New Year’s resolutions

Do you ever make New Year’s resolutions?  I, personally, have never really participated in such rituals, never made vows to eat better, lose weight or exercise more.  In fact, I’ve never given New Year’s resolutions much thought, that is until the Christmas of 2011, when we had dinner with David’s cousin and sisters and we each made a resolution for 2012.  Mine was to find a new job, something I’ve been wanting to do on and off for years.  I don’t know if it was the fact that others were holding me accountable or if it was just good timing, but with two months left in 2012, I achieved my resolution. 🙂  In any case, I now think it’s a good idea to make resolutions, to set goals for oneself for the year and to celebrate ones achievements, whether big (going to a foreign country to volunteer with complete strangers) or small (doing your first 10k). 😉 For the most part, we all achieved our resolutions for 2012.  For those of us who didn’t, it was good to come together at the end of the year to reflect back on what we learned from the past year and what we can do differently to achieve our goals for 2013.  Some of our resolutions for 2013 are: to be more organized, to give 110% at work, to be more outgoing, to be more assertive and take charge in our jobs, to start volunteering and to try new things.  I’ll let you decipher which resolution(s) belongs to whom. 😉 The last resolution wasn’t mine, but I think it’s a good one for everyone to have all the time.  This is how we grow, how we learn about what we are capable of and how we challenge ourselves.

And with that, I bring you these cookies.  The recipe came from a thoughtful gift I got from my cousin in-law – a set of teas that came along with recipes for using tea in cooking.

This particular chocolate chunk cookie recipe uses a green tea that is spiced up with cinnamon, pink peppercorns and chili peppers.

These cookies did not turn out as I expected.  In fact, they look nothing like the picture in the recipe.  They are not even the same colour.

The dough was a bit dry and crumbly and they didn’t expand and flatten out like most cookies.  Maybe my baking soda was too old and I’m pretty sure I over baked them as they are a bit dense.  Nevertheless, they still tasted pretty good, infused with the flavours of the organic hot lips tea.

In the spirit of New Years and resolutions, I don’t take these cookies as a failure, but as a learning experience.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Happy New Year, my friends!

Recipe (from David’s Tea):

Notes:

I followed the recipe exactly except:

• I used dark chocolate chunks and 1/2 cup sugar.
• I baked for 18 minutes.

Advertisement