Essence

It's funny, the way making something new can feel like an effort not worth taking at first. Gathering materials not already in your pantry with limited real estate and budget, spending a bit more time reading directions, making sure it was a teaspoon and not a tablespoon you needed, double checking this and that. But then, after you've enjoyed it, a small mental space feels opened. You expanded. Sometimes, by force we expand, even if we wiggle through discomfort at first.

Welcome and encouraged

My love for shortbread requires little explanation. In short, it's just perfect. It's the little black dress of a cookie, one that can withstand a little alternate flour thrown in, it's a dough that can be made ahead and then kept in a tin without problems once baked (or with problems, depending : )) and it is the perfect canvas on which to play with flavors--cardamom, lemon zest, cinnamon, ginger, rosemary... all are welcome and encouraged. But I think it's the texture that keeps me coming back to these sandy, tender things.