Chocolate-Cherry-Coconut Macaroons

***09-02-2007 UPDATE*** I will soon be moving again. Finally, I will be out on my own. Just imagine what culinary adventures I will embark on then! I also have been admitted into the baking program at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California and am also attending my first semester at California State University, Fullerton. I have two years left before I can get my BA in English and one more year following that before I have my teaching credentials. Then I will be off to teach high school English while I wait to gather the needed money and experience to open my own dream bakery! ***02-08-2007 UPDATE*** I went out looking for a job and, on the first application I turned in, the lady interviewed me right on the spot and gave me the job. I am now an ICING MAKER!!!! I make the icing for the cookie bouquets that can be found on www.cookiesbydesign.com . She has also since taught me to bake the cookies, as well as how to process the sales and assembly of the cookie bouquets. All I have left to learn is how to decorate them (although I have already done some lettering on the message cookies). ***02-02-2007 UPDATE*** I now live with one of my good friends from back in high school. Her family offered to help me out by letting me live with them while I attend college down in Southern California. I just transfered down here with intent to start at the California State University of Fullerton in the fall. Getting a computer to work around here is a toughie, so I won't be able to post or message as often as I was when I lived with my grandparents. I'll do my best, though! I LOVE to bake! I would really like to have a bakery someday. I don't get to try out as many recipes as I used to now that I live with a friend from high school and her family. Food Network is about the only TV I watch anymore and I have a growing cookbook collection. Cooking is my comfort and, surprisingly enough, I've found that I eat FAR less when I make it myself. Thats TWO great benefits! I seem to have a little obsession, though, with collecting cookbooks. I guess it is getting pretty bad when I have to sneak new cookbooks into the house and hide them in the towel closet in my bathroom so my grandma doesn't see them and tell me I'm crazy for bringing another cookbook home. I buy all my cookbooks at thrift stores, garage sales, library sales, etc. I especially love old cookbooks and cookbooks from church, school, or charity groups. A lot of the recipes I submit are recipes from my many cookbooks that I haven't tried yet. Since most of my cookbooks are in storage right now, I need to get rid of as many of these cookbooks as I can. I plan to save the recipes I want before donating the cookbooks back to the library. My obligatory chunkett (that's probably not a word, but I use it ALL the time) about my other half because I love him so much: My boyfriend now lives about 20 minutes away from me since I moved back down to Southern California. Before my move, we were about 5-6 hours apart (I still can't believe we went through that for over a year!). We have been friends for years but lost touch during the 4 years that he went to college. He graduated June 2005 and we got back in touch that July. We have been dating since December 2, 2005 and are a pretty idyllic match thus far. He is one of my best friends. He gave me a promise ring 4-8-06 and we do plan to get married. The only thing holding us back is my dad's single wish that I graduate college before I get married. This is the only guy he has ever liked that I have dated, so I figure a few more years isn't that long to wait. Life would be so very different if something happened and he were to be taken away from me..... Anyway, onward ho! Gosh, I love food!