red velvet cookie attempt

My child asked for Red Velvet cookies as a snack for having friends over to watch a horror movie. The RED is an important part here. You know, like blood. 

So I did the thing where I didn't really follow the recipe and am now disappointed. At least I'm self aware? 

I didn't have a printed recipe in any of my cook books - not even the ones which are expressly just cookies. 

So I browsed recipes online. One with high ratings and good reviews was essentially a chocolate cookie recipe I've had for a long time, but with red. It suggested liquid dye, gel, or beet root powder. I thought that sounded fun, so I ordered the powder. And asked my husband to pick up white baking chips from the store.

I used margarine, set in the bowl overnight. I used the cocoa powder substitution for baking chocolate, as I've always done. No buttermilk, so I used coconut milk rather than water. Put in the beet powder with the flour. Hand stirred the "white cream morsels" in at the end. 

Used the little scoop tool to plop them on the baking tray. 

They needed the full 10 minutes. See this one? I tried to take them out at 8 minutes and it was NOT ready. 

They taste good. Cookies a success, but red velvet they are not. 

The God of the Woods

By Liz Moore

476 pages

Mystery

A mystery spanning the 1950s - 1970s, set at a bushcraft summer camp. 

The two mysteries and timelines are layered with each other. 

I did not fully expect the resolution to the chronologically earlier mystery, although I did start to suspect it about 3/4 of the way through the novel. However I'd also thought that there was another possible perpetrator. I didn't buy the solution that seemed the most obvious, however. 

I was somehow less curious about the second mystery, but I did appreciate the resolution of that one too. 

At first I had trouble getting into the book, but I was pretty invested before I was 100 pages in. But then I didn't want to finish it! I just didn't want it to be over so I kept putting it down. 

I loved this bit with the allusions:

I also really liked this bit about relationships:

Overall, a great book.

Author info:

The Bone Thief

By Vanessa Lillie