come on over

Hallelujah; we have a couch! I may have mentioned the fact that we found an apartment. I was just a little excited. After all, it took a long time to find one. And now, we have a couch to go inside it. After several trips to IKEA, both in Brooklyn and Long Island, and also after a delivery attempt that taught us a thing or two about measuring living room doors as well as outside doors, we finally returned with a comfy, fluffy thing to sit ourselves down on. 

Now, you've got to understand that Mary was shopping for couches before we even found the apartment. To her, the couch is critical to comfortable living. She's a connoisseur of movies and television and considers couch comfort paramount to her trade. 

For me, I'm just happy to have another surface for people to sit on when they visit. I mean, now we can really have people over. To sit. And talk. And eat and drink (those last ones are key). Therefore, I made these cookies today. I think they're perfect to go with tea or coffee. They aren't very sweet and aren't too fancy. They just say, "Hey. Stay awhile. Have some tea with me. Savor the afternoon, the light, the couch cushion under your tush. Let's share a moment." These cookies kind of say all the things I want to say to you but am just too shy to say. 

So, anyway. Thanks for coming. I hope you'll take it easy, and don't feel like you're intruding. Do you take cream or sugar? Oh, and have a cookie, just something to nibble while we wait for the kettle to boil.

-Kylie

Lemon Cornmeal Cookies

From Tish Boyle's absolutely fabulous The Good Cookie

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened a little

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

coarse sugar for sprinkling

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter two baking sheets.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, and salt. Set aside. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla extract at medium-high speed until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, then the yolk, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. At low speed, add the flour mixture and mix just until blended.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and arrange them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Moisten your palm to prevent sticking, and flatten each ball into a 1 1/2 inch disk. Sprinkle the cookies with coarse sugar (or maybe extra cornmeal?) and bake, one sheet at a time, for 12 to 14 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.