rustic.

duders,
a good bowl will make even the ugliest things look better-
and when what you've got is pretty attractive already?
a good bowl will make it SO dope.
for realsies.
check the teleport:

c'mon.
dried blueberry chocolate chip coconut cookies!!!!!
neighbors,
just LOOK at 'em.
they're beauties, yeah;
but all that wood turns up the presentation to eleven.
wooooord.
Folk Life & Liberty relies heavily on a coarse and rustic rural woodsly goodness
both inside and out.....
...up to and including the bowls and boards
that constitute the service end of the test kitchen.
yup.
i like wood,
and wood is good.
those cookies are MORE than just good.
y'know why?
complexity of flavor, kids.
that's how we do it to it up here.
ground coconut in the dough gives it texture and taste,
without being garishly obvious that it's doing so-
freeze-dried blueberries break up in your mouth, with big berry flavor,
without being all wet and blarpity.
chocolate chips?
well, those are expert, and that's just a thing that is true.
the icing really activated the big picture, however,
with a hint of lemon that elevated the blueberriness of the powdered spheres
waaaaaaaaay past the standard sugary drizzles of a less-elite finisher.
real talk.
what's in 'em?
roughly, this:

1 stick butterish
roughly 1 cup sugar (i've been using less and less and less)
.5 tsp salt
3/4 cup applesauce
.5 pkg big chocolate chips
3 oz freeze dried whole blueberies
2 cups flour
1 tsp ea, bakey powpow & soda
.5 cup ground flake coconut
.25 cup flake coconut
2 tsp vanilla

yep.
the usual 375F bake, for about 13 minutes, had me deep in cookie land.
how many did it make?
a few more than a couple of dozen.
not quite too much,
but still a good batch of from-scratch craftsmanship.
huh?
oh,
right.
well that icing was easy easy, too, friends-
powdered sugar, and powdered freezey bloobz, and lemon extract, lemon juice,
vanilla extract, and a splashy-splash of soymilk-
eyeball that business, and you'll get it right.
i believe in you.
-
the wood is key.
i'm serious.
if you surround yourself with rough hewn wood,
turned hollows of timber,
log end and lumber lengths,
i swear to goodness you'll summon the spirit and memory of Folk Life.
it lives in the grain,
and when you're adding actual grains to the mix?
all the hottness of a super-sexy simple life shows up all at once.
mmhmmm.
*
my focus is more and more and more about good food every day.
yes,
i still put intention and attention into everything else,
but i derive way more than just physical nourishment from the mealtime planning
that pits me up on another 'nother plane of conscientious consciousness.
i'm aware of the better things and better version of myself
that making food brings to the surface.
i'm happy to have something that focuses that reflection,
and concentrates the energy of that brighter side.
y'know?
being albie rock uses up a lot of energy-
motormouthing a smart-A* rapidfire philosophical profanity-packed marathon filibuster,
all day long, six days a week, weaving into and out of, over, under and around
the organic conversational obstacle course of interactive bloodborne physical contact
and verbal viking strikes is harder than it looks.
hahahahha.
cooking and baking puts the balance back on the crux,
and levels out, and evens up, all the frenetic fury that charges the outer ring of defenses
surrounding the sweet spots on the INside.
awwwww.
what i mean is-
making beautiful and delicious food feels better than being funny and making fun,
especially since i have fun making food,
and almost no food when making fun.
yikes.
i do what i do.
i s'pose that's it;
never quiet, never soft.....