Hot Cookie - the Archive

Three almond balls ( bolas ) in a row. "This one is good," my sister-in-law Jill told me. She tried not to express too much surprise, but I have regaled her with too many tales of failed cookies. And forced her to eat a few duds. I was glad this one made the grade. I liked it, too. You might think I am a hopeless romantic to fall for another almond cookie. (Italy, almond cookies. Almond cookies, Italy.) The fact is every country that can grow almonds has its special recipes for almond cookies. Portugal is no exception. The ground blanched almonds combine with dry bread crumbs, then the usual sugar, egg whites and almond extract. The dry bread crumbs are key. When the cookies are fresh from the oven, the bread crumbs add a perfect crunch to their rustic, nutty texture. Holes in the center ready for filling. These cookies don't "drop." You roll them in a ball ( bola ) and press a hole in the center, as for jelly-filled thumbprint cookies. Egg yolk

The past three weeks have posed many emotional challenges. The most recent and personal involved a search for the best assisted living situation for my mom. She is 99, in a wheel chair, and the 24-hour care she has received in her home for the past 18 months is prohibitively expensive. What to do? I recently realized that letting her run out of money and going on state Medicaid was not an option. In that case, she could only choose among skilled nursing facilities with available "medicaid beds," but not among the many assisted living homes she can choose as a private-pay patient. I needed to find care for her before her savings was depleted and use her home as a rental toward her expenses. I have spent the last month doing just that. I met with placement specialists who have shown me adult family homes in Seattle and equivalent homes in the Bay Area, where Mom has always lived. I selected one, and moved my mom there last week. All a very difficult process, my mom is griev

"I have to say..." Susan paused with her hand stuck in grasp position as she gazed down at my most recent offering at knitting group. "They look a lot like breasts." The rest of us stared at the sugar-dusted mounds with a whole clove in the center of each one. Sure enough. Recalling my August 22 rant about crumbly, fragile cookies, here is a case in point. Although the editors call them "tender" and "buttery," the less flowery term is "fall-apart." Maybe I don't know how to eat a "delicate" cookie delicately. These make either a mess or a hazard. If you bite in, the crumbs go down your shirt. If you pop the whole thing in the mouth at once, the crumbs stick to every moist surface. Don't breathe in, whatever you do. The crumbs could choke you! What makes this cookie too much to bear, though, is the whole clove that is placed in the center of each one. The recipe says to remove it before eating the cookie! I re