Ce soir mon cousin Frédéric m'a téléphoné pour nous souhaiter bonne année. C'est mon petit cousin (alors, pas vraiment petit parce ce qu'il est plus grand que moi - mais c'est moi qui est plus âgé. Alors...France télécom offre un "deal" où on téléphone à n'importe où par l'internet et c'est compris-- donc, il me téléphone de temps en temps. (
Ok - assez. Je continue en anglais.)
Non sequitor to-die-for, no-brainer Cookie Crescent recipe
NOTE: This will not do much for your waistline or your complexion, but it is worth it.
makes about 4-5 doz, baked at 300 degrees 15-20 min.
In food processor, mix:
3/4 c. butter (aarrgh -yum)= 1.5 sticks of the stuff
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
1/2 c. cornstarch
1 c. flour (I used whole wheat flour to get fiber and make myself feel less guilty - and they are just as good!! In fact, better!)
Take 1/2 tsp of dough, roll into log and shape into crescent. Flatten. Bake as above.
I got about 5 doz out of this batch. I make 'em small because they are so addicitve I will eat 6 of them - no matter what size they are. Aarrgh.
No fail.
You can roll them in confect. sugar while warm, but I don't like 'em that sweet. I was seriously considering making this batch with salted pistachios either added in or crushed so I could roll the cookies in 'em. But lazy. So, instead, I am sitting here eating the cookies with a side of salted pistachios. So delicious. So decadent. Trust me, these are so easy your 6-7 year old kids or grandkids can make them.
If there are any left, I am taking them into NY to give to our friend Arthur, who loves any cookies. His favorites are my lemon squares but I didn't have time to make them today. This morning, I paid bills (my mother's and my own)and then this afternoon, went to the Short Hills Mall to buy a weekend house gift for Rosalie & Arthur, since we are staying at their East Side Manhattan pied à terre from Sat. to Monday. 
I'm bringing the NY Times listings with me so we can decide what we want to do tomorrow and Sunday during the day. Museums? Chelsea galleries? Ah - la vie de luxe! Dinner at a neighborhood French restaurant New Year's Eve and then we come home to a party down the street from us. I love this time of year! Last year on New Year's Eve (or maybe before dinner) we went to see Woody Allen's new movie -whatever it was - and I thought it was a delight!! Uh - SCOOP. Rent it if you haven't seen it!
So, where was I? After I bought the weekend house gift, I hightailed it over to Saks Fifth Ave. to treat myself to my 2007 makeover. After all, I have this wonderful haircut and color - and this crappy old makeup. What is THAT? Spent a king's ransom on my face but - oh, well - am I not I worth it? How you feel about yourself makes all the difference, even if it has no basis in reality.
Unfortunately, I have to wash my face tonight. Will take my camera to the City and try to take pictures to post when I get home. Aarrgh. My husband has the day off on Tuesday: the stock market is closed in memory of Gerald Ford. Nevertheless, I have to work after I get home from my root canal appointment.
Happy New Year to all - and to all, a good night. (I think wrong poem - but you get the idea
I baked after dinner tonight. I think this recipe (and a similar picture) find their way to my blog every year or two. Can't help it. They are so quick and easy and delicious that I have to post the recipe periodically. I think I got it from a Good Housekeeping in the 1960's (which is when I was reading that magazine) and have never seen as good a recipe again. They are basically shortbread. I've been baking so much this week that I'm running out of butter. I only use sweet, unsalted butter for baking-- and a food processor, which is not in the original recipe.
Cookie Crescents
Into the food processor, throw:
3/4 c. unsalted butter (1-1/2 sticks)
1 cup flour
1/2 c. cornstarch
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar
As soon as dough comes together, stop. Take about 1 tsp of dough (or less), roll between your hands, make into crescent and flatten. ( I get about 6 doz).
Line cookie sheets with parchment (or not)
Bake at 300 degrees for 15-20 min or till slightly brown at edges. Yum yum. You can dust them in confectioner's sugar but I find that too sweet.
Working backwards...I didn't do any fiber work tonight because I spent much of the evening on the phone with my friend Laura, who is mourning the loss of her mother and her brother-in-law within 12 hours of one another.
Today, I was in the studio before lunch putting together the piece that has been sitting on my wall for a couple of weeks. Things never go together exactly as they have been arranged on the wall - or the way you think they should. And sometimes, you'll surprise yourself by making a change at the last minute that works better than you would have imagined - or that you hadn't thought of till AHA! "Aha" is sometimes very subtle and this is not the final version.
Some of the pieces are lightly Misty-Fused together at the edge,others are just pinned to the wall. Normally I stitch, but today I thought I would fuse edges because I can move the pieces around and eventually, straighten them out. Of course, when your printing is askew it always looks lopsided, even if the fabric pieces are straight. Or especially if they are straight.
One thing I discovered: it is much more physically exhausting to print than to put together a quilt. My afternoon felt very leisurely and la-di-da as I carried fabrics from the wall to the cutting mat to the ironing table and back to the wall. I was relaxed. My feet did not hurt.
And when I left at 4:something, I even had the energy to stop at Whole Foods and pick up an item or two, make a quiche for dinner and bake after dinner. Maybe I should stop printing and just make art from what I already have.
The weather has been pretty nice - breezy and not humid. But I've been running the A/C in the studio because we have a southern exposure and it is SUNNY. Tonight I actually put the air on in the house because it is turning humid. And we did not take our usual postprandial stroll. Here is Marty, just before we took our walk last night.
And here is the beautiful pool in our development that we used to go to when we first moved here but haven't been to in a while. Nonetheless, we walk past it every evening (not tonight) and it is very nice to look at.
I think this post has been somewhat out of sequence and disorganized but that's the way my life is these days - LOL. I finally got my car washed today but it needs another run-through because of the sticky goo from the damn tree next to my driveway. I am parking across the street for the rest of the summer.
One more thing just flew through my head but it's just as well it vanished because this post is too long, anyway.
