Sea Salt + Walnut + Caramel Chip Cookies

There’s a word we all say weird. Or, rather, we do not say it in unison.

“cahr-muhl.”
“cär-uh-mehl.”
or, as my mother calls it,
“cär-uh-muhl.”

This is fine. We do not have to be doing everything at the same time.

I recently admitted to myself that I am very tired, and it was big [the exhaustion, and the getting there]

because why do we feel like we have to justify however we are, and why do we demand explanations of one another for things
because don’t you think that something probably happened in the years and years and years it took for us both to collide, and

why do you think I owe you something just because you are not receiving what you would like from me, and why is it that you cannot find that within yourself

love is not about possession. love is about appreciation.

(osho)

and sometimes, you just have to drop everything and take a nap and when you wake to find you set your alarm for 5am instead of 5pm and it is much later than you even planned to sleep but at least you let go and woke naturally for the first time in a long time (and you probably needed that),

-with softened butter and molasses and toasted walnuts and caramel chips you make a simple dough that bakes in eight minutes and tastes like fall spent sitting at your grandmother’s kitchen table listening to the refrigerator buzz and watching her watch the birds out the window while she rubs lipstick on her cheeks next to the cupboard that is always full of cookies-

everything will leave and arrive and leave again whether or not you have rested, and there may as well be sweet and salty and nostalgic along the way

One Year: Warm Apple Crumb Cake with Molasses Glaze
Two Years: Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onion, and Arugula Pasta Salad with Date Vinaigrette
Three Years: Black Bean Salsa
Four Years: Pappardelle with Brown Butter and Chives

Sea Salt + Walnut + Caramel Chip Cookies
Makes about a dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup caramel chips
3/4 cup raw walnuts, toasted and chopped
sea salt, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and molasses until fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in egg. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients in halves. Stir in caramel chips and walnuts. Scoop the dough in heaping, rounded tablespoonfuls. Space the cookies about two inches apart on the baking sheet, as they will spread. Bake for 8-10 minutes total, rotating halfway through, until the edges are golden and the middles are slightly underdone. Let cool on the baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Cookies will last up to two days, if stored in an airtight container.