Cat's peanut butter sandies

So, Cat's peanut butter sandies really need a post of their own. Cat said about these sumptuously rich treats: "a strong flavored cookie, soft and leaning towards less done than overdone. I like them either soft and chewy (like the ginger molasses ones) or sandy/silky (like the peanut butters), but not hard or crunchy."

They are the tan colored cookies in the selection below.

They are very peanut buttery. Very buttery. Plain milk would have been absolutely fine. Chilled, whole milk, preferably organic. The cardamom flavored hot milk would have been okay too but I thought a bit too heavy. I wanted some contrast to the butteriness, so I chose Diet Coke with a spritz of organic lime juice, Volcano Burst by Dream Foods.

I like this particular lime juice or lemon juice, because it has lime - or lemon - oil in the top of the squeeze bottle opening. This adds the flavor of lime or lemon zest to the juice, giving it a fragrant, deep citrusy aroma and flavor. These Volcano Burst juices are very affordable and can be bought online. Another variation is to add a spritz of Volcano Burst Lime to Canada Dry Lemon Lime Seltzer with a dash of agave syrup as a sweetener, an alternative to using sugar.

Having Diet Coke or the slightly sweetened lemon-lime seltzer with or without a dash of lime juice is a tangy complement to the peanut sandies.

Cat's Christmas cookie box variety - almond crescents and cardamom milk

Welcome to this little blog about what drinks go with cookies. There are many yummy cookies and many drinks to choose from. Just as certain wines are paired with various dishes, I think certain drinks go better with particular types of cookies.

My best friend, Cat, sent me a delightful and generous present for Christmas, a selection of cookies she made. The cookies include:

Peanut butter sandies, a lovely, strong and richly flavored cookie, both sandy and silky.

Almond crescents covered in confectioner's sugar (which I already ate, so they don't turn up in the photograph, they were simply too delicious!)

Sugar cookies, sprinkled with Christmas red and green decorative sugar crystals

Macaroons (gluten free). Densely coconutty and chewy

Saltine toffee bites. Saltines covered in milk chocolate and drizzled with toffee. Salty and sweet.

Ginger and molasses cookies, soft and chewy

So, what to drink?

My first choice was a tall glass of milk, warmed with a small pinch of cardamom powder. When I went to my cupboard for the cardamom powder, i realized I had Indian tea spice mix ("chai masala"). It's a fragrant mix of cardamom, which pairs beautifully with warm or hot milk, a touch of ginger, clove and black pepper. Heavenly!

That went perfectly with the silky and crunchy at the same time, almond crescents, which are now a happy memory, so I've borrowed and image of these luscious cookies from another blog, My Recipes.

And this is what I drank with those cookies.

I buy the tea spice mix from a marvelous store in NYC, where I live, called Kalustyan's. It's orderable online and very worth it because a tiny pinch goes a long way. One pack of 1oz lasts me over a year. This spice mix adds a delectable depth to either hot milk, black tea or milky tea. To order, go to the Kalustyan's site and put "tea masala" into the search box. There will be a selection of different sizes and containers to buy.

This is what the search selection looks like:

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