Mine in pictures.

The two best New Years resolutions I ever made (and the only ones I remember):

- Spend at least 30 minutes outside every day.

-Watch the sunset every night.

What were your best resolutions?

I’m a day late. But a very merry Christmas to you all.

“Do you want to know what I got your for Christmas?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Go to:

http://lindseysgift.com

(click through, if you want to see what he got for me)

Adam is wonderful. And the best bloke in the world for me.

I am always messing about in the kitchen. It seems silly that I have never posted a recipe here. I suppose the reason most things I bake I either threw together without any sort of measurements, or I would like to improve in some way. Maybe I want to add honey or cardamom. Maybe I want it denser or lighter. Maybe I forgot to take a picture, again.

But this recipe…this is the one recipe I have never been tempted to change. It is simple and perfect and lovely. They are humble little thumbprints, but they are the cookies I come back to year after year.

A word on ingredients. I like to use whole-wheat pastry flour for these cookies. That way, they don’t give me much of a stomach ache when I eat four for breakfast three days in a row. If you don’t have that problem, feel free to use all-purpose flour or a combination of the two. Spelt flour might be interesting. I like to use raw/turbinado sugar, but it is too coarse for this recipe, so if it is all you have on hand, give it a whirl in the food processor to get it nice and fine. I think raspberry jam is the best in these cookies, but use whatever you like.

Thumbprint Cookies

3/4 c unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 c sugar
2 egg yolks
1 3/4 c flour
a tiny pinch of salt
jam

Preheat oven to 375 F (that’s 190 C). Mix butter, sugar, and egg yolks. Stir in salt and flour. It should be a nice, soft dough. Roll it into balls the size of acorns. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet a couple inches apart from one another, and make a nice thumbprint in each one of them. Fill the prints with the jam of your choice and bake 8-10 minutes.

You can eat them right out of the oven, but I think they are best the second day.

“Don’t start walking to work yet.

It seems all I want to do these days is read.

In with December came winter.

I was, at some point, going to write more about Thanksgiving.