#15 Cookies, Kitchens and Joyfulness

 I finally made sugar cookies today and this post is in danger of being one of those long recipe posts with too many pictures...but I will try to tone it down. The reasons this tops today's gratitude list is threefold:

First, they are absolutely the most delicious vegan/gluten free sugar cookie I have ever made! There are lots of difference recipes I have tested but they all had something about them that marked them as "free from" such as the taste or they were too dark or didn't form properly. Not so with these. I know my taste buds have adjusted to the taste of vegan sweets (I have been allergic to milk, eggs and gluten for about 6 years) but I am going to test these out of some friends tomorrow--I don't think you can tell the difference between these and the "full lead" ones. Here is the recipe, and here a a couple of pictures of the dough I am so proud of!  I was also happy to discover I have a rolling and a plastic juicer that doubles as a cookie cutter.

They look just like they are supposed to!

The second reason baking these cookies delights me so is because I actually did it! How many times during and even before Coronavirus, when my life moved to home, have I made declarations to myself about things I want to do: bake cookies, cook meals, finish that scrapbook, write that blog post....

These cookies are a physical manifestation of that intention. Sometime on winter break some magical switch flipped inside of me and I now find myself following through. I am taking care of myself--exercising regularly, sleeping properly, putting my all into my work, not complaining. I feel energized and refreshed and motivated in a new way that I can't really explain. 

Finally, by following through with these simple cookies I discovered that in my apartment--and probably in Israel--oh, let's face it, in life in general--I can flourish. Realizing that I had everything I needed to make these delicious cookies in this little apartment which I have spent so much energy complaining about was a revelation. If I have everything I need to create delicious, beautiful treats in this tiny, inadequate kitchen stocked with a bunch of makeshift ingredients I used Google Translate to verify while blocking the aisle in my local organic store, perhaps I have everything I need to be joyful anywhere.  

Perhaps what I really needed to do all along was just pick something and start doing it.