I Voted

No matter which president we wake up with tomorrow, the world always needs a good peanut butter cookie recipe. I looked for one for years, and then tasted the perfect cookie at the restaurant where I worked. Luckily, the young pastry chef was nice enough to share it with me.

This one is truly the best peanut butter cookie you have ever had. The recipe is scaled down for a couple of people plus sharing at work the next day, because most people don't want to make 8 dozen cookies. We refer to it as "Cookies Dammit" because I once sent it to my friend Karen after forgetting to send it for a long time, and that was the title of the email.

I took the picture at the top on my way home from work last night.
V I S U A L I Z E P R E S I D E N T O B A M A

For a refresher course on the Electoral College and how the election process actually works, here is the Wikipedia entry about it. Especially interesting is the the fact that there have only been three times that a candidate has won the popular vote and not received all the votes in the electoral college: twice in the 1800s, and then not again until...2000.

Cookies Dammit- Small Recipe

1 stick butter- room temp if possible
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar (use less if you like)
1 egg
1 1/8 cup peanut butter, preferably natural and chunky
1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake or AP flour
extra 1/8 cup granulated sugar for marking

Method
Cream butter and sugars in a stand mixer or with a fork and a strong arm. (Definitely warm your butter if you are doing this by hand.)

Mix dry ingredients together in separate bowl.

When sugars are thoroughly blended with butter, add egg and vanilla. When thoroughly blended, add peanut butter.

Mix dry ingredients into bowl, just until combined.

Use two teaspoons to form cookies into roundish lumps on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Use a fork dipped in sugar to mark the classic "waffle-stomper" pattern in the cookies. Bake for ten to twelve minutes at 375 degrees, remove to racks to cool completely before placing on a plate. Best slightly underdone.

Options: Form with a small melon or ice-cream scoop for pretty, evenly round cookies. Leave the lumps as lumps and press a Hershey's kiss in the middle of each cookie. Or press a sugared thumb in the middle of each and add a teaspoon of strawberry jam for peanut-butter-and-jellies.

Election Etc.

Wednesday:
Today I had lunch with a friend and her parents. We were each talking about trying to make sure we were home to watch the debate tonight. Her mother started talking about her feelings about the two candidates. I didn't even have time to steel myself to what I expected to be a conservative take on things before she said, "Obama just sounds like a more intelligent, more thoughtful, man. More of the kind of man that we need right now." Amen, Mom.

***

In the 8th grade, a bunch of kids ran for student government. The speeches were pretty basic, probably the same speeches given by kids running for office every year in every school in the country. Nerdy, likeable, hard-working kids promised to do a good job. Popular kids' campaign promises of "vending machines in every room" or "longer recesses" or "no homework for a week" brought cheers and whistles from the crowd, and sometimes won them the election.

I remember thinking then, just as I'm thinking now when I hear some of the campaign promises being offered, "Do the people listening really believe that the candidates are going to be able to deliver on these promises?" It's easy to get caught up in the fact that someone seems to want for you exactly what you want-- be it free candy or lower taxes-- but can he or she really deliver, and does it make any sense to promise it at all?

***

After watching the Frontline profiles of the two candidates last night on PBS, I have a better understanding of their backgrounds. While I see McCain as a little more human now, I still think that Obama is a smarter man. McCain was 5th from the bottom of his class. Obama presided over the Harvard Law Review. McCain was the son and the grandson of Navy Admirals, and chose to get into politics after he married the daughter of a wealthy Arizona beer distributor. Obama, on the other hand, tried community organizing out of high school, and chose to go to law school after he realized that his efforts at the grassroots level weren't enough to make a big difference.

And the number one reason not to vote for McCain? His stand on choice, second only to his choice of vice president. The sound of President Palin sends shivers up my spine. If he becomes president (at age 70) I believe it will happen.

***

And finally, Fact Check.org is a great resource for seeing who lied, who fibbed, and who got confused during the debates.