I think I’ll change the name of The Ordinary to Tales of the towpath. Today’s tale is my favorite kind of story, seemingly uneventful and yet somehow significant. Here’s how it all began. Last night David’s beautiful sister and her beautiful wife and their beautiful 5-week old daughter came by for dinner. After, we wanted to go for a walk, because the air was perfect. Of course I thought of the towpath because I always think of the towpath, and because the town was rapidly filling with tourists here for the fire works. At first it was bright enough…there were few trees and the way was lined with porch lights and street lights. After about a block the streetlights stopped and a tunnel of trees arched over the path, making it shadowy and dark. The boys raced into this, laughing and gleaming. Clio pulled my arm off trying to reach them, so I asked Malcolm to slow down, but he just laughed and said “You can’t catch us!” Well, obviously I can’t, but Clio can, so I let her go! (I told you this is an uneventful story!) She raced into the tunnel of dark trees, and then all three of them adventured through together: Clio of the sea-grey eyes, Isaac with the sun-bright hair, and fast-swimming Malcolm. They flew to the next island of light, further down the path, and danced in mad circles, trying to catch Clio. I walked into the tunnel of trees at my own slow pace. It wasn’t a frightening darkness, here in the tunnel, it was the good kind of darkness that transforms something well-known into something mysteriously beautiful. The branches were dark as night, but the sky reflected in the water had a lingering lilac lightness to it. Behind me walked my family with a brand new life, and ahead of me danced my life…life I had made and life that has made me. When I reached the light I caught Clio’s leash and we all went into town and got ice cream. It was fun. The end. (In literature, this is known as an Isaacian ending.)

Malcolm had the genius idea to make mint chocolate chip cookies with fresh mint from our garden!! He wanted them to have extra sugar and extra vanilla in them, so they do. They were surprisingly delicious. I didn’t know how the mint would like being baked, but it seemed to like it just fine. Perfectly minty, if you know what I mean. I used the mint growing wildly in our garden, and I’m not sure what kind it is, but I think any fresh mint would do. I made these completely in the food processor, but you could chop the mint finely with a knife if you don’t have one.

Here’s Whistling in the Dark by They Might Be Giants, which is Malcolm’s favorite song at the moment.

1 stick soft butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 t vanilla
1/2 cup (more or less) fresh mint leaves, washed and trimmed
1 egg
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 t salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a food processor, process the butter till fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla and process again. Add the egg and mint and process until the mint leaves are well-broken up. Flecks of green are nice.

Add the flour and salt and process till you have a thick smooth batter. Add the chocolate chips and process just to combine. If you process too long, the batter will be more brown than green.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lightly buttered cookie sheets. Bake about ten minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom and firm to the touch.