Spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate....Cookie?

For those of you that are not super familiar with me, every month I do what I like to call Random Acts of Kimmie Kindness - otherwise known as RAKK's.  This is something that I started up again this past January where I allow everyone that I am Facebook friends with to enter a "raffle" where all they have to do is private message me their mailing address.  Then at the beginning of the month I draw at least 5 names bake about 25 dozen cookies and send out care packages to the lucky winners.  Those that have entered have no idea that they have won until the package lands on their doorstep/mailbox/po box.  Eventually everyone that has entered will win, but they have to wait until their name is picked.

This was a little brainchild that I had mainly because well...who doesn't like fun mail?  I have always been fortunate in that my mom sends great care packages (even though I am 38) so with my love for baking, the challenge of making a shit ton of cookies all in a day, and the pure excitement of watching others get jazzed over the possibility of winning has led to this cookie extravaganza.  I am not sure how much it actually costs me in ingredients every month, as I change up the types of cookies that are sent.  The only cookie that can be found in every package every month is my mothers sugar cookies.  At some point I will give you all that recipe - but to do it tonight I would have to get out of the recliner and get my recipe book and well....I am lazy!  

The packages go out all over the country and Mary my favorite post office worker knows that we send them out the cheapest/fastest way - which technically as she tells me every month is an oxymoron when it comes to sending packages.  Typically though its about a $60 trip to the post office every month, but to me its worth every penny.

One of the cookies that went out in one of the first packages ever was called a Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookie.  Basically I found a recipe that was like Jeni's Queen City Cayenne Ice Cream, which mixes the awesomeness of chocolate, cinnamon and cayenne pepper all into one bite!  I wasn't sure how they were going to be perceived so I took them to my favorite taste testers!

I have taste testers all over Columbus but my favorites are my Starbucks Baristas!  We often forget that those working in the service industry need a little love too - so I started taking samples to them when I would go in to pick up my Friday morning coffee.  Shawn my fave, love love loves these cookies and I knew that today was his birthday so I got up early and made a few for him!  

He was so pumped that he said he might even share them with the rest of the crew!  HA!  Anyhow, here he is with his cookies, and the recipe.  There really wouldn't be much to change unless you really like heat - then I would add just a smidge more of the cayenne!  The recipe states that you should only get about 2 dozen cookies - but unless you are making cookies for SHREK you can get way more.  I use the small cookie scoop for all of my cookies and I ended up getting closer to 5 dozen.

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/spicy-mexican-hot-chocolate-cookies.html 

I know that I also promised to give an update from tonight's restaurant week excursion, with the exception of not realizing I would hit traffic it was a way better meal.  We went to Caribbean Jerks tonight and I would have to say that it gets a 4 out of 5 stars.  Not sure that I would order any of the appetizers that we got if I went back for dinner, they were good but nothing to really write home about.  But.... the entrees were amazing, each one of us got something different so we were able to try everything!  I am not going to lie Katie got the black bean ravioli and well... I was disappointed that I wasn't ballsy enough to try them!  They were delish I would totally go back for more of those bad boys!

I also made a call to the place where we had dinner last night just to give them the "hey I wasn't super impressed with your super expensive meal"  I was really nice and stated that I really didn't want anything in return for the call just for them to make sure others had a better experience.  The manager said she wanted to redeem the restaurant and asked if she could send me a gift certificate to come back and try again.   I reiterated that I wasn't looking for anything free just that I knew it was the first night of restaurant week so if their goal was to get people to come back in, they need to step it up.  She was very thankful and super nice and apparently sending me a gift card!  So I guess we will go back and try again!

I will be making the recipe of the week tomorrow night so stay tuned....

Happy cooking