S is for Sustainable Santa Claus.

      Santa! Yes, the good ol' boy who comes round once a year is waking from hibernation. Last I saw him he was plastered on the side of a coke can trapped between a little girls pudgy fingers. I also saw him flying high in the sky at the Grove, as well as selling mattresses around the corner from my house. All in all, sales men of the year award goes to Saint Nick. This makes sense considering the traditional image of our dear Mr. Claus was created way back when, but in the early 30's he was used by many companies in order to sell more products this time of year, you know the happiest season of all. I strongly believe that in many of our favorite Christmas songs there are low level subliminal messages telling us to "buy buy buy, eat eat eat, spend spend spend". This thought came to me during my recent experience at Cost Plus. It would have been a much less expensive adventure had there been no Christmas music playing. I bought an abnormal amount of funny food products that, under normal circumstances, would have never made their way to my basket. I blame Christmas music, although I can also blame being over tired, hungry and bored, but otherwise I would have passed on the cookies and random spices, well maybe not the spices.

     So here is Santa again, plugging all kinds of gifts and gadgets. But what if Santa were to be slim and trim? What if Santa ran to every house on X-mas eve, instead of needing 12 reindeer to haul his ass around? What if Santa asked for celery sticks and ice cold water instead of milk and cookies? What if Santa didn't appear on coke cans, and refused to don his gay apparel? Could our image of Santa be the root of all evil? I mean, I did see him on an Oreo's box a few days ago, and whatever is in that filling is definitely evil.

      So I propose we create a new version of Santa for the 21st century. We changed him from a Saint to Santa over fifty years ago, we can change him again. So this year, I'll be writting my list to Sustainable Santa Claus. This year, Santa is going green. Who knows, if my little trend catches on we may see Al Gore next year, dressed up in a Green Santa Suit parading around the streets of NYC wishing everyone a "spend less and conserve carbon emissions holiday".

       It could happen.

     Think about all the packaging, plastic, wrapping paper, boxes, bags, all of the things that we throw away so easily around the holidays. Sustainable Santa wouldn't approve. I like to wrap my gifts in old catalogs and magazines. Its a creative outlet and its also a form of recycling. There are so many ways to be less wasteful right now besides just recycling. And no, I'm not talking about re-gifting.

      So here is to Santa, because I like everyone else, loves cookies. Maybe even as much as he does. I'm going to skip the nonsense of the grocery store fare, and trans-fat laden sugary topping, and go straight for "healthier" cookies too, which is what i suggest Santa does as well. His cholesterol can't be good.

     One of my favorites is this delectable little morsel called the Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookie. A friend of mine actually used these to bribe her co-op to lower her rent, so obviously thats how damn good these are. I'm sure Sustainable Santa would like them too.

     Oh! We could even make the filling green!

     Enjoy! And Happy Holidays! I can't wait to cozy up to the fire and listen to my subliminal message laden christmas tunes while sipping Yerba Chai Lattes and eating these, thinking when will Sustainable Santa come down that chimney to give me my new computer.......what!? The new 27" iMac with the dual core processor and tera bite of space is totally sustainable. Just throwing that out there.

Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies

From: Gourmet April 2004

Cookies:

• 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened (Or use Earth Balance Butter, unsalted)*
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large organic free range* egg
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
• 1 scant cup pistachios* or pecans (3 ounces), chopped
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (2 1/2 ounces)  (or use cranberries, super pretty)*
• Filling:
• 8 ounces cream cheese (you could use vegan cream cheese here too.)
• 1/4 cup honey (or Maple Syrup)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F, and make sure Oven racks are on the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Butter 2 baking sheets.

2. Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

3. Beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in carrots, nuts, and raisins at low speed, then add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

4. Drop 1 1/2 tablespoons batter per cookie 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are lightly browned and springy to the touch, 12 to 16 minutes total. Cool cookies on sheets on racks 1 minute, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. MUST BE COOL to fill. 

5. While cookies are baking, blend cream cheese and honey in a food processor until smooth.

6. Sandwich flat sides of cookies together with a generous tablespoon of cream cheese filling in between.

7. Eat! (preferably while watching A Christmas Story.)