Pink of Perfection

I’ve been wondering what will come next. Cupcakes have had their day. Pies currently rule the school, but really, how long can that last? At first I thought I’d move to nominate the humble cookie. It’s simple, it’s unassuming, it’s individually-portioned. But then I thought how sad it is to watch a dessert rise and fall like a teenage pop star.

I like to see the cookie as trend-proof, like the perfect trench or red lipstick––perennially delicious and always in style. And really, that’s what I’m looking for: the wardrobe additions and the ways of thinking and the recipes that will continue to delight me––and maybe even improve my life––long after the dessert du jour’s reign is up.

These cookies are marvelously simple: super rich, not-too-sweet, and with the added benefit of feeling, well, sort of healthy, right? Just think of all the protein!

Continue reading “Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (They’re Gluten-Free!)” »

I’m not really one to pat myself on the back all that often. Naturally modest, self-effacing people delight me much more than the squawking peacock types. But I’ll be the first to give credit where its due. And y’all, these cookies are crazy good.

Here’s what happened: I’ve had a bit of a thing for chocolate chip cookies the past couple months. It’s the one aberration to my grown-up yearning for plain, simple, healthy food. I sprang for a bag of chocolate chips at the grocery store, only to discover at home that we were out of two key ingredients: brown sugar and vanilla. No matter, I thought. I’ll just double (!) the white sugar. But as I was rooting around in the pantry, there it was on the top shelf, a remainder from a waffle party: a lone, forgotten jar of Nutella.

I’ve never been nutso for Nutella, am not the type to eat it with a spoon (and those types are out there––I believe I’m related to one). This recipe has changed me. And when one of the dearest, goodest people I know was driving in from Wisconsin to make his New York debut, I knew that he would need home-baked fortification. I wrapped warm cookies in paper towels slipped inside a ziploc bag and carried them into a club where people were decidedly more interested in free vodka. But my friend ate one before he changed into his costume, stepped on stage, and proceeded to steal the show. Perhaps a small sugar rush played a part? All I know is I walked away so inspired at the kind of guts it takes to drive your van onto Delancey Street and outshine everyone with your fierce wit, super fun dance beats and ineffable Midwestern charm. Not quite the same guts it takes to swap in Nutella when you’re out of brown sugar, but, well, related.

Continue reading “Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies” »

My friend Julie is always unveiling these delicious candy-like confections when she arrives at book club. To someone more than a little intimidated by candy thermometers, these artful, thin layers of chocolate, peppermint, and nuts look complicated, but Julie always recites the recipe as if it were as simple as tying our shoes and as if tomorrow, in the haze of book club wine glow, I will remember exactly what went into those peanut butter balls.

Recipes are for sharing, and I love the generosity of “oh it’s so simple, here’s how you do it.” Maybe you won’t find it simple when you are melting easy-to-burn white chocolate over a makeshift double boiler alone in the kitchen, but your friend thinks you can do it. Her vote of confidence rings in your ears even as you spill a bag of cocktail peanuts on the floor. “It’s so simple!” If she thinks I can do it, I can.

If confidence comes from competence, as my mom always said, then a kitchen triumph is as good as any to make you feel like you can conquer the world. When I remembered Friday morning that I was supposed to bring dessert to a dinner party 130 miles north that night, I thought of Julie. What’s simple, holiday, can be ready before you need to run off to catch your ride, and is a treat hardy enough to be toted in the back of a Zipcar? You guessed it.

This salty sweet chocolate bark sat on my friend’s kitchen table the entire weekend. Chunks were nabbed at breakfast, as fortification after a winter walk, and during a heated match of Uno. By Sunday afternoon, I carried a near-empty tupperware back to Brooklyn. And as usual, you can trust a real friend: it really is so simple.

Continue reading “Winter Holiday Bark” »

The bad news is, I killed a plant. A couple weeks ago, I went on a plant buying spree. Green plastic pots filled with pink polka dotted leaves and viney tendrils were two for $5 at the farmer’s market. Then later, walking home from a cafe, a flower shop had a tray of long-armed, spiny aloe plants for sale, and a tall, proud looking green thing. Of course, I had to have them all.

Ever since I visited my friend in Los Angeles in the spring, I have realized that my dream life has a lot more green things in it than my actual life. Jenny had plants hanging from the rail of her balcony, and a terracotta pot filled with succulents and a bed of stones. At night, she might have snipped buds from white rosebushes and slipped then into the narrow neck of a tall bottle back in her apartment.

I came home wanting more green on my windowsills and fire escape. And it’s why, when I ran into a jade plant at Trader Joe’s, I swooned. There’s something about jade plants that so speaks to me––they don’t need much, and they hold what they need, in reserves, inside of them. Yet despite the lovely symbolism and my ability to instantly make reality an element of my dream life right there in the grocery store aisle, I had to stand, weighing the pecuniary ramifications of a $10 plant for several minutes. Then finally it hit me: I’ll spend $10 on a sushi lunch but I can’t drop the same amount to make my ideal life vision a reality? So I got my priorities straight and happily carried that jade plant home, where it greets me every morning from my bedroom windowsill. An important lesson: it’s always worth it to spring for the things that really bring you deep delight, especially when they cost less than $20.

I killed the pink polka dotted thing. I think, perhaps, it was more delicate than it looked. It might have been the rain or the wilting heat. But I still have the jade plant, the aloe plant next to it, and two unidentified green things in the living room: one low and long-armed, one tall and proud.

Here’s the good news: I’m pretty into these cookies. In fact, would it be wrong to say my favorite thing about these cookies was the raw dough? It was the best I’ve ever tasted. Some of their magic seemed a little lost in the baking, but they came out of the oven soft and have stayed that way for days. Plus, while I would not go so far as to call these cookies “healthy,” they do have a number of good-for-you items in them, like whole wheat and oat flours, canola oil, and agave nectar. This is not reason enough to eat them for breakfast, but all the same, I did. Let’s just call that my other piece of bad news.

Continue reading “Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Almonds” »

I don’t feel like waxing poetic today, so I’ll come right out with it. These are amazing. They are simple and quick to throw together with no need for a bowl or mixer, no beaters to clean (or lick). I was looking for a sweet treat to bring to book club, and these was perfect.

Granted, perhaps they were not the perfect item to sit in the sun for five hours on a warm day, but then again, neither am I. Arriving home red-faced and with one sunburned arm (cute, right?), I was comforted to find last summer’s bottle of aloe vera still stashed in the refrigerator door. But for the company, and the lazy day, and the lemonade, it was certainly worth it.

And these were indeed the perfect treat to send packing with my husband to the office on a Sunday afternoon. Who works on a Sunday, you ask? A man who is trying to square away the final details of his first feature film. I like to think these sweet and salty and rich treats saw him through. (In fact, there’s internet proof they did.)

Continue reading “Salted Toffee-Chocolate Graham Cracker Squares” »

Since we began the week with cookies, it seems only fitting that we should continue on to ice cream. No, I am not single-handedly trying to wreck any resolutions you have for healthy eating. I think of myself more as the Ambassador of Pleasure, reminding you that every day should have its moments of unadulterated delight, whether that should come in the form of a quiet snowy walk, a tea date with a friend, or, you know, ice cream.

And what’s better than a bowl of ice cream following supper? Since you ask, I can say with the utmost certainty the answer is ice cream drowned in espresso and topped with whipped cream. My better half and I ate this on New Year’s Eve when we knew our energy reserves would be running dangerously low for the ball-drop. (Little did I know then that J. Lo’s sheery spangly catsuit would jolt me right awake.)  Coffee fiend that I am, I expected something delicious. But I did not suspect that I would be struck dumb, awash in the saporous delight of my absolute new favorite dessert. The espresso tempers the sweetness of the ice cream and the whipped cream is just to be ridiculous. It play its part well.

Continue reading “Chocolate Hazelnut Affogato” »

I say salty because that’s what catapults these rich cookie bars into another stratosphere. Without the salt these sweet rectangles would be cloying. With that lick of savoriness, a layer of butter cookie topped with a salted chocolate caramel and sprinkled with sea salt becomes otherworldly. One guest proclaimed that these knocked chocolate chip cookies out of her favorite cookie spot.

I say salty also because as filled with as I am with hope, goals, dreams, and expectations for the new year, I’m sure those dark days will come: we’ll get caught in the rain (but not in a romantic way), stay home sick (but not in that mental health day kind of way), and fine ourselves beset by the blues (and not necessarily in a creatively rich Dorothy Parker kind of way).

Just today I woke up with the world unexpectedly softened by snow. At first, it seemed magical in that Christmas morning kind of way. And then I thought of the treacherous streets, worried about someone I love moving from one office to another, just today turning the page on one life chapter. Perhaps the best we can do is notice the flip side of life, and then turn that coin right back to the bright side. That is the art and challenge of living well, no matter how fat your bank account.

Whenever I talk of moving to some fair city and starting anew, a friend reminds me, “Wherever you go, there you are.” The same certainly can be said for money. Sure, some of life’s problems can be banished by waving a wad of cash at them. But the heart of what it means to live fully, ecstatically, confronts rich and poor alike everyday: What is truly meaningful to me? How can I create a daily life that contains my deepest values? What (gulp) is the meaning of my life? And what’s for dinner?

As we approach a new year and the fourth (!!!) anniversary of Pink of Perfection, I want to thank all of you for coming to this site, reading, hanging out in the forum, and most of all, leaving your insightful, funny comments. I have always loved this blog as my creative place; the unexpected joy has been watching it become a gathering spot to the wisest, loveliest blog readers out there. I take great comfort in this community, and I hope you do, too. Here’s to another year of asking the big questions and savoring the smallest pleasures. Happy New Year!

Continue reading “A Sweet (and Salty) New Year” »

Though my means may be reduced from the days of whole sides of salmon and a digestif of chocolatey brandy, my love of entertaining has not waned. And why should it? A party can still be a be a kick-up-your-heels affair when guests are served bowls of chili, they just might not be as inspired to don a plaid strapless number, or pair their seductively low-cut red silk with pearls. Serving a dinner that seems a little special requires a bit of scheming, but it’s not impossible. A magician may pull a rabbit from a hat, but a clever hostess can extract 3 courses for 8 people out of $50. Some general tips for a thrifty affair:

• Have your guests bring the wine. When people ask what they can bring, be specific. Guests love assignments! Let them know that the party’s bar will be stocked by the guests and to bring what they want to drink. And no, this does not seem cheap. You’re serving forth a multi-course dinner, you don’t need to quench everyone’s thirst, as well. A bottle or two stowed in the fridge just in case might put worry-wart hostesses at ease (and provides the opportunity to take a nip of something before the guests arrive).
• Go easy on the appetizers. As much as I love cheese — and believe me, I mean I love cheese — people, ahem, have a tendency to overdo it when a creamy wedge of brie is plopped right in front of them as they’re tossing back drinks. You wouldn’t want your lady guests wishing they bought their green off-the-shoulder frock one size large this early in the evening. Pre-dinner nibbles should whet the appetite, not sate it. Olives and cheesy breadsticks always seem to go over well.
• Make vegetables the stars. Instead of relying on a pricey roast to steal the show, put super fresh seasonal vegetables in starring roles in beautiful salads, soups, and side dishes. A $2 head of cauliflower and precious little else can become a delicate and creamy soup that starts the night off on a high note.
• Let the sales guide you. It’s easy to plan a menu when the sky’s the limit — it takes resourcefulness to think about what’s in season and what’s on sale to come up with courses that complement and enhance one another. Think of it as a challenge!

Continue reading “Dinner Party on a Budget” »