I spent the weekend in NYC. And since I have been a negative nancy for the past week, I’m going to continue on that streak.
New York was rainy and bitter cold. In an attempt to dress my best for the three weeks I’m on the east coast, I decided to only bring three pairs of shoes: flat brown boots, heeled black boots, and black flannel flats. In keeping with that trend I decided to pack only black heeled boots on my trip to Manhattan. The weekend after we got six inches of snow. Heeled boots in icy, slushy, wet sidewalks. Good choice.
Now I know you’re waiting for the story of how I slipped and broke my wrist and smooshed my nose in, but luckily that didn’t happen. After a full day of slipping and sliding I decided to head down to the local Payless in the Upper East Side and grab a pair of wannabe gray velcro Chucks and stuck with them for the next two days, no matter how terrible they looked with my skinny jeans and white socks. Oh, and no I didn’t bring socks on this trip, are you kidding? I barely even own any socks, I bought those at Payless too. Okay, enough negativity, I’m not going to describe that despite my layers, scarf, gloves, and hat I was still freezing cold and wanted to crawl back in bed.
Highlights: Seeing three of my best friends and spending 2.5 days with them, Paesano of Mulberry Street, Blue Water Grill, Jaclyn doing pornstar poses (man I wish I could link to those photos), in Jaclyn’s words: “Afternoon Delight” or in other words drinks at 3:30pm on Saturday, doing crosswords, and looking up people from high school on dating websites.
These are one of my favorite cookies. Everytime I make them, I forget that when it comes time to eat them, you’re essentially consuming two cookies at once, and that I need to make them smaller. I don’t know if I’m being over generous with the suggested size, or if it really needs to be scaled back, but when they’re baked they come out to 2″ in wide dome shapes. Use just enough frosting between the two cookies so that it starts to ooze out, don’t overdo it.
This is the first time I’ve made them with food processor-ed coconut; prior to purchasing my food processor I chopped shredded coconut to make it a bit finer, but the food processor method really does work best. It releases the flavor of the coconut more and infuses the dough.
These are best when eaten the first and second days after baking, but they will last for up to a week.
Photo: ErinCooks.com
Coconut Sandwich Cookies
Everyday Food Magazine December 2007
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package (7 ounces) sweetened shredded coconut (about 2 1/4 cups)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Creamy Vanilla Filling (see below)
Preheat oven to 350, with racks set in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Place 1/2 cup coconut into a small bowl; set aside. Place remaining coconut in a food processor; pulse until coarsely ground. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and ground coconut; mix just until combined.
Drop dough by level tablespoons onto two baking sheets, 1 to 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly golden around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Dividing evenly, spread filling on flat side of half the cookies; sandwich with remaining cookies. Roll edges in reserved coconut, and chill until ready to serve.
Creamy Vanilla Filling
Using an electric mixer, beat 1/2 cup (1 stick) room-temperature unsalted butter until light and fluffy. With mixer on medium, beat in 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract , increase speed to high, and beat until filling is light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Makes about 1 cup.
This is hilarious!! I’m at work right now and this came through on one of my industry newsletters. I couldn’t resist taking 5 minutes to blog about it. I love Burger King’s marketing!
“Two days ago - just in time for the holidays - the fast food chain began selling the body spray, for $4 a bottle, at Rickey’s, a New York City retailer, and on the Web site, http://www.firemeetsdesire.com/.”
I’m definitely buying this as a gag gift for someone this year!
