peanut butter + cinnamon chocolate chunk cookies

"Here is the scarf
we left years ago like a bookmark,

meaning to return the next day,
having just turned our heads
toward a noise in the bushes,
toward the dinnerbell in the distance,

toward what we knew and did not know
we knew, in the spreading twilight
that returns changed to a changed place." ~ Wyatt Townley, from "Finding the Scarf"

Peace, Love, & Happiness

Sous-Chef Niles and I would like to wish everyone, near and far, a deliciously happy and safe holiday season! XO

p.s. Niles is aware that his head is too big for his Chef's hat. Also, I don't have Photoshop. ;-)

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Spiced Wine Cream Cheese Frosting

"This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath…"

                          ~ Margaret Atwood, from "Shapechangers in Winter"

Brown Sugar Rum Blondies

Things I Want Decided

Which shouldn’t exist
in this world,
the one who forgets
or the one
who is forgotten?

Which is better,
to love
one who has died
or not to see
each other when you are alive?

Which is better,
the distant lover
you long for
or the one you see daily
without desire?

Which is the least unreliable
among fickle things—
the swift rapids,
a flowing river,
or this human world?

~ Izumi Shikibu The Ink Dark Moon (trans. by Jane Hirshfield)