See here for my first strategy at cheering myself up. But now I've come home to chocolate chip cookies that I made yesterday and discovered that they are a pretty good way to cheer up as well. 
Here's the recipe, which is my mom's usual chocolate chip cookie recipe, edited for my personal taste. (Part of my personal taste is doubling the recipe because I tend to think that you might as well double cookie recipes that freeze well.)
ETA: watching the Sox make it into the playoffs also helps. Thank you, Jim Thome and TBS (for out-of-market broadcast). Oh, and Jenks, way to be!
2 cups softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 cups packed brown sugar
4 eggs
5 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 bag milk chocolate chips
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz. white chocolate chips
Fleur de sel
1/ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2/ Cream the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
3/ In another bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4/ Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
5/ Stir in the chocolate chips.
6/ Form and place golf-ball-size cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet (note: I usually make them about 2 teaspoons of dough, which seems about right, and always use a Silpat.)
7/ Place a large pinch of fleur de sel on each cookie. (Note: this is out of the NYTimes perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe from this summer, and I think it's brilliant. I can't remember the last time I craved a chocolate chip cookie, but the cookies with salt are crave-worthy. But I've been told it's not universally beloved, so since most of this batch is being shipped out, I only put salt on the ones I was keeping for myself.)
8/ Bake for 9 minutes. (They won't look like they're done, but the sugar will continue cooking even when they're out of the oven.)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
shockingly, chocolate chip cookies also make me feel better
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Guarunteed Happiness
Seriously, the best ever. Thanks to KZ (and family) for spreading the joy over to the West Coast!!
Friday, September 19, 2008
things that look like poop
My ex-housemate Gretchen is known for her pithy and accurate life observations. Once, when one of us was apologizing that the dinner we'd made looked like, well, crap, Gretchen pointed out that "we've eaten tons of things that looked like poop and they were fantastic!" That's how I feel about this casserole. It's not much of a looker, but, oh man, is it tasty.
I celebrated my oven being fixed by making up a double recipe of this baby yesterday, which means that I also packaged up lunches for today and all next week.
It's the Caribbean Sweet Potato Gratin from Moosewood New Classics. I don't feel right posting the recipe, because you should all own this cookbook if you don't already. I'm actually trying very hard to think of any cookbook that has made me as happy. Which is saying a lot because I'm very fond of my cookbooks. (Maybe my waffle cookbook. Maybe.) But, basically, it's sweet potatoes, rice, black beans, and spinach layered with a coconut milk/lime juice/garlic/thyme mixture and topped with a cornmeal topping. And fantastic. Just writing about it makes me want to go heat up some. Luckily, I have plenty that didn't get packed into lunches, so that's an option. (If you're really unconvinced about buying New Classics, other people have posted the recipe online, so go to them.)
PS: I am shocked that this blog has gone so long without having a "sweet potato" label. Seriously.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
run, do not walk
To your nearest grocery store. Or I might beat you there and buy out all of the Canadian Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale. Because it's just that amazing. And I've already done so at one grocery store and a Target. (To my limited credit, that was only a total of 3 12-packs.) And, look, it's not just me who thinks so. But I may be the first to point out that it's basically canned Tea Sparkle. So until Argo opens up on the East Coast, I'll keep stocking up on the Green Tea Ginger Ale.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
ugly but amazing
I wanted pancakes all day yesterday, so I was thrilled to discover that I did, indeed, have baking powder and could make them. I used the yogurt variation of the super-simple Everyday Food recipe. (I used Trader Joe's vanilla yogurt for the yogurt.) This isn't my usual pancake recipe, but that one is in a box somewhere and this produced a completely delicious dinner. I managed not to eat all of them yesterday, so I could reprise this meal today.