Because I can't NOT talk about it...

Disclaimer: There are no baked goods in this article. I have a recipe all lined up, and you will have it soon, but sometimes there are current events too big to ignore just because they don't have anything to do with baking.

Well friends, for those of you who haven't yet heard, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Michael Jackson has died. I know, I know, it comes as a shock, especially since the event has received very little press and one is extremely hard pressed to find mention of it anywhere on the internet. But it's true.

I have mixed feelings. A very close friend of mine was damn near inconsolable yesterday. She has been a devoted MJ fan for decades, and his death hit her hard, as I know it did many others across the country and around the world. I do not wish to belittle or undermine their very genuine grief in any way...but I just don't feel it myself.

Like every child of my generation, I spent many an evening practicing my moonwalk across the kitchen floor, watching the reflection of my feet in the oven (never did I advance far beyond walking backwards, though, despite my best efforts); I can still tell you the exact circumstances under which I first saw the Thriller video; and I still know all the words to You Are Not Alone from the mid-nineties resurgence of Jackson popularity in the wake of the HIStory album. But that's about where it ends. I was never a die-hard Michael Jackson fan. If anything, Janet was my Jackson of choice. I don't even think I ever owned one of Michael's albums, and, even as a young child, I found all the crotch-grabbing vulgar and disconcerting (what can I say? I was born a bit of a prude...but in a 3rd wave-feminist kind of way (i.e. rock on if it works for you; I just choose to keep my hands away from my crotch in public, thanks)).

And then there were the allegations of molestation. I'm a social worker, folks, and I have been an elementary teacher and a rape crisis counselor. Rule 1 of all three of those professions is that children don't lie about molestation. Now, is it conceivable that parents may wish to exploit the wealth of someone like Jackson by making false allegations? Of course. But, in the words of my friend Jill, "While it was never proven in court that he actually molested anyone, even from his own testimony it was clear that his relationships with children were inappropriate at best."

Now, I've seen Jacksons: An American Dream like everyone else who's ever spent more than five minutes watching VH1, and I can appreciate both the cultural impact and the personal hardship and tragedy that made Jackson who he was, but I do not believe that any amount of personal struggle EVER excuses harming a child. Nor does any amount of fame or fortune negate the commission of such a crime. Try as I might, I cannot separate my appreciation for Jackson's talent from my suspicion of his guilt.

And yet, when a celebrity as iconic as Michael Jackson dies, it tends to make people mourn, not so much for the individual who has passed, but more for what the death represents in terms of one's own lost youth, imminent mortality, bygone eras, etc. In the southern humor classic, Elvis is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself, author and comedic genius Lewis Grizzard recounts his experience of Presley's death, noting that he was shocked to realize that the women who mourned the King's passing were not young teeny boppers, but middle aged women, who were not mourning Elvis nearly so much as they were mourning the loss of the bygone days of rolled-down bobby socks, saddle shoes, and poodle skirts. And in making this realization, Grizzard himself came to understand that if the great Elvis were so mortal as to die of a heart attack, then he too would someday die, and the carefree glory of immortal youth was, in fact, gone forever.

I think it is fair to say that Jackson's passing has had a very similar effect on our culture, and especially on people like me who have never known a world in which Jackson was not the King of Pop, in which Thriller was not the best-selling album of all time, in which Billie Jean is not our lover. For all the weirdness, the scandal, the suspicion, and the tragedy, Jackson defined a decade, a generation, an era, and with his passing comes an uninvited reminder of the impermanence of everything we know, including ourselves.

And yet, I've had a medley of Michael Jackson songs stuck in my head all day. The tide of YouTube tribute videos has not yet stemmed, and I would venture to guess that iTunes is ablaze with Jackson downloads as I type. Suddenly, it's like 1984 all over again. And it gives me great pleasure to think that, even with all the sadness and musings on death and mortality that Jackson's passing has brought, somewhere, right now, a new generation of children are practicing their moonwalk in front of the oven.

Cookie Therapy

It's been a rough week, folks. Ahmadenijad seems likely to win re-election in Iran, thereby furthering his tyranny over the women of that country; the Letterman/Palin feud drags on, with insults to women and basic intelligence flying on both sides; more and more abortion clinics are receiving threats in the wake of Dr. Tiller's murder; and some 80-year-old anti-semitic nut job decided to shoot up the National Holocaust Museum in DC, resulting in the death of security guard, Steven Tyrone Johns.

It's somewhat tempting to turn this post into a "but forget your worries and indulge in these cookies!" piece of drivel, but you're smarter than that, and so am I. This is serious shit, here, folks. So don't think that by giving you a cookie recipe I'm trying to sugar coat anything (pun intended). Oppression, tyranny, misogyny, violence, anti-semitism, and murder. Really, no amount of baked goods can make me feel better about any of this. But, this week has also not been without its good points: Chaz (formerly Chastity) Bono has decided to transition from female to male and so far the media's being relatively cool about it; Tel Aviv hosted Israel's Gay Pride Parade ; and, evidently, today is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. So life ain't all bad.

I bring all of this up because these are the things that have been weighing heavily on my mind all week. When I came home this evening and read the news about the election in Iran, it was the proverbial straw, and I was the brokeback camel. So, in an effort to refocus myself and feel a little less horrible about the world, I baked cookies. Some people write, others paint or write music; I bake. And, silly as it sounds, it helped. So, no more politics (at least, not in this post ;); from here on, I will only talk about cookies. But as you read, I hope you'll seriously consider doing whatever it is you do to rejuvenate yourself and those around you; on news weeks like this, it's crucial.

And now, without further doldrums or ado:

FLOURLESS PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES!

[Again, taken from The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts, page 193]

Back before I was diabetic, one of my all-time favorite rainy-day recipes was an incredibly simple one: 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 egg. Mix together, spoon onto baking sheet, bake at 350 for 10 minutes. And that was it. No fuss, you generally had all of the ingredients right in the kitchen, and the cookies came out delicious every time.

Well, this recipe is remarkably similar, and every bit as easy. It's also extremely low-sugar as written, and you can even reduce the sugar amounts further by using reduced-sugar peanut butter and cutting the brown-sugar with half Splenda Brown Sugar Blend.

Now, of course, I never have brown sugar in my kitchen, so I used ALL Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, which probably wasn't the best idea. The cookies are VERY sweet. Really tasty, but, seriously y'all, crazy sweet. I had to use the whole amount of SBSB in order to get the right consistency in the batter, but next time, I'll definitely use at least half regular brown sugar.

I tried baking them two different ways: one batch was just rolled up and plopped onto the baking sheet while the second batch was smooshed with a fork before baking. Personally, I vastly prefer the latter method, but you can do it whichever way you prefer.

Either way, really great recipe: simple, classic, low-sugar, and delicious. Just what I needed to end this crappy week on a sweet note. If you give 'em a try, let me know how they turn out.

Happy baking, y'all!

"Oops" doesn't hold up in court

Quick note, fellow diabetic-baked goods lovers: It has recently come to my attention that the recipes I have been publishing from The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts are copyright protected and should therefore NOT be reproduced, even on my teensy little blog. So I've taken them all down. Sorry.

I will continue to use and cite recipes from the book, but now the burden of hunting down said recipes will be on you. To help out, I will always provide the name and page number of each recipe, both from this cookbook and any others I use in the future. Also, if the recipe is available online, I promise to link to it.

Sorry for any inconvenience, folks. When I'm cool enough to make up my own recipes, I will publish them with abandon. For now, though, student loans are starting to come due, so I really can't afford a lawsuit.

That's all for now. Happy litigation-free baking, y'all!

* Upon suggestion from one of my beloved library friends, here is a link to the cookbook at the public library for those of you living in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg area.

Goodbyes...and mocha fudge cake

Nothing hurts quite like saying goodbye to good friends. But at least there's always chocolate to help soften the blow.



Tonight we threw a going-away dinner party for a couple of awesome ladies who are leaving the area to go be badass social workers elsewhere. In their honor, I decided to experiment with a new and exciting chocolate cake recipe, as well as fun new decorating tools.

Turning once again to my beloved Big Book of Diabetic Desserts, I decided on the "Mocha Fudge Sheet Cake," except I don't like sheet cakes, so mine was a layer cake. Six in one, cake batter in the other...

Having chosen the cake recipe, I decided to experiment with another frosting. My dream is to one day find a diabetic-friendly frosting that is as pretty and functional as regular buttercream frosting, so that I may make lavishly beautiful cakes, like this one from Bakerella:



Alas, however, such a recipe has not yet been found. Of course, my decorating skills aren't anywhere near there yet anyway, so I guess it's a waiting game all around. Nonetheless, this recipe from Splenda.com seemed to have some promise, so I gave it a whirly-do.

Whirly-don't.

Granted, my thermometer was off, so that may have had something to do with the final product. Ultimately, though, it was a thin, runny, way-too-sweet mess. To top it off, the recipe only made enough icing to barely coat the top of one cake layer. But it served it's purpose well enough as the layer-glue. I just wouldn't recommend it for any more than that.

Ultimately, I was pressed for time, so I cheated and bought Pillsbury reduced-sugar chocolate icing, and used a regular french vanilla icing with food coloring for the garnish. The look of it didn't turn out too bad, if I do say so myself (though my hand-lettering clearly needs a lot of work):




As for taste, it was pretty darn good. Next time, I think I'll use more canola oil as the final product was a little dry and crumbly. But overall, a pretty decent cake, and an excellent party.

Happy baking, y'all!

...Aaaaaannnnnd we're back!

OK, well, where to begin?! A little over 2 months since my last post, and a lot has happened. Here's the short version:

Easter happened. I baked a cake:



It was OK. Not great. The cake recipe was too spongy for something this structured, and the icing was not unlike sweetened Elmer's glue. I'm still on the hunt for a suitable diabetic-friendly frosting recipe; suggestions are welcome and encouraged. If anybody's dying for the bunny cake recipe, let me know, and I'll dig it out. Otherwise, moving on.

So, after Easter, grad school EXPLODED! There was no time for baking, friends, eating, talking, or breathing. We did, however, manage to squeeze in a trip to Chicago to visit the new nephew...and he helped me write my masters paper:



Finally, I finished the masters paper and went out for celebratory hashbrowns at Waffle House:



Then I graduated:



And somewhere along the way, I made these awesome (if slightly too sweet) brownies:



(Recipe provided upon request)

And that's pretty much been the past two months. And now, on to the present! Coming up next I bring you: MOCHA FUDGE CAKE! Stay tuned.