I love cookies. Sometimes a little too much, as my waistline can surely attest. And although in about a week or so my yearly New Year's resolution to eat better kicks in, for now I can (and will) enjoy all things cookie. My favorite ones to make recently are these Compost Cookies. I actually first made these cookies last year, but in the last couple months I've found myself making them quite a bunch for our friends and family.
The secret to the Compost Cookie greatness is in the same salty-sweet combination that makes chocolate covered pretzels so brilliant. And in the true spirit of composting, you can use whatever salty or sweet mix-ins you have lying around the house, which ensures a new and unique cookie every time you bake up a batch.
This recipe comes from Pastry Chef Christina Tosi of NYC's Momofuku Milk Bar. You may remember that name from when I posted an adapted version of her Crack Pie with Speculoos recipe a few weeks back. Compost Cookies are one of her best-selling desserts, and is a perfect cookie to try out on family and friends during this last week of cookie overload before the New Year.
Sometimes you are in the mood for that fancy, elusive dinner at the newest trendy restaurant that every blog and social media outlet are buzzing about. But then there are those times when you want some cheap, filling, totally satisfying, down-to-earth, honest-to-goodness comfort food. It still has to be really tasty, but the chefs don't need tweezers to plate the food and you don't need a reservation several months ahead of time (or, like the newest "trendy" restaurants, hope for a table because they don't even take reservations).
That familiar 
In the weeks following my return to New York, I thought I was destined to never again have another taste of the amazing French baguette I was so accustomed to enjoying daily while in Paris. I visited several self-named "French" bakeries in my area, but let's face it. They were all impostors.
After being good tourists and doing touristy things: taking a strol through the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens, viewing the Paris panoramic from atop Montparnasse Tower, and visiting the crypts within the Pantheon, we were absolutely starving for some lunch. Luckily not too far away and within walking distance were two places I wanted to check out: Franck Kestener Chocolatier (which you can read about in my post 
One look at the Faicco's storefront sign and you immediately think pork. Rightfully so, as Faicco's is known for their various homemade sausages as well as the numerous cuts of great looking meats they sell.... but pork is absolutely not on my mind when I walk up to Faicco's. When I'm passing by that glorious sign on Bleeker Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, I think of one thing and one thing only: rice balls.
