In Celebration

It doesn't take much to motivate me to bake. And the fact that I actually saw sunlight and green grass today was truly cause for a celebration.

Chocolate Crackled Cookies by McCormick gourmet.com
Cook's notes: I came across this recipe in a magazine. It called for a spice which I actually had Roasted Saigon Cinnamon. It also called for 1 teaspoon of McCormick Chile Pepper Ancho spice which I did not have so I omitted it. But certainly that spice would take up the flavor a notch. If I did have it would cut back  to 1/2 tsp. I added in chunks of white chocolate  to the batter instead of using chocolate chunks. These cookies were crunchy and with the type of cinnamon used was just the perfect compliment to the rest of ingredients. Consider adding this cookie recipe to your folder. 
recipe was adapted from McCormickgourmet.com
Makes 2 dozen cookies
Next recipes posted will be a Moroccan Chicken dish and Moroccan Beef Stew. Both recipes use Roasted Saigon Cinnamon. 
Ingredients:

• 2- 4 oz packages of semi-sweet baking chocolate bar
• 4 squares of baking white chocolate 
• 3/4 cup flour (I was a little generous and added 1 heaping TB more)
• 1-1/2 tsp. Roasted Saigon Cinnamon spice
• 1/2 tsp. Chile Pepper Ancho spice
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 stick of softened butter (1/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs room temperature, slightly beaten
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

• Cover a cookie tray with a sheet of parchment paper
• Preheat oven 375
• Coarsely chop white chocolate into small pieces
• Mix sugars and butter beat till fluffy and add in eggs
• In microwave melt 2 packages of semi-sweet chocolate
• Add melted chocolate to butter mixture and blend well
• In another bowl add flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon
• Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well
• Fold in white chocolate pieces
• Place bowl with batter in freezer for 1/2 hour
• Drop batter by tablespoons on parchment sheet
• Bake 10 minutes or until cookies are set and slightly cracked on top
• Let cool a minutes or two on tray and transfer over to a wire rack 

_______________________________________________________

Robert Penn Warren 

April 24, 1905

America's first official poet laureate February 26, 1986

Though regarded as one of the best poets of his generation, Warren was better known as a novelist and received tremendous recognition for All the King's Men, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1947. 

 Evening Hawk

by Rober Penn Warren 

From plane of light to plane, wings dipping through
Geometries and orchids that the sunset builds,
Out of the peak's black angularity of shadow, riding
The last tumultuous avalanche of
Light above pines and the guttural gorge,
The hawk comes.
               His wing
Scythes down another day, his motion 
Is that of the honed steel-edge, we hear
The crashless fall of stalks of Time.

The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error.

Look!  Look!  he is climbing the last light
Who knows neither Time nor error, and under
Whose eye, unforgiving, the world, unforgiven, swings
Into shadow.

          Long now,
The last thrush is still, the last bat
Now cruises in his sharp hieroglyphics.  His wisdom
Is ancient, too, and immense.  The star
Is steady, like Plato, over the mountain.

If there were no wind we might, we think, hear
The earth grind on its axis, or history
Drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar.