Give that girl a cookie

Cookies, cookies, cookies. It's all about cookies these days. I just got an email from SF writer and fabulous MC Michelle Tea about her upcoming RADAR series at the SF Public Library. Amazing writers read their stuff, then they stick around for a panel discussion and Q & A afterwards. If you ask a question, you get a cookie, baked by the charming Tara Jepson, who's just about the cutest thing ever (and a really good writer in her own right). I caught a reading in February while I was soaking up the spring in SF, and it was great--and free! Although it was a little disconcerting to see all the usual queer-writer folks in bright light without cocktails to hand, since the series takes place on the lower floor of the Main Library, not in the bars where we're all used to getting our queer lit. Definitely go if you're in SF. Tues, March 29th, at 6pm, San Francisco Main Library (civic center). Readers: Jewel Gomez, Jamison Green, Amy Mahoney, and Truong Tran.

Also on the cookie front, Heather Gold continues her very funny one-woman (but lots of cookies) show "I look like an egg but I identify as a cookie" through April, with lots of cool special guests. More info on her website, Subvert.

And, not to be outdone on the right coast, Cheryl B continues her nifty Brooklyn reading series, Atomic (is anyone else seeing a space-age theme here?), with a collection of fab writers reading at Park Slope's Lucky 13 this Sunday, April 3rd. 7pm, Free. Readers: Janice Erlbaum, Sara Seinberg (an alum of the former Sister Spit reading series and cross-country tour, organized by the aformentioned Michelle Tea--see? It's all connected!) Elizabeth Whitney, and Steve Caratzas. Lucky 13 Saloon, 273 13th St at Fifth Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

As for actual cookies, these are my homage to the Girl Scout Thin Mint--the best GS cookie ever. Don't think you can save yourself from eating the whole batch by freezing some; they taste just as good, if not better, frozen, especially if you use them to make ice-cream sandwiches. The original recipe comes from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu, a book I use all the time, and not always just for this recipe. Really.

A couple of tips: Use good cocoa powder--I like Droste and Ghirardelli's in particular. Hershey's and Nestle's, while ubiquitous, taste like burnt sawdust to me. If you wanted to go super-minty, you could use mint-flavored chocolate chips instead of regular ones.

Double Chocolate-Mint Cookies

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugars. Beat in egg and extracts. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Stir flour mixture into butter, then add chips. Drop spoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie sheet, and bake 10-12 minutes.

Music for Baking Cookies (and commentary)
1. The Flood (The Soundtrack of Our Lives)
A kick-ass Swedish rock band who played an excellent, sweaty set at the Knitting Factory last night. This tune comes from their album Behind the Music, but they've also got a new one out, called Origin Vol.1.
2. La Canal (Radio Terifa)
Enticing gypsyish music, good for pretending you're Salome or one of those Fat Chance Bellydance girls. From their album Rhumba Argelina, on which I find about half the tracks really annoying and the rest completely enchanting. Recommended ages ago by my old squeeze Dutch, who counted it as good sex music.
3. Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townsend)
I was searching for more TSOOL on Limewire and somehow this came up in my search. What a happy song.
4. Sinfonietta La Jolla (Bohuslav Martinu)
Thank you, WQXR. Lovely slightly jazz-influenced stuff from a Czech composer whom I'd never heard of until today.