Celebration Sandwiches

Dear Betty Crocker and her Test Kitchen Employees,

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I know you guys have all made her ("her") gluten-free chocolate chip cookies... right?? If not, get thee to Target. I was out buying some household items and realized that the thing my freshly-cleaned kitchen lacked was the smell of cookies baking.

All you need is the mix, a stick of (softened) butter, an egg and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

I appreciate that instructions let you know the dough will be CRUMBLY. It is. Very. You simply cannot make perfect little orbs with this mixture. But isn't that the thing with gluten-free baking? Re-thinking everything. In order to get a familiar result, one has to take an unfamiliar path, meaning, messy messy dough that falls all over the place.

But then the result! Magnificent! PERFECT texture, perfect saltiness, perfect flavor. My roommate picked up one and said, in horror: "You can't have THIS!"

That's how good they are.

So for Oscars Night, we ordered in Indian food and I made chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with mint chocolate chip ice cream. What a ridiculous thing to make, really. I didn't hear anyone complaining. Their mouths were full.

There is a lot to celebrate around here these days—friendship, television, baked goods—oh, and I got into graduate school. Apparently there is a gluten-free pizza place that will deliver in Iowa City...

xo