Mmm, Cookies

Today, for the first time in a lonnnnnng time, I baked cookies. I decided that I needed to get rid of some of my peanut butter. It's perfectly good Trader Joe's organic peanut butter, but compared to the amazing deliciousness of the freshly ground organic peanut butter available at Whole Foods or Ballard Market, it's bland and boring. I can't justify buying the amazing peanut butter while the other stuff sits in my pantry. So I looked online and found a recipe for whole wheat peanut butter oatmeal cookies. They turned out amazing. Plus, all of the ingredients I used were organic, and the brown sugar was fair trade. The only thing that could have made them better was if I'd added Theo chocolate. I know for next time.

Although my cookies aren't made from local ingredients, they were made almost entirely from products that were in my pantry from before my decision to go local. I did buy vanilla extract, which of course, isn't available locally, and baking soda. While I am making every effort to eat locally, I am not a purist. I mean, sometimes, you just need something that comes from a different locale, like vanilla. When I buy peanut butter again, it will be made from freshly ground Oregon peanuts, instead of a jar that has peanuts from who knows where, a processing plant most likely somewhere in the middle of the country, and a distribution center that could be entirely different from the factory location.