Cookie Recycling and Transformation

For the last two years, I've ended Christmas with a pile and a half of cookies in January of which I'm bored by Marilyn Manson's birthday (5 January).  

There are, of course, worse problems to have.

I read this op-ed today in the New York Times where a Catholic priest gives his view of the world. "One true thing is this: Faith is lived in family and community, and God is experienced in family and community," Father Kevin O'Neil writes. We live in this earthly plane.  We regularly experience reality as earthly beings.  "I really do believe God enters the world through us," Father O'Neil said, and "[w]e need one another to be God's presence."

How do we show love to one another?  How do we show kindness to ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, our enemies, and our environment?

There is no one right answer to this question.  It's up to you to ask yourself and listen hard to the still voice in your heart.  That voice has the courage to speak up, and you have the courage to act.  Ask, and it shall be given.  Ask your higher power, set an intention, and create it.

Let's transform some cookies.

Pizzelle Cupcakes

Cookie Destruction Cake

Cookie Pie (tofu mousse plus nuked and smushed damp cookies)

Procedure for cookie pie crust:

Defrost cookies, if frozen, in refrigerator overnight.  In a large bowl, microwave cookies and a few tablespoons of water.  Crumble with your hands and pat into a pie plate.  Par bake for ten minutes if it seems very wet before filling with chocolate tofu mousse or other pie filling.

Coconut Cream Pie with Cookie Crust

Chocolate Cryogenic Strata

and this vice cream-cookie-random baked goods concoction.

The vice cream concoction was designed to knock out almost two pints of vice cream, frozen treats which I found to be not worth the calories or cents as I continually revise my diet (diet = pattern of eating, not reducing diet).

I found Almond Dream too sweet for my liking (12 grams of sugar per serving for vanilla, and 18 g in the chocolate), kind of like Whole Soy soyoghurt with its high amounts of sugar per serving.  The store-bought stuff is good in a pinch, but when you have the choice, make your own or find some other cooling dessert (perhaps some homemade mousse? cheezecake?).

Vice Cream Vicissitudes

about 2 pints non-dairy ice cream

A quarter to a half of each type of dessert odds and ends (a few gingersnaps cookies, a few thirds of burned bread loaves, end slices of bread, AMC cookies, focaccia bits, burned berry cobbler/failed tea cake), defrosted if frozen

Have an 8*8 glass dish with a lid nearby.  Microwave the vice cream for 30-45 seconds or until soft.  In a large bowl, mush together the softer baked goods with your hands.  Scrape the vice cream into the bowl and mix well (with your hands or a spatula, your choice…using your fingers [instead of words] is very grounding as your hands become cold and mundane pain brings you back to earth).  Pat the mixture into the pan.  Sprinkle crumbled crunchy baked goods on top (I used gingersnaps).  Cover and freeze.  Take out of the fridge twenty minutes before serving if you like it softer.

This cookie mess tastes like vice cream and will be my go-to to-go dessert when I travel with supper. I made it when I was angry, but creating something more grand from the destruction of imperfect, unwanted things cooled me down and yielded a cooling treat.  
When life gives you lemons...you still get out of bed as best you can, put on your Docs, and make lemon squares.  As a community, leftovers can create a feast.

Speaking of change, I updated the spaghetti casserole post.  I made a butternut squash version.  My cousin Mike (@truthtea on Instagram) liked how spicy it was and asked to take some home—score!