Red Velvet Moon Pies

 Last night was a total Lunar eclipse. It was also the Winter Solstice, a day I look forward to mainly because from now on the days will get longer. My plan for the evening was to go to the Tulane parking deck to watch it. Even though it's brightly lit, the sky was still decently visible. Plus, I love the view up there. You can see clear to downtown, with the lights on the Crescent City Connection and the soft glow of the Superdome. My companions decided to stay in, but it was nice anyway. Very peaceful, at least. Just me, New Orleans, and the red Moon. It was even kind of warm.

But you see, I'd make these cookies in honor of the occasion, and now I had no one to share them with. There are few things better than sharing cookies, so I hightailed it out of there and headed to karaoke at Le Bon Temps (every Monday, if you live in New Orleans, you should go). My friend brought his telescope and set it up outside the bar. So I stood outside with him, his delightful girlfriend, and a bunch of drunks and watched the moon turn a watery red. The cookies were perfect. So was New Orleans, at least for a little bit.

These are easy to make. The batter is pretty liquidy; it resembles cake batter rather than cookie dough. Don't doubt, just roll with it. (Edited to add that I got the recipe here, and only really tweaked the frosting.)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk (Or you can cheat and use plain milk and a splash of vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs. Once it's all creamed nicely, add in the buttermilk, extract, and food coloring. Mix in the dry ingredients in batches, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Drop the batter by tablespoonfuls onto your cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the centers look set. Let cool on the sheets for a minute or two, then move to a rack. They might stick a bit; mine did.

While your cookies are cooling, you should make the filling. It's cream cheese frosting. My approach is rather free-form. I'll adjust amounts until I get the right consistency, which in this case is slightly runny. Once you've made the frosting, smear 1 tablespoon (or enough to get a nice layer without it squelching out when you bite into it) of it on a cookie and then slap on another cookie. Sandwich made!

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2ish teaspoons of milk
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Beat together cream cheese and butter, then mix in vanilla. Start adding the powdered sugar bit by bit. Add in milk as needed to keep the frosting smooth. You can add more or less sugar as needed to get the right texture. I don't like really sweet frosting, so I play with the milk content instead. You're going to have a ton extra.

Makes 13ish sandwiches.

Linzer Cookies

I bake to relieve stress. This is almost certainly why I gained weight in grad school, but everyone else enjoyed the fruits of my labor, so it was worth it. I bring this up because today was not a good day. My Christmas/New Year's plans were dealt a setback by the Gentleman in Question's company. We've had to change a significant part of our trip to DC, and it was unclear for a bit how this would affect my flights. Several phone calls to the travel website later, and at least one crying fit (sometimes I regress to being a whiny teenager, deal with it), we got it worked out, hopefully for real.

So to deal with the frustration of dealing with online travel companies, I made Linzer Cookies. They are delicious and pretty! The darker ones got a bit overcooked because I was arguing with a travel man on the phone. You should make them. And hopefully while not arguing with customer service representatives.


Ingredients:
2  cups  all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
3/4  cup  granulated sugar
1/2  cup  butter, softened
1/4  cup  egg substitute
1/4  cup  seedless raspberry jam

Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg substitute. Blend in the dry ingredients, adding them slowly. Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap, flattening it into a disk. Chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 and roll the dough out to 1/8-1/4" thickness. Using a jar or a pint glass, cut out round shapes. Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out center shapes in half the disks. Re-roll scraps and cut more shapes, until there's none left. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool completely. Spread 1/2 teaspoon of jam on the whole cookies, and place the holey cookies on top, smushing together. Chill in the fridge and eat!

I got 12, but you could get more if you used smaller cutters.

The Sweater Curse

 All female knitters are told early in their learning process that they should never, ever, knit their boyfriend a sweater. Because if a female knitter were to make that mistake, said boyfriend would break up with her.

There are a multitude of theories regarding this phenomenon. All assume that the man in question does not like knitting. Or commitment. The most common, contemporary theory, argues that a handknit sweater is a symbol of love and devotion, given that it takes quite a while to make such an item. This potent symbol of regard and affection thus scares off the fickle man, who apparently wants a woman who's not that in to him. He never wears it, and it languishes in the closet as the woman stews over his ingratitude. He dumps her for her clingyness and moves on to a hipper girl.

Poppycock. Balderdash, I say! Why do we give men so little credit? Male knitters aren't told anything like this; there's no reverse sweater curse where your girlfriend leaves you crying over a pile of wool. Moreover, while obviously there are men who are afraid of lasting ties, there are just as many who would love to be with someone who loves them enough to wrangle with the wool.

No, I think there's more going on with the sweater curse phenomenon, and I have my own theory, developed during my year working in the yarn store. One of the most common customer complaints was that the recipients of these beautiful, lovingly crafted pieces, were completely ungrateful. I heard countless stories of daughters and daughters-in-law holding up the delicate white baby sweater and saying, "Oh, that's nice." Or the teen son looking at the new sweater his mother made with a sneer. Such an item could never be cool! What many of these knitters failed to account for was the personal taste of the recipient. Just as you don't buy a vegan a box of dry aged beef, you don't knit a lacy pink sweater for a baby girl whose mom is into death metal. In short, know your audience.

The fact of the matter is this: for many knitters, the effort that goes into a sweater is immense. You stretch your boundaries, try something new. You make mistakes and have to rip back. There's drama and personal growth! But no matter how much love you put in this sweater, it will never mean as much to the recipient as it means to you. If you are not prepared to accept that fact, then you should only knit for yourself.

He bought the yarn himself in Iceland.

However, if you are willing to forgo the surprise element, and knit something that you personally may not like, there is a way to knit successfully for others. The solution to this problem is to ask your intended recipient, no matter how close the relation, if they would like you to make something. And you must commit to not being offended if your intended recipient says no. Then, you make the recipient pick the yarn (or at least colors) and the pattern. The object becomes a collaboration, with a greater chance for success.

All of this to explain that I'm knitting the Gentleman in Question a sweater.

Peanut and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here I present cookie #2 in my December cookie project. I realize they look a lot like cookie #1, but I assure you, they taste completely different. I gave half to Diana, and her response was to offer me anything I wanted in exchange for making her several batches...

They're easy to make. I used this recipe, with no alterations. The only thing I'd do differently is add more chocolate. Also, toasting the peanuts is completely essential. Mine were lightly salted; I'm not sure there are unsalted peanuts in stores anymore.


Ingredients:

1/4  cup  unsalted butter, softened
1/2  cup  granulated sugar
1/2  cup  packed brown sugar
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
1  large egg
1  cup  all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
1/3  cup  semisweet chocolate chips
1/3  cup  coarsely chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts
1/2  teaspoon  coarse sea salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350, and toast the peanuts on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Cream together the butter and sugars, then add the vanilla and egg. Mix thoroughly, then add in the dry ingredients. Once it's all together, stir in the peanuts, chocolate, and extra salt. Drop by spoonfuls on the cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and try not to eat them all. Makes 24 cookies.

Cranberry Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another long pause, I know. I've been traveling a lot. However, I don't want this to turn into a blog about how I don't blog, so instead I'd like to tell you about my project for December: Christmas Cookies. I announced it on Facebook and got some excellent suggestions. A frenzy of googling followed. I found this recipe from Cooking Light and decided to make it, with some changes. These were made December 1st, and turned out pretty well. My friend ate the four I gave her in under a minute. 

A few notes: you should consider upping the cranberry content. They're delightful. The chocolate amount given is somewhat negligible. I'll leave it out next time, since we hardly noticed it.


Ingredients:
5 tablespoons  butter, softened
3/4 cup  packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons  honey
3/4 teaspoon  vanilla extract
2 eggs 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup  regular oats
1/2 teaspoon  baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  baking soda
1/4 teaspoon  salt
1/4 cup  dried cranberries
2 1/2 tablespoons  finely chopped walnuts
2 1/2 tablespoons  semisweet chocolate minichips

Directions:
Cream together the butter and sugar. Once it's mixed, add honey, vanilla, and eggs. Mix thoroughly. Add in the rest of the ingredients, mixing well after each addition. (Yes, I know you're supposed to mix the dry stuff together first, and then beat into the butter stuff, but I don't have a dishwasher, and I had enough to wash as it was.) Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop the dough onto the cookie sheet by tablespoon (you should get 36 smallish cookies), and bake for 10 minutes. Let them cool, and try not to eat them all at once.