This year, around the holidays, I went to the basement and exhumed (well, not literally but it felt like that) a whole raft of magazines dates the months of November and December. The initial impulse was a household desire to make cookies. And, I was witness to - and an occasional participant in - remarkable cookie making at our home.
But what struck me was the other things I (re)learned by reading - and/or flipping through - those magazines. There were old Gourmet magazines (now defunct), Bon Appetit, an occasional Cooking Light and some copies of Saveur. And, though I/we found new-to-us recipes, we also found part of our history. We found recipes we have been making for years - most notably pears with gastrique - but pages stuck just a bit together from sloppy cooks, and memories. Oh so many memories.
Among the cookies we baked (ok, ok, I was mainly a spectator) were mint/chocolate etc cookies that were described as a meet up of the Girl Scout Thin Mint with the NY favorite, the Black and White -- called indeed by Bon Appetit the Black and White and Green cookie. Here it is:
T
The most fun part was actually the part I did: taking bunches (and bunches) of fresh mint and whirring it up in a food processor with loads of butter. That is the entire source of green in the cookie - fresh mint! And yes, that is sanding sugar.
The cookies were great. The making of them a joy. And, yes, the re-finding of old(er) magazines was delightful. I cannot say exactly why the reality of holding a magazine was a vast improvement on googling, despite my love for that as a route to recipes.
What magazines have you read lately?
