Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Actually I'm a sucker for all holidays, but single or not, I have loved it. I think I just love the imagery and the idea of spreading love everywhere. Even being pissed off about Valentine's Day is fun in itself.
Another reason why this holiday is so fabulous are the multitude of sugary desserts and candies at my fingertips. My absolute favorite thing to eat is a chocolate chip cookie, and I believe I have finally found the perfect recipe.
This cookbook was one of my birthday gifts and it is fan-freakin-tastic. Mindy owns a bakery called (Mindy's)Hot Chocolate in Chicago. Buy this book, you won't be sorry. (here) I am a total dork in the kitchen and make mistakes ALL the time, but the first time I made these cookies, my mistake actually worked itself out. I misread the recipe where it says to "divide the cookie dough into twelve pieces". (I later realized that meant per cookie sheet) So a recipe that should really make 42 cookies ended up making 14 HUGE cookies. But they were un-believable and you only needed to eat one giant one to be satisfied. And then you could say "I only had 1 cookie." Here's the recipe. Don't be scared by the chocolate discs and different salts. I used a variety of sea salts and kosher salts and they still tasted amazing. I also used Ghirardelli Chocolate discs from Sam's Club. Still yummy.
Giant cookie
I think chocolate chip cookies are the perfect Valentine's gift. Most everyone loves them, they're not too crazy to make and hey, cookies! One of my other most favorite things to give AND receive (hint hint) is a mix tape. Really it's a CD, but I'm still holding on to my cassettes and still say things like "did you tape that show for me?" Because I'm an old lady and I'm set in my ways. Here's my new Valentine's Day mix tape. Turn it up, dance around and shove cookies in your mouth. Perfect, even though we're not technically together, we are celebrating together AND in the very same way. Much love!
https://open.spotify.com/user/125981565/playlist/2zjTFJ0cakwHS6UIQypyLY