Island Cookie Break!

Quick break today from beach reading, for cookies made from white chocolate chips, coconut and walnuts. It's been a really rough week, I found myself craving chocolate comfort cookies. Originally white chocolate and milk chocolate chips cookies sounded pretty good, but then I spotted this recipe on the white chip package. (I will probably still give you a list of some of my favorites from the past year!)

Island Cookies

• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder (forgot this last night and had to send Tom back to the store!)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine.  (I like to use margarine in cookies - seems to make them a little softer and gooey)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups (12 oz) white chips
• 1 cup coconut flakes - toasted if you would like
• 3/4 cup macadamia  nuts or walnuts

Heat oven to 375.

Mix butter/margarine and sugars, until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together dry ingredients and add them to sugar mixture. Then blend in coconut, chips, and nuts.   Bake 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy every bite!  

Now... what to read with your cookies and milk?

For times when I need a quick stress relief, cannot recommend Gift From The Sea highly enough.  This classic is timeless and holds true even after 55+ years.  Insightful, calming....

"In this inimitable, beloved classic—graceful, lucid and lyrical—Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment as she set them down during a brief vacation by the sea. Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life bring new understanding to both men and women at any stage of life" 

Still one of the best books that I have read in the past few years - Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.  Tragic and beautiful all mixed together in this tale of a struggling circus train - "The Great 

Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth",

 during the early years of the Great Depression. The myriad cast of characters will stay with you long after you put the book down. MUST have on your book shelf.

One of my very best friends, Suzanne Droppert,  owns a small independent bookstore in Poulsbo, WA , Liberty Bay Books, I have been incredibly fortunate to have been able in the last few years to help her with several author events. It's one thing to read, but quite another to actually hear an author speak and bring a whole new perspective to their story.  In November of 2008, we had event with the Kitsap Regional Library and with the areas'  regional bookstores for Lisa See.  We managed to fill an auditorium at the local community college! There were so many people, and she was a fascinating story teller -  stories about growing up Chinese, but not Chinese... I finally had a chance when I moved to CA to read Peony in Love.  Rich characters and places that bring alive imagination  - 

Steeped in traditions and ritual, this story brings to life another time and place–even the intricate realm of the afterworld, with its protocols, pathways, and stages of existence, a vividly imagined place where one’s soul is divided into three, ancestors offer guidance, misdeeds are punished, and hungry ghosts wander the earth. Immersed in the richness and magic of the Chinese vision of the afterlife, transcending even death

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. This was another great author that I had the opportunity to hear speak last winter on Bainbridge Island. The Poisonwood Bible is a rich layered story of a missionary family that traveled to the Congo in 1959, a time of great upheaval in Africa, the Unites and the World . WOW- Difficult to describe this incredible journey.. another MUST have for your bookshelf. 

"They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil" 

Winter Garden, by Kristin Hannah This is the latest book of Kristin's that I have read, (mine is autographed!)  just one story in a long line of many.  I have a special place for Kristin, as she is a local Puget Sound girl, and has written many "chic-lit", books that are simply feel good.  For me, they are especially fun to read because I can imagine many of the places she is describing.  Kristin is a wonderful writer, and totally down to earth.  You will love her! 

Winter Garden is a tale of that takes the characters from the orchards of Eastern Washington to the war-torn streets of Russia.  Great tale, and again, I learned so much that I didn't know about the people and their struggle in Russia in the mid-part of this century.  WWII was particularly heartbreaking...

Enjoy the cookies!