M is for Macaroons (and so much more)

So...I have to be honest.  I made these cookies and took these pictures back in October.    Because, you see, M is not just for Macaroons; M is also for Missing Muse, and Maybe Later, and I Might/I Might Not, and How Can I Care About Cookies Right Now - Don't You See That My Life Is Falling Apart.  (Hmm, apparently, M can also stand for Melodrammatic.)  Back in October, I baked these cookies, I ate some of them because I love them so, and took the rest to work.  They were crispy, chewey, gooey, sweet and creamy.  But beyond that, beyond that handful of predictable adjectives, I had little else to say.  So I stopped blogging.  And for the most part, I stopped baking too.  Thanksgiving passed without a pumpkin pie.  Not a single sugar cookie, or gingerbread boy, or pannetone or figgy pudding was pulled from the oven to fill the house with the traditional scents of the Christmas.  I actually lost 12 pounds during the holidays...unheard of. 

Those of you who know me well may be surprised at this next statement, but food was not important to me during much of last year.  Or more accurately, food gradually lost some of its importance.  Birthdays came and went without cakes.  Anniversary celebrations weren't.  Pizza Night became an obligation, and cooking became a chore.  Puff pastry, creme brulee, and meringue don't stand a chance against heavy-weights like Foreclosure, Bankrupcy, and Booze.  Or, to get even more graphic and metaphorical, how can you eat brioche when Reality is being crammed down your throat? 

But here's the good news...2010 is gone.  2010 taught me not to ask "what can happen next?" because something always will, just wait.  But it also taught me, ultimately, that Reality is served in small doses.  2011 is happening moment by moment, and a moment is not very much time at all. Traditions become traditions when they stand the test of time, and life on Chuckwalla Place certainly tested them all.  I'm confident that life on Hawthorne Street, or wherever else we end up, will include cookies, and birthdays, and pizza, and moments. 

So I begin this new chapter with Messy Mexican Chocolate Macaroons:  Chocolate and Cinnamon Macaroons Shells filled with Vanilla Buttercream, and Goat Milk Dulce de Leche.  Crispy, chewy and gooey, sweet, delicious. 

(I can't share the recipe because, like so much of last year, I just winged it.)