Start October with chocolate

START OCTOBER

WITH CHOCOLATE

Story and Photo by Madeleine Dee

Say hello to the perfect double chocolate cookie! These are crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside… simply irresistible. You can use any combination of chocolate chips that totals 12 oz. (one standard bag), but I love this “tuxedo” combination that uses 4 different types of chips, each one playing a part in a deep, dark chocolate symphony. These are fantastic! What are you waiting for??

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE TUXEDO COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butt er, softened • 1 cup granulated sugar • 1 cup packed light brown sugar • 1 tsp. table salt • 1 tsp. vanilla extract • 2 large eggs, room temperature • 2 tsp. baking soda • 1 cup Hershe y’s Special Dark

Cocoa Powder • 2 cups all-purpose flour • 3 oz. white chocolate chips • 3 oz. semisweet chocolate chips • 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips • 3 oz. Ghirardelli caramel baking chips

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees F. 2. Cream butter, sugar, light brown sugar, salt, and vanilla until light and fluffy. 3. Add in the eggs until combined. Scrape down the sides and mix for a few more seconds. 4. Add the baking soda and cocoa powder into the bowl. Wrap a clean kitchen towel around the outside of your mixer and put it on low speed for a few seconds. The towel will prevent the cocoa from flying out everywhere! Turn the mixer up to medium and let it go for a few seconds, until you start to hear it slow down. Stop the mixer and pat the towel to loosen any cocoa that tried to escape, then remove the towel and set it aside. Scrape down the bowl and give the dough a quick mix to incorporate all the cocoa powder.

5. Add in the flour. Use the towel again to surround the mixer, then start low and work up to medium until you hear it slow down after a few seconds. Remove the towel. Scrape down the bowl and mix on a low setting until the white flour disappears. 6. Incorporate the various chips evenly. 7. Scoop the dough onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes. Allow the cookies to rest for 5-10 minutes before enjoying!

Madeleine Dee (AKA The Seasoned Cynic) is a chef, writer, world traveler, and filmmaker who lives in Louisville @TheSeasonedCynic, TheSeasonedCynic.com

28 THINGS (Why 28? Because we are 28 years old!)

Happenings, news, and tidbits that caught Today’s Woman’s eye this month

By Anita Oldham

3 NEW PLACES TO CHECK OUT

Let’s stop and cheer for those who are opening or expanding businesses right now. Here are some of the new places to stop and shop.

1

Jessica Mattingly is owner of Cultured, which specializes in local and unique farmstead cheeses. They offer finelycrafted cheese boards, charcuterie, and a dynamic selection of carefully-curated wines and beer. culturedcheeseshop.com

2 3

7 Local Instagram Accounts that Caught Our Eye 4-10

@prettylipsbycailee Candace Oliver was inspired by her young daughter to launch C&C Boutique, which recently opened at 154 E Main Street in New Albany, Indiana. Cai’Lee, 6, has her own lip gloss brand.

@terrilynnscaterin Former Most Admired Woman Terri Lynn, owner of Terri Lynn’s Catering, has moved and teamed up with the McCulloch House Meeting and Event Space in Clarksville, Indiana.

— 11 — Follow us at @TodaysWomanNow for contests and connections.

12 WOMEN ON THE FIELD! Are you excited about our new women’s soccer team? The Racing Louisville Football Club is selling tickets for the 2021 season right now at racingloufc.com.

13-15

As a fan, another group you might want to join is The Lavender Legion, an Official Racing Louisville FC Supporters Group. We sat down with Leigh Nieves, president of Lavender Legion, to ask a few questions:

HOW DID YOUR ORGANIZATION GET STARTED?

We began organizing a supporters’ group back in October 2019 with the purpose of garnering some more excitement around the arrival of Racing Louisville FC. We quickly realized that the level of hype regarding this team was astronomical and that we needed to start an official supporters group ASAP.

HOW CAN MEMBERS PARTICIPATE?

Joining the Legion is really simple and can be done by visiting our website (lavenderlegion.com). We've hosted virtual watch parties for the current NWSL season and have a Lavender Legion Group going on Facebook that anyone can participate in. Racing Lou FC has also been really great with organizing some supportersgroup-exclusive Q&As with our new head coach. We are really looking forward to hosting some in-person events hopefully sometime next year!

16-17

What are you grateful for?

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THIS NEW TEAM?

Our excitement for this team is through the roof! A top tier women's soccer team is going to be here in Louisville, and we get to watch them play live week in and week out! We truly can't wait to cheer on this team.

18 Share things you are grateful for so we can include you in our November issue. Send your grateful message to editor@todaysmedianow.com or message us on Instagram @TodaysWomanNow.

Briania Nicole Davis, MSMFT, and the owner of Open Arms Wellness, a private mental health practice that focuses on anxiety, depression, trauma, and mood disorders, says gratitude is essential to our lives because “it helps focus the mind on the things we do have rather than the things we do not.” Bringing your mind to a place of gratitude in the present can refocus that bad day or those competitive feelings of lack. “It’s easy to get wrapped up in arriving at one’s destination rather than taking stock of the journey along the way,” Briania says.

“By appreciating the gifts of the moment, gratitude frees us from past regrets and future anxieties. By cultivating gratefulness, we are freed from envy over what we don’t have or who we are not. It doesn’t make life perfect, but with gratitude comes the realization that right now in this moment, we have enough, we are enough.” — Bob Mueller Bob Mueller is the Mission & Stewardship Officer at Hosparus Health www.bobmueller.org Read more in our November issue. 38 October 2020 / TodaysWomanNow.com

7 HALLOWEEN EVENTS STILL HAPPENING

19. Boo at the Zoo is offering Halloween fun for kids 11 and under. Buy tickets in advance at Louisvillezoo.org/boo.

20. The Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular is returning for the eighth consecutive year to South Louisville’s Iroquois Park as a drive-through event, where 5,000 artistically TWENTY-ONE carved pumpkins will Jack O’Lantern Spectacular greet visitors from 2020 will also be a donation October 1-November 1. Purchasing tickets drop-off location for #FeedTheWest, an initiative spearheaded by Change in advance is Today, Change Tomorrow. strongly encouraged. jackolanternlouisville.com change-today.org/ feedthewest/

22. Danger Run is a scavenger-hunt-style game played while in the car that leads you to some of the area’s spookiest places. You will solve rhyming clues to crack the puzzles and unlock the mystery of some of Louisville’s spookiest places. From October 2-31. dangerrun.com

23. The Macabre at the Mansion, a creepy tour, will happen every Friday and Saturday night in October at the Culbertson Mansion at 914 East Main St., New Albany, Indiana. 812.944.9600

24. Ultimate Halloween, at 4002 S Pope Lick Rd, is an immersive Halloween show: spectacle stage show, scary characters and scare zones, scary movies, festivalstyle vendors, and fall food. Experience the folklore of the Pope Lick Monster until October 24. Legendatpopelick.com

25. Join in with the Spooktacular Soiree, a drive-in gala at The Olmsted, on October 31, to benefit the American Lung Association. bofakya.org

26

Sarah Young is a literary artist-inresidence at the NoCo Arts Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

27

Project Uplift

When her poetic proposal for Project Uplift, a collaborative art endeavor between the Jeffersonville Public Art Commission and Clark Memorial Health, was accepted, it wasn’t just another in a series of art projects getting the green light. “This is my first ever solo art exhibition,” Sarah Young says.

Her two-directional symmetrical poem, which was installed near the Behavioral Health entrance of the Clark Memorial Health campus, was meant to be meditative. Sarah intended for the two center lines of the poem, “Recall your purpose/Recite your blessings,” to be the most thought-provoking.

28

HONORING A FRIEND

“I wrote Burn Your Fears for a dear friend, Marisa Wittebort, after she was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer (ROS-1) as a 30-year-old nonsmoker. After her diagnosis, Marisa wrote down her greatest fears and threw them into a fire. I wrote the song as an anthem for her. It’s about facing something incredibly difficult in your life, allowing yourself to completely embrace and feel every emotion it brings your way, and deciding to find beauty and live your life fully in a different way than you had planned.” — Carly Johnson

The song is at youtu.be/ oTupjQ7wJHU and is a collaboration with Kentucky Center/Kentucky Performing Arts and the Louisville Ballet.