Sweet Corn Sugar Cookies

I feel awkward talking about cookies today.  It seems more trivial than usual to be focusing on butter and sugar when people have been buried and found in the mountains by earthquakes and another city has gone feral in front of TV cameras.  In a week where marathoners ran in defiant celebration, and the supreme court is deciding whether people can love each other legally, the relevance of a recipe is negligible at best.

And yet, it is what I have*.

It is, at least, an outstanding irrelevant recipe.

Better Together

With apologies and much respect to Jack Johnson:

There is no combination of words I could put on screen of my MacBook 

No song that I could sing, but I can certainly cook

These dreams, and they are made out of real things 

Like chocolate chip cookies 

Smushed with deep dark chewy brownies 

These are the answer, 

At least for most of the questions in my heart 

Like what's for dessert? And can I have two? 

And is making them not too hard? 

It's actually easy, and

They're so darn great you must believe me 

I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when they're together 

Mmm, it's always better when they're together 

Yeah, we'll be licking our lips when they're together 

Well, it's always better when they're together 

Yeah, it's always better when they're together 

Mmm, mmm, mmm 

I believe in Brookie Bites 

They are so, so tasty just to eat 

Plus, when I wrap 'em up, 

They stay delicious, all the way to N.C. 

Now these are favorites of mine 

And there is no, no better mash up I've seen

Caramelized cookie dough and intense chewy brownies

Yeah, I had to tell you this thing 

They're better together.

Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm ,mmm...

Just about now...

50 years ago, I was just new.

31 years ago, I fell, unknowingly, for the love of my life.

19 years ago, I was counting down to a due date*.

Six years ago, I started this blog**.

Four years ago, I grieved and raged in the mountains of Peru.

A year ago, I came clean.

Six months ago, we lost Blackjack.

Two weeks ago, we made room for Juneau and all the lovely chaos.

Long, long ago, whenever my mother felt overwhelmed by big events and life's dramatic twists and upheavals, she would go to the stove and begin stirring chocolate and sugar and butter together in a pot.  She would stir and stir and then there would be fudge. Creamy, just a teeny, tiny bit grainy, tender, and cocoa-sugar-salty. Magical.

Until recently, it was elusive, this salve for the extraordinary emotional milestone.

Just a few days ago...
Just in time...

...there was fudge***.

You should have some. Just about now.