When plain old chocolate chip cookies aren't quite special enough for the holidays, it's time to turn to a professional. By this, we don't mean that you should buy cookies instead of baking them, but to ask well-known pastry chefs to send you batches of their favorites under the guise of holding a holiday bake off. It worked for the LA Times staff.
They ranked all the cookies, but with chefs like Michelle Myers, chef and co-owner of Boule and Sona; Nancy Silverton; Maury Rubin, chef-owner of City Bakery and Brian Kim, pastry chef at La Terza participating, it is clear that each and every cookie was a good one. The overall winners were the gingerbread macarons baked by Sherry Yard and Sixto Pocasangre.
Fortunately for those of us who don't have professional pastry chefs waiting to messenger us boxes of cookies and bottles of champagne, the Times staff also picked up the recipes for each of the cookies in their bake off so you can try them at home (a subscription is req'd, but it's free). The recipes include pistachio butter cookies, orange madeleines, the above-mentioned gingerbread macarons, cranberry pistachio biscotti, chocolate espresso cookies, rosemary pine nut cookies, chocolate sablé cookies and raisin-filled sugar and spice cookies.
KQED, public television in the SF Bay Area, has recently launched a new TV show that reminds me, in a
way, of blogging because it takes such an unusual and accessible approach to restaurant reviewing. The show is
called 
America's Most Hated Foods
Slashfood Ate (8): Ways to create the perfect cheese plate
A good trick for saving summer herbs for future use
