Are we here to save ourselves?

Self preservation is a concept I've been thinking about a lot lately... and something I talk about in the new blog I just wrote for Soul-Audio.com

Check it out and comment there if it resonates with you. It's the beginning of a conversation I'd like to continue if it interests any of you.

Happy Mothers Day!

Today we honor mothers.

I've been in Phoenix this weekend, but am thinking of my mom and grandma in Iowa and all of my friends and family who are mothers. I'm a very lucky girl to have such an amazing mother, and to know so many great moms.

Mom might kill me for posting this picture, but it's my favorite! :)
My mom, grandma and I:

I love you and miss you so much, mom! This quote made me smile and think of you. :)

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

White House Cookie Recipe

Well, if you've read my blog a few times, you probably know that I'm a little obsessed with cookies. Chocolate chip in particular. I am always on the lookout for good recipe's and this afternoon I tried a new one. My mother-in-law gave me this book called Dessert University by Roland Mesnier, who was the White House pastry chef for many years. I'm loving reading some of his tips and checking out his recipes! I was SO delighted to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe in there and according to him, he baked these on an almost daily basis at the white house. His secret ingredient is molasses, he says they help keep the cookies chewy for longer than a day. If you like that more intense brown sugar molasses flavor, than you'll love these. I think they are a great upgrade from your average cookie. Here is his recipe:

3 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups (1 12 oz bag) chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine the flour, soda, and salt and set aside
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted w/ the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until thoroughly combined. Beat in the eggs, molasses, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Then stir in Chocolate chips and walnuts. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow to chill for 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat pads.
4. Drop heaping tablespoons of #40 ice cream scoops of the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets, flattening them slightly by hand. (balls of doug may be placed next to each other on parchment-lined baking sheets, frozen, transferred to sipper-lock plastic freezer bags, and stored in the freezer for up to 1 month. Place frozen cookies on prepared sheets as above, and defrost on the counter for 30 minutes before baking)
5. Bake until just light golden, 8-10 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before using a metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Will keep in an airtight container for up to 2-3 days.
*Don't overbake these, or they will overbrown on the outside and dry out on the inside.


*Alli's Tips:
-Butter can take a couple hours (or more) to soften if you leave it in it's packaging. If you need soft butter in a pinch, just cut it into tablespoons and set it out on a plate or cutting board. It will only take 10-20 minutes for the butter to be soft enough to mix. (don't microwave!) Once soft, I always mix the butter by itself first before I add the sugar to make sure there are not clumps.
-don't skip out on the nuts, It adds a lot to this cookie and I'm not sure the molasses would make as much sense without them.

Enjoy!

In & Out video

Since we're on the topic, here is a video that Scott made during the tour I mentioned below. It takes place at In & Out Burger, which is one of the two fast food places I don't feel guilty about eating! It's delightful, but only found in four states. Mostly California. Sorry to your Iowans reading... but hey, you do have Hansen's Dairy and that's something. :)

Anyway, it's hard to believe this was two years ago! Fun Fun...

The Transpire Project

In the spring of 06 I went on a tour with Shawn McDonald and Warren Barfield. It was my favorite tour I've ever gotten to be a part of because of the people I got to spend it with. We all had a blast together and I really enjoyed that spring. Scott Erickson was one of the people I loved getting to know because has such a unique personality with the kind of passion for art that is contagious. Scott painted live on stage during every show that tour and created amazing works of art that were sold at the end of each night.

Scott started a group called The Transpire Project whose goal is "to bring the making of art - the creative process - into public places." and he is doing just that. He's been involved in an array of different live painting events and has started a blog to document his journey. Check it out here! Scott is an amazing artist and I look forward to seeing where his creative process takes him!

Especially in the Wilderness

"Hear, O Israel! Only more often than not we hear nothing because we live in a wilderness where more often than not there is nothing of God to hear. And of course it was in just such a wilderness that the great words of Moses were trumpeted forth in the first place, and the people who first heard them were in the wilderness with him, as wandering and lost as we are, with nothing to keep them going but the hope of a Promised Land, which much of the time seemed a promise so remote and improbable that even the bondage they had left behind them in Egypt looked hopeful by comparison. To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the great and first commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness—especially in the wilderness—your shall love him."

-Frederick Buechner
From a sermon titled Faith, recorded in the book Secrets in the Dark

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie in Cedar Falls, Iowa

It's true folks, I've officially conducted my second city cookie search. And you thought I was kidding when I said I took cookies seriously!

I've been in Cedar Falls, Iowa (my hometown) for a few days now and my mom and I decided to find the best chocolate chip cookie that CF has to offer. Obviously, a city with a population of (roughly) 35,000 varies greatly from a city of 600,000. To raise our chances of finding a great cookie, we expanded our boundries to Waterloo, IA as well as Cedar Falls. The line is fuzzy anyway. I was pretty impressed with our findings. We ended up with 10 very diverse cookies from:

1. Granny Annie's
2. Gary's Restaurant & Catering
3. Casey's
4. Jags Java
5. Roots Market
6. Natalies Catering
7. Johnson's Bakery (two different cookies)
8. Panera
9. Great American Cookie

All of these places make their own cookies in house, the surprise there being Casey's. Three of them are national franchise's but the rest are local. We also drank some great milk from Hansen's Dairy and Heartland Creamery. Heartland's goats milk is some of the best I've tasted. There are advantages to living in the midwest!




My mom, brother and I participated in the taste test. We tried a slightly different scoring system this time, giving more points for taste than for texture, appearance, or smell. After some silent tasting and note taking, we discussed our findings and agreed that there was actually no clear winner. Call us non-commital, but the top three cookies were all so different that we had a hard time placing them. So the top three cookies are:


Roots Market

This cookie smelled the best and it was the one that I could not wait to take a bite out of. The flavor was not as exciting as I hoped, reminding me of the Bread & Co. cookie from the Nashville search. However, it was a pretty delightful texture and seemed the freshest of the group. And it did have a unique sweet flavor. Turns out this cookie dough actually comes from the wedge coop out of Minneapolis. So props to the wedge, I hope to try your baked goods next time I come through, and props to Roots Market in CF, for baking great cookies to go along with your rad market. (the word rad is coming back)


Gary's Restaurant and Catering

This cookie tasted like a sugar cookie with chocolate chips, which was pretty dang tasty. I think it is the only cookie of both searches so far that is made with shortening instead of butter. It was also a crunchy, crumbly cookie which made it very hard to compare to the other cookies. However, we enjoyed it and wanted to come back to this one after it was all over. Way to go Gary's, I never would have known it. No offense, I'm sure your food is great.


Great American Cookie

This cookie came from a place called Freshen's in the mall who sell great american cookies. This cookie was crunchy around the edge and soft in the middle, which seems to be a desirable trait for most people. We all agreed that this cookie was maybe the best tasting of the bunch. As much as I would rather root for a local bakery, I suppose the name says it all. Maybe they do have something figured out.

on that note... a couple observations I've made are:

1. Bakery cookies have been my least favorite. They seem to get overlooked in the land of cakes and pastries, and even take on the smells and flavors of more ambitious treats that live under glass counters.

2. Health food stores have surprisingly had the most home baked flavor and texture.

3. None of the cookies have been as satisfying as a fresh out of the oven cookie from home. Maybe it's impossible to replicate...

but I'm still on the search!

Thanks CF, for a strong showing.