Not Exactly French "Biscuits"

Beese-kwee? No, these are plain old American cookies, but they did come out of my tiny "Paris" kitchen. A helpful trick when space is limited is spreading a project over a couple of days, mixing one evening and baking the next.

I made a double recipe of basic refrigerator cookie dough and played variations on it from there, with prepared, rolls of dough kept cool overnight on the enclosed front porch, along with a bowl of oatmeal-cherry dough. (Organic Michigan dried cherries in place of raisins make any recipe calling for raisins more special.)

Inherent dangers of a small kitchen cannot, however, be denied. Moving in and out with trays of cookies, it's easy to bump the oven control knob. How could one tray have burned -- and so quickly? Oh, too much heat.

The overdone cookies were not good enough to take to Northport, but not too burned to eat at home. A few deformed pinwheels didn't make it into the decorated tin going to the bookstore, either, and here they are (below) on our dining table next to a falling-apart paperback book -- another little orphan staying home with me -- not rejected but special, i.e., slated for home consumption.

Last but not least: presentation! A big, old, beautifully decorated cookie tin from Germany held all the cookies I made and would have held more. They'll keep well in the tin, also. I wouldn't have minded a tin from France, but the German one found me and worked out fine.