chocolate crinkle cookies: a recipe.

Yummmm.

YUM!

These chocolate crinkle cookies sure are delicious.

Make them for the annual school cookie swap (like I did), for your friends, or better yet, JUST MAKE THEM FOR YOURSELF.

They be crazy good.

You will need:

1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) unsalted butter
2/3 cup (4 3/4 ounces) sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups Flour
confectioners’ sugar* (for coating)

*you can add 2 teaspoons of espresso powder, too, of you’re into that. (Mmmm.)

To make the dough:

Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan, and heat or microwave till the butter melts. Remove it from the heat, and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, vanilla (and the optional espresso powder). Stir in the chocolate mixture, baking powder and salt, then the flour. Chill the dough for 2 to 3 hours, till it’s nice and firm.

To make and bake:

After the dough is cooled, put about a cup of confectioners’ sugar into a shallow bowl. Using a spoon, or your fingers, scoop out heaping teaspoon-sized portions of the dough. Drop the dough balls into the confectioners’ sugar as you go (make sure you coat them nice and good!), then place the coated dough balls on a lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between them.

Bake the cookies in a preheated 325°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes (I had to do closer to 15), switching the position of the pans (top to bottom, and front to back) midway through the baking time. As the cookies bake, they’ll flatten out and acquire their distinctive “streaked” appearance. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool on a wire rack.

Pour yourself a glass of milk and ENJOY.

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P.S. One week until Christmas! Yipeeeeee.

 

about the time I went to NYC and it was magic.

I feel like something is happening to me.

Or, has happened to me, rather.

It’s like I can’t go anywhere with my camera lately without taking a bazillion photos.

And then. Then! If that’s not bad enough I can’t write a blog post without posting said BAZILLION photos.

Sorry?

Not really.

Hope you don’t mind!

Behold!

MY SATURDAY DAY TRIP TO THE ONE AND ONLY NEW YORK CITY:

Can I actually just say something before we begin? One more thing?

New York City is just so incredibly romantic.

Isn’t it?

Gosh I just want to hug it every single time I go.

Some parts I do not want to hug (Ahemm, Times Square) but most parts I do.

This particular trip brought me to the West Village. Talk about romantic. I could straight up slow dance with the West Village. DREAMY!

My main reason for heading to New York on this fine November day was to meet up with my best friend Bailey, who was visiting family in NJ and NY for the Holidays. Bailey used to live in Manhattan, then Brooklyn, and now she lives Charlotte.

(Remember when I went to visit her last spring?)

It’s only a few times a year that we get to spend time together, so I decided to take advantage of my proximity to the city to hang out with her, Luke, and Kevin.

We went to Aria Wine Bar and had small plates and wine. It was super lovely.

Mostly, I just loved being with my friend.

And isn’t Luke crazy cute??

YES. Yes he is.

After lunch we just walked around shopping and talking, catching up on things that are new and reminicing about favorite memories of old. We got cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery (the original!) and we popped into Chelsea Market and strolled through the Union Square Holiday Market, too.

I bought some handmade local gifts at Teich and Bailey picked up some adorable kid stuff for Luke.

All in all, a really great afternoon…

When I first made my plans to go to New York for the day, I just imagined having brunch, then hopping on the train back to Greenwich. But my brain got reeling and I just kept thinking WHAT ELSE can I do in this city of DREAMS?

Because, I mean, let’s live it up in NYC why don’t we.

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE.

And so came about the fabulous idea to see if the New York City Ballet was performing The Nutcracker.

AND THEY WERE. AND WE WENT!

After saying goodbye to Bails, I headed towards Lincoln Center to meet up with my sister and my cousin Haley. We went to dinner at P.J. Clark’s in Lincoln Square– right across the street from the theatre, which was perfect (thanks for the rec, Colleen!), and then skittered right on over to watch the ballet.

Seeing the New York City Ballet perform The Nutcracker has always been a lifelong dream of mine. And going to Lincoln Center, yet another dream. Ever since this movie, circa 1993. And this movie, circa 2000. Also, I was in the Nutcracker when I was younger, and was an aspiring ballerina back in the day. SIGH. The memories.

The theatre! The costumes! The music! The dancing! THE NOSTALGIA.

It was in a word:

MAGIC.

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Thanks for everything, New York.

Always.

snapshots!

SNAPSHOTS!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared my instagrams with you all. I know many of you follow me on the IG, but I also know some of you do not (Hi, Aunt Wendy!), so here’s a look at my life lately according to my iPhone…

One:

A few months ago, we got this Chemix coffee maker. Now that we’ve been using it for awhile, I think it’s safe to say that we love it A LOT. It’s specially designed to make quite literally, the perfect coffee. And it does– every single cup has been SO delicious. You can read more about the details here.

Two:

My favorite dessert in college was crisp bar, so whenever fall rolls around apple crisp is what I’m most drawn to making with my apple stash. I made this apple crisp a few weeks ago and it mimicked our dining hall apple crisp to a T– plus it’s gluten-free! The recipe made two pie-dish fulls, one which I made right on the spot and one which we froze and cooked up for dessert this week. YUM.

Here’s the recipe:

Gluten Free Apple Crisp
(adapted from Not Your Average Baker, originally adapted from Joy the Baker’s Man Bait Apple Crisp)

Ingredients:

8-9 golden delicious apples
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 2/3 cup brown sugar
2 2/3 cup Gluten Free all purpose baking flour
2/3 cup Udi’s Gluten Free Granola
2 sticks unsalted butter, slightly softened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease two pie dishes.
2. In a small dish combine 3 teaspoons of the cinnamon, and 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar.
3. Peel and core apples. Place in a large bowl and toss with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
4. In a second large bowl mix the brown sugar, flour, granola, and pecans until well combined. Combine butter into topping mixture using pastry blender (or a fork, which is all I had).
5. Take one cup of the topping and toss with apples. Once throughly tossed, the apples can be placed into the baking dishes. (Remember, I cooked one of the crisps and froze the other.)
6. Pour remaining topping over top of the apples and bake for 55-65 minutes (I actually had to cook it about 20-25 minutes longer). The top should brown and the apples bubbling.
7. Let cool 15 minutes or so before serving. Initially the filling will look a little runny, but the liquid will reabsorb into the filling as it is cools..

Three:

Abbie recently wrote this post about this donut shop in North Cambridge. Since reading her rave review I have been twice, and the donuts are everything donuts should be and more. I’m usually a sucker for chocolate glaze, and their chocolate glaze is tasty TASTY, but I honestly love love loooved their original honey glaze. So classic and soft and delicious. The best donuts I’ve had in a long time!

Four:

Remember that glorious weekend last spring when I went to New York City for three days? Remember when I met Colleen and Molly for brunch? Well, I also met their friend Tina and so now, according to the rules of friendship, Tina is my friend, too. LOVE making new friends like that. Just love. So when Tina told me she was coming to Boston for work, we planned to meet at Sel de La Terre to have drinks and dinner together. I hadn’t been in a few years, but remembered it having a great atmosphere and good drinks and I remembered right. We both had the hamburger, shared a meat and cheese plate, threw back a few glasses of wine, and IT WAS WONDERFUL.

Five:

If you’re ever around Central Square and you’re looking for a great brunch/lunch spot look no further than Brookline Lunch. It’s easily one of our favorite spots ever and worth the trip even if you aren’t right around Central. Make the trip! See for yourself!

Six:

I don’t know if I’ve made this clear on the blog, but Zanner is the real cook around these parts. I am nothing but a measly eater, in all seriousness. He cooks, I eat. And I’m completely okay with it. Wonderously thankful, even. Cooking is not something I have found to be particularly passionate about, so the fact that Zan loves it is simply icing on the cake. Yesterday “The Top Chef” made this Julia Child inspired pegboard wall in our kitchen. He’s been talking about doing this project for awhile, and he finally got all the supplies to finish. I’m super excited about it and think it gives a whole new feel to our kitchen. Fun, right?

Seven:

Like my new wool hat? Straight from Oona’s in Harvard Square. It’s a vintage-lovers dream in there and I easily spent the better part of an hour trying to convince myself not to buy EVERYTHING. There’s the outpost store in Inman Square, too, which I have not personally visited, but have been told it’s worth a trip. Also, check out their blog— it’s fun!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

OH! And that artwork up top? It was made by one of my first graders! Can you believe it? How beautiful and frameworthy is that?! It was a “Winter Tree” watercolor, tempura paint, and chalk project and I promise you every single one turned out museum-ready. As I was passing them out to my students I just kept saying things like, “WOW!” and “I LOVE THIS!” and “THIS IS AMAZINGGGG!”. I adore the art teacher at my school and I think she does the most wonderful work with the kids. They are so lucky to have her.

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In other very important news: THREE DAYS.

In three days we will all be stuffing our faces with unGodly amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and that delicious marshmallow topped sweet potato creation.

AND PIE. My goodness, let’s not forget the pie.

a fancy night out at the BPL + a boston restaurant list.

First and foremost, let’s talk about how amazing the Boston Public Library is.

It is nothing short of an absolute dream and the closest to heaven that I think I’ve ever been.

You too?

Good. Glad we got that off our chest.

But really, this is not a post about the Boston Public Library. Not today anyways.

This post is about bottomless glasses of prosecco.

And fancy finger foods.

And the 30 best up-and-coming foodies in Boston.

Perfect.

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Tuesday night Rachael and I gathered for a night of fun at Zagat’s 30 Under 30 Party at the BPL. When R emailed me about the event I was instantly sold.

A night at the library in “cocktail party fancy attire?” HELLO. YES.

Celebrating delicious food and beverages? Take. me. there.

Plus, I just really like spending time with Rachael.

So Tuesday we celebrated the latest and greatest up-and-coming culinary geniuses in the Boston area. The night was meant to celebrate the 30 young (under 30) entrepreneurs, chefs, mixologists, and culinary artists, and they absolutely deserved to be recognized (meet the food stars here), but I’ve decided to share the places where you can get a taste of their work– their businesses! Restaurants, bars, food markets, and even a grilled cheese shop on wheels.

Here’s a list of the honoree’s businesses categorized by city and neighborhood:

Boston

Back Bay- 

Grill 23 & Bar

Post 390

Deuxave

Towne Stove & Spirits

South End-

Stir

Toro*

Kenmore Square-

Island Creek Oyster Bar*

Fenway-

Sweet Cheeks Q*

Jamaica Plain-

Whisk

Tres Gatos

Fort Point-

Menton

Downtown Crossing-

JM Curley

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Cambridge

Formaggio Kitchen* (also in the South End)

Harvard Square-

Crema Cafe

Kendall Square-

The Blue Room

Belly Wine Bar

Catalyst

Area Four*

Hungry Mother*

West Bridge

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Somerville

Inman Square

Trina’s Starlite Lounge and Parlor Spirits

Union Squre

Backbar

Davis Square-

Saloon

Spoke Wine Bar

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Watertown

Strip-T’s

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Newton

51 Lincoln

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All About Town

DePasquale Ventures

Green City Growers

Roxy’s Grilled Cheese*

Cow and Crumb Baking Company

Backlash Beer Company

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WOW. What a list, right?

Kind of makes me giddy.

The links marked with an asterisk* are the ones that I myself have been to (and I can speak highly of all of them), but as you can see I have a lot of dining to do. Attending this event has got me all excited about the great food industry in Boston. My wallet might start to suffer soon, but my taste buds sure won’t.

Tell me, have you been to any of these places?

And if you’re not living in or around Boston, then what on earth are you waiting for? COME VISIT US!

Once again I am incredibly proud and inspired by this city. This night was just one of those nights where I fell more in love than ever.

Thanks for being awesome, Boston. You’re the best.

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And thanks for inviting me, Rachael! Seriously, so fun– I had such a nice time! ♥