I've been on a cooking jag -- probably to avoid writing cover letters and applying to jobs...but I have to say, some of the things coming out of my kitchen are pretty damn good...The cookies all came out different batch by batch, but every one of them taste good. I underbaked a few to send but I still love the crisy crunchy cookies best. Even the most baked cookies aren't rock-hard considering all the butter I put in them.  The salt really adds a touch, and the coffee flavor accents the chocolate beautifully. It was a very hard, stiff dough to work with, but all in all, a good cookie.  I think that using whole wheat flour lends the cookie a sort of graham cracker-y taste, but I don't mind.  The recipe I used, and the fact that I used a mini-scooper to drop the cookies yielded a LOT of cookies, like almost 100. I'm still eating them but C. is too, so it's not all going to wind up on my gut.

I made Jose Andres' gazpacho from his Taste of Spain cookbook, even straining it (was a pain in the ass to strain) and eating the thick stuff that was left behind in the strainer but I have to say the end result is silky and creamy.  Spanish olive oil is distinct from Italian in taste! I can actually discern the difference! And I used balsamic vinegar instead of sherry but it still turned out really good. Sweet and tart and very refreshing.

On the other end of the spectrum, I fried some portobello chicken and turkey sausage in bacon fat.  I tried this new brand of sausage (to me) and I really love it! I remembered reading about Mr. Aidell in one of Ruth Reichl's books.  They turned out a little salty from the bacon grease so I poured myself a little gazpacho to wash it down.  There's no such thing as too much salt on a tomato for me. I also added a bit of butter and fried some baby potatoes I had lying around.  This was while two pans of veggies were roasting in the oven. In the end, my send off dinner to C. was fresh portobello sausages and sliced baby yukon gold potatoes sauteed in bacon fat with sweet hot mustard and roasted onions, carrots, red peppers and potatoes. And homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert.