Millionaire's Shortbread

Can you think of anything more boring than having to go to a philosophy seminar on a Friday afternoon, after a long week of classes and assignments and trying to make sense of the dry, dry texts you were supposed to read? Then, even worse, having to discuss those dry texts, trying desperately to sound like you have a clue about what's going on. That's how I felt before I had my first Friday seminar when I was going to school in London a few years ago - total dread.

... But then I actually went, and it wasn't that bad. We were just a small group of girls having a conversation for a couple hours before the weekend. Our instructor was awesome and made us feel like there were no stupid questions, and gently led us in meaningful, interesting conversations. I started to really look forward to Friday afternoons. It didn't hurt, of course, that we all started bringing wine and chocolate and cookies to these little seminars of ours.

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Love Bars

 

I know that our sense of smell is supposed to be the sense most strongly linked to memory, but I think you'll all agree that certain foods can act as little time machines, zooming us back to a time and place buried in the past. Love Bars, which are sold at Pret A Manger (a sandwich chain in the UK that sells really tasty to-go meals), have this time machine effect on me; one bite and I'm back on the slow train to Chelmsford, eating my lunch after a long morning in the library. The ironic thing is that I would've been in the library researching nostalgia - the subject of my thesis - and now I'm waxing nostalgic about the delicious treats I enjoyed after studying (...and before studying, and during studying).

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Salted Caramel Brownies

 

I don't make New Year's resolutions. Maybe I should, but I just can't be bothered... especially since January has got to be the worst time to summon the motivation to go for a run or cut back on carbs. January/February is the time of year when I feel like napping, eating warm things from the oven, and watching every season of Friday Night Lights.

It was that kind of a weekend about a year ago when we visited my boyfriend's mom in Calgary. We kind of just stayed in, ate good food, cuddled with her dog and watched SNL. It was so nice. She had made a pan of Ina Garten's salted caramel brownies and we nibbled on them all weekend (and for a while afterwards, since she packed them up and sent them with us).
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