Cookie Monster!

The universe was calling to me.

I mentioned my favorite cookies, "Black and Whites," in my most recent posting and then a cousin of mine sent me an email requesting a favorite recipe.

Also in the mix was the fact that my wife and I had visited two Dunkin Donut restaurants recently, one during our trip to Ithaca last week and another when we went to the movies the other day, trying to get a cup of hot chocolate.  We were rebuffed by both places, "No hot chocolate...we're out!"  They had coffee, but we wanted chocolate.

So, now I have that craving going and a fear that we'll never get another hot chocolate at a Dunkin Donut's shop again...what's with that?

So, here's what I figured.  I have to get the recipe out, I want something chocolate, and I all ready mentioned my favorite cookies...it was all a go!

The recipe is simple...and this is a double batch so I get about 16 cookies.

Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Set aside for a minute.

Mix 2/3 cup of buttermilk with 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Set aside for a minute.

Mix together 8 tablespoons of softened butter (1 stick), 1 cup of sugar and 2 eggs.  Beat the butter and sugar together first, until well blended and then add the eggs.

Now, start adding a little of the dry flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, then add a little of the buttermilk/vanilla mixture.  

Keep alternating adding dry/wet until all is added and beat well for about 3 minutes.

Butter a couple of baking sheets (I do that by taking a paper towel and rubbing about a tablespoon of butter across each sheet).  Then, drop about 1/4 cup of the mixture onto a sheet to make one cookie.  Repeat and fit as many on one sheet as you can, leaving about two inches between each.

Did I mention you should have the oven heated to 350 degrees?

Pop them in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.

Repeat until you have used up all of the dough.

They have to get off that baking sheet quickly when done.

Scoop them right off the sheet with a flipper and place them on a cooling rack.

I use a simple icing to finish them off.


In a bowl, beat together 1 pound of confectioner's sugar, 1 stick of softened butter, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of salt.  I add about 3 or 4 tablespoons of milk, depending on how loose I want the icing to be.  You can add as little or as much milk as you like.  That makes a full bowl of white icing.

I then frost one half of each cookie with white frosting.   I use about half of the white frosting and leave the rest in the bowl to transform it to chocolate

I then take about two tablespoons of butter and melt it in a pan.  I add 1/4 cup of Hershey's Chocolate Powder to the butter, stir until moistened and then add that to the frosting that remains.  Beat it well and it all turns to chocolate frosting.

Then, I frost the other half of the cookies and voila!  Black and White cookies!!!

I love these cookies and have to remember that I can't eat six of them at one time, as I used to.

In my college days, there was a bakery across the street and they made awesome Black and White cookies.  I'd buy three or four, with a cup of coffee, and that was breakfast.


When we were at Dunkin Donuts, I spied their chocolate glazed donuts...they looked good, too.  But, no hot chocolate, no donuts.  We left depressed.

But, not to worry, the Black and Whites on my table are making up for it.

I have to admit that I am a bit of a cookie monster and my mind is usually in several places at one time.

In making reference to our favorite Sesame Street character, and cookies, I thought of a painting I had done on Monhegan Island many years ago (see how my mind wanders?).

During one painting trip to Monhegan, we were having a critique, after a day of painting, and Fred Wiley was sitting in with us.  He had befriended our leader and joined us for some of our artistic endeavors on Monhegan, as he lived there.

Here's a short piece about Fred who was a Monhegan main-stay, a great artist and wonderful wit:

http://www.pressherald.com/archive/obituaries_2010-01-07.html

Fred Wiley

After all of this, here's what I'm getting to.

I put up this painting and awaited an educated critique.

During the sessions, people might talk about use of color, tones, the drawing, the painting technique, the actual place chosen for the picture, or any myriad of things that deserved (or maybe not) attention.



The idea of the critique was to provide a place for constructive criticism, in the hopes of making the art or the artist better.

Here's my painting:

The first thing I heard was Fred's quick remark!

Cookie Monster!

I looked at him and he pointed out the eyes (windows) and the big mouth (you can almost see its tonsils)!

Everyone laughed so hard...there was nothing more to say about this one.  Each time I see this painting, I'm reminded of Fred, of Monhegan, and the fact that it's time to make cookies, cookies, cookies!!!

Butterflies Are Free, Wine Tastings Two Bucks!

Guess what they have in Ithaca, New York? 

Sidewalks...lots of them. 

I tried to Google the question as to how many miles of sidewalks they might have, but no luck.  But they are everywhere in town.

Sidewalks are in front of all sorts of stores and businesses.  We walked on some of them.  They lead to music and yarn shops, to arts and craft businesses, to restaurants and pubs, and more.

And, there's a lot to do in Ithaca...here's a link below to "Downtown Ithaca."  They even talk about their sidewalks!

http://www.downtownithaca.com/

We had decided to do a one night trip out of town this past weekend and chose Ithaca for several reasons.  My wife wanted to do some birdwatching with the Cornell Ornithology nature tour leaders (they do weekend morning hikes) and she wanted to take me to Taughannock Falls State Park.  We also needed to revisit some of the Finger Lake wineries!

I was looking forward to some walking on sidewalks, so I agreed to some off-concrete action! 

So, one trip was to the State Park.  Here's a You Tube shot...not ours...of Taughannock Falls in the winter...the water was pretty much frozen in time this past weekend, but similar in looks to this one, and still a spectacular sight.



As I mentioned, we've visited several of the wineries on Cayuga Lake, in the past, but you can never be quite sure if you've tasted everything.  

Now, I know what you're saying.  "There aren't any sidewalks that lead to the wineries!"  What I do understand is that there are things we have to accept for the sake of grape art.  If I have to get in a car and drive to a winery, so be it.

I'll continue to promote "sidewalks for all," with the hopes that someday they'll link the entire lake's wine region with sidewalks, but in the meantime, to keep the industry afloat, I'll make the sacrifice and find my way there any way I can.   Any day, any time!

We're fans of many of their spirited offerings.  For a couple of bucks, you can taste six or eight, or more, of their products.  If you haven't been, here's a link to their "Wine Trail" site and I recommend that you try them all, several times:

http://www.cayugawinetrail.com/

There doesn't seem to be enough time in a day to fit in all of the wineries.  And then we got a little off plan, which can happen when you're driving from spot-to-spot.

My wife will, all of a sudden, spy a shop or see a sign and become immediately attracted to its driveway.  That happened as we passed the Cayuga Nature Center on Route 89.  Check it out:

http://www.cayuganaturecenter.org/

The Nature Center has many exhibits, live animals, some hiking paths, and they offer a number of educational programs.  They don't seem to grow grapes or make wine, but they did have complimentary hot chocolate the day we were there.

Just FYI, as I think it's important for you to know, there are producers out there who do make chocolate wine and chocolate beer.  I don't know why they don't offer it at the Nature Center.  I would check out nature more often.  Wouldn't you?

Chocolate is natural, wine is natural, beer is natural, and from the size of the big butterfly sculptures out front of the Nature Center on the main road, you'd think someone there had a few too many.

We spotted the two huge winged insects from a distance and wanted to check out the place.  Of course, now that we're halfway through the wine tour, we're really interested in seeing just how big the real ones are, need to check out this "Butterfly House," and want to see what else is going on in there!

We went through each room in the interior of the center, after paying a small fee, and then headed outdoors, up the hill, towards the Butterfly House.

By the way, that same amount of small fee would cover eight wine tastings, at one winery, just up the road.

I took some pictures of the "Butterfly House" at the Nature Center and want to point out several things.


From a distance, you see the sign on what appears to be a transparent building.

As we got closer, we could could plainly see that there were no butterflies in the building at all.  In fact, apart from dead plants and weeds and snow, it was pretty much empty.

I whipped out my camera and started shooting.  My wife asked what I was doing.

I told her that, as we seemed to be the only people at the place, I was sure that they were going to blame us for the fact that the butterflies got out.

I will also point out at this moment, as you might be asking the question, I was not driving, she was.

I took a picture of the door, to prove to the staff in the center that I saw the sign and was sure to close the door behind us!

When we got back in the building, we let one of the curators there know that we had made the trip up the hill, saw the exhibit and were sure to follow the instructions on their sign, but had to report that the butterflies were no where to be seen!

At that point, much to our relief, she explained that they let them go at the end of the warm weather season (they must be akin to circus performers, there for the warm month's shows and then off to other parts of the country when the summer season ends!)

However, the curator was most appreciative of the fact that we saw the sign and that we had made sure the door was closed!  That ensured, she said, that other insects and animals wouldn't get in to make more work for them in the Spring!   I wonder how many wineries she had been to that day?

We'll be sure to visit there again, maybe before we hit the wine trail next time.  I'll be sharing some of our other adventures from this recent trip with you, and a few winery and other area activities, over the next few days.  We did make use of the sidewalks!

Sidewalk-less Walks

We don't live near sidewalks, yet my wife likes to go for long walks.  So, we walk on the sides of our rural roads or we end up driving out to the hinterlands and we trek the sides of mountains.

It doesn't matter the season, when she gets the urge to "go for a walk," she'll most times want some scenery (other than houses on the side of our road) so we try to dress appropriately, pack up some snacks, jump in the car and head to a nearby park or preserve.

A favorite place is the Mohonk Preserve.  We're only fifteen minutes from several of their entry ways and there are plenty hiking trails.  Some are very easy, others necessitate legs and lungs of steel.  You can check them out here:

http://www.mohonkpreserve.org/

Another spot we frequent is Minnewaska State Park.  Formerly a private resort area, it became a State Park a number of years ago and my wife is the very proud owner of an Empire State Park Pass.  Paying an annual fee for that pass, she gets entry into state parks, and we've been to a few.  Here's some information about Minnewaksa:

http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/127/details.aspx

There are other parks we've visited, and hiked, and the important thing to remember is that you have to get out of the car and walk once you get there.  And, you're pretty much walking into the park so that you can walk out of the park.  There aren't any shops or cafes in the plan.

Today, we arrived at Minnewaska and decided we would visit the falls.

To get there, one parks in the lower lot.  Then, you walk back to the entry way, across the road, to get to the trail head.

I thought, as it was cold and it's a hike in and of itself from the parking lot to the trail head, that we should ask if there were valet service.
 
My wife enjoyed asking the question for me, as much as the gatehouse attendant enjoyed hearing it.  They both had a good laugh and then made me walk from and to the parking lot anyway, on top of the hike!

Here's another issue.  There are no sidewalks, just paths.  To boot, what's left of the path after winter starts is worn and packed areas...snow if you're lucky, ice if it's cold without snow.

I expressed the idea that the addition of heat tapes to the paths would be a great thing.

It would keep the paths from narrowing during the winter and reduce the issue of walking on icy spots.

Now, I don't want you to think that it's just me.  I think the wildlife would benefit from this, as well.  I didn't see a single animal on the trails today and I'm sure it's because they are aware of the conditions and don't want to fall.  A porcupine with its quills might be able to catch onto something to slow their slide, but furry and feathery fauna are in for a ride.

We did about an hour and a half out there and headed back to the car in pretty good shape.

I did have one other thought, when we were out there in the woods today,that I didn't share with my wife.  Right out there, by the water falls, in the middle of nature, how about a hot chocolate shop?  If we lived in a town with sidewalks, and went for a walk, we'd most likely end up at a cafe and be able to sit for a few and savor a hot cocoa with marshmallows. I think it's a natural. 

And, until we find our sidewalk paradise, I think I could be persuaded to go for more sidewalk-less walks, and put in the trek to and from the parking lot without complaint, and hazard the trails, if I knew that I could take a break at the hot chocolate cafe in the woods.