Just when you think your blood will freeze over, your nose will crack off, your lips have reached ungodly limits of chapness, you see another poor lad pass you by in the same predicament and you both turn to each other for that split second and nod in communal misery. You may even smile, risking further injury to your taut lips. You don’t know him. He does not know you. But for that instant in the universe, you both share the same moment of cold.

I am a South Florida transplant originally raised in the humid tropics of Venezuela, so, believe me, when I placed myself in frigid weather for a ski holiday in Beaver Creek, Colorado last month, I was more than aware of the shock my mind and body lived minute by minute.

There are days like today when for no good reason things are just off. No one was nasty to you. The weather was perfect. Even your horoscope claimed things were on the up and up. And yet, it was not so. I try not to delve too much into these days, and find that, instead of steeping in their mediocrity, I can nip it in the bud with a batch of good ole comfort chocolate chip cookies. You see, chocolate solves any problem. I may not have a PhD in food biology, but this fact I’ve got down. The chocolate chip cookie poses as the best solution for delicious cake feel surrounded by tiny explosions of chocolate goodness. Eat a few of these with a tall glass of milk (or merlot) …Read on