So in a quick follow up to my last post, we went to Momofuku in NYC, got the cookies ( along with birthday cake truffles, apple pie cake truffles, and candy bar pie).  Here is the breakdown.  I have made the cookies 2 times ( once in Denver, once at sea level) and bought the cookies from the bakery.  The cookies from the bakery had the best look, the cookies from Denver had the best taste and the ones I made at sea level were just okay, (that's not to say that I would throw them out....I still ate them).  Other NYC eats...of course, Balthazar.  Steak Tartare, Steak Au poivre, Fig Financier for dessert.  As always delicious.  We ate at a few new places this year, or should I say we were forced to eat a few new places because some of our favorites were just tooooooo busy.  John's Pizza, which was okay.  A couple Italian restaurants, one in Little Italy, one not far from our hotel in Manhatten.  I got home to Denver, in time to repack a bag and head home to Canton for Christmas.  Sometime I am amazed at the extremes of my life...one week having dinner at Balthazar in NYC, a few days later having a pony at Brown's in Canton.  We had a great Christmas dinner at my sister's. I made a Nutella Cheesecake for dessert.  It turned out so good.  It's been a great holiday season for me.  Looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting adventures ahead.  Happy New Year!

 A couple cookbook showed up in the mailbox this week.  I've been waiting for their arrival, and I dove right into them.  "Milk" from the Momofuku Milk Bar has some amazing recipes at first glance, but after reading through them the flavors and ideas behind them made them even more amazing.  I worked a Thai Cooking class on Friday night, then headed straight home to make the Cornflake Crunch for the Cornflake-chocolate chip-marshmallow cookies.  After letting it cool I mixed up the batter and portioned out the dough, stuck them in the fridge and got up early Saturday morning to bake them off.  The result...a lacey, crispy cookie with a great buttery flavor, with bits of chocolate and marshmallow.  Knowing that  I could in fact eat the entire batch of cookies we took them to our neighbors "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party".  That was the first of two events last night, and so today I'm relaxing and recovering from a lot of food and drink overload.  I'm off to South Dakota Monday, back to Denver on Tuesday, then off to New York on Thursday where I will be visiting Momofuku to try their cookie to the one that I made.  Can't wait.  

I made it to Peoria about 10pm last Wednesday night (before Thanksgiving).  I had worked the first part of the week in Nebraska, then caught a flight to O'hare and on to Peoria.  Thanksgiving dinner was DELICIOUS!  I don't know that there was anything different from other years, but I will something about it just tasted better than normal.  (Maybe its because I've been eating so healthy lately that my taste buds were just waiting for those carbs to hit!!!!)  I managed through the holiday eating only 1 very small slice of pumpkin pie, (much to my mother's dismay...she had made pumpkin and chocolate pies).  I spent this week working in Normal and Peoria and as I sit here typing, I can't believe it is December 1.  I know that the older I get, the faster the time goes, but I swear to you, it REALLY WAS just yesterday that Dan picked me up at the airport on New Year's Day and we went and enjoyed brunch at Steuben's....I SWEAR, IT WAS.....YESTERDAY....REALLY.  Lot's to look forward to for the rest of the month...or should I say year.....2 weeks from today we're heading to New York City for the annual eat and walk-a-thon.  The list is made of places to try this year, along with the usuals...dinner at Balthazar, I'm sure some cupcakes from Crumb's, dirty martinis and filet on toast at Bobby Van's.....Burger at the Shake Shack and pizza.....(the pizza is yet to be determined)  Lombardi's, Grimaldi's (been to both....like Lombardi's better) or another place I've heard a lot about Di Fara's.  Just found out today that we did get tickets to be in the audience of the Martha Stewart Show....I'll let you all know when that airs, so you can tune in to try to see me in the audience...We're going to the taping on Monday the 19th.  Then on the 21st, it's back to Canton to spend the holidays at home.  I'm not working so I plan on doing a lot of baking......