ram ranch really rocks

A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic. 

Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband - they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day. 

Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 egg 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9x13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.

Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy.  Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour. 

Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick.  Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.

And it is GREAT.

Pachypeltis cladodes

Branched orange lichen

This little lichen starts its life out crustose and closely adhered to the substrate, but wait! What’s that? Yes, those are stalks! As it matures, it develops stalks and grows taller and taller off the substrate! P. cladodes has a smooth, bright orange thallus with short-stalked, orange apothecia. It grows on non-calcareous rocks in the North American west. The lesson here is be whatever the hell you want, and don’t let anything stop you. 

images: source

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Zephyr Dancing With Flora

By Giovanni Maria Benzoni, 1870

Sheer fabric clings to Flora's body as the goddess of flowers dances with the god of wind Zephyrus in spring.

Benzoni studied ancient marbles and other sculpture inspired by classical art. Though Benzoni's figures may be more sentimental than ancient ones, all convey a sense of soft, flawless human flesh.