Seasoned With Sydney

The story really began on Sunday, when my friend Grace and I decided to hit up the neighborhood bakery, after completely stuffing ourselves at brunch. No regrets, the weekends are the days that I feast. My neighborhood has the CUTEST bakery with tons of handwritten signs everywhere, and a really great pastry selection. What I had in mind for a post-brunch treat was a cannoli because hey, if you're going to have dessert after essentially having dessert, you have to go all out. But these days, I leave cannolis to the experts in the North End, and no where else. Instead, I locked eyes on (well, eye to baked good) a pumpkin raisin cookie. It just so happens that a few days before, I'd heard talk of a pumpkin aatmeal raisin cookie, and I'd been dying to try one ever since. But when I asked the salesperson if the cookie had oats, she shook her head "no," and sort of looked at me quizzically. Well, whatever, there was nothing else in the bakery I wanted more than that cookie, so I paid, and we left. And, I have to say it: I was super disappointed. I mean, I ate the whole thing obviously, but every bite was a reminder that I may have chosen the wrong thing at the bakery. It was missing one very important element: oats.

Honestly, think about it: had there been no pumpkin, it would have just been a raisin cookie. WHO EATS PLAIN RAISIN COOKIES? It's oatmeal raisin, or nothing. So as I took my last bite, I looked over at Grace and said, "I think I'm going to remake this cookie."

So I did.

I started my baking adventure like I always do: running furiously to the store in search of ingredients that I definetly should have collected before I decided to start baking. And I often embarrass myself once I get there. This particular time, after going up and down two aisles twice looking for raisins, I finally found someone that worked there, who told me to go to Produce. And after looking in Produce for .2 seconds, I decided to ask for help. Now, let me just preface this by saying that my trip to the store yesterday was the first time I'd been out all day, so I was still adjusting to being around other people, and also speaking out loud. Here was my interaction with the (pretty cute, by the way) salesperson in Produce:

Me: Excuse me, could you tell me where the grapes are?

SP: Grapes? Sure they're just------

Me: OH NOPE. SORRY, I meant raisins! Ha, y'know like OLD GRAPES? HAHA

SP: ...Um. Okay, yeah, they're over here. Follow me...

Me: Yep. okay then...

So yeah, THAT happened. Nevertheless, I got my raisins. And I set to work!

A few hours later, I had warm, chewy, Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin cookies. And better than the bakery's cookies by a mile, if I do say so myself.

I'm taking these little pieces of Fall goodness to work with me so that my Official Recipe Tasters (aka my co-workers and roommates) can give me the final word. I'm going to share this recipe, I promise!

HAPPY THURSDAY, GUYS! The weekend's almost here!