve cute Charlie pics. I like this post. :)
I'm having a dark day today, and I think a batch of those blue men ought to be the perfect rememdy. I mean cookies. Right. Cookies.
Your son is...
cute enough to jolly me out of a killer funk, all on his little downy-headed own.
Oh dear, there goes my waistline...
(also, um, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)
Oh that boy...I want to eat him more than I want to eat the cookies. In a good way.
Happy B-Day.
I was hoping for a picture of Charlie dressed as Cupid...better yet, one of Paul.
Very cute boy! Happy Birthday!
Yummy cookies,Yummy baby. Happy birthday julie!!
Very cute boy.
I *love* Blue Man Group.
I *really love* Blue Man Baby.
Brilliant! Happy Birthday.
Thanks for the recipe - so do I have to actually miscarry - or can I eat them now?
I love you so much - that I'm naming all of my follicles after you. Julie#1, Julie#2 . . .Julie#60 (yes I said 60?!) No promises on the embryos - maybe if there is a really witty one w/ excellent grammer (unlikely as I'm not even sure if I spelled grammer correctly - grammar?). Seeing Charlie reminds me why I'm going through all this - Thanks!
'Hollywood lick'! ('Cause I can't quite bring myself to even e-lick for real)
Recent reader, first-time commenter saying Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday! Charlie is simply charming. And I might have to go write a mean post about you on my blog because Blue Man Baby made me laugh really, really hard, and I injured myself when I fell on the ice the other day and it makes my ribs hurt to laugh. Kinda worth it, though....
aww what a little man Charlie is!!
can i borrow him, just to hug him and squeeze him for just a *little while*?
look at me, i went from foul seething anger to squishy babyluv in one click of the mouse.
thank you :) and happy birthday (belated?)
Hey! Happy birthday! Excellent Charlie picture. I keep being surprised that he's so blond.
I have used a variation of this cookie recipe for a couple of years now, minus the Dutch-process cocoa, with the addition of chopped pecans and some oatmeal, and I LOVE it. But when I decided to make a batch this past Christmas, I couldn't find the Skor pieces and finally found Butter Brickle pieces which simply did not melt the same. Alas.
HB (today? yesterday?) and many more.
Happy birthday!!
And hmm, let me think... Cookies? Or Charlie?? Your son wins by a mile!! He is sooooo cute!
Its the look in his eyes and his smile that just crack me up! I also love that he's looking at you (and the camera) and yet his arm is still yankin' and yankin'.
Happiest of days.
Kel
Happy Birthday Valentine girl! And thanks for the yummy recipe. I LOVE Penzey's spices.
I emailed you last week a question about starting the whole fertility process. Did you get it? My question is rather large. My husband and I have been trying off and on (mostly on) for over 4 years. Now I want some answers as to why. Do I start at my regular physician and get a referal to a specialist or should I seek out a specialist? Most of the infertility talk on these sites goes over my head right now. I just want to know where to start. Thanks! And happy birthday.
Sugar and a cute baby.
A perfect combination!
Ah, the little varmints always trying to liberate the magical cardboard middles from their 2-ply paper prisons... is there anything that holds more allure for a barely-mobile baby than the toilet paper roll?
Good stuff...
oh my gosh! you endentured Charlie to the Blue Man Group ....how freakin funny is that?! Great pics!!!
ah, that divilish look in his eye. and that chubbly hand. sigh.
oooh, i have that cookbook. it's fabulous.
happy birthday!
I love it! But isn't this an oxymoron?
1 c. plump, moist dried sour cherries
Heehee!
Happy Birthday!
Wow. It's amazing how on the day i find out that my pregnancy isn't viable, someone posts a recipe for miscarriage cookies. Now i have a fun way to pass the time while i wait for my uterus to explode! Seriously, this brought a half smile to my face - something i didn't think i'd be doing for... a really long time.
Thanks, and happy birthday.
Meg
*imagine John,Paul,George,and Ringo*
"They say it's your birthday...(cool guitar sounds)"
Happy, happy birthday!
Glad to see you're sending Charlie out to earn his keep.
Does he get a full quarter share from the BMG?
Hey, Julie, mind if I include this entry in Floor Cake Fest 2006?
So clearly your blog is influencing my own personal universe, because directly -- and I mean within 60 seconds -- of reading this post, my 16-month-old came toddling into the living room with one end of the toilet paper, a loooong ribbon winding behind her all the way back to the bathroom. What is it with toilet paper??
He is beyond perfect. Beyond. That look in his eyes in that picture. Oh and I have to ask...do you keep a camera permanently strapped to your neck? I can never ever capture those perfect moments the way you do!
Happy belated birthday...and cheers to an awesome year for your happy little family.
Boy is he going to be a trouble maker...you can see it in that face he gave you while he's tearing into the tp...hehehehe...so cute!!
And cookies...drool...love chocolate & cherries. Can you tell me what Dutch-process is though? I don't know if they have that at Dominicks - or if I have to go find is somewhere special.
Toni, Dutch-process chocolate has been treated to neutralize its acids, so any recipe that has Dutch-process as an ingredient will have a different amount/kind of leavening than one that calls for plain old cocoa (Hershey's, for example). You can't just use them interchangeably because, well, chemistry.
Droste is the brand of Dutch-process I see most often in stores.
Laura, I don't know what it is, but, damn, now I want to go unroll some myself.
A day late, but happy birthday to you!
OMG - what a face (I know I'm not supposed to be doing this but ....)!
Happy Birthday to you.
You're a Valentines baby? Who'da thunk it?? Happy VD or BD, either.
Can't... stand.. cuteness... aaaagh! *watches in horror as heart explodes out of chest, Itchy 'n Scratchy-style*
He's such a gargantuan boy now!
Sandy: I know! I routinely find myself telling J.Q., "Okay, now just keep doing that cute thing for TWO MORE MINUTES while I find the camera!"
Charlie is the cutest thing I've seen at that age since...well, since P was that age. Absolutely perfect. Julie, you and Paul done good :-)
And thanks for the cookie recipe. Can I use it just for failing to get pregnant month after month, or do I actually have to have a miscarriage to use it?
These almost like my sister in law's oatmeal cookies, which are also to die for. I could eat a batch of those after a miscarriage. In fact, I think I did.
Cookies "candies" (our word for coma inducing drugs) and wine. Is there anything else?
Oh, maybe chocolate.
Happy Birthday, Julie!
And holy crap, suddenly Charlies looks exactly like my cousin did at his age!
Charlie's beyond cute! Happy birthday and many, many more!
That picture of the Charlie in the blue man group is freakin' hilarious. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it. And happy birthday to you.
And thanks thanks thanks for sharing that cookie recipe. I will try it this weekend, in the midst of studying for my exam. :-)
I like his stripes! Do you always dress him like a robber? (I always stick my kids in stripes, and we joke that my 2 year old looks like hamburglar half the time. Just wondering if others tend to do the same.)
The cookies sound good. But Charlie is even sweeter! LOVE the prisoner suit - perfect for miscreants, or misunderstood rebels. ("Who is number one?" "I am not a number, I am a free man!") We had some sleepers like that, and they were always our favourites.
Charlie looks fabulous! Especially in blue. Happy Birthday, too!
Ooh, these look like great bribe material for my clinic. These look so yummy, I'm so sorry I cannot eat them -- I've got to see if I can figure out a low glycemic version.
Happy Birthday, you fecally exothermic cookie-fiend!
I will be making those for co-workers int he near future, me thinks.
If those cookies are as good as that baby is cute, I'll be throwing away my scales!
Happy Birthday from me too
Happy Birthday, Julie!
Happy birthday, funny lady! No crack-licking here (please, I blush at the very thought, being a paragon of delicate Southern VARtue), but you make me laugh so often, and so indelicately (my lord, that post about the poop, in the seat, and the Bjorn spoon...I was hugely pregnant when you wrote that and it nearly killed me AND the baby), and you're such a jaw-droppingly decent human being, what with the charity and the quilt raffles and...Julie, I want to be you when I grow up. But maybe without, as Tertia maintains that you do, looking like Lionel Ritchie.
Happy Birthday! Cookies sound divine...can't wait to go make some. Wish I could make me a Charlie, too.