The Things We Inherit

Think what a better world this would be if we, the whole world,
had cookies and milk every afternoon around three o'clock
and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
-Robert Fulghum

Your regularly scheduled knitting post has been hijacked by the fact that tonight I'm working downtown at the free clinic for the homeless, and I kind of forget until now. So instead I'll share two other acheivements from my day off on Tuesday.

1. I baked biscotti. It was fun, and actually sort of easier than regular cookies. You bake them in a log and then cut the log into strips after it's baked to bake them again. I thought that sounded cumbersome, but it's actually easier than dropping or shaping individual cookies. Plus, I think they'll survive their trip to the either side of the world.

2. The biscotti are yummy, but this is the recipe I've got to share: Macademia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries. You'll notice that there's no dairy butter, the butter comes from pureeing the macademia nuts. It was an amazing nutty flavor, and good texture. Good thing I hid a whole jar of macademias when my father-in-law brought them back from Hawaii!

Macademia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries

⅔ cup macadamia nuts

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ cup sweetened dried cranberries, chopped

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 375°. Place nuts in a food processor; process until smooth (about 2 minutes), scraping sides of bowl once. Combine macadamia butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and ground nutmeg, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined (mixture will be very thick). Stir in chopped cranberries. Chill 10 minutes. Divide chilled dough into 30 equal portions; roll each portion into a ball. Place 1 tablespoon granulated sugar in a small bowl. Lightly press each ball into sugar; place each ball, sugar side up, on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Gently press the top of each cookie with a fork. Dip the fork in water; gently press the top of each cookie again to form a crisscross pattern. Place 15 cookies on each of 2 baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time, at 375° for 9 minutes or until golden. Remove cookies from pan; cool on a wire rack. Repeat procedure with remaining cookies.

It's even a Cooking Light recipe, so it's not too bad for you.

As I was packaging these up to send in a care package, I remembered a conversation I had with my mom the day before my husband deployed. We were in the throes of packing everything he needed for 7 months, and my mom started to tell me something I should do . . . I interrupted her because I knew exactly what she was going to say - that I should put little notes in his pockets, in between the pages of his books, and pretty much anywhere so that he would find them as he unpacked, or wore that set of camis, or what have you. The best part? I had already done that.

These are the things we inherit. And I'm all for passing on this awesome cookie recipe.