A few years ago my sister and I decided to collab on a shoot with some comforting, down-home kind of foods. The deal was she would style and I would photograph, then we would both EAT. 

 It worked out pretty well. 

She did most of the work while I was having a blast mushing my eye up against the camera snapping pictures as fast as I could. I loved working with her, because she's such an excellent stylist and for an amateur/hobby photographer like me it's extra fun to have someone else pull something together. When she does it, it's not difficult to see how a photo can be framed and shot. 

I particularly like working with light and shadow, and since her house has a limited amount of natural light had plenty of chance to do so. 

Lorene is one of the most talented decorators in the western hemisphere (biased much?) and I like her work because she uses a lot of natural elements in her decor. She once styled a friends wedding and I think brought in most of the woods from miles around to create autumnal magic with lights and branches. Since I don't have pictures of that here is one of a house she recently worked on. 

Back to the shoot, she made these delicious molasses cookies with little chunks of Ghirardelli chocolate in them that just melted in my mouth and were definitely rave-worthy. Of course, her being her she put in ingredients I wasn't familiar with, like coconut cream for flavor, and something really healthy like spelt or sucanat. I'm somewhat envious of other people with natural talent for baking cookies as I can bake any bread under the sun, but really stink at making good cookies. 

Mo'lasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe Ingredients:

 2 1⁄4 c all-purpose or spelt flour
 2 t baking powder
 1 t pumpkin pie spice
 1⁄2 t ground ginger
 1⁄4 t ground cloves
 3⁄4 stick of butter, room temperature
 2/3 c sugar or sucanat
 1 egg
 1⁄2 c molasses
 extra sugar for rolling
8 oz Ghirardellis dark chocolate chips
3-4 T dark cocoa powder (regular will work)
Instructions:

 Preheat oven to 350°F.  In mixing bowl beat together butter, egg, molasses, and sugar (or sucanat) until ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Shut off mixer and add all dry ingredients and cover, or mix carefully so the dry ingredients don’t fly everywhere.Mix thoroughly. Form into 1” balls and roll in extra sugar before placing on the cookie sheet. Use fork to gently flatten cookies. Bake for 12-14 minutes. 

Tip: If you happen to have any such exotic item on hand add a tablespoon or so of coconut cream for the extra subtlety to compliment the other flavors. 

Brew some coffee, you'll want it