Happy (Late) New Year

Somehow on New Year’s Eve I managed to have an intense urge to organize and purge. (Out with the old and…well, that’s pretty much as far as we got J). Some was just reorganizing (you know…that spare closet you just stuff things in) and others was packing it up for the Good Will (you know…those things you got as a gift that you actually don’t even like or want out, but feel like you should keep because after all, it’s the thought that counts).

For the past several New Year’s Days we host Brandon’s friends for the NHL Winter Classic. Every year I make chili, and the last two I’ve made cornbread (though I’m still searching for a recipe that isn’t super dry…moist cornbread eludes me again…). This year I also made cookies, using a recipe from Jacques Torres' A Year In Chocolate. This cookbook is beautiful, but a little intimidating with recipes like Esterel Cake and Chocolate Blackout Cake with Ganache Drizzle, so I chose to do the cookie recipe as my first attempt in a year of chocolate.

While I intended to follow the recipe completely, I ended up making a few minor substitutions. The cookies turned out great (even though I accidentally used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar…and was mocked mercilessly by my husband, brother, and brother-in-law. Apparently all the mocking didn’t stop them from eating them all…and taking some home with them!

But can you blame them? Look at the yummy cookies:

Yum! And totally worth the calories!!