Foodie

Last week, in my pit of despair, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. I had imported my very own personal stash of brow

n sugar, both dark and light, along with a package of chocolate chips. Baking has always been something that relieves my stress, so it was the perfect accompaniment to last week's mental and emotional breakdown. Plus at the end, I had cookie dough.

Because I used real butter and not shortening, I froze the cookies before baking them. This resulted in them being much more rounded and cookie-like rather than appearing like an unrolled waffle cone.

I have to give a shout out here to the McMeekin family. For my graduation present, they gave me heart shaped measuring cups. I was unaware these even existed, but let me tell you, that with eyes still a little puffy from crying, they brought me great joy as I measured flour and sugar.

One thing I forgot when I came to Spain was teaspoons and tablespoons. Never fear though, we have actual tea and tablespoons, so I was able to fudge it. (Mm. Fudge - now there's an idea...)

Faby doesn't have a wide selection of baking accoutrements, but her sister owns this fabulous machine that is a combination of a food processor with a heating element. You can make pretty much anything with it. Fortunately, we had borrowed it to make a Roquefort cheese sauce and it was still in our kitchen.

The only thing that was off about the dough and subsequently the cookies was the use of fake vanilla. It makes a big difference. Try using real, quality vanilla in your next recipe and you will notice that it is much more delicious. And worth the price difference if you happen to love baked goods - which I do. I will be importing a big bottle of the quality stuff after Christmas (gift idea... ;)

Anyway, my Spanish friends don't know what the cookies are supposed to taste like. Over the course of this week, I have eaten my fair share of frozen dough. Today I went on an excursion with Patri and Steffan to two of the Pueblos Blancos: Arcos de la Frontera and Zahara. Zahara was my favorite. I will blog about it later.

I decided it was the perfect opportunity to bake 24 of the frozen clusters of dough and chocolate.

I was a bit nervous about how they would turn out. Faby told me not to worry because I made them with lots of love. (Aw.) They turned out fantastic! My friends loved them and I thought they were okay. (I'm a little overdosed on sweets.) However, I am very pleased that they turned out and were a hit.

Also, Steffan tried peanut butter for the first time. I have Smart Balance. He thought it was too salty. I think he'd like Jif. Patri had never had peanut butter but didn't end up trying it. Maybe some other day!

*Note: the cooling rack pictured here (another essential baking tool) is actually the oven rack!