In exactly two weeks I will be making the six-hour drive to New Jersey along with everything I own and hold dear (except, unfortunately, for the two things I hold most dear these days: my clever boyfriend and devious cat). The lease on Mike and I's current apartment is over at the the end of this month and although Mike has opted to stay put in his lovely hometown of Pittsburgh, I'm making the move back into my parents house until I figure out what I'm doing come autumn.
My current plan is to enroll in culinary school (CIA and ICE are at the top of my list) in September or October, but that's all dependent on where I decide to go and whether or not I even get accepted. I'm still in the process of figuring it all out, but the prospect is very exciting and my cheeks get flush just talking about it. It's a complete change of pace from what I was doing this time last year, but for once I finally feel like I'm headed in the right direction, and that's a relief.
The move across state lines, my prospective education, and my upcoming month-long trip to Europe... all of these things have been occupying my thoughts lately. I'll take the good with the bad though, and hopefully many good things will come out of it. I'm very excited about this next 'chapter' (I apologize for the cliche metaphor) in my life, and I'm determined to make the best of everything.

Hm... I didn't set out to write so much about un-food-related things, but I guess I got a little carried away. I wrote that first bit with the intention of leading into the fact that I've been trying to use up the last of my baking ingredients and in turn have been baking much more frequently - in fact, I'm a little behind on my posts!
These cookies are from a few days ago but they are long gone now because they're just too good to let sit around. Mike is constantly requesting that I add shredded coconut to every batch of chocolate chip cookies that I make, so when I came across this recipe for a cookie which already uses coconut as its main ingredient, I thought to myself "Why not switch things around for once and add chocolate chips to these coconut cookies?" What resulted was an inspiring blend of tastes and textures - infinitely better than my usual "coconut" cookies because these cookies were specifically made with coconut in mind. To give you an idea of how good these are, Mike devoured three of these fresh out of the oven in the span of maybe five minutes; if the man who asks for coconut with everything was satisfied, they must be good.

Chewy Coconut Cookie Crisps

1 c. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
½ c. softened butter
½ c. granulated sugar
½ c. brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1½ c. flaked coconut


Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Mix the flour mixture into butter/sugar mixture, then mix in the coconut.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until cookies are light brown and edges are toasted.

Labels: coconut, cookies