A Few of My Favorite Things
Good morning folks! Happy Boxing Day to those who celebrate. I hope this newsletter finds everyone while they're couch rotting and enjoying some time off. If it doesn't, may I suggest you do some combination of those activities in the near future.
Christmas Cookie Alignment Chart
It's exactly as the name suggests, its time to organize cookies by their DnD alignment. Please argue with me.
Lawful Good: Spritz cookies - These guys are basically butter cookies but the dough gets pushed out of a mold so they are fun christmas-y shapes. Basic but adhering strictly to tradition makes them lawful good.
Lawful Good: Chocolate crinkles - These are reliably good every time and the recipe is relatively easy.
Chaotic Good: Chocolate PB ball - idk if these are a federally recognized cookie, but they are a staple in the Martin house around the holidays. They get the chaotic designation because they only have like 5 ingredients but somehow they take several days to create and make a giant mess of the kitchen.
Lawful Neutral: Jam thumbprints - Dependable, trustworthy, faithful to the holiday cookie box-scape.
True Neutral: Sugar cookies (unfrosted) - Just the plain sugar cookie I think is about as neutral as it gets.
Chaotic Neutral: Chocolate salami - This is only something I have had given to me or at holiday parties. The flexibility of add-ins makes this dangerously chaotic.
Lawful Evil: Any Claire Saffitz NYT Cookie Week recipe - Why does every recipe require 40 ingredients? Why is everything miso based? Why are there non-cookie recipes included?
Neutral Evil: Sugar cookies (frosted) - The frosting is too much of a wild card. Did you try to ice them too hot and did it melt everywhere? Did you dare to use the colored frosting tubes from the store? Was a child involved in the decoration process? Too many variables.
Chaotic Evil: This white chocolate golden raisin bark that Brooke gets from her boss - I don't think it needs much of an explanation but I'll leave you with a photo just in case.
BOTY: Oracle of the Kennebunk Hannafords
Friends, as we approach the end of 2025 it is important to take a look back and take stock of the best messages we have received from The Oracle of the Kennebunk Hannafords this year.
For those who missed the introduction of this character, my mom lives in Kennebunk, ME where there is a Hannafords store with a diva making fascinating cookie cakes in the bakery department. Whoever the designer of these cakes in likes to send cryptic messages in the frosting. In no particular order, here are several favorites from throughout the year:
A National Women's Day special. I love the simplicity of the insanely pigmented purple dye on the plain cookie. I think it speaks to the no frills nature of Eleanor Roosevelt.
I genuinely love this Halloween one. Excellent compositional balance and good piping skills. 10/10.
Amy and I have titled this one "The Creature". We loved the emergence of darker themes from The Oracle. There was much discussion in our house about that the critter in the center is meant to be. Raven? Owl? Something of supernatural origin?
This one has continued to capture my attention long after it was definitely thrown away for not selling. The shaky handwriting, the insane purple icing color, the fucky spacing, it all really tells a story. This might be my fav of all time.
TTYL
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a song i'm loving:
I heard feedback from some readers that they could not see/use the imbedded spotify link from last episode so I will use a two-pronged approach:
- If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know) - The 1975
a movie i watched:
- Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025). I came into it ready to hate and was actually surprised with this. I do think they under-utilized the Kander & Ebb score and while I am ride or die for Diego Luna, they shouldn't have cut all of Valentin's songs just because Mr. Luna can't sing. I appreciated the nods to technicolor musicals in the set designs & I think shooting on film would've taken it to another level visually. I was pleasantly surprised by JLo. I think because she had no real dialogue and could just show off how ripped her back is in the dance sequences. I would rec if you're bored at home in the next week - buyer beware that there's kinda a lot of fecal matter involved in case you watch with the fam.
a book i'm reading:
- Slewfoot by Brom
