sweet, sweet radishes

Someone's been holding out on me.

For years, I've passed radishes over on veggie plates because any radish I've ever tasted was just too peppery, too bitter, and downright zingy. Even the ones sliced paper-thin were just too much. Well, we just received a bunch from our new friend Dave and I've been eating them whole, people! That's how sweet these beautiful little radishes are.

We've joined Dave's vegetable CSA and I'm very excited about all the greens, leeks, beets, tomatoes, snap peas, swiss chard, you-name-it, and radishes heading our way this summer. Since last year's foray into gardening was a total bust (I blame our non-existent summer and a shady garden plot), I'm pretty stoked about finding our neighbourhood's Farmer Dave.

final stretch

Pardon the radio silence. I know it's been a bit quiet around here.

My excuse? Well today, I'm busy noshing on one of my favourite crispy treats and working on a sweet cardigan for a certain little sister/brother. Yep, I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but we're expecting Baby No. 2 soon.

The mossy jacket (free on ravelry) is a great little pattern, and I'm knitting it up in the lovely Cascade Eco. I'm just puttin' on the button band so I'll share a pic of the finished sweater later.

Now if I could just wrap my head around the fact that there will soon be a newborn in the house as well as this busy toddler... good times ahead.

classic chocolate cookies

To be honest, I shied away from making these cookies at first because they seemed almost boring. I thought, 'Just plain chocolate cookies? Where's the mint? Where are the chunks of quality dark chocolate?'

But I guess some cookies don't require sprinkles and chips to shine, 'cause these. are. delicious.

Besides rich chocolate flavour, these cookies have got other things going for them: they're thin, yet chewy, and they have a slightly crispy sugared outside with a slightly gooey center.

I've read somewhere that adding a bit of coffee to chocolate cake enhances the flavour of the cocoa so I figured the same would be true of cookies that are flavoured with cocoa. A bit of instant coffee was the only thing extra I added to the dough and I'd like to think it was partly responsible for kicking the chocolate up a notch.

'grammy's chocolate cookies'
Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies (2001) special mag
makes 2-3 dozen

2 C plus 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
3/4 C dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1 1/4 C (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 C granulated sugar, plus more for dipping (or use coarser sanding sugar instead)
2 large eggs
2 teas pure vanilla extract
1 teas instant coffee granules
1 teas warm water

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In small bowl, combine instant coffee and warm water. Stir to dissolve, then set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla, and coffee. Gradually add dry ingredients and combine well. Form dough into flattened disk, wrap with plastic wrap and chill until firm (1 hour).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Shape dough into balls, a little larger than 1", and roll in sanding sugar. Place a couple inches apart on baking sheet and bake until set, 10-12 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer cookies to a wire rack.