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I have everything I need to make these maple sugar cookies - except, tonight, the time, so tomorrow shall be the day of their creation!

I discovered the recipe in an American cookie cookbook (that I discovered on the shelves at work - a bakery) by the lady Dionysus of cookies: Nancy Baggett. My gloriously great aunt Jean blessed me with a copy of her International Cookie Cookbook, which inspired my plans for my future coffeehouse to include and emphasize not only a gourmet latte bar, but also a gourmet cookie bar. I wish I could afford to send every person who ever reads this blog a copy of this cookbook. Actually, I wish more that I could afford for myself a copy of each of her regional cookie-books, because there are many other gems like the following one that did not make the International cut. But obviously the best-of is an ok place to start!

Anyway! I had been enticed by some maple sugar at my nearby food co-op the other day, and I have been so good at abstaining from sweets for the past few days so that I could actually start denting my list of things to bake faster than it can grow (and for health reasons), so when I found this recipe I knew it was time…

I am going to share it before I bake it. Reformatted during transcription, of course, to my preferences :) Which, by the way, is very near to the formatting in my favourite cookbook (part of what makes it my fave), Simply in Season.

1 1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

Thorougly stir together in medium-sized bowl and set aside.

1/2 c maple sugar
1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/2 c sugar (I am tempted to experiment with removing this, but I must start making first attempts at recipes exactly as they are written)

Beat together in large bowl until very light and well-balanced.

1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat in until evenly incorporated, then stir in flour mixture until just evenly incorporated. Dough will be fairly soft, but if it is too soft to handle, let stand five-ten minutes, or until firmed up slightly.

Divide dough in half and place each portion between large sheets of wax paper. Roll out each portion 1/8-inch thick; check underside of dough and smooth out any wrinkles that form. Stack rolled portions on a baking sheet and refrigerate for about one hour, or until cold and firm.

Working with one portion at a time, gently peel away, then pat one sheet of paper back into place. Flip dough over, then peel off and discard second sheet. Using a 2 1/2 - 3-inch maple lead-shaped cutter, cut out cookies; if cutter sticks, occasionally dip into powdered sugar, tapping off excess. (If at any point dough is too soft to handle, re-refrigerate for a while.) Carefully transfer cookies to greased baking sheets, spacing about 1 1/2-inch apart. Reroll dough scraps until all are gone. Sprinkle cookies liberally with coarse sugar.

Bake one sheet at a time in upper third of preheated 350F oven for 6-9 minutes, or until just slighly coloured on top and faintly tinged brown at edges. Reverse sheet halfway through baking to ensure even browning. Immediately transfer to wire racks and let stand until completely cooked. Cool sheets between batches.

So the recipe seems to assume that you use two baking sheets, so as not to end up with melted gooey unshapely maple leaves as the soft dough lays on a hot sheet.

We’ll see how they go :)

I visited Anthropologie and Sur La Table today, and I cooed at many things but purchased only a select few: Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking, a set of six coconut wood spoons (because metal irritates my teeth when I use it to eat cold things), and a maple leaf cookie cutter for the cookies. (This was by far the hardest thing to find for them! It’s ’cause I’m not in Canada anymore, Dorothy…) Some of Anthropologie’s measuring spoon sets, such as stackable giraffes, make me wish I had not already replaced Daniel’s obtuse old one. I suppose I can survive without them. But I don’t know. Stackable giraffe measuring spoons…

On my way back downtown I had to stop at Target to acquire a hand mixer? egg beater? you know, one of those mechanical hand-held whisking devices. Because I can’t really afford nor do I need a mixer at this time, and if I ever make bread by hand, anyway, I won’t mind kneading it out in the process, which is the only thing I can think of wanting to make that is beyond the capabilities of a food processor or eggbeaterhandmixerwhiskything. The former of which I still need to acquire, definitely used since it’s the kind of thing many brides might receive only to never use and thus resell cheaply. So I got my… whisk machine, and isn’t it funny how the cheapest of a choice of products can often have the best qualities? Manufacturers just know they can con some people out of twice as much money for simply more attractive products. Anyway, I have also been on the hunt for an affordable new swimsuit, because my current one was bought out of cheapness and desperation and I want to be swimming a lot this summer. (Indeed I have a gym membership to uphold now) So, I tried this on, and they didn’t have my size in stock but viola! Here she is! My new suit! A glorious thing about tankinis is the tank can also make a great everyday top, and I know this one will. So this brings me happiness :) I am glad to have found something elegant and prettily designed but not loud. Soooo many suits I was finding with the right designs were way too loud in fabric choice.

Also on the way back downtown I passed Namaste Cafe, which I have passed many times before but always categorised as a restaurant rather than a hangout cafe. Which is accurate but it’s very chill, maybe not so much a place to set up home and crochet for hours but definitely a place that welcomes one of those passionate conversations that can sometimes make a meal out take hours. And when I talked to Daniel about what we would do when he got off work, he expressed disinterest in heading home right away, so I suggested we reprise there. It’s in a totally sweetly low-’tude house with the prettiest gauzy phtalo blue drapes I’ve ever seen on its bathroom window, a nice patio with lots of street action to watch, and offers an affordable, classy menu. If there is anywhere I would want to begin a career as a server (it is a come-to-you service place), the Namaste Cafe is it. And yes, I am thinking about it.

So that does it! :) That is where I will have my birthday dinner. I really want to cook a feast, but there just aren’t going to be enough committed people for it here.

I am also planning on braiding my wet hair to sleep on the night before, because it’s hella cute but too much of a pain in the ass to do more than, say, once a year.

It feels good to have many things to be excited about :)

I’ve had a number of very heavy grocery trips while Daniel is working during a day off of mine, but this one took the pancakes that I bought organic whole wheat pastry flour for. (I read the labels of various flours and realised all I really use flour for is baking, so…) And it doesn’t help when I find fabulously original things like DRY Soda’s lavender soda on the shelves, which make you buy them simply because of how persistently you doubt they’re actually as good as they sound. (Oh but it is.) Nor when you’re addicted to mangoes and watermelon. I’m always a little worried about breaking my collarbone again during these trips, but I suppose I am even more determined to endure them to strengthen it…

On the subject of mangoes: the other day I made what I’ll shorthand Heidi’s “quinoa-meal” (because it is so like my favourite way to eat oatmeal: blueberries and nuts and maple syrup) with our sweet, stringy, succulent yellow friends instead of berries, and I highly recommend you do so as well. Ms. Swanson’s blog functions as my second most-used turn-to recipe source. I wonder how many of us there are out there! Someday I will order her first cookbook because of how interested in grains I am getting, and because of her method of writing very basic, malleable recipes. The time certainly comes soon…

Some recent things:

We are trying out and loving cinnamon toothpaste :) Fennel isn’t quite astringent enough for a toothpaste, honestly.

Two brilliant concerts, quite the opposite of one another: Saul Williams and the Minnesota Orchestra’s performance of Schubert and Mahler. I told Daniel at the latter that I wouldn’t mind naming a male son Gustav, but I’m still fondest of Odin. For a girl we like Esther, for various commonly meaningful reasons but especially because I can sing Madonna’s “Little Star” to her every bedtime until she is old enough to do it better than me. Anyway! Saul was totally intimate and immediate and electric and erotic and had the best stage presence of any performer I’ve seen, and he ended the show with his encore: the first thing I ever heard him speak, ,said the shotgun to the head. He came out with a gorgeous headdress and gradually shed much of his attire. What a metaphor. He is such an insightful, important artist. Dan found out about the orchestra at the last moment, and bought the last-ish four tickets which naturally were also the four worst seats. But for listening to sounds in a good venue that doesn’t matter anyway. Ah, the kicker - when we arrived and picked up our tickets… someone in the front row must have cancelled, and so all that was between us and the harps was the hop onto the stage! Harp-plucking is such a beauty to watch. I was really quite distracted by it. Overall a huge treat… I hadn’t seen an orchestra since the tenth grade, on a choir/band trip to Vancouver. And were we all too young and antsy and on a holiday with all the people we spend the days with and full of deep fried chicken feet!… Or at least Andrew was so daring… good times…

Finally caved in to these shirred-butt undies from American Apparel, partly justifying the investment as research. And you know what? They are so comfortable! It makes so much sense! Other undies are so baggy. There are two cheeks! Bras have two cups. So why don’t panties have two sections? Well I guess thanks to American Apparel, and myself in the future because I can get 100% organic cotton jersey and make the leg holes higher and wider, there are now… aren’t there?
Closer and closer I get to the perfect undies :)

I maayyy become the manager of the bakery I work at :) boy do we need a formal one, and boy could I use the experience. Work has been particularly nutty lately, particularly work-all-day-with-one-ten-minute-break-and-still-you-can’t-possibly-accomplish-everything-that-ought-to-be-done. A day off was sweet, and what a sweet warm day for it. As usual I met Daniel for lunch, for which I ingested the most yuuuuUMAMI-licious turkey wild rice soup. My favourite soup. The time we spent together afterward seemed to last forever.

Later he registered us at a gym, because I want to swim every single day.

I am kind of curious about ordering earrings from the people I derived my wooden crochet hooks from, which they finish in the same pretty way. Something neat I have ordered recently and definitely is this stamp set from Hero Arts that I will use for the labels on the sold attire I produce for my attire label, the lack of which has been holding me back from finishing projects. The garment and the description and endorsement of the garment are one expression…

Daniel is working on ripping out some music from his soul :) Lots and lots of music, all the music that built up inside him while he succumbed to the corporate succubus. It is a wonderful thing to hear. Who needs human babies? Not us. He has sound, and I have yarn… and the equipment is as expensive as 2.5 children…

I need to write to his aunt.