-22

But the sun is shining! And at 8:45 it is up to -18. The storm is moving to the east but with the clear skies the temperature has dropped. Needless to say, Barkley and I did not walk this morning. He does not mind the cold and was sitting out on the snowy deck this morning until I saw him get up and walk on 3 legs. I made him come in. He gets snow matted on his long fur around his feet and it turns to ice.

Megan set up this blog for me and at the time I could not think of a name for it. Megan thought of something I was working on at the time and that was to try and duplicate a favorite cookie of mine called the half-moon cookie. Growing up in Utica, NY, we had great bakeries, many of them Italian , so I always thought they were an Italian cookie. After looking up 'black and white cookie' on Wikipedia I discovered that the half-moon cookie (from upstate NY and New England) is a little different than the black and white (from NYC). They were first made in the Hemstrought Bakery (not an Italian name)in Utica , NY, in the early 1900's. You may have seen a Seinfeld episode where Jerry is in a bakery with Elaine and he orders a black and white cookie. I love these half moon cookies which are a large, round, cake like cookie frosted on the flat side with chocolate and white frosting (it looks like a half moon!). When ever I visited my mother in Syracuse I would bring back a dozen cookies and a loaf of REAL Italian bread. (In fact, when Megan was a teen she was flying back from visiting her Nain with a box of the cookies on her lap and the boy next to her noticed her name and address on the box and they have been friends ever since--these are very powerful cookies). They are made with a chocolate cookie or a white cookie--the chocolate ate best. I still have not duplicated the cookie-all the recipes I can find have the white cookie as the base.

So that is a rather long explanation of the blog title.

The picture is of Barkley on our trip with Katherine to the desert near Savery,Wyoming. We were looking for rocks and the wind was blowing-he has a beautiful coat.