Do Try this at home!

This entry brought to you by "Perfect Together" from the album "Inside" by Kirby Heyborne.

Best cookie ever. Make 'em and tell me what your mouth thinks. Toast the almonds.

Enjoy!
Kirby

(Link to online recipe:
David Lebovitz's Chocolate Chip Cookies)

Ingredients   yield: about 48 cookies

• 2 1/2 cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces/225 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup (215 g) packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups (about 225 g) nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, almonds, or macadamia nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 14 ounces (400 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/2- to 1-inch (1.5- to 3-cm) chunks or 3 cups (340 g) chocolate drops

Procedures

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a bowl by hand), beat together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla on medium speed just until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated, then stir in the flour mixture followed by the nuts and chocolate chunks.
3. On a lightly floured work surface, divide the dough into quarters. Shape each quarter into a log about 9 inches (23 cm) long. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, preferably for 24 hours.
4. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
5. Slice the logs into disks 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick and place the disks 3 inches (8 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheets. If the nuts or chips crumble out, simply push them back in.
6. Bake, rotating the baking sheets midway through baking, until the cookies are very lightly browned in the centers, about 10 minutes. If you like soft chocolate chip cookies, as I do, err on the side of underbaking.
7. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets until firm enough to handle, then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack.
8. Storage: The dough logs can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for up to 1 month. The baked cookies will keep well in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

 

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Most Difficult Director...

The most difficult director I've ever worked with is my 3 year-old daughter. I never get the lines or the performance right when we're playing Littlest Pet Shop.

Music: Creating New, Revisiting the Past. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Whenever I start to wrap my brain around the idea of recording a new album, I'm always amazed at how a collection of seemingly unrelated songs and ideas somehow find a common thread.

As I gather whole songs, parts of songs, and ideas of songs together for a new album, I am interested to find out what story these songs want to tell. What shape will each give to the body of the album? Will these songs join hands and try to be born all at once, or will each one take it's time teasing me with a melody here, a lyric there? What themes and ideas are worth exploring further? How will this album support the others?

A lot of people have asked me which of my own albums is my favorite. This isn't an easy question for me to answer. I look at them all now in hindsight with 20/20 vision. "Oh. That's why I had to write this song; It was to get to this other song." Each album at the time of recording and assembling represented something different and important to me at that point of my life.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. If you have listened to my albums (Inside, Braver Days, Merry White Tree in the Night, and The Elm Tree) and have an opinion about which one you relate to the most, I'd love to hear it. Also, which one did you put away for a season and have recently revisited? Why does it fit in your life at this moment?

Here are links to each of my album pages:
Inside
Braver Days
The Elm Tree
Merry White Tree in the Night

I'm excited to hear what you think.

It's interesting how you can discover new things when you revisit important music from your past. My son and I have been in a Killers phase lately. I am revisiting and my son is just being introduced to the emotional honesty of Brandon Flowers. We are having a great time exploring what songs and albums speak to us.

I hope you'll have a great time too.

Kirby

High Five Diss - kerBLINK - Kirby Heyborne & Lincoln Hoppe

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