communication cookies

At work, I teach a couple of group sessions on communication skills, with a focus on developing skills of negotiation and assertive communication. As a bit of fun, I put people into pairs, give one person 3 biscuits and the other none, then let them negotiate how the biscuits will be shared.

Although it's a new group each time, I always like to bake something different. There's a big pack of macadamia nuts burning a hole in my freezer at the moment, so I made some old favourites; white chocolate & macadamia nut cookies. I think this is another recipe that I got from Becs way back in our high school days, when this combination was all the rage (we'd probably scoff them after having a smoked chicken, cranberry and brie panini). I still love the texture of the macadamias and the richness of the brown sugar and golden syrup all combined with white chocolate and buttery goodness. An oldie but a goodie!

White chocolate and macadamia cookies

200g butter
1 3/4 cups of brown sugar
1 heaped tbsp golden syrup
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup macadamia nuts
king sized block white chocolate, chopped

Cream butter and sugar. Add golden syrup. Mix in dry ingredients, chocolate, vanilla and nuts. Roll into balls and lightly flatten. Bake for around 12 minutes at 180C. Makes approximately 2 trays.

Here are the biscuits all packaged up and ready to be negotiated for!

A few of our favourite things...

Miriam: I spent the weekend at Flaxmill Bay on the Coromandel. While there, we had a wee trip to Cathedral Cove Macadamias. About 3km of dirt road takes you to this delightful wee stall, where you can sample the delicious array of macadamia based products. Brian was ever so friendly and we came away with quite a selection of treats – I’m looking forward to roasting some veges with the macadamia paste – Brian tells us it’s a real hit!

Here's a few of the macadamia goodies we came away with.

Becs: It has been a long, cold, wet winter here in Chistchurch, and the sight and smell of spring flowers is restorative for the soul. This lovely wee bunch of daffodils (they are tiny, it is a baby food jar!) was $2 at the market yesterday, and perfectly fills the brief of cheap and cheerful.

Libby: I have a new favourite sushi place. Yoshi opened on Tuesday in Featherston Street (Wellington) and so far I've been there twice! They do pick-your-own sushi so you can put together your own selection. It's all beautifully made and very fresh - the trays are continually replenished. Wellington has more than its fair share of sushi shops and Wellingtonians seem quite happy to queue for most of their lunch break at the best places. Yoshi has only been open for a few days so there's no queue snaking out the door yet but I'm sure it won't take long...