This is another blog post written before the inaugural “It turned out perfectly” post. This was written over my spring break, on March 23, 2017.
As an undergrad, I worked weekends as a Blackjack dealer in Las Vegas. It was a fantastic experience and something I am very grateful for. It goes without saying that my favorite part was the interaction I could have with my players. The dealer-player dynamic must be one of the most interesting. As a dealer, I knew the majority of my players would leave losers. As a consumer, at say a restaurant, I figure the service is almost as important as the meal itself. When I buy anything, I want something to show for it, and if it isn’t a stack of purple (high denomination) cheques, I hope it’d be in the way I was made to feel. I realized that if I wanted to enjoy my job, I had to make the experience worthwhile for the losers. (In hindsight, I imagine this is how my Trigonometry teacher felt about his career too.) Sure there were days when I questioned the state of the human condition, but for the most part, the job allowed me to see just how singular people are. I was given about 45 minutes at a time to talk with people from all walks of life. From the really young to the really old, from the student to the teacher, from the man who architected the Olympic Village for the Moscow Olympics to the man who is one of only three people that knows how to plate the astronaut’s helmets in gold.
I met and talked with and came to know a variety of people. I called the players my 45-minute friends because though I typically chatted with them for only 45 minutes, they still taught me a great deal, as friends would. Through them I learned about: different cultures, cities, upbringings, childhood experiences, friendships (said the one cowboy of his drunk friend who took a minute at a time to decide to hit or stay, “Excuse him, Honey, we had to close-down the schoolhouse to get him out of the third grade”), and even perspectives. Perspectives which at times could be starkly different from my own (said the bull-rider: “no I’ve never been concussed, just blacked out a few times. Concussions are for sissys”). Most importantly, they taught me new ways to think about the world and accept the eccentricities of others
All said if I’ve seen anything, it’s how quickly one more hand turns into ten more. There comes a time in your life when you have to say, ok, I will learn restraint. This recipe does NOT create one of those “I need to show some restraint” moments.
Sincerely, I love these cookies. I love how genuine their chocolate taste is, but what I love, even more, is that I don’t have to feel bad about eating them. At only 45 calories a cookie, if I went overboard and ate (hypothetically of course) 10, their calories would make up 1 meal rather than 3 days’ worth of meals.
Like dealing blackjack, this cookie taught me to never cease to be amazed, because yes, there are people who double-down on their blackjacks and hit on my 6, and yes there are cookies that taste AND feel this good.
This recipe comes from, one of my favorite cookbook authors, Alice Medrich.