Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our Jim Dine pizza attempt!

Skip Loves Winston's

RTT did well with an early delivery of Valentine's Day flowers from Winston's (of course).

Skip Heads North

This past weekend, RTT and I decided to escape the Winter torment by heading, er, north.

While it was quite obviously not warmer, Woodstock, VT was a quaint and quiet retreat for us busy Bostonians. Frequented by the wealthy financier and municipally magnanimous, Laurance Rockefeller, the town is known for being the "quintessential New England village" complete with an impressive inn, well preserved Georgian and Federal homes, and a marvelously manicured green. Indeed, RTT and I were duly delighted by the sweetness of the place.

We happened to stay in South Woodstock at the lovely Kedron Valley Inn (featured in a Budweiser/Clydesdale commercial) largely because l'il Piglet was in attendance and our first hotel of choice was anti-puppy. Not to worry though, this being cute central, the Kedron Valley Inn was divine and we ate substantially at their morning breakfast buffet. (Eggnog french toast? Homemade buttermilk bread with jam? Almond coffee cake? Fresh squeezed orange juice? Yes, please.) We also were able to enjoy multiple fine meals at the Woodstock Inn (the aforementioned first hotel of choice) in their Red Rooster restaurant. And, shockingly, the eating continued during the day...we sampled LOTS of cheese at Sugarbush Farms, drooled over the glassware at Simon Pearce, and cooed at all the picturesque country stores (and supplied her highness with endless homemade Vermont Animal Cookies).

While we want to return to Vermont, it will require a significant diet detox period before we can go back.

The South Woodstock Country Store

Glass blowing at Simon Pearce

One view from the Woodstock Green

RTT at the Red Rooster restaurant

Our room at the Kedron Valley Inn

Cows for cheese

Rigby waiting in the front seat...

The Shepard Fairey Opening

Last night, my ever-cool friend, India, and I attended the members-only opening night of the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. (Like us, I'm sure many of you have not heard the name Shepard Fairey, but I assure you that his work is nearly ubiquitous. He famously created the Obama Hope posters that have plastered billboards, scaffolding, and magazine covers. This kind of graphic propagandist street art is Shepard's signature.)

We arrived at the impressive ICA to find that the Obama enthusiasm extended to the artistic interpretations of his ideals. Despite a required advance RSVP, there was a line! There was NO red wine left when we arrived midway through the opening! Needless to say, India and I, mistresses of malcontent, were not pleased.

However, as a result of waiting in line for almost 40 minutes, we arrived in the gallery to find that Shepard Fairey himself (all 5'6" of his youthful, hipster spirit) was roaming the space giving a kind of ad-hoc commentary on his work.

What luck! Thank goodness for Bostonian inefficency and lack of planning!

The Shepard Fairey exhibit is going on now through August.

Skip's a Cookie Connoisseur

I intently believe cookies are an unequaled dessert, no matter the occasion. Whether I have just enjoyed a simple sandwich, perfect pizza or luxurious lamb entree, I always crave a cookie for a sweet treat. (Glass of milk optional.)

It's not surprising then, that I have made it my life long mission to locate, update, amend or even author the preeminent homemade cookie recipe across each cookie category in an effort to offer to all domestic goddesses around the planet the opportunity to impress any discerning cookie guest (both large and small). For now, I think I have located a peerless Sugar Cookie recipe in Elinor Klivan's '125 Cookies' and while I am constantly re-convinced I've made the best Chocolate Chip cookie, that elusive rapscallion remains as such.

I do reckon, however, I have found slash developed the very best M&M Cookie (I suppose the brand of candy-coated chocolate is your choice)....Sublimely both crisp and chewy with overflowing M&M's but the ideal chocolate to vanilla cookie goodness ratio. Finally!

Skip's M&M Cookie Masterpiece

Ingredients:
1 cup packed Brown Sugar
0.5 cups White Sugar
1 cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2 Eggs, room temperature
1.5 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2.5 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1.5-2 cups M&M's (any type)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl, cream together sugars and butter. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla extract. Sift together flour and baking soda (and 0.5 teaspoons salt if you so choose). Add flour mixture to creamed sugar/butter/eggs bowl. Blend well. Add 1 cup of M&M candies.

Drop dough by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Press a few M&M's on top of each dough ball.

Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies. If desired, check cookies midway through baking and press some more M&M's onto the tops of the half-baked treats.

Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack or your mouth.

Football Feast

There is very little to get excited about in mid-Winter in Boston. Snow storms that blanket the city in cold, pure prettiness become tiresome when your car gets stuck, they don't plow the roads, and rocky ice rinks form on every sidewalk.

Thus, the Super Bowl afforded RTT and I the opportunity to break out of the dreary doldrums and create an artery clogging football feast for, er, two. We spent Sunday producing the beautiful balanced meal of vegetables, onion dip, Chorizo Nachos and M&M cookies seen here.

It will take us until the start of the next football season to recover.

Well Deserved

Yippy Skippy!!! My boys won another Super Bowl title in an exhilirating battle against the Arizona Cardials (though the first 22 minutes were a tad dull). Obviously, it was because I was wearing my #7 jersey...well, and because Santonio Holmes is a rock star.