I made these Cornmeal Cranberry Cookies Recipe from Epicurious.com today, but with a few changes, which I will mention below.

If you like shortbread, you will adore these.

ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups dried cherries
preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a bowl whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy and beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and vanilla and stir until combined well. Stir in cranberries.

Roll in waxed paper into a tube about 2 inches in diameter. Chill in freezer or fridge until firm. Cut into slices with serrated knife. Place 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets and bake cookies in batches in middle of oven 16 to 18 minutes, or until golden. Transfer cookies with a spatula to racks to cool. Cookies keep in airtight containers 5 days.

Gourmet, November 1994

We just returned from dinner out with Bob Bates, one of Rob’s friends from Hawaii, and our friends Don and Yan. The meal was wonderful, as always, and it was great to catch up with them.

However, at this rate, I will be exhausted before we hit the road. So, in the interests of self-preservation, I will not post a complete report of the evening, but instead, will go to bed early. Relatively. It’s before midnight!

That’s got to count for something.

My nephew just sent me this article from the local paper about one of his friends. They’ve known each other since my nephew was five.

Asher McGirt and his mother, Janet, have unusual summer plans:

They’re waiting for the sound of a beeper.

The beeper, when it vibrates and bleats, will signal that a set of lungs has been found for Asher, a sixth-grader at Moore Square Magnet School in Raleigh.

“It’s strange, of course, because it means that we’re waiting for a donor to … well, die,” Janet McGirt said.

SFFreader » This Week’s New Short Fiction

ON MY SHELF
Prime Codex, edited by Lawrence Schoen and Michael Livingston:
I picked this up at CONduit last weekend at a reading by Eric James Stone, who has published multiple stories in places like Analog SF and IGMS. He’s a member of the Codex Writers Group, and stories by members of that group comprise this anthology. Eric’s remarkable and moving story, “Salt of Judas” joins stories by new and exciting writers like Mary Robinette Kowal, Ken Scholes, and Tobias Buckell. So if you want to read what the best of the new writers are writing, the Prime Codex anthology is a must-buy. Get your copy here.

If you are curious, you can listen to the audio version of my story here, before you pick up the anthology.

Listen to “Rampion”