Viva Suburbia! Viva scrapbooking housewives, minivan driving soccer parents, PTAs and bake-sales. Whether it’s Stepford or home, rings of planned communities and cul-de-sacs surround every city. The inhabitants’ commutes to urban office buildings help generate the wealth that allows inner-city enclaves of artists and hipsters to survive.
Living in the heart of a tiny urban jungle, it’s easy to forget that there is an entire world where people drive more than walk, have great-rooms rather than studio apartments, and have never heard of a buy-local campaign. It’s also easy to think that all culinary culture and food art needs to come from the beating heart of a thriving metropolis. For high density urbanites, Lauren Chattman’s Cookie Swap! is a surprising celebration of suburbia and cookies.
As the title indicates, this cookbook focuses on two things. The first is cookies. These are not comfort food cookies designed to be made while babysitting or to be wolfed down during a moment of heartbreak. These are in-your-face-Martha-Stewart cookies. Each recipe clearly explains how to mix, cut, design and decorate each morsel until it transubstantiates from food item to status symbol.
Novices should not expect perfection on the first try. Despite Chattman’s excellent instructions, these cookies will take practice. The cobweb design on the Rolled Chocolate Cookies with Simple Chocolate Icing, for example, looks deceptively simple. The steady hand and careful spiral needed to ice them, however, requires at least a batch of practice.
The second aspect of this book is all about how to plan a swap. Much like swinging (not the playground kind), cookie swapping involves a bunch of adults getting together for some sweet, guilty fun. And, like swinging, one can only leave with something if he or she came with something to share. Unlike swinging, sampling is frowned upon. With the same precision she uses in the recipes, Chattman covers every detail of the swap from invitations and RSVPs to menu planning.
(Workman, 2010)
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