I think I always make a big deal out of my birthdays. I mostly play humble but maybe I genuinely want to have attention showered on me all the time, so birthdays are an acceptable way to literally have my cake and eat it too.

My new cat friend Hobbs.

Release of one of my fave book series.

Free food at the Brooklyn Flea

Gigantic margaritas in San Diego

Because I am a bit of a hippie, whether I want to be or not, I’ve decided that instead of giving individual presents to everybody at work, I’ll just make a big batch of cookies that everybody can share. Also, because I’m lazy, it’ll at least spare me from shopping, except for the few important people (e.g. mother, brother, boyfriend, best friends).

Anyway, cookies.

I’ve been scouring cookbooks and food blogs for the past few weeks, trying to figure out what I want to make. I didn’t really want to make the same old chocolate chip again, but I also didn’t want to go crazy and make snowflake sugar cookies with royal icing. I may be a foodie wannabe, but I’m not that ambitious. Plus, I figured it’d be nice if I also like the cookies that I bake. So… then the choice became easy, because if there’s one cookie that I like, it’s snickerdoodles.

Another story — I almost was thwarted in this attempt to make snickerdoodles because of the one rare ingredient that they apparently do not sell in NYC anymore: cream of tartar. Really! I think I went to five different groceries before finding it at Whole Foods. I was *this* close to buying it offline, which would have been stupid if the shipping amounted to the same price as the product itself.

Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

» Heat oven to 350ºF.
» Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
» Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
» Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. (Total time will vary; cook or bake time is per batch.)

Cinnamon and sugar, that’s what holiday cookies should be all about.

New York was hit with approx. 4-6 inches of slushy snow on Friday, so I decided to test out by baking mojo by trying out Irish Soda Bread (in honor of St. Patrick’s Day this past weekend).

For a first attempt, it wasn’t bad. The bread rose up nicely (because of the buttermilk + baking soda + baking powder combo) and the raisins made it sweet, but not too sweet. I brought some of it to my mom on Saturday, and even she approved!

Renji also approved by munching on the top when I was out of the house. Silly cat.