Week 11: Chocolate Malted Cookies

This week I chose to make chocolate malted cookies.  I found this recipe in "Cooking Light" magazine back in 2005.  I made them once or twice but it has been years since I baked them...until today that is. ☺ The cookies are really yummy!  They are light and chocolatey and have a really nice texture.  Here is the link to the recipe that I used: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001054850

Like the name indicates these cookies contain chocolate and malt powder.  I love chocolate malts.  They remind me of my childhood and my dad.  He loves chocolate malts and "whoppers" too.  When I was little, whenever my parents would take us to the "tasty freeze" aka "Country Dairy",  my Dad would always get a chocolate malt.  I always got a chocolate vanilla twist in a cone with twinkle coat. ☺  Also at Eastertime, I remember getting malted milk eggs in my basket every year, but I wasn't crazy about them so I always gave them to my Dad.  Some time during my adolescence my dad coined the term "hot pipe cooler" in reference to a chocolate malt.  Well the name stuck because Dan and I still jokingly refer to malts that way.

While I was mixing up the dough (and thinking about my Dad and his love of malts) I was listening to my Frank Sinatra playlist on the iPod. I love love love Frank Sinatra and usually listen to him while I cook or clean...I am sure he'd be thrilled. ☺ One of my favorite songs by Frank Sinatra is "All the Way."  I love the lyrics, his voice, and all the horns in that song.  I referenced in an earlier blog that even the old songs that I profess to love make me cry.  Well this song is one of those songs and today was no different.  I was thinking about my Dad just as my favorite part of the song played.  It goes like this:  "...who knows where the road will lead us...only a fool would say....but if you let me love you, it's for sure I'm gonna love you...all the way...all the way..."   This is the part that usually makes me sad because I often wonder if people knew what was going to happen to them (down the road) would they continue on that road.  Specifically, I wondered if my Dad knew at the beginning, that he would lose my Mom so young and so tragically, would he have continued on that road?



Before the Prom

 After some reflection I know in my heart that he would.  My Dad loved my Mom...really loved her...and he loved her all the way.  I fear that too many people enter into marriages and relationships not really knowing what "all the way" means. In my opinion, it means that even when things get difficult, get sad, get monotonous, get stupid...you still continue to value one another.  It takes way more than love too.  It takes respect, honesty, kindness, compassion, and friendship.  I think that those things sustain you when love is hard to find.   When life gets rough (and it will) sometimes the last thing you are thinking about is love. That's when the other aspects of true love like respect, kindness, and especially compassion become paramount.  If you can look at your life partner and feel those things in the absence of romantic love...that's all the way. 

My parents' wedding day
July 18, 1970



 My parents didn't have a perfect marriage (because no one does) but they loved each other "all the way."  I just wish (for both of them) that it could have been longer. 

For those of you still reading my blog, I feel I owe you an apology. When I started this "cookie blog" eleven weeks ago, I had no idea it would morph into what it has become...my therapy. I really did start this project just wanting to bake a new cookie every week. Well I learned pretty quickly that my love of cooking/baking is completely intertwined with other aspects of my life. It's intermingled with my memories, my love for my family and friends, and my sense of nurturance. I don't just go into the kitchen and whip up a batch of cookies. I am usually thinking about the people that I am going to share them with, and really hoping that they will enjoy what I have made. Or I am thinking about the memories I have associated with the particular thing that I am making. I have said it before and it is still true (obviously) that I do most of my deep thinking while I'm in the kitchen. It is a truly organic experience and it is not contrived at all...some weeks it feels like my blog figuratively writes itself. So I apologize if this project appears deceiving but again "...that's the way the cookie crumbles." ♥