Last chance

I had everything planned for Valentine's day and was really excited to share with you my love story. However, on Wednesday night I broke my foot. If you want details you can go here
I don't have the energy to go over it one more time. Besides, this is a food related blog (focus, focus). That's a lame excuse if I also tell love stories. In my defense though my story does involve food (sort of).

I met Christian on February 14, 2003 (5 yrs ago today). At that time I was doing my undergraduate in western MA and my friends from church had convinced me to go to a Valentine's young single adults dance. If you're Mormon you know exactly how these go. If you're not Mormon imagine middle school dances with boys on one side the girls on the other and a refreshment table with store bought cookies. It took some convincing on their part but I felt like I needed to go because my dear roommate was going and I wanted to support her in her decision to try and socialize with boys. This dance was held in New Haven CT and even though it was a Mormon dance it was held at a Baptist Church. The bishop's wife worked as the custodian of this Baptist church and they had a really big social hall, perfect for a big dance. The turnout was minimal, as usual, and my roommate and I were bored to death. No cute guys around, in fact there were probably no guys at all when suddenly.... That's right, Christian walked in. He looked out of place. I was convinced he had come to this Baptist church for soup kitchen and would be upset to find out that instead he had walked into the world of Mormon wholesome activities. Sure he looked like a bum but I DID this he was a very cute bum. I was immediately attracted to his big curly hair. I told my roommate that she should go tell him that this was not soup kitchen and I would get him some snacks from the food table. Five years later I am still concerned about what he eats, mainly that he's had enough to eat. My roommate did her part and then called me over. Christian was not a bum. He in fact had organized the party and looked the way he did because he had been at the big NY anti-war protest. I was in love. Our conversation only got better when I found out that he spoke Portuguese, had served a mission in Brazil and was interested in Sustainable Development (my absolute obsession at the time). It turned out to be a very fun dance. I danced a lot, not with him though because he didn't ask me. However, he made it up 2 weeks later at another activity AWE (all New England Winter Extravaganza) where we talked even more and had our first dance together. After that we hung out as often as we could commuting from CT to MA. I am so glad I didn't miss my last chance to meet the love of my life.

In honor or the theme here is your last chance to make Valentine's Day sugar cookies
as a disclaimer I love sugar cookies and I've tried many recipes. This one was given to me by Stacie Gruwell a very good cook. I am convinced this is the best sugar cookie recipe alive.

RECIPE:


sugar cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg (if recipe is doubled put 3 eggs)
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. cream butter (make sure it's room temperature) and sugar
2. add egg and vanilla
3. stir flour, salt and baking soda and add to cream mixture
4. This is the most important step...leave overnight in fridge!
5. next day you can roll the dough out about 1 cm height. Of course it will be rock solid at first but trust me it gets soft.
   
6. bake at 375 for 5-8 minutes. I baked mine for 5 minutes. The ones I left in longer got way crispy
   
7. This recipe makes about 50 cookies

Frosting

• 1 cup butter or 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening. (The second option actually tastes better even though its less healthy but if we're making frosting for sugar cookies we're not that concerned about what's healthier)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1tbsp vanilla
• 2-4 tbsp milk

1. mix the butter and sugar together
   
2. add the vanilla
3. add the milk one tbsp at a time until you've reached the consistency that you want
   

This is a great dough to work with. It's so easy to cut.





Since Enzo is a hit here's another picture of him. He likes helping me cook. He was way entertained with the flour. Christian had to vacuum the floor and vacuum Enzo.