If you look at my list of cookie recipes, you will see that I messed around quite a bit trying to find a good S’mores cookie. Here is the last one I tried. As with all the others I tried, the cookie part is the hardest to recreate. These look cool. They are clearly chocolatey, marshmallowy and graham crackery but I have just not been able to come up with a cookie that comes close to that crunchy satisfaction you get when making real S’mores around the camp fire.

Recipe By:

Internet

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

½ cup miniature marshmallows, cut in half

4 full-sheet graham crackers, ground into fine crumbs

 Directions:

1. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar together in a large bowl on medium speed until creamed, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

3.  With the mixer running on low, slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Add the milk. The dough will be heavy and sticky. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

4. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.

5.  Pour graham cracker crumbs into a bowl. Form a 2 tablespoon balls of dough. Roll each cookie dough ball into the graham cracker crumbs then place on baking sheet.

6. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and press 3-4 pieces of marshmallow on top of each cookie. Return to the oven for another 2-3 minutes.

7. Remove from the oven. Cookies will appear undone and very soft. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sometimes, the people accompanying patients to the emergency department are more interesting than the patients. In this case, the patient was a middle-aged, mentally handicapped man who was brought in by his “friend” for a refill on his blood pressure meds. He was pretty much clueless and it was clear that her life was wrapped up in taking care of him, a job more made difficult by their homelessness.

She was probably about forty-five years old. In contrast to the diminutive patient, she was a large woman, tall, with big bones and heavy, coarse features. She wore slightly dirty, over-sized pants and a tee shirt. She wore no bra over her large breasts.

What made her worthy of my specific attention and a post in this blog was her hair. It was dark brown with a few streaks of gray. It was pulled back at the base of her neck where it turned into a huge single dreadlock that was flattened so it lay against the upper part of her back. She had it covered with a multi-colored cloth sack, sewn specifically for the purpose. It sheathed the hair from the upper back all the way down to the ends. When she stood, it hung well below her waist in the back. When she sat, she pulled it around to the front, coiling it in her lap. I have never seen hair like that in my life, nor have I ever seen hair cared for by sheathing it, like a sword in a scabbard.

Two other things that made her  interesting to me:

As she spoke Spanish, I could tell she was not a Mexican. She told me she was from Cuba. We don’t have a lot of Cubans in our emergency department.

She had on an interesting ring, decorated with the initials CTR. When I asked about it, she said it stood for Choose the Right. She got it from a woman she had cared for in the past, who was a Mormon.

Patients or their family members frequently come in with notes to help detail and clarify what has been going on medically with the patient. Here is one that came in this week:

Over the last 7 years:

1. 50 Dots in vision Freezing my eyes making them Feel paralyzed
2. Migraine Headache Pain Scale 10-0, 10
3. Bloody nose
4. Blood stool
5. Tension in my shoulders
6. Swelling in my hands, feet
7. Nausea
8. Irregular heart beat
9. Pain all over my Body on your Pain Scale a 10, Mine over 100
10. Feels like a lit ciggarrette Burning on my Foot
11. Blindness
12. Cold sweats
13. Nightmares
14. No Period 10 years
15. Adrenaline
16. Seziures

I have asked for a CT Scan for my head and I got one at Stanford. When the results came back, it showed an image then they did color contrast, which showed nothing. Then I thought that I had szcizoeffective. Well I don’t. It’s Geist the little thing in my head and I spend 7 years thinking I was crazy, all types of different things have happened and tonight the pain was just severe.

Here is my niece, Natalie, with her new bag.

This recipe was sent to me by Caroline, who follows my blog from Vancouver, BC. They are very rich (almost as much cocoa as flour) and have a very nice, fudgey texture that is pleasing. With one teaspoon of cayenne, they have a good bight, too much for some of the members of choir. The added sugar and salt on the top made a nice finish. They are really easy to make.

Recipe By:

Adapted from Food Network – Eat St.

Yield:

30

Ingredients:

1½ cups sifted all purpose flour

1 cup sifted cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (or more if you like it hot!)

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar, plus more for sprinkling tops

½ cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons fresh squeezed ginger juice or fresh grated ginger root

kosher Salt

 Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°.

2. Combine dry ingredients. Set aside.

3. In a separate container, whisk wet ingredients.

4. Combine mixtures.

5. Cover baking sheets with parchment. Press fist size cookie dough balls out and sprinkle with kosher salt and sugar.

6. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit approximately 11 minutes or until the cookies start to crack. They should be nice and fudgey in the middle.