May: Cookies & Beer of the Month

At the end of each month (how is it almost June already??), I thought it would be fun to share which cookies and beer Ben and I are loving the most at the moment. I promise, we do eat and drink more than just cookies and beer, but I doubt anybody really wants to hear about a mixed salad and filtered water....

Normally, at some point each month I will end up baking a homemade goodie. My most recent endeavor was a batch of low-sugar brownies. They worked for a night-time sweet-tooth craving, but aren't really worth writing home blogging about. Instead, I want to tell you about some store-bought cookies that kind of rocked my world - for the two days they lasted in our house, at least! While perusing Trader Joe's, I overheard a woman working behind the samples counter tell a co-worker that she was going to offer up samples of their Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel Butter Cookies (a long name, but they're worth the effort). So like any true cookie-lover would do, I hovered around the sample area for way too long, pretending (very poorly, I'm sure) to peruse the candy and chips and other surrounding snacks that I had no intention of buying. Well finally, the samples were offered up, and she was giving out WHOLE cookies. Boy do I love Trader Joe's. Before I had finished chewing, I'd snatched up a box to take home.

Why did I love these cookies? They are bite-sized and not too heavy - perfect for a warm May evening when you just need that little something sweet after dinner :) And the flavor of chocolate and salted caramel is one of my favorites lately. That salty-sweet combination gets me every time. The only thing that might have improved these cookies for me is if they had dark chocolate instead of milk. But I'm not complaining. Just look at that gooey caramel :)

I'll admit that Ben and I sample a greater variety of beers each month than cookies, and our hands-down beer winner this May is Abita's Strawberry Harvest Lager. Our local beer shop can't keep this stuff in stock and has been taking pre-orders for months, since it only has limited availability. I wondered what all the fuss was about until I picked up a 6-pack and Ben and I poured a glass. This brew is springtime in a bottle. What you taste: a really fresh, ripe strawberry flavor (it's made in Louisiana with Louisiana strawberries) that is smooth and still crisp enough to be refreshing. I'm not a fan of sweet beers, and this is certainly not overly sweet. Ben is better than I am at tasting the intricate flavors in a beer, so I'll stop attempting fancy descriptions and just leave you with this: I loved this lager. Oh, and it's best enjoyed outdoors.

I wish I could show you a photo of a freshly poured, frothy glass, but Ben and I decided to do a bit of detox for a few weeks. This is our last Strawberry Harvest, so I assure you it will be poured into two glasses and thoroughly enjoyed at the end of our health kick.