BoomerGirl Diary

How can I condense all that happened at the Blogher Conference in Chicago? I can’t. This is just one more post that continues the saga. I’ve been posting on my other blog, Anali’s First Amendment, for the past two weeks, but I wanted to share some of my experiences here as well. The Blogher Conference wasn’t just for food bloggers. It was primarily women bloggers, but we were quite a diverse group. Women of all ages, races, from different places with different interests with one thing in common. We love to blog!

I’m going to focus on the food blogging part here, because, well, I’m a food blogger. On Friday night, a bunch of us food bloggers went out to eat. The food was great and the company was even better. How cool to eat with a bunch of people who understand why I want to take pictures of my food! And because of the generosity of Jane from Chow.com, we barely had to pay for anything. If you’re interested in seeing more than I can squeeze in here, check out Kalyn’s blog and Alanna’s Blogher Post.

What an amazing time, it was really interesting and quite emotional learning about other people’s food blogs. In the Art of Food Blogging, Nupur, from One Hot Stove, told a story about a woman who sent her an e-mail telling her how much her blog meant to her. The woman had lost both her mother and grandmother within a couple of months and lost the recipes that meant so much to her. When she found Nupur’s blog and recipes, she said that she felt like she got back her family. We were all in tears by the end of the story. It really hit home for me how much food means in our lives. Food isn’t just about eating, it’s about community. The Food Photography session gave me some wonderful ideas on how to jazz up my pictures a bit.

Now where did the serendipity come in? On that same Friday, I happened to be looking for the aforementioned food bloggers to sit with for lunch, but couldn’t find them. I was tired, hungry and just wanted to sit down and eat. Story of my life! I saw a woman sitting at a table by herself and decided to sit with her. With humor, we both reluctantly disclosed that we are attorneys and ended up talking for hours like we had known each other forever. Her name is Falise and she has a great website and a blog called 24/8 Book Club. She writes book reviews and gives fun book events in the Chicago area to help authors promote their books. Plus she hosts a local radio show! I told her about my food blogs and how I love to bake. The other day, Falise sent me three cookbooks by Gale Gand! What a treat! I decided to try a recipe from one of these cookbooks for my post here.

These cookies are really good and quite pretty, but they are a bit labor intensive by my standards and are not quick to make. Give yourself three to four hours, because you have to refrigerate the dough. The cookies have to cool before glazing and then set for a while. But after all the work comes your reward. My co-workers loved them and so did I. Enjoy!

Adapted from Gale Gand’s cookbook Chocolate & Vanilla.

Black & White Cookies

(makes about 18 large cookies)

Cookies

½ cup butter (1 stick)

1-cup sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup vanilla rice milk

½ tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. lemon extract

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

Glaze

2 cups confectioners’ powdered sugar

4 T vanilla rice milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2 T cocoa powder (keep separate)

Get a medium drinking glass and put plastic wrap on the bottom, then set aside with two large cookie sheets. In medium microwaveable bowl, soften butter in microwave for about 45 seconds. With wooden spoon, stir in sugar, eggs, rice milk, and both extracts. Add flour, baking powder and salt and combine well.

Use ice cream scooper to scoop out dough. Roll into ball and place on cookie sheets. Refrigerate for about an hour. When you take the dough out of the refrigerator, use glass bottom to smoosh balls of dough into thick cookie rounds. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Do not overcook. Place cookies on a cooling rack on countertop and let cool.

To make the glaze, in medium bowl, combine all ingredients except for the cocoa powder. Divide glaze in half and put half in separate small bowl. Stir in cocoa powder. Use a small knife to spread plain glaze on half of each cookie. If you don’t have enough chocolate glaze, you can make more by adding additional cocoa powder to the plain glaze, but you can’t go back the other way. Spread chocolate glaze on the other half of each cookie. Let the cookies set for about half an hour before handling. Store in airtight container.