Riding the Elephant - Hippie Cookies Recipe

Even with all the road construction thats going on, I decided to take Snelling to University Ave.

Sometimes Klecko takes the longer route, but I'd rather be in a car for 8 hours, traveling through an area that has a soul, then spending 1/2 the time driving over some vanquished highway.

So there I am, all by myself. I attempt a few calls from my Droid, but imagine that....nobody wants to talk to me LOL.

I'd talk to the Polish Christ, but I just hung out with him earlier in the day.

So now just ahead....I spy a big a** billboard that announces that the Shrine Circus is coming to town.

At that exact moment.....the world around my goes silent, and a mile wide smile forms on my oversized head.

I loved taking my kids to the circus.

KiKi is 7 years older than her little brother, so in some ways I was lucky. I got to take my kids to one of my favorite venues at 2 different periods in my life.

The one thing that remained constant however was that for 5 bucks, the Free Masons would let your kid ride the elephant.

Sue McGleno, Tydus and myself have never been chance takers with those kind of things. We like to move on certain ground.

So for the record, only my daughter was brave enough to ride on top of Dumbo.

The traffic is backed up now because 2 lanes have turned into 1. "That Guy" is blasting down the lane which is about to turn into a dead end,so now he's budging in front of a lot of us that have been waiting paitiently.

Most of these peeps are living in the immediate, and are ticked off at this selfish behavior. Most of these good citizens decide to show their disapproval by honking.

For the longest time I don't even realize this because all I can see is KiKi on that elephant.

I kinda started to get depressed because it was one of the singular best moments in my life.

She was excited at the time, so she didn't notice me watching her.

She was smiling, happy and content.

I've never forgotten that specific facial expression.

I guess it made me sad because like many people, I didn't want her to grow up.

I wanted her to march through the rest of her life ignorant to how fruitless humans can be.

Life with elephants.....that's the cats meow.

That's the course I wanted her to remain on.

But I guess all good things must come to an end, and the same can be said for the circus.

With a souvenir bag of pink cotton candy (for Sue McGleno) in one hand, and a monkey on a stick in the other, the 2 of us stumbled out of the Civic Center and back into reality.

While we headed towards our bus stop, all of a sudden we heard loud noises. There was mumbling and arguments escalting down the street.

A bunch of people had signs with clever catch phrases that were dissing "The Greatest Show on Earth" because they exploited animals.

I remember how annoyed I got with these folks.

In my mind it was easy for me to write them off as left wing fanaticals.

Why?

Because that thought aligned with my agenda.

I wanted to enjoy the circus w/o any baggage attached to it.

For a couple of years I never gave it a second thought, but then I saw several items on TV......and my head was forced to emerge from the sand.

You guys should know by now that I am not "Activist Guy". I think it's great so many are, but its never been my vibe.

But none the less, change is imminent, and each new generation is responsible to help the former one erase its ignorance.

The same can be said about food.

We have been talking a lot about cookies lately huh?

Many of the recipes have been old school, not just in technique, but in ingredient selection as well.

The following recipe is so freaking healthy (and tasty) that if you eat just one bite....you might live forever.

but before I post it, just let me remind you that the second you become set in your ways....whether it is the kitchen or your life, it becomes impossible for you to evolve from there.

I can't afford that....I have such a far way to go, sigh!



Mastel’s Honey Hemp Cookie

4 tbsp melted butter
¾ cup blue agave
1 tsp almond extract
1 ½ cup brown sugar
1 ½ cup K.A. Unbleached / Organic flour
1 cup hemp seed
1 cup flax seed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp B-Powder
1 cup pecan pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Place your brown sugar, agave, almond extract and butter into your mixing bowl and blend them together.

Then in a separate bowl combine your flour, hemp, flax seed, salt and B-Powder. Use your hand to loosely incorporate the ingredients.

Take the “wet” bowl and pour it into the “dry” bowl and mix until the cookie batter is pulled together.

I have found that when this dough is optimal…….it is a little moist, let’s just say its tackier than a snickerdoodle dough.

When your dough is about 75% of the way mixed, add in your pecan pieces. If you put them in too soon….they will shred the cookies crumb wall.

This cookie was scooped golf ball size (and don’t push down on it – let the B-Powder direct its spread) and I’ll bet mine took 22-25 minutes to bake.

When they were removed from the oven, I left them on the sheet pans for over an hour.

Remember….this recipe lacks high gluten percentages, so it’s going to hand different.

P.S. On a second batch we swapped out the blue agave for honey. The honey version has a wider spread. It might have looked more uniformed, but the Agave version had superior texture.