The Tao of Dog Poop -- plus a yummy cookie recipe (I know, they really should be separate posts)

I don’t have anything brilliant to say this morning (for a change) and so I thought I’d share one of my favorite recipes with you — even though it’s NOT what I’m eating right now. Right now I’m eating an apple/cranberry/whole wheat/oat scone fresh out of the oven. Yum. Maybe I’ll write up the recipe for those and share it some other day when I don’t have anything brilliant to say.

This is NOT a picture of my own personal cookies, btw. I tried a little food photography last week when I made my own seitan. I left the pics on the digital camera and forgot about them. A couple of days later, A. was downloading pics to his computer and I heard him say in a very strange voice: “What the hell is that?” For a second there, he thought I had gone stark raving mad and plated some dog poop to photograph.

I may be crazy, but not that crazy. I don’t think so, at least. Not yet.

For the record, A. didn’t like the seitan, either.

I think there’s more to food photography than simply pointing and shooting. Perhaps there’s more to writing than simply sitting down and pushing your fingers against the keyboard as well.

Ya think? Practice, practice, and more practice. Then stand back and have someone else look at it. If your picture — or story or poem — makes someone think of dog poop, it might suggest that more practice is in order. Unless dog poop was your initial intent, in which case I have no suggestions.

Anyway, I took these cookies somewhere last week and a bunch of people actually asked me for the recipe, so here it is. It is my go-to quasi-healthy cookie recipe, and I sometimes substitute raisins and nuts for chocolate chips and cranberries. Orange extract instead of vanilla is nice sometimes. This would be lovely with macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips, I think. You can use an egg instead of the flax seed meal/water combo, but flax seed meal adds a nice nuttiness to this kind of cookie, along with some fiber and less of whatever it is that eggs have that’s bad for you.

Bon appetit!

**
Cranberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies – Vegan

Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on size

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour (I use a mixture of unbleached white flour and whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup Earth Balance or other vegan margarine
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon flax seed meal mixed with 3 tablespoons warm water (substitute for 1 egg)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
¾ cup dried cranberries
¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli semi-sweet is vegan)
fresh ground black pepper (about ½ teaspoon)

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Into a small bowl sift together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together margarine and sugars until light and fluffy. Throw a couple of good healthy twists from a pepper grinder into the mix. Beat in egg/egg substitute and vanilla and stir in flour mixture, oats, cranberries, and chocolate chips until combined well.

Arrange rounded tablespoons of dough about 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and with moistened fingers flatten mounds into 3-inch rounds. Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets 1 minute and transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days (maybe — they’ve never lasted that long!) I usually freeze some in a zip-lock bag and they are pretty good thawed out, but not the same as fresh from the oven.