Made the double chocolate cherry cookies from the Waldorf=Astoria cookbook today. I’d made Barry run out for creme fraiche and dried cherries and instant espresso and bittersweet chocolate for these back in my christmas cookie marathon, and then never made them. They use very little flour–only 1/2 cup–so they are almost candy or cake more than cookies. VERY rich. The recipe is to make LARGE cookies–I’m guessing they serve one of these as a dessert. Seems like they’d make a great complement to the cherry stout we had at last night’s beer tasting–I’ll have to peruse the beer porch and see if there’s any left for an aperitif.

Now that we have an open tub of creme fraiche, and Barry’s in a mad frenzy of freezer defrosting and fridge cleaning, I’m planning a menu that can use large quantities of chicken plus the creme fraiche. Looks like the chicken paprikash in the Joy of Cooking will fit the bill–and old standby–subbing the creme fraiche for the sour cream.

Between that and the cookies I should hit my limit for saturated fat for the week.