Anticipation

Do you remember back when a hug and nice freshly baked cookie was enough to solve almost any tearful trouble?

Tonight, the State of New Jersey is holding it's Annual School Elections. This is the time people get to vote for the members of their local school board, but also, and more dramatically, they get to vote for or against the school budget. The governor of NJ, Chris Christie, has all but declared war on the school districts, seeking to make up NJ's budget deficit almost entirely at the expense of the schools. In addition to the governor cutting state aid to all schools, he is asking everyone in the state to vote down their school budget, with the goal of even further reducing funding for education. I'm not entirely clear on what Christie's vision of the future is, when he doesn't feel that our greatest resource for the future, the children, are important enough to receive our support. And so tonight, those who work in education, those who have school age children and those who believe that it's always right to invest in the future of our nation, will wait. They will wait for the votes to come in, wait for the budgets to pass or fail, and see if this governor will have his way. And so, in honor of moms waiting with cookies and milk, kids doing homework at the kitchen table, school bake sale fundraisers and teachers who dry eyes, wipe noses, tie shoes, spend tons of their own money on supplies, resolve disagreements, build character, and oh, yeah, teach - I present, the snickerdoodle. A classic cookie, one that were my woes a little bit smaller, would probably make everything okay. For now, at least they're one thing to look forward to in an otherwise fraught evening.

SNICKERDOODLES
from Smitten Kitchen

INGREDIENTS:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 stick or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature - seriously, use unsalted, otherwise, omit the salt!
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar. In a separate bowl, mix the butter and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and again, mix until combined. SmittenKitchen chilled the dough before rolling into balls, but I didn't feel like waiting, so I just did it. Needless to say, if you're finding it too sticky, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

In a small bowl combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll pieces of the dough into golfballish sized balls, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about two inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment or a silpat. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. Again, my oven did them in under 10. If you over bake, they're all crunchy and no cakey, so beware. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Use to soothe boo-boos, hurt feelings, broken hearts and night before jitters. Self medication is not only approved but recommended.