The importance of being a flat white

New York has provided me with everything I’ve asked her to: a job, a visa, a beautiful little cubby-hole of an apartment in my favorite part of Manhattan, and more restaurants and bars than I could have ever dreamed of.  Yet, somehow I still miss little pieces of home, namely decent coffee and bread without sugar.  Apparently, the coffee is an issue in London as well, but they have had a larger antipodean invasion to rectify the problem.  Fortunately,  I live around the corner from Amy’s Bread, which is heavenly, so that means I have some bread for my vegemite,  and I’ve finally found a few little haunts that make a flat white.  Kingswood is a new restaurant in the West Village that is perennially packed even though it has an unexceptional dinner menu and their bar staff are complete tossers.  But I find myself their every Sunday morning for their amazing brunch, which is complemented by several flat whites.  I’m always surrounded by dozens of expats who are sinking down enough flat whites to last them the week.  So please, New York, I know I’ve asked a lot, but Manhattan would be such a better place if a few more baristas knew how to make the flat white.  It’s not hard—even kiwis can do it! And, you’ll get lots of business from the tens of thousands of us from down under who live here!

I love Mr. Darcy cookies

 

Somehow, I was at home last Saturday night.  We had gone out for the previous five nights and were both exhausted and broke, but nevertheless I felt like a complete nanna.  By 11.00pm, my boyfriend had fallen asleep reading Alan Greenspan’s memoirs and I was restlessly pacing around the three square feet of our loungeroom.With a guilty smile, I remembered I had the Keira Knightley version of Pride & Prejudice on DVR. As much I as abhor that wanton waif and her snarl of smile, this movie is significantly better than I expected, and two hours of tortured pride and sexual tension later, I was swooning on my couch confessing how ardently I admire and love Mr. Darcy, even if it is against my desire and better judgment.  So, if I can’t have him, I’ll bake the best love substitute I know: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. .

1 cup butter
1 cup extra crunchy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup of dark chocolate chunks

 Cream the butters and the sugars, add the eggs and mix well, and then stir in flour and add the chocolate chunks.  Bake for 9-10 mins in the oven at 350F. 

Two of these cookies later, I had the giddy high of a young maiden being seduced on the cold English moors.  Two minutes after that I felt thoroughly ill.  I woke up the next morning and threw the rest of the cookies out and went running.  These cookies aren’t nicknamed evil cookies for nothing.  However, they’ve never failed to win over the lonely, desperate, or hungry.  I will still get requests for this recipe years after I’ve made them for a friend.