Cookie Monster: Lemon Sunshine Cookies

Carrie Vasios

When I finally get around to writing my memoirs, I'm going to title the chapter in which I move to San Francisco "They Promised Me The Weather Would Be Good."

See, on the East Coast, we tend to conflate SoCal and NorCal, to imagine that California is all palm trees and surfer dudes and fabulous bikini weather. This lie is mainly perpetrated by TV and film. I certainly don't remember any episodes of Full House where Uncle Jesse said, "Gosh, it's pretty cold out" and then encouraged D.J. to put on a coat.

Thus it's with a certain sense of injustice that I've been enduring my first San Francisco winter. Sure, it by no means comes close to the frozen, stuffed inside my puffer coat, don't-want-to-leave-the-subway winter months in New York. But it's not a party on the beach either. They promised me the weather would be good.

In fact it's the rainy season in these parts, and there are many days when I'm holed up inside, vainly waiting for the sun to break through the gloom. It's on these days that my old, Northeastern winter weather habits come back to the fore. On top of that list is making food that is as bright and cheery, as sunny and as tropical as possible.

These lemon cookies are excellent at faking sunnier times. The cookies are soft and they easily melt away on your tongue into a burst of lemon. The dough has a punch of lemon zest, a discernible taste of butter, and a little buttermilk for tenderness. Because the dough isn't too sweet, I've dipped each cookie in a simple glaze made from a mixture of lemon juice and confectioners' sugar. And really, who needs the sun when you have sugar?