This winter has kicked my butt.  Like kicked it clear across the province or maybe even the country.  It's kicked me to the curb.  It's slapped me up one side of the head and down the other.  I think you get the idea.
As I claw my way through the last of it, still afraid to dwell on how it might end some day, it seems hard to remember that warm used to be a thing that described more than just huge sweaters and crazy thick socks.  It feels like I'm drowning in an ocean of clothing and I haven't seen my body in months.
Right now I am sitting in front of the computer in multiple layers and the thickest socks I could find... and slippers.  Fortunately, I am on March break at the moment which means that I can at the very least be sitting in front of the computer covered in so many layers that my arms can barely move in the middle of the day with the sun shining instead of 5:30pm in the dark (well not quite dark, I exaggerate just a little).
Before the break, I was about to run out and grab a coffee when I bumped into a colleague.  My colleague invited me to grab a coffee offered at a major fast food chain that was being offered for free that week.  Ummm Nope.  My colleague berated me for refusing the offer and accused me of being a coffee snob.  I decided that I'm ok with being a coffee snob and it drove home a thought that I've been mulling for a while now.
We are obsessed with wanting.  We want _________  (fill in the blank).  It's bred in us, male and female, from a young age.  We are constantly told what we want.  Every ad, every newspaper, magazine, website whatever, billboard tells us what it is we want.  Obviously, very few of us truly NEED anything.  What would happen if we all decided that we would only purchase what we needed as opposed to what we wanted?  Yikes - disaster.  My real problem with this wanting thing is that it's often indiscriminate.  I want chocolate.  Any chocolate will do as long as I can get chocolate... or just candy... or maybe just some form of sugar.  I want clothes so I will go to the mall and get some.  I don't need anything specific but I want clothes.  In fact, I just want.  I've decided that I'm ok with being picky and if that makes me a snob then I'm ok with that too.  I don't just want a coffee, any coffee, thank you very much.  If I can't have my own home ground, delicious coffee then there are only two places that I will ever get coffee from and if I can't get that coffee then I will skip coffee.  If I can't get the specific kind of chocolate that I am craving then I won't just buy anything to fill the void.  I will skip it altogether.  I know what I like, I know what I want and I know what I need... I don't care if that fast food chain is offering free coffee to me for the rest of my life.


Of course, this has nothing to do with these cookies.  I'm ok with that too.  I didn't eat any of these cookies unfortunately but my kids did.  They ate a lot.  I took a good solid dozen and a half to our friends place and still had plenty (about two dozen) leftover for home.  I don't know if you'll get that much out of this recipe, maybe my cookies were just exceptionally small.   They looked good, made a nice host gift and made my kids happy for a good few days.
Trust me, you WANT these cookies.


Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies adapted from Kitchen Treaty
makes about 3 dozen med/small cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 lg egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used dark 'Cocoa Camino')
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup dark chocolate chunks or chips
1/3 cup white chocolate chips

Combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and espresso powder together and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350° F
Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicon liner and set aside.
Mix together (I used a hand mixer) the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 1/2 minutes).  Add in the egg and vanilla and mix for another minute.
Gently add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix until combined.
Add the rolled oats and stir together until well mixed.
Add in both the white and dark chocolate and mix until evenly distributed.
Spoon onto the prepared cookie sheet using about 1 1/2 tbsp of cookie dough.  Leave a little room for the cookies to spread.
Bake for about 10 minutes or just until the outer edge of the cookies are beginning to brown but the middle is still kind of gooey.
Gently remove the cookies to a cooling rack.