I'm Not As Random As You Think I Salad

If I were ever to design a personal coat of arms (you know, the kind that knights of old had on their shields) I think it would have to have a hummingbird in flight on a blue and pink checkerboard field with a KitchenAid mixer on the left and a Bernina sewing machine on the right. That would encompass my favorite colors, my favorite activities, and my mascot.

I love hummingbirds. They are breathtaking little miracles that quicken my heart whenever I see one, hovering over a flower or zooming across the yard. But that is not the only reason I'd choose one as my personal mascot. I see a bit of the hummingbird in me. Not that I toil from sun up to sun down to take in enough calories to sustain my meager body weight. (that, cough cough, is not an issue for me)

I am like a hummingbird in that I flitter. I flit from project to project, staying with one only long enough to generate a substantial amount of mess, then abandoning it as I find something new to try on a blog, in a catalog, in a store, or on Pinterest.  I love the giddy, fizzy feeling of dreaming up a new project, planning for it, purchasing supplies, all the while envisioning how wonderful the finished project will be. I can just picture how smoothly and neatly it will all come together. Then when the inevitable snag or hiccup arrises, I'm irritated (sometimes to the point of wadding it up and throwing it across the room) and quickly move the project from the active work space over to the tottering "to finish up later" pile, replacing it with whatever seems the most pressing or interesting at the moment.

For the last 3 years I've made it my New Year's goal to finish up projects before starting anything new. Specifically I have vowed to finish up the 4 quilt tops that lie in folded and forgotten ignominy beneath my work table in various states of "so close but not quite done." And how have those goals worked out for me? I think the fact that I can transfer the same goals onto the next year's Goals page in my journal without changing a word shows that something's not working.

Perhaps I've just taken on tasks that are too big and my interest wanes before I complete the project. More likely, though, the problem lies in my attention span. I can only focus on one thing for so long before I'm distracted (Squirrel!) by something else (Oooooh, shiny!) and want to turn my attention (what's for lunch?) to the next thing.

Hence the hummingbird.

The other thing I have in common with hummingbirds is my love for sugar. I know it's not awesome for me and usually I try to avoid it. But every once in a while I have to give in to the craving and bake something sweet. And hopefully I'm not distracted while I'm (there's a new Castle on this week?) reading the recipe so I don't forget something crucial. Like flour. Or salt. Or sugar. Not saying that's ever happened, just saying it's a possibility. (And those of you who can think of examples don't need to share them in the comments.)

Molasses cookies are always welcome in our house and these received an especially enthusiastic welcome. I'm sure the carb-deprivation contributed to the rave reviews, but even those friends who are still eating carbs enjoyed them and gave them big thumbs up. Soft, not too spicy, and they stayed fresh in the cookie jar for several days. I think this recipe is a keeper.

Molasses Ginger Crinkles
 - adapted from America's Best Recipes
makes about 4 dozen

1 cup sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
1/2 cup butter
3 Tbsp coconut oil
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

2- In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, butter, coconut oil, and egg. Beat well with an electric mixer at medium speed. Add the molasses and beat well.

3- In a small bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, ginger, and cinnamon.

4- Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir to combine.

5- Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheets, about 3 inches apart. The cookies will spread as they bake, so leave space.

6- Bake at 350 deg. for 8-10 minutes, till the centers are just set. Cool the cookies on wire racks.

Eureka!

Oh, man, I thought I was all set for Christmas. All of the planning and shopping done, just wrapping and shipping left to do. Wrong. Someone went and did something amazing, transferring their name from Santa's Good List to the Most Excellent List.

When I was typing up my last post I looked and looked for the recipe. I searched in all of the likely spots -the shelves that holds my cookbooks, the other other shelves that hold my cookbooks, the other other shelves that hold my cookbooks (what do you think, too many cookbooks?) and in the magazine holders that hold all my old Bon Appetite's and other cooking magazines. I came up empty handed and frustrated. I decided that since I hadn't posted since the paleozoic era (or close to that), I'd just throw up the post as is and hope that one of my faithful readers would know just what I was talking about and be able to supply the recipe. And there were many good suggestions, but none was it.

My husband saw my frustration and quietly went on a quest. While I had given up on the recipe and had moved on to other tasks, he methodically worked his way through all the possible hiding places, thoroughly checking each one. Then, with a pleased smile of satisfaction, he set the errant Baking Sheet in front of me.

"Where did you find it?" I squealed, leaping up to kiss him. He modestly informed me that it had gotten jammed behind the magazine holders and had slipped down and gotten somewhat squashed under them. What a guy! Santa's going to have to find an extra special way to reward this good boy. Maybe something with lace....


Whole-Grain Soft Molasses Cookies
 - adapted from King Arthur's Baking Sheet - Julie Christopher

1/2 cup (4 oz) applesauce
1 cup (7 oz) sugar
3/4 cup (6 oz, 1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (3 oz) molasses
1 large egg
1/3 cup (2-1/4 oz) crystallized ginger, minced
1-1/2 cups (6-1/4 oz) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 cups (6-3/4) King Arthur Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
Sugar for dipping

1- Drain the applesauce for several minutes in a fine strainer set over a bowl to remove excess liquid.

2- In a large bowl, cream together the applesauce, sugar, and butter; beat at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes). Add the molasses, egg, and crystallized ginger; beat until well combined.

3- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating slowly until blended. Chill the dough for at least an hour. If you bake it the same day, the cookies will be crispy, flatter, and chewy. If you bake on the second or third day, the cookies will be taller and softer (like in my photos).

4- When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 deg. F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

5- Scoop the dough by tablespoons and form into 1-inch balls. (If the dough gets sticky while you're working with it, pop the dough back into the refrigerator to chill it.) Dip the tops of the balls into the sugar and place them, sugar-side up, 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

6- Bake for 10-11 minutes, until set, but still soft and puffy in the center. Remove the cookies front he oven and allow them to cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to finish cooling completely.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Chocolate Can't Fix Everything

Every relationship that you have changes you. Sometimes the changes are subtle, like emulating a friend's hairstyle, or the way in which they answer the phone, and sometimes they are drastic, like making a career choice or moving across the country, just to be with a friend. People brush up against your life and leave their fingerprints on it.

Sometimes that might be words of wisdom that come back to you at just the right time. Sometimes it's the memory of an extravagant act of selflessness that prods you to be a better friend. And sometimes it's pieces of pain, shared in quiet moments.

One of my friends once confided in me that her marriage was loveless. Not that either cheated on the other, just that there was no emotion, no passion. I had often wondered why she married this bland man, unremarkable in looks, personality, or finances and one day posed that question to her. She responded, "Because he asked. And I didn't think anyone else ever would." I cried inside, thinking of both of them living in a settle-for, I-can't-do-any-better-than-this marriage.

Another friend was in a truly unhappy marriage. Her husband was demanding, treating her as if she were a slave rather than a cherished gift from God. He was verbally abusive to her and I often found her in tears. I offered our home as a sanctuary for her daughter so that she could drop her off if the fighting got too ugly. More than one late night she came to visit.

One Sunday I sat behind my friend and her husband in church. From the set of her shoulders I knew that she was crying. She left the service early and when I went outside, she was sitting in her car, tears streaking down her cheeks. Though her face was saying, "just leave me alone," I motioned for her to roll down the window. I took her hand and kissed it, leaving an imprint of my lipstick on her hand, a kiss to take home. It made my heart ache that I couldn't do anything to fix it and make everything better.

And what could I say to my very dear friend who's husband of 20 years drained their bank account and left her and their 4 children for the woman he'd been having an affair with for 10 years? I offered to buy her a t-shirt that says, "It's better to have loved and lost than still be married to the crazy b-----d," but that wouldn't fix it all and heal the pain of loss and betrayal.

If only chocolate could fix everything. I'd make a batch of these bars and take them to every hurting woman in my life. But some days it seems like that would be a mountain of bars. I can't do it alone. So I have a challenge for you bakers out there. Make your favorite treat, then, rather than eating the whole batch and moaning about the size of your hips, wrap them up individually in cellophane and put a little ribbon around each one. Tuck some into your purse and see how many hurting people you can find that day to give them out to. And if you run out of hurting people to bless, try just brightening someone's day. There's nothing like the smile of someone who's been randomly given a cookie!

My Heart Breaks For You Bars
(aka Thousand Dollar Bars - adapted from King Arthur Flour)

shortbread layer:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

caramel layer:

2 cups caramel, cut into small chunks
3 tablespoons heavy cream

chocolate layer:

3 cups chopped milk chocolate or dark chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional)
Crunchy sea salt for garnishing

1- Preheat oven to 300 Deg. F. Line a 9 x 13-inch pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to hang over the edges.

2- In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the flour. At first the mixture may seem dry, but will come together as you continue to beat at medium speed.

3- Take the dough (it will be somewhat stiff) and press it evenly into the pan. Lightly flouring your fingertips will help with any sticking.

4- Prick the crust all over with a fork. The holes will allow steam to escape and the crust will bake evenly with fewer bubbles.

5- Bake the crust until it's lightly golden brown on top and the edges are deeper golden brown, about 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and set it aside to cool completely.

6- Once the crust is cooled, melt the caramel and cream over low heat in a small saucepan. Pour the caramel over the cooled crust and set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill and firm up.

7- Melt the milk or dark chocolate slowly in a double boiler or over very low heat. If it seems very thick, add a tablespoon of shortening to thin it. Pour evenly over the chilled caramel layer and spread to cover all of the caramel. Sprinkle the sea salt over the chocolate layer. Return to the fridge until the chocolate is well set. Cut into 2" x 2" squares to serve. (The chocolate may shatter if you cut it straight from the fridge, so you might need to let it warm up just a tad before cutting.) It's best to store these bars in the refrigerator.

8- These bars can also be cut and dipped in milk chocolate to resemble Twix ® bars. After the caramel layer has chilled firm, cut down the length of the pan, splitting the bars into two long, narrow bars. Then cut each long strip into "fingers". Dip the chilled bars into melted chocolate, place on parchment paper to set, sprinkle with sea salt, and allow to set up for several hours.

(Note: It's waaaaay easier to spread the chocolate on top, rather than dipping them, but dipping gives a nice, all-over layer of chocolate that's wonderful. Either way, they're delicious. And don't forget the crunchy salt. Salt + chocolate + caramel + shortbread = fabulous. If cookies could fix problems, these would do the job!)

Back to School Blues

I've been desperately ignoring it, doing my very best ostrich impression, hiding my head in the sand, but it's come anyway. Yes, school is upon us. I know for most mothers, back to school is a time of "ah, the kids go away all day and life is quiet again." For homeschoolers, though, it's a time of "oh no, my other job is starting up again!"

For some reason this year has been particularly bad. I was in such deep denial about the coming school year that I didn't even put in my school book order until two weeks before we were scheduled to start. Perhaps that was my subconscious ploy to delay - if the books aren't here, we can't do school, right? But I was foiled by my most excellent curriculum provider. They had the books on my doorstep the day we started. Grrr.

You see, I was not ready to let go of summer. It seemed like we'd barely had a summer and I wanted to continue our ambitious agenda of lazing around, going to the pool, hanging out with friends, reading trashy novels, and baking just for fun. But life intrudes and pretending to be a grown up takes precedence over play time.

So, to console myself, I made cookies. Since I'm trying to drastically cut down on sugar (see my last post), I thought I'd try these cookies. Sweetened only with fruit, they seemed to be the answer to my post-breakup prayers. But I have to be honest with you. They're a make-do cookie. You know, the kind you eat when you're desperate for something sweet and there's nothing else in the house. It's not that they're bad, but they're not amazing. If you had your choice of these cookies and the ones in the previous post, you'd pick the latter. Every time.

In fact, I even ended up chucking a few of these cookies. They'd gone moldy. My family probably figured out that if they just held firm, the sugar embargo wouldn't last and I'd come up with something more tempting. (They were right. You should see what's sitting on my counter now!) Or maybe it was because of the coconut. My family has issues with coconut.

But if you're committed to not feeding your family sugar, or if your kids have never had sugary treats, you will probably really enjoy these cookies. They are moist, the banana-chocolate combination is always a winner, and they have the added bonus of making you feel virtuous while eating a cookie. But if you're one of the parents who packs a lunch for your child to take to school, be aware that they might try to trade these away for a Twinkie. (Euww!)

No Sugar Banana Cookies
adapted from 101 Cookbooks

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1-1/2 cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 cups rolled oats (not quick or instant)
2/3 cup almond meal
1 Tbsp coconut flour
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F with a rack in the top third of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat.

2- If your coconut oil is solid, warm it up to liquid. You can use either a saucepan or just set the measuring cup into a cup of hot water. You want the oil liquid, but not hot.

3- In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, coconut flour, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

4- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Let the dough sit for 10 minutes to firm up a bit.

5- Drop the dough in dollops about 2 tsp each onto the prepared baking sheet, about an inch apart. Bake for about 12 minutes, until the tops are just browning. Leave on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a cooing rack.

The Breakup

Dear Sugar,

It's been a while now since we broke up, but I can't stop thinking about you. Don't misunderstand, it's not that I want to get back together; I know you're no good for me.

I remember all the reasons I gave when we broke up:

~ You don't make me feel good about myself

~ You were so controlling

~ Sometimes being with you just made me sick to my stomach

~ And, I know this sounds immature, but, you were always more popular than me. When we went anywhere together, you were the one people were interested in. I need to have friends that care more about me than you.

But even though I know we're through and I'm better off without you, the problem is that I can't stop thinking about you and all the good times we shared. Baking together in the kitchen, cozying up together at the end of a meal, and those delicious stolen moments together late at night. I'm constantly reminded of you by all the friends we have in common. And when I'm lonely or bored, I still reach for you, like a phantom limb.

What we've shared was special and magical, but it can't go on. I learned a lot from our time together, and I grew a lot, too (several pant sizes), but I have to put an end to this. I'm seeing others now. I try to fill the void with my new companions, Stevia, date puree, and sometimes I still see my honey. They don't make magic happen like you did, but it's for the best. I've moved on. I won't look back.

Well, maybe just a little. Now and then.

Missing your sweet kisses,

Cookie Baker Lynn

Post Break-Up Cookies
(aka Hazelnut & Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies)
-adapted from Flour

Just the right balance of tender, chewy, crunchy, and sweet, these are the perfect way to get over a break up. You make the dough one day, and the next day, if there's any dough left, bake up the cookies. Two comfort foods in one.

3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp (1-1/2 sticks plus 1 Tbsp/ 185 gm) unsalted butter, at room temp
2/3 cup (140 gm) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (150 gm) packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups (210 gm) blanched whole hazelnuts, roasted
2-1/2 cups (370 gm) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
12 oz (340 gm) milk chocolate, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces

1- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stop the mixer a few times and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

2- Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until thoroughly combined. Scrape down the bowl again.

3- In a food processor, pulse 1/2 cup (70 gm) of the hazelnuts until ground to a fine powder. Roughly chop the remaining 1 cup (140 gm) hazelnuts. In a medium bowl, stir together the ground and chopped hazelnuts, the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chunks. On low speed, slowly blend the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Mix just until the flour is totally incorporated.

4- For best results, scrape the dough into an airtight container and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 3 to 4 hours) before baking.

5- When you are ready to bake, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 deg.F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

6- Using a medium cookie scoop (about 2 Tbsp) make dough balls and drop them onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand.

7- Bake for 9 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown on the edges and pale and slightly soft in the center. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The unbaked dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

(As always, the quality of your cookie won't surpass the quality of your ingredients. Make sure your hazelnuts are not stale or rancid and use good quality chocolate. I loved the Guittard I used in these.)

Over The Top & In The Middle

It would have been wrong for the cookie baker to have a cooking camp and not bake cookies. So it was that for the last edition of cooking camp, we made cookies. And since it was the last one, we went all out, making cookie-stuffed cookies.

Short Friend was once again camping, (what is it with this obsession with camping? Nature is fine in it's place - outdoors. That doesn't mean that we need to be in it's place. But I digress.) so Tall Friend again brought his little sister to share in the fun.

These outrageous cookies caught my eye on Pinterest. They're basically a stiff chocolate chip cookie dough wrapped around oreos. The result? A mammoth cookie that's got great taste, contrasting textures, and a fun surprise in the middle. Really, what's not to love? Plus, as a bonus, shaping the cookies involves playing with your food. It's like playdoh that you're allowed to eat. (But we did have to cover that once you lick your hands, you MUST go wash them. I think we had to cover that several times.)

We also covered some cookie-making basics (stuff that I covered in this post). It was all pretty simple stuff. The only tough part was keeping the kids from snacking on the oreos. I'd gone to great trouble to search out and purchase sandwich cookie without hydrogenated fats (well, it wasn't great trouble. They were on an end cap at Whole Foods. I saw them and grabbed them.) Another member of my family had already found the package and opened them and before I killed him, I hastily counted the cookies remaining. Ah, just enough with none to spare (but the family member's life was spared). I put the precious remaining cookies in a zip-loc bag and hid them. Yes, sometimes a baker has to do that to protect the ingredients.

Forming the cookies was everyone's favorite part. You take two balls of dough, sandwich the oreo in between, and smoosh (a highly technical baking term), then add dough as necessary to cover and seal in the sandwich cookie. The resulting dough mounds are plopped onto baking sheets, cooked, and tasted, I mean cooled on wire racks.

The verdict? Thumbs up! We ate cookies with our lunch and watched an educational baking video, Tangled, which covers the importance of cast iron frying pans.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 package chocolate sandwich cookies (preferably without hydrogenated fats) (or 24 cookies, if your husband finds the package and snacks on them)

1- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

2- In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugars with a mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

3- In a medium bowl mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring just until combined. Add the chocolate chips when there are still traces of flour showing.

4- With a medium cookie scoop, form balls of dough. Place a ball on either side of a chocolate sandwich cookie. Smoosh together and seal up the edges so the cookie is totally encased in cookie dough.

5- Place the dough balls on the prepared baking baking sheets and bake for 13 minutes, or until the tops are set and the edges begin to brown.

6- Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

I'm Going Nuts

When I was little I couldn't see the point of the newspaper. (I understand that with the internet, no one sees the point of a newspaper now, but this was way back when.) Why would anyone want to start their day looking at depressing pictures of war, stories of crime, and horrible economic news? The only part of the paper worth anything was the comics page. While my parents drank nasty coffee and read their awful part of the paper, my sisters and I would eat our sucrose flakes and squabble over who got to read the funnies first. (Although, really, including Mary Worth, Apartment 3G, and Judge Parker in the funnies was odd, because they were never funny.)

Once the comics were mined for their nuggets of humor, all that was left was the puzzles and little filler sections. One of those fillers was a column called Ask Andy. Andy was, apparently, some sort of genius, because he had answers for every question that was mailed in to him. Or, he printed the questions that he knew the answer to and pitched the rest. Either way, I was always trying to come up with a great question to send in so I could see my name in print.

The questions that were printed were on the order of "Why is the sky blue?" and "How do snakes move in the sand?" I'd come up with a stumper and run it by my dad, the physics professor. He encouraged my enthusiasm for scientific enquiry, hoping I'd grow up to be a super science nerd, too. Sorry to disappoint, Dad.

I never got a question printed. I don't remember that I even mailed in a question. My dad always had the answers. It could be that he was smarter than Andy.

One question that would be worthy of sending in to Any would be "why don't seeds and nuts sprout in the shell?" And the answer to that question leads to the kitchen.

Nuts contain high amounts of enzyme inhibitors. That's the reason that eating a lot of nuts can make your tummy feel unhappy. God put the enzyme inhibitors there to keep the nuts from sprouting prematurely, trying to make a new plant when it's not even in the ground. That's a good thing. But having those enzyme inhibitors in your tummy is not a good thing.

So how do you make nuts a happy thing for your digestive system? The same way that God does. Soak those suckers. When you plant a seed and wait and wait and WAIT for little green bits to poke through the ground, what's happening underground is germination. Part of that process is the seed (or nut) getting wet enough long enough for the enzyme inhibitors to be neutralized so that growth can happen.

In my kitchen this translates to a big bowl of saltwater on the counter with a batch of nuts having a pool party in it. I soak the nuts, drain, then dry either in the oven or food dehydrator. (Good information on how to soak various types of nuts is in this post.) After they're dried till crispy, I put them in a zip-loc bag and store them in the freezer. I often carry a small bag of walnuts in my purse as a snack to keep my blood sugar level even. When I offer them to friends (it's rude to snack without offering to share, my mother told me), I'm frequently told "No, thanks. I don't like walnuts." Then when I encourage them to try my soaked nuts, they're amazed at the difference. No bitter taste! No heavy feeling in the tummy! It's wonderful how simple soaking changes them so much.

Once you try soaking nuts, I doubt you'll go back. And once you've fallen in love with the new and improved flavor of walnuts, you'll want to try this recipe to showcase their great taste. These bars are sticky, crumbly, gooey, loaded with nuts, flavored with honey and are absolutely delicious. Plus they're super easy to make. So get soaking and baking!

Walnut and Honey Bars
- adapted from The Cookie Book

1-1/2 cups (6 oz) all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 cup (4 oz) butter, diced

filling:
scant 3 cups (11 oz) soaked and dried walnut halves
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup (2 oz) butter, melted
1/4 cup (2 oz) light brown sugar
6 Tbsp dark clear honey
2 Tbsp light cream

1- Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. Lightly grease an 11 x 7-inch baking dish.

2- In a food processor, combine the flour, confectioners' sugar, and butter and process until the mixture forms crumbs. Pulse, adding 1 to 2 Tbsp water till it makes a firm dough.

3- On parchment paper, roll the dough out into a rectangle to fit the bottom of your baking dish, 11 x 7-inch. Flip the parchment paper over the baking dish, peeling the dough off to line the bottom of the baking dish. Trim and fold the took edge inwards.

4- Prick the base thoroughly with a fork. Line it with foil and weight the foil with baking beans or pie weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil, return the dish to the oven, and bake another 5 minutes, until cooked, but not browned. Remove the pan and reduce the temperature to 350 deg. F.

5- Sprinkle the walnuts over the base. Whisk together the remaining filling ingredients. Pour over the walnuts and bake for 25 minutes.

6- Place the pan on a wire cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

Definitely In The Top Three

Recently I saw an online discussion about the question, "If you had to get rid of all but 10 cookbooks, which would you keep?"

Seriously? How would I even begin to answer that question? It would be easier to pick which child to keep. Some days that would be really easy choice, depending on who's annoying me the most that day.

My cookbook collection has spilled out of the kitchen, overflown the bookshelf into the dining room, taken over a bookshelf in the living room, and has satellite locations in the guest room (which, technically, is the Lego room). The cookbooks are a chronicle of my kitchen adventures, starting with the Joy of Cooking, the first cookbook I got as a newlywed. The tomes span the years of beginning cookery, my forays into Chinese cuisine, my excursion into low-fat land, and my decadent rebound phase when I embraced the butter. Since beginning blogging, the collection has grown quickly. When I saw three or more bloggers enthusing about the same cookbook, it went onto my Amazon wishlist, and I was just a click away from owning it. It made gift-giving occasions really easy for my husband.

Although he enjoys gifting me with cookbooks, husband has suggested many times that perhaps I could do a little judicious whittling. Nothing drastic, just get rid of a couple of cookbooks that I haven't opened in years. What? That's crazy talk! I might need that one recipe I have bookmarked or that one cool chart on substitutions or cooking times as related to altitude.

Although it would be a Herculean struggle to whittle it down to only 10, I might be able to do it. But I agreed with one of the discussion commenters who said, "You can have my copy of Baking when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers."

Baking, From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is a classic. It's beautifully laid out, covers a huge range of baking categories, has fabulous recipes, and is sprinkled with charming anecdotes from Dorie. I have given it as a gift several times, and I know it would definitely make my 10 To Keep list.

Why the unpaid advertisement for Baking? Because I heart Dorie and I was reminded again of how great her recipes are when my husband asked for some cookies to take to work. I hadn't tried this recipe before (astoundingly!), but Dorie didn't fail. They're amazing cookies. Half cookie, half candy bar, all delicious! One of the co-workers exclaimed (with mouth full), "Oh my gosh, these are so good! They're like food bars, only tasty." And another, who has recently lost a lot of weight, asked for a very small sliver to taste. After savoring that morsel he asked politely that the pan be moved out of his reach, so his hand wouldn't wander over and snag a few bars on its own.

So if you ever see a copy of Baking at a yard sale or the thrift store, buy it. But you won't find one there. Because anyone who owns Baking loves it and is going to hang onto it!


Chocolate Oatmeal Decadence Bars
- adapted from Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Oatmeal layer:
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (you can sub out 1-1/4 cups with white whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups (firmly packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped*

Chocolate layer:
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup moist raisins**
3/4 cup coarsely chopped peanuts, preferably salted

*I didn't have salted nuts, so I used plain, raw peanuts and added 1/4 tsp. salt to the batter. If you use a chunky sea salt, if will give hits of salt, rather than an all-over salty flavor.

**If your raisins are not moist, place them in a small bowl, cover them with very hot water, and let them soak for 15-20 minutes. Drain briefly on a paper towel to remove excess water.

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F with a rack in the center of the oven. Butter and 9 x 13-inch baking pan and put it on a baking sheet.

2- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

3- In the large bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until it is soft and creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat for 2 minutes, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

4- Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear. With a rubber spatula, stir in the oats and chopped peanuts.

5- Remove 2 cups of the batter to a bowl and set aside. Put the remaining dough into the buttered pan. Gently and evenly press the dough over the bottom of the pan. Set aside while you prepare the next layer.

6- In a heatproof bowl combine the condensed milk, chocolate chips, butter and salt. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the milk is warm and the chocolate and butter are melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water and stir in the vanilla, raisins and peanuts.

7- Pour the warm chocolate over the oatmeal crust, then crumble the remaining oatmeal mixture over the top. There will be gaps between the oatmeal clumps, and that's OK.

8- Bake for 25 to 30 min, or until the topping is golden brown and the chocolate layer is dull and starting to come away from the sides of the pan. Place the pan on a cooking rack and cool for about 2 hours.

9- Refrigerate the pan for at least one hour before cutting. You can either cut them in the pan or remove the whole block of goodness to a cutting board to cut.

Cut into 32 rectangles, about 2-1/4 by 1-1/2-inches.

New and Improved

I'm something of a cynic. When companies advertise a product as "New and Improved!!," it always smacks to me of a desperate attempt to palm off a shoddy piece of goods, claiming, "It's not nearly as nasty as it used to be!" If it wasn't broken in the first place, why fix it?

There are some recipes in my repertoire that I would never dream of tinkering with. Why mess with perfection? But sometimes, life happens and where before you had perfection, you now have something you never dreamed possible - an improvement.

I've been struggling with what to do for my kids' teachers for a year-end thank you gift. I homeschool my kids (and, no, I'm not looking for an excuse to buy myself another cookbook), but I also take them once a week to a homeschool co-op. The excellent teachers who've been trying all year to instruct my children deserve at least a little thank you.

It wasn't until the last day of class that I decided what to do. Cookies. (Well, duh, I really should have thought of that weeks ago.) I woke up early and assessed that I had enough time to bake a batch of my Fabulous Brownie Cookies. They're easy and have a good effort to results ratio. So at 5:30 in the morning I'm melting chocolate, measuring flour, getting the eggs out, and, oh, giant leaping dust bunnies! The recipe calls for 4 eggs and I only have 3!

A quick internet search provided multiple options for egg substitutions (most of them nasty), but fruit puree sounded promising. Since I'd had such good results using date puree in these cookies, I decided to go with that. A quick 20 minute soak of the dates, pureeing with my hand-held blender, and I was back on track.

We have to be out the door at 8:00 and at 7:30, the kids were scarfing down breakfast while I was stamping white paper bags, stuffing them with cookies, tying on bows, still in my pajamas. Miraculously, we made it out the door on time. And the cookies? Really good. In fact, really, really good. Still deliciously rich, chocolatey, and brownielike, but with an added depth of flavor and an extra oomph of texture, these are clear winners. So I guess new and improved doesn't always mean "less nasty." Sometimes it really does mean "more fabulous!"

Even More Fabulous Brownie Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3 Tbsp date puree*
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups chopped pecans, toasted

*Directions for making your own date purée here.

In a large, heavy saucepan combine butter, unsweetened chocolate, and 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter and chocolate melt; set aside and cool.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; set aside. Beat eggs sugar, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer. Gradually add flour mixture to egg mixture, beating well. Add chocolate mixture; beat well. Stir in remaining 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips and pecans. I used my medium scoop (1-3/4" across) to drop blobs of dough (about 2 Tbsp) 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Don't overbake - the cookies should just loose their sheen on top, but still be moist. Let them set on the cookie sheets for a few minutes (they will continue to bake a bit), then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Cookies From Pluto

To explain the rift between the sexes, a book was written called Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus. That may well be true, but what the book failed to address is that my son is from Pluto.

My son has a peculiar way of looking at the world and a mystifying way of expressing himself. This can make communication very challenging. No ordinary stranger can understand him; it takes an intensive language immersion course to make sense of what he says.

You don't believe me? I challenge you to unravel this one.

"Mom, did you see that car that just went by? I think it was a beaver. Kinda hortony."

Well, after much cogitation, I deduced that he meant it was a BMW (a beemer), and that it was silver, like the one our relatives, the Hortons, rented when they came to visit. Crystal clear, right?

Can you guess what he meant when he asked about "that stomach thing that you put into your ears and listen to your body"

Of course - a stethescope. You got that, right?

How about this exchange?

"Mom, you know those cookies that you used to make? We should make those."

"What kind of cookies are those, honey?"

"You know, the kind that are brown with the chocolate."

Multiple questions followed about the color of the cookie (dark brown or tan - "lightish tan"), and whether the chocolate was in the cookie, on the cookie, around the cookie, or just flavoring the cookie ("In it. In bits.")

Have you guessed it? Yes, it was these. Now wouldn't a standard Earthling have just said, "Mom, could we bake some chocolate chip cookies?"

Once the confusion was cleared up, we did bake cookies. Chocolate chip. But I was bored with my standard and wanted to try something new. I cracked open a brand new cookbook I'd gotten for Mother's Day (Thanks, sweetie!), and found just the thing. Moist, chew, chocolate chunk cookies. Oh, yeah!

The recipe initially irritated me because it called for a mystery ingredient I didn't have on hand. So I came up with my own substitution and it turned out wonderfully. The cookies have a lovely texture, and the taste is amazing. I normally make small, dainty cookies, but there's something fun about a really large, delicious cookie. You can make them either way, but I think you'll get more of the moist, chewy texture if you keep them large.

Those Cookies With The Chocolate
- adapted from The SONO Baking Company Cookbook

1/2 cup dates, pitted and sliced*
Boiling water
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I subbed out 1/2 with White Whole Wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp coarse salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

*Dealing with the dates is tricky in a small quantity, so you can make a big batch of date puree and store it in a glass jar in the refrigerator for later use.

1- Put the dates into a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let them soak for 20-30 minutes, till softened. Drain the dates (save the soaking water to make oatmeal or put into bread, to sweeten it). With a handheld immersion blender or small food processor, puree the soaked dates to form a paste. Add a small amount of the soaking water, if necessary, to get a smooth consistency.

2- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

3- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda: set aside.

4- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the date paste, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through.

5- Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in the almond extract.

6- With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients, beating until the flour is absorbed. Gently fold in the chocolate chunks with a rubber scraper.

7- Using a 2-inch (1/4 cup) scoop, scoop out the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, placing the scoops about 2 inches apart.

8- Bake for 14-16 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through the baking time. The cookies should be set, browned on the edges, but still very soft in the center.

9- Place the sheet on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. (The cookies will continue to cook with the residual heat.) Use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack and let cool completely.

Peanut Butter and Nature

My father is a big fan of nature. He cross-country skiis, he organizes and leads senior hikes, and his idea of the perfect weekend is to spend it up to his hips in a freezing cold river, catch and release fly fishing. I don't know how he ended up with me.

My idea of a perfect weekend involves a book, a blanket, a fire place, a mug of hot tea, and a plate of cookies. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like nature, it's just that nature has its place - outdoors. And mine is indoors, where it's warm and there aren't creepy, crawly or slithery things.

My dad really tried to indoctrinate me into the joys of nature. He'd point out fabulous vistas of snow-capped mountains and rushing rivers. Yawn. He'd take a big lungful of fresh, frosty air and say, "Isn't this exhilarating?" Um, yeah, that's one way to describe the feeling of putting on clothes that have spent the night at sub-zero temperatures.

When all else failed, he bribed with food. For long car trips we got hard candies. Maybe it was a treat, maybe it was because he thought that there was less likelihood of bloodshed if our mouths were welded shut with toffees. Either way, I'll always associate a particular brand of toffees with car trips. And I never buy them.

On one especially hot hike, my dad hiked ahead and then rejoined us, telling us some story about spotting kindly nature fairies up ahead. When we came upon a small, burbling stream, with cries of amazement, he showed us the kindly fairies had left candy bars for us in the stream. That trip was almost bearable. Chocolate was involved.

Of course, happy campers cannot live on sugar alone. Main meals must be brought along, too. What does one bring along for a picky eater who will only eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches? Well, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, of course. But my father's too smart to pack in a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly. He had plastic tubes that looked like large toothpaste tubes with a screw-top cap and a removable crimper at the bottom and he'd fill one with peanut butter and one with jam. Then he had the brilliant idea to put both in the same tube, taking up even less space.

The resulting smear looked disgusting, but I fell in love with it. The peanut butter and jam were homogenous, so that no bite was too dry (too much peanut butter) or too slippery (too much jam). It's the way I've made my pb&j's ever since.

When I tried these cookies, I thought they'd be a peanut cookie with jam in between. Instead, it's just like my beloved pb&j. A paste of peanut butter and jam sandwiched between two cookie layers. What could be better? Just so long as they're served indoors by the fire, with the book and the tea.

PB&J Squares
- adapted from Mrs. Field's Best Ever Cookie Book

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter; softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup favorite jam or jelly
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tbsp powdered sugar

1- Preheat oven to 325 deg F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.

2- In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Whisk to blend and set aside.

3- In the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed, combine the butter and sugar to form a grainy paste. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until smooth. Scrape down sides of bowl. Then add flour mixture and blend at low speed until thoroughly combined. Dough will be firm.

4- Divide dough into 2 pieces; form disks and wrap tightly in plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

5- Remove one disk from the refrigerator. On a floured board roll out the disk to 9 by 13 inches, about 1/4-inch thick. Place it in the bottom and up the sides of the prepared baking pan. Place the pan back in the refrigerator.

6- In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter and jam, mixing to a smooth consistency. Set aside.

7- Remove the second dough disk from the refrigerator and roll it out to 9 by 13 inches.

8- Remove the pan from the refrigerator and spread the peanut butter and jam mixture over the dough. Sprinkle with the powdered sugar. Place the second dough rectangle on top of the peanut butter layer. Pinch down side edges all around the pan.

9- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch in the center. Cool in pan, then cut into squares.

Charm School For Guys

I've come up with an idea that will secure my fortune. I'm going to start a charm school for guys. While girls have equal opportunities to play sports, I think guys need equal opportunities to learn how to function in polite company.

There are a lot of guys out there who would benefit from charm school. Perhaps you know some of them. Some of the basic covered in my charm school for guys would be:

1- Deportment. Perhaps you don't need to learn how to glide into a room, balancing a book on your head, but you won't impress anyone slouched to one side like you've had a blow out.

2- Gentleman skills. Opening doors, pulling out chairs, helping on and off with coats - these are dying skills which need CPR.

3- Dinner table manners. To quote one of my favorite movies, She's The Man, "Chew like you have a secret!" Really, dudes, no woman wants to see what you're eating after it's passed your lips.



4- Dress. No, that doesn't mean you wear a dress! It means you care about how you dress. Perhaps you can't afford to look like James Bond in your wardrobe choices, but you can certainly take it up a notch if your low-riding pants let everyone know what the print-du-jour on your boxers is.

5- Conversation. This is where guys are most desperately in need of guidance. Grunts do not a conversation make. What passes for conversation between a bunch of guys playing video games would make the gorilla house at the zoo sound like The Globe Theatre. I think a whole semester would be spent on the fine art of conversation. How to make introductions, how to reply intelligently to a query, and, most importantly, how to pay sincere compliments.

I'm not sure if it's linked to the y-chromosome or what, but there seems to be an inability with guys to pay sincere compliments. And if circumstances demand a compliment, it is squeezed out, grudgingly, in the negative form.

"Dinner didn't suck." (In response to a 5 course meal that took 3 days to prepare.)

"You're not that bad." (In response to a recital that involved 2 hours of practice per day for months)

or, the exceedingly generous, "No, don't worry, you look fine." Fine? Fine?? For "fine" I just spend 3 hours curling, painting, primping, plucking, cinching, squishing, and gilding?



Guys, here's how it's done. Say it simply. Say it honestly. Say it with enthusiasm. And say something NICE, that will make her glow with happiness.

Let's try those compliments one more time.

"Dinner was fabulous. I know you put a lot of effort into it and it certainly paid off! You're a wonderful cook."

"Wow. That's all I can say. Wow. I never suspected you were that amazingly talented!"

and, for the bonus round, "You are breathtakingly gorgeous. I can't believe that I'm lucky enough to get to go out with you."

Try it guys. Really, it doesn't hurt .And you might even like the results so much that you try it again. And again.

Today's cookies are snickerdoodles, which are basically sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar. Think of the cinnamon sugar as compliments - something sweet which, when liberally applied, makes everything better.

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles

1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 egg plus 1 egg white
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Topping
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

1- Preheat oven to 400 deg. F with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

2- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and egg white; beat well.

3- In a separate bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well.

4- In a small, shallow bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Using a cookie dough scoop, or your hands, shape the dough into walnut-sized balls. Roll the dough balls in the cinnamon-sugar and place them 2-inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

5- Bake for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will puff up and flatten as they bake. For soft cookies, be sure not to overbake. Bake just till the tops are set, then allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Note: It's best to prepare and bake this dough the same day. It doesn't work as well if you refrigerate it.

If It Looks Like a Brownie...

Apparently my post about my dog horking up on the carpet struck a chord out there with the canine population. I had several readers tell me that the same day they read the post their dogs did the same thing. One reader even sent pictures!

What is this? Have I become the blog equivalent of a dog whisperer? Did all those dogs out there think that leaving a mound on the carpet was their best shot at being famous - sort of a reality TV thing for dogs?

Whatever the reason, it is with trepidation that I post today's pictures. Again, it's something delicious that looks like....well... what do you think it looks like? If you've ever spent time on a farm, I'm sure you'll be able to come up with an apt simile.



A friend who knew I have a thing for (obsession with) brownies loaned me a brownie cook book to thumb through. She warned me that the times and temperatures for the recipes could not be trusted implicitly, but the ingredients were always spot on.

I made the Bigger Better Brownie Blobs and my husband hasn't stopped raving about them. They are a brownie in a cookie form, but so much more than that. The big chunks of dark chocolate give a smooth, silky, luscious contrast to the toasted nuts, and the brownie base is the perfect balance between cake and fudge. On their own they're amazing, but if you serve one with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream, be prepared to enter a place of mouth happiness rarely experienced. (I would use other descriptors, but that would violate my blog's PG rating.)

Trust me on this. I know what the brownies look like, but they taste phenomenal. Bake them and enjoy. But I refuse to be held responsible for anything you might step in. And if that should occur, please don't send me pictures!

Bigger, Better Brownie Plops Blobs
- adapted from The Brownie Lover's Bible

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1-1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1Tbsp vanilla extract or Kahlua
6 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 lb 70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped in chunks
9 oz toasted walnuts, coarsely chopped

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter

3- Whisk the cocoa into the butter. Add the bitter chocolate and whisk until melted and completely smooth.

4- Add the brown sugar and whisk until smooth.

5- Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

6- In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until blended.

7- Add to the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until thick and glossy.

8- Add the vanilla.

9- Mix together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add to the chocolate mixture and mix until smooth.

10- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the bittersweet chocolate chunks, then the nuts. Some of the chocolate will melt, which is okay. It gives the cookies a nice streaky appearance.

11- Using a 3 Tbsp ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measure, scoop out the batter, 6 cookies per baking sheet.

12- Bake for no longer than 10 minutes. Don't overbake!

13 - Cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes until they have firmed up slightly.

14- Remove with a metal spatula and cool on a wire rack. Store in a tightly sealed container, with parchment paper separating the layers, for up to a week.

Makes about 17

You Do The Math

When you say, "It's March!" people have different reactions. Some will run to the grocery store parking lot to stock up on Girl Scout Cookies. Others will get excited and wave team pennants for March Madness. Me? I cringe, shudder, and try to curl up into a small ball in the corner because I have to do taxes.

When I say "do taxes" I'm not even talking about the taxes for the whole family. No, my responsibility is only for the information pertaining to my small business (come by some time and I'll make your skin feel soft and you feel beautiful). Even though I've been doing this for years and have yet to be put on the rack or in the iron maiden, I have a disproportionate dread of the task. I've finally nailed my routine for how to do it.

First of all, I procrastinate for as long as it's physically possible. When my husband's polite questions turn into firm statements like, "I really need your part of the taxes so I can get this done," then I put a date on the calendar. I have to dedicate a day to it without interruption, or I know it won't happen.

Then, on the scheduled day, I procrastinate for as long as possible. This is an excellent day for cleaning the tub, changing sheets, shaving my legs, and getting my workout done.

Finally, when I can put it off no longer, I organize all my paperwork and supplies on the dining room table. Paperwork which I hope is all there, because I'm a little bit sloppy about paperwork. No, I'm actually a lot lazy about paperwork (adding to the stress). And by supplies I mean a pen, a pencil, scratch paper, a calculator, and stress munchies.

And before I embark into the treacherous waters of the 1040 schedule C, I must decide on a carrot. Do I want a new cookbook? Will I treat myself to a video? I hadn't baked cookies in a while, so I decided to bake cookies just for fun as my reward.

I plowed through the onerous task, finished in under 3 hours (probably less, but it felt longer) and still had time to make cookies. I played with a recipe from my archives and came up with a very stiff dough. I wasn't sure how it would bake up, so I pressed it into a square pan. After baking, I debated whether or not to dress it up with glaze, or fancy it up with layers. Laziness won and I just cut into the bars. Good choice.

This is comfort food, pure and simple. The dense dough makes a moist, slightly chewy background for the dark chocolate chunks. I pick up bars, examining the cut sides for the biggest chunks of chocolate. (I know, not polite. But they're my reward, so I can do what I want with them.) Also, I'm not normally a fan of cinnamon with chocolate, but the small amount here works extraordinarily well, giving the flavor a tantalizing complexity.

Perhaps since I sailed through this year's taxes, I'll be much calmer about it next year. Yeah, right. I think I'll keep this recipe handy, just in case I need carb tranquilizing again.

Chocolate Chunk Reward Bars

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
8 oz coarsely chopped dark chocolate (in the 60 to 70% range)

1- Preheat oven to 375 deg. F. Spray an 8x8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

2- In the bowl of a mixer, combine the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute until well blended.

3- Add the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

4- Put the dough (which should be quite stiff) into the baking pan. Using a rubber spatula, or your hands, press the dough down evenly.

5- Bake 12 - 15 minutes, until the top looks completely set. Allow to cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Slice into bars when cooled all the way.

* If you only have regular rolled oats on hand, you can easily make your own quick-cooking oats. Just toss them into a food processor and pulse it a few times. The only difference between the two kinds of oats is the size of the flakes.

Four More Years, Four More Years

Happy Blogday to me,
Happy Blogday to me,
I can't believe it's been 4 years,
Happy Blogday to me!

Yes, four years ago I timidly entered the world of food blogging. I was not ( and am still not) ambitious, thinking that blogging would launch me into a career as a cookbook author or celebrechef. But in a way, a quiet, unspectacular way, it has done that. Not that any publishing house is knocking on my door, contract in hand, but I've created an online cookbook right here. It's a reference for me and my family to locate favorite recipes. You're welcome to use it, too, free of charge.

As to celebrechefdom (isn't that a great word I just made up?), no, you won't be seeing me filling a time slot of the Food Network. I barely have time to get my laundry done and make my bed. Doing a TV show? I don't need that kind of pressure in my life. Besides, when I'm nervous, my voice gets high and squeaky, like Minnie Mouse on helium. Not a good TV presence. But I do occasionally get a jolt of surprise when meeting a friend of my daughter's or a co-worker of my husband's who says, "I love your blog! I just make your brownies. They were soooooo good!" It always surprises me to learn that someone I don't know reads my blog.



Have I made any money from this venture? No. I'm definitely in the red here. But I have gotten some free stuff and I've gotten the confidence to enter a contest which I won (more free stuff!). And more importantly, there are the intangibles of blogging. I now know wonderful people from around the country and around the world who I would never have met without blogging. And I know that even if I never posted another cookie, we'd still be buddies.

The other interesting thing about blogging is how my skills and confidence in the kitchen have increased. I'm willing to take on new challenges and they're not as daunting as they used to be. Also, as I've become more aware of food possibilities, I've branched out from Rice Krispie treats and chocolate chip cookies. It's been fun to have the blog as my playground, where I could experiment with food, mixing flavors, trying new techniques, and giving free reign to my playful side. My family is very familiar with the phrase, "It's for the blog." And they're OK with that.



One of my most popular posts is my Fluffernutter cake , a tribute to Elvis. It was fun to make and killer delicious. I've been toying with the idea of revisiting the fluffernutter theme, and this time I did it as a Whoopie Pie. Yes, all the fabulous deliciousness of the Fluffernutter cake that you can hold in your hand.

Print out the recipe, make up a batch, and let me know what you think. Your comments are my paycheck. They don't spend well at Costco, but they give me motivation to keep posting.

Fluffernutter Whoopie Pies
- adapted from King Arthur Flour

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (3 medium to large) mashed bananas
2 large eggs
2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour, white wheat or traditional
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Filling:

2/3 stick (~11 Tbsp) butter, softened
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1-1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
1 cup marshmallow fluff

1- Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F with racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2- In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugars, and salt until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the bananas. The mixture will look curdled; that's OK.

3- Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

4- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and mix until evenly combined. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix for 1 minute more.

5- Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

6- Scoop the dough by Tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets. (If you want larger pies, you can use a quarter cup measure, but allow plenty of space for them to spread out.)

7- Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges are very lightly browned and the tops spring back when lightly touched. (If you're making the larger size, bake for 12 to 14 minutes). Let the cookies rest on the sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

8- For the filling, cream together the butter and peanut butter. Add the powdered sugar and beat till smooth, adding milk, if necessary to achieve a smooth, frosting consistency.

9- With a rubber spatula, fold in the marshmallow fluff till there are no streaks of marshmallow remaining.

10- To assemble the whoopie pies, spread about 2 Tbsp of the filling on the bottom of one of the cooled cookies. Gently press another one on top.

Store the cookies in the refrigerator in a tightly closed container.

(Notes on the filling - I specified natural peanut butter as I'm trying to cut all hydrogenated fats out of my kitchen. I wanted to see if natural would work here. It was fine, but will need refrigeration to keep it from separating. Also, although you'd think I'd know better by know, I read 2/3 next to the butter and added 2/3 cup, not 2/3 stick. It makes a difference. So if you were one of the recipients of these, know that making it as directed won't give you the same taste you had before.)