Celebrating Cinco

Ahhh Cinco de Mayo. Everyone thinks it's Mexican independence day but it's really another commercial holiday along the lines of St. Patty's day crunched through the capitalist marketing machine to encourage drinking and sell stuff. This year it even fell on a Wednesday. It appears that wasn't enough to deter the locals from going out to every mexican or latin-themed bar in the District.

At the last minute a few co-workers and I decided to walk down to Rosa Mexicano for a drink to celebrate the holiday. Leave it to a Mexican restaurant to carve out half its seating space for a private party on one of their busiest days. The bar was packed, the waiting list was crazy, so we pushed our way to a somewhat habitable corner of the bar. Sharing a pitcher of sangria and guacamole when you have no surface (i.e. table) to set things on was interesting. We took turns holding the tray of chips and pouring each other refills.

Putting my aversion to bars and loud places aside, it was quite fun. We bitched about family, gossiped about coworkers, and got to know the new guy a little bit.

The best part was getting back home and being sufficiently buzzed that I had no desire to do chores. Instead I set my mind to baking. Crisis ensued when I checked my butter inventory and found there was none left. No butter in the paradigm's household, how could that be?! Thankfully I wasn't lucid enough to sashe over to Whole Paycheck and refill the butter tray. Opening my recipe book I quickly made up my mind and found the brown sugar cookie entry.

There's something about the smell of browned butter, watching the frothy solids slowly sink and turn the color of caramel that just incites comfort and soothes me. Mix it with a generous amount of brown sugar, more butter, and flour and you've got some of the best cookies I've ever had.

Rolling the dough in fresh sugar prior to baking gives them a crunchy shell that balances the soft, chewy center. Yum. I managed to impart some self control and only had one cookie last night. Then another this morning. I've got another saved for a mid-afternoon snack.

MMmmmmMMMmmm... cookies...