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Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
It didn’t take me long to make the Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies from Coconut & Lime, did it? My youngest son says I’m in my cayenne phase (he was one of the few that really appreciated my chipotle caramels).
I was doubtful that I would find golden syrup since it is more of a British product but there it was, in our local gourmet shop right by the corn and maple syrups. I have to admit feeling a little thrill when buying imported products for cooking. I feel the same way when I buy McCann’s oatmeal or those pretty cans of Italian tomatoes. Then I feel guilty when I think that the can of golden syrup probably came over on the Queen Mary and my carbon footprint just went up to a size 13.
I’m trying to eat local, really I am.
I finally get to use my Extra Fancy cinnamon (and not so fancy cayenne pepper). I love the simplicity of the Penzeys label and the stamped seal on the jar. Do you get the feeling I am easily manipulated by a pretty face, an alluring label? I’m a marketer’s dream consumer.
I modified the recipe slightly. I didn’t have applesauce so I used more butter (reasoning that applesauce is often used to replace oils) and I used half as much cayenne as the recipe called for. When I mixed it all up the dough seemed really crumbly and dry, undoubtably because I monkeyed around with the original ingredients, so I added about four tablespoons of milk. This dough could easily be rolled into a log and sliced like refrigerator cookies. I used a small scoop and then flattened the dough with the bottom of a glass I dipped in sugar (cinnamon sugar would have been better).
The cookies are probably a little bit spicy for most tastes (at least the crowd I run around with). I would cut the cayenne down to 1/2 tsp. They would make a perfect dunking cookie. They are crisp, yet a bit chewy too.
Fun with Flickr toys
Fun Flickr game via Happy Zombie. You answer the following questions and then search for your answer on Flickr. Pick one photo from the first page of results and add it to your favorites. Create a mosiac that depicts your answers.
1. Your first name: Andrea
2. Your favorite food: Mexican
3. The name of your High School: Cubberley
4. What is your favorite color: Pink
5. Celebrity crush: Ernest Borgnine
6. Favorite beverage: Chardonnay
7. Dream vacation: Paris
8. Favorite dessert: Creme brulee
9. What do you want to be when you grow up: Content
10. What do you love most in this life: Rick (I accidently read this as who….)
11. One word that describes you: Practical
12. Name of your blog: Under a Blue Moon
I decided I would go with the photo that jumped out at me the most, rather than one that most accurately depicted my answer.
The picture that jumped out at me for question No. 2 was the bright lime cup with the chocolate cookies. But what really reeled me in was the link to the recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies. Does that ever sound good or what?
And I actually used to have a crush on Ernest Borgnine. There. The whole world knows it now. It was back when I was about eight years old and McHale’s Navy was on.
Our own Stellaluna
I’m starting out this post with a semi-cute picture of a bat because down below there is a decidedly NOT so cute picture. Consider yourself warned.
We have been keeping Belle confined to the laundry room and garage at night (and she can also go outside if she wants) because of her predilection for bringing home night time guests and letting them go in our bedroom. Like the occasional bird or rat or mouse. Most of the time they are pretty much unscathed. I think she is bringing them in because she likes all the excitement of us hopping around trying to rescue the poor creatures.
So on Saturday morning I wake up around 6:15am and go to feed her. I opened the laundry room door and there is this thing swooping about. I screamed and ran outside. The creature, now identified as a bat, was now hanging upside down just above the door to the deck (the laundry room has three doors – one to the kitchen, one to the garage and the one to the deck). We closed off the access to the kitchen and opened the door to the deck so it could fly out. Only it didn’t want to budge. So Rick went to the garage door and opened it slightly and started throwing towels and sponges at it (you work with what you have in a laundry room).
It just kind of crawled about a bit but didn’t fly out, cooperatively, like we were hoping. Rick then gets a long PVC pipe and gently nudged it which did make it fly around so Rick slammed the garage door shut and when we peeked back into the laundry room we didn’t see it anywhere. I was watching the deck door from the safety of the kitchen window and I didn’t see it fly out so I made Rick check everywhere in the laundry room.
So we hoped for the best and went about our business when about a half hour later it started swooping around the kitchen. I ran back outside and asked Rick to toss my car keys because I was leaving. For ever.
The little bat landed on top of my cookbooks and seemed content to stay there. Rick got out his shop vac and sucked it up and took it outside and let it go. It flew out and landed on a post and we knew that Belle would just bring it back into the house. So Rick put on some gloves and carried it out by the creek and let it go there.
Okay now for the icky picture………
I was not that close to the bat – I stood as far back as I could and used the zoom lens to take the picture. That is a face only a mother bat could love.
The book Stellaluna is a lovely read if you have small children. We have a copy of it packed away somewhere.
Okay, maybe one more
I was procrastinating yesterday. I needed to turn in a Microsoft Project plan and I hate MS Project. So I kept finding other things to do.
I need to work on my stuffing skills. I thought I had it thoroughly stuffed and could barely stitch it closed but when I bound it with the embroidery floss the felt still kind of puckered.
This time I sewed on the embellishments before stitching the top to the bottom. Much easier. Here’s a little tip – I didn’t want to go to the trouble of fusing the hearts in place but I did want them to stay put while I was doing the blanket stitch around the edges. So I rummaged through my paper craft supplies and got my adhesive dispenser (it rolls out a thin film of double sided adhesive for adhering paper bits together) and just put a bit on one side of each heart and them positioned them.
Last Friday I had to make an emergency run to our local antique mall. I broke my makeup brush holder and wanted to find a replacement (which I did – a small hobnail glass three footed vase). This place has aisle after aisle of booths belonging to different vendors. I was on the last aisle and saw an entire shelf filled with jelly jars of different colored buttons. Each jar was $4. I bought the two jars that had white and ivory colored buttons in them. The are a mix of plastic and mother of pearl but I don’t care. I just like all the creamy tones.
Look at that big old button on top – can’t you just picture your grandmother buttoning up her thick, woolly cardigan and stuffing a handkerchief up her sleeve? That’s what I see when I look at it.
When I brought the two jars of buttons up to the counter the girl ringing me up asked if I was buying them for the buttons or for the jars. I looked at the jars, both Smucker’s jam jars circa 2006 (which to my knowledge aren’t a collectible) and seeing the puzzled look on my face she snapped “it’s a valid question.” How can anyone not know the siren song of a collection of buttons?
Have a splendid weekend everyone.
