Not hyperbole, no not at all. The most magical, perfect, heart-warming, amazing chocolate chip cookies are made in a very hot and very tiny bakery in Donnelly, Idaho, population 138. They are big, but not too big. They have the perfect crunchy outer 40% and a just chewy-enough center. They have the golden chocolate chip:cookie ratio down. They taste like butter and love and joy. Lots of oatmeal and lots of happiness. I stopped at Flight of Fancy, home of this brilliant baked good, to get some pastries to bring back home (hoping for huckleberry scones), and they had just pulled cookies out of the oven. One thing led to another and soon I was driving towards home eating the greatest cookie on earth, listening to Josh Ritter, the greatest man on the earth.

There it is. The humble home of the record-breaking heaven-sent cookie.

Drumroll…

There it is. Speedometer in the background for some snaziness. (The golden rays of love just don’t really show up in pictures.)

Now the cookie talk has to stop, I might cry. Anyway. For some Sunday family fun, Dad read aloud the most delicious snippets of the NYT Travel/Dining section. Including, but not limited to: Foie gras ravioli (!!!!!)… perfect panna cotta… fried balls of saffron risotto… “a tangle of raw red cabbage in a moat of shocking orange liquid”… orange flower marshmallows… Again, I might cry. Mom and I were yelling “Stop stop stop!” Stop, or we have no choice but to fly to Barcelona TOMORROW!

And a good, solid food quote from the same place:

“If we’re not supposed to eat animals, how come they’re made out of meat?” -Tom Snyder

Ha. Poor vegetarians. They have lots of will power but I think maybe not so much happiness. Like the happiness we had today when mom made Spanish Lamb Stew. And the poor vegans, they could not have even partaken in the lime ice cream (which I did not cheat making and did custard like a real girl! And it was worth it! ‘Twas heavenly!)

P.S. I had pork cheeks for the first time. Yes I did. And they were unbelievably tasty. Yes they were.

Ok, Bye.

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