Greetings from the frozen wasteland that is the city of Boston!  We are currently digging out from under our fourth blizzard in as many weeks.  My positive-thinking initiative is still going, but this winter is really trying my patience.  I’d complain about the terrible (i.e. non-existent) public transit conditions and the subzero temperatures, but frankly, I’m just tired of it.  It’s all anyone’s talking about, and I’d just rather talk about cookies. I made these on a Sunday afternoon, the day before Alex left town for a week.  I was stuck inside, I felt like baking, and I figured that a big batch of cookies would be ideal for…

I’ve noticed a trend in social media over the last few weeks: a total backlash against fall in general and pumpkin-flavored foodstuffs in particular.  I love pumpkin, but I can understand this.  I remember that during my freshman year of college (2005, holy cow), the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte was basically the only pumpkin-flavored product on the market, and I wolfed those lattes down with reckless abandon.  However, over the course of a decade or so, other food producers have taken note of the success of the PSL (as Starbucks now abbreviates the pumpkin spice latte, annoyingly enough) and churned…