Cookies (again).

Even though all my cooking has been in Karen Hunter's kitchen lately, I wanted to share with you the latest incarnation of the Frog Commissary's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. Due to a lack of chocolate chips anywhere in walking distance of Temple's campus, I used Cadbury semi-sweet chocolate bars, chopped up. The "debris" created by chopping the chocolate laced the cookie with chocolate, a side effect I very much appreciated.

2009 is now upon us. I am already promising more recipes and stories about cheese (thanks to "A Passion for Cheese") and a trip through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", stopping to pay homage to all five mother sauces.

I've wanted to share this poem for weeks now (based on my one of my favorite Psalms), but I think in the spirit of a new year, it is particularly appropriate:

O Taste and See

Denise Levertov

The world is

not with us enough.

O taste and see

the subway Bible poster said,

meaning The Lord, meaning

if anything all that lives

to the imagination's tongue

grief, mercy, language,

tangerine, weather, to

breathe them, bite,

savor, chew, swallow, transform

into our flesh, our

deaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,

living in the orchard and being

hungry, and plucking

the fruit.