Pawleys Pie

 

I feel like I should be talking turkey. Y'all, Thanksgiving is only 14 days away. Two weeks on the nose. I just about have the menu finalized, which mostly comes from our Thanksgiving last year.

Instead I'm talking pie. And not the pumpkin or sweet potato kind that fits right in during the holiday season. This is one of my favorite local recipes. It's like a chocolate chip cookie on steroids thanks to coconut and pecans.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

It's gourd season, y'all. It's a beautiful coincidence that the time for all things pumpkin intersects with the time for all things football. I think that's sort of how my life works. Everything happens at once. My birthday is Christmas Eve, so I get birthday and Christmas all at once. And now it's not just football and pumpkins in the fall. It's also Grady-time. He turned 11 months old yesterday, and I'm absolutely floored at how he's gone from wee (although his hands and feet were never wee) and utterly helpless to large and in charge. He wants to feed himself, he can drink out of a sippy cup, and he's SO close to walking. Oh mercy, I didn't mean to get all sentimental.

I have to say I'm really excited for Grady's first birthday. My sister has a wonderful day in mind, and let's be honest, the party is really for the adults. I just know Grady will go to town on the smash cake we make him, but it's not like he'll remember any of this. All that said, let's get down to cookie business.

Triple Chocolate Chunk & Pistachio Cookies

Do you know what I love about the world? Little favors. Little favors that take a craptastic day and turn it into a less craptastic day. It's especially uplifting when the little favors are perpetrated by a total stranger because it restores just a little bit of faith in humanity.

Like two weeks ago in the Kroger by my sister's house. See, I'd found out earlier that day that we had to put our dog, Daisy, down. It ripped a hole in my heart, and I tried to make myself feel better by going to the gym. It's hard to feel sad in Zumba when you're making a fool of yourself. And I did feel better while I was there, but then it was raining and gross outside. On the way back to my sister's I decided to stop at Kroger because it was easier to get to during rush hour. I grabbed a few things and parked myself in the wine section to find a decently priced bottle (P.S. Kroger, your mark-up was a little ridic). I was checking out, and the clerk asked if I had a Kroger card. I said I didn't, and the man in line behind me said "Oh here" and had the clerk scan his card for me. I thanked him, paid, then turned back and said "If I'd known that was gonna happen, I'd have picked a better bottle of wine." He laughed, I laughed and thanked him again, and I left with my heart a little lighter because he did a little something nice.

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Y'all, this is my 100th post!  I figured I should make something a little special, and it should probably be a cake.  Let's also factor in that Will's birthday was Saturday, and he wanted a cookie cake.  So we've got us a deep dish chocolate chip cookie cake.  Holy.  Moly.

Oh and can we talk about how today is the first day of spring, and we've already had days in the upper 80's?!  Y'all, that's hot.  And it's only gonna get hotter.  So if you need a slice of cookie cake and a cold glass of milk on a screened-in porch with a fan, I totally understand.

Super Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies. Make Them Now.

I want a corn dog.  It's State Fair time, which means fried foods of all kinds.  And delicious corn dogs.  At no other time in my life do I say "A corn dog is the only thing that will cure my hunger!" than at State Fair time.  I don't know if I'll get to go this year, but I do plan on going to the Peanut Festival in Dothan.  Oh, you didn't know Dothan, Alabama is the peanut capital?  Well it is, and they have a festival to celebrate the glorious creation that is the peanut.  And apparently the Corn Dog Man there makes the best corn dogs.  So there you go.  Or maybe I'll make my own?  That sounds like a project for another day.

Dessert Alert:  I made the best chocolate chips cookies of my life.  The edges were lightly crispy, the middle was chewy, and the chocolate was perfectly melty.  I died.  And then I came back to life and ate another one.  I wouldn't let Will hear the end of it.