Nice and easy.

This one's going to be kind of a quickie. With Christmas having come and gone, I feel a little spent. It seems to happen every year--all the anticipation and preparation for the holidays, and the next thing I know, it's over, and everything goes back to normal, and I'm wondering what just happened, like I didn't savor the moment enough. It doesn't help that I have to go back to work tomorrow--although it does help that this week will be a short work week with New Year's just a couple of days away! But what a reminder of how quickly time goes by.

Right before I left work for the Christmas holiday, my department had a cookie exchange. Each person was to bring 2 or 3 different batches of cookies to swap and bring home. I had never done this before, and apparently, there is a website devoted specifically to the cookie exchange, with rules and everything! I don't know if we necessarily followed any rules, but it was still fun, and next year I might try it with some friends. One of the cookies I decided to make were coconut macaroons. I love their almost crunchy outside and chewy inside--and how incredibly easy they are to make! I found the recipe in The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift, which is based on NPR's food show (a fun cookbook to read!). This was my first time making coconut macaroons, and I wondered why I had never made them before. I'm considering making them again for an upcoming New Year's Eve party (and maybe dip them in chocolate!) so I can have time to savor the last moments of 2008 instead of spending them in the kitchen (although, I might be tempted to try a cheesecake brownie recipe I came across recently--which didn't look difficult either--instead...hm...).


Coconut Macaroons
(adapted from the recipe for Sally's Coconut Macaroons from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper)
makes about 40 small cookies

2 large eggs
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla extract
3 cups shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees, and grease the baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a wire whisk, then add the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Whisk all the ingredients together until combined well. Mix in the coconut. Using a regular teaspoon (not the measuring kind), spoon mounds of coconut mixture onto baking sheet (or you can be a little fancy and pipe them on to the baking sheet with a pastry bag and star-shaped tip--but I didn't bother). Bake the cookies on the second to the top rack of the oven for about 20 minutes or until they turn a toasty brown (mine could have been just a little browner), then cool on a cooling rack. (So easy!)