What a treat!!!!

Sticky Fingers' Cowvin Cookies
VEGAN!

Okay, so last week, or was it this week.  Okay, this week (it's been a busy week), we were dog sitting over at the Aunt and Uncle's house and I was flipping through the Southern Living magazine.  I have no idea what month it was but they were showcasing the best of the best, the creme de la creme of the bakers, cookie makers and so on.  I love these issues.  I should say that they seem to be a bit biased in their decisions and there is no way for them to taste everything that is fabulous out there, even the little folks, but, I enjoy the read and in this case, they were right on the money.

It's so cool to see what other artists are doing and what flavor combinations they are playing with to excite the folks tucking into their pastries. I like to look at the glossy pics. Salivate for a bit, uncontrollably and wonder could I make a vegan version? Then, I read that there was a favorite cookie from none other than a vegan bakery.  NO WAY!  Everyone knows I have a ginormous sweet tooth and that's why I don't bake.  I just love the crispness and sweetness of the cookie. I love when they throw in some oats for a bit more texture and add another layer of food memento in my brain, an imprint that lasts decades.

I confess, I read the article, thought about its awesomenish and flipped through the rest.  It began to bug me as I was picking up after ourselves to head back home, I just had to know the bakery. So I went back to the magazine and tore it out.  Sticky Fingers of DC. BING!

I know. I know. Wrong-O. Or in the words of Mr. Darling, from Peter Pan, "mea culpa, mea culpa". I thought I could remember it, but I didn't want to sell myself short, and I can be a bit hyperfocused on my work and leave the rest to scatterbrain-Jane (or in this case Jen).

Rip. Fold. Stash.

Today, I was at Whole Foods getting my ridiculously-colossal-vegan-chicken-sandwich on, which all of the deli ladies and gents can't stand my sandwich request.  It's like salad sandwich. You can't stack it. You can hardly cut it, and to lift it up to box it, forget it.  They probably look at me and say to themselves, why don't you get your bubble butt over to the trough, and get your salad, and then come back over here and get your 8 oz. container of vegan chicken salad.  But, I don't want to go home and build it.  I like it all together in between two slices of multigrain bread.  Nummmm.  It's my little piece of vegan sunshine in a box.  It's all worth it to eat like a Vegan Diva.  Plus, it's a whole lot cheaper this way. Thank you very much.  I know what I'm doing here. ;)

So I'm waiting at least 5 minutes for the colossus (I don't mind at all) in the bakery section doing figure eights around the baked goods and watching the steady stream of people haunt the hot trough and the cold trough.  I have a thing about open food in a buffet.  I just can't do it.  All of the dander, hair, sneezes, mixed up spoons, who knows. Who knows?  I'd rather have the gloved and hatted professionals putting together the masterpiece, that serves as lunch and second lunch (I'm part hobbit on my mother's side).  I eat half in the demi booth with Kemper, who is constantly getting the best bites, while he has his favorite 'Za in front of him, and then I eat the other half an hour or two later. Savor the flavor. Stay hungry my friends.  It's the only way to really enjoy your food.  

And, GUESS WHAT, on my third or fourth figure eight, I look down at the cookies and I see STICKY FINGERS! dah da duh DAH!!  VEGAN!  Oh my goodness, or should I say in the most Southern of expressions, Oh my Stars!  There were like three or four different varieties that must have just arrived this week, just for me!  I looked them all over.  I'm not really a chocolate person today so I went with the Cowvin Cookie.  They reminded me of the Little Debbie creme filled cookies I filched from my friends snack cabinets when I was a child, we hardly had such garbage in my house growing up.  It's a good thing too, because I was A-Dict-Ted to sweets as a child.

Funny story, when I was in fourth grade, I did one of those chocolate fundraisers, got all of the Aunts and Uncles to buy some chocolate turtles for my school.  When the turtles came in, I stuffed them into the bottom of my dresser drawers, and ate them all in secret.  No one ever asked me about them either. But, to this day, I still feel completely guilty.  SO SORRY.

I paid $6 for 2 vegan cookies today. It is a double cookie with creme in the middle. Two vegan (really 4 cookies with creme) cookies from Sticky Fingers (DC) that traveled hundreds of miles to make it to my tastebuds in their full vegan glory.  And, oh my goodness, it was worth every penny.  Chris scarfed his down immediately.  I still have mines.  I cut it into wedges and I have been going back to the pantry for tastes throughout the evening.

Thank you Sticky Fingers.  Thanks for being you.