Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

  Today, I bring you an old recipe with old photos.  But that does not mean that it isn't delicious.

  And I haven't made anything new lately, just cookies.  And you can only do so many cookie posts at once, so I thought I'd give a little reprieve with a cake...a cookie cake.  But hey!  It's still not really exactly a cookie...

  I have a cookie problem.

  I made my friend Lydia that crazy cake you see up there, Lydia is cool.  We met at a toast party last year.

Giant Double Chocolate Cookies

  Now if that isn't a name to inspire, I don't know what is.

  These 4 oz. babies are inspired by the popular Levain Bakery, Lisa Michele whomped up a recipe very much similar to theirs, and so here we are.

  I had one for breakfast.  And I just had a half of one before writing this...it looked lonely.  Poor little half cookie.

Blueberry Lemon Brown Butter Muffins

  A few grow-up time goals:

  Nose stud goes when college begins, or maybe after.  Maybe in the middle...whenever I feel like looking less "rebellious."

  Facebook is done when I've got a family of my own.  But if I'm weak and I do keep it, I won't be posting things like prayer requests for my teenage son's kidney stones.  He'd be in enough pain already. 

  Budgeting starts...soon.  Like when I have a steady job and income, whatever those are.

Chocolate Chip Treasure Cookies

  Sometimes, we found ourselves in a quandary.  School has been eating up our lives and free time, leaving us very little to bake things and shoot them in pretty natural lighting.

  But your blog is demanding a new post.

  Finally, you whip a batch of banana bread, because you've done that before.  You're confident.  You stick it in the oven and let it bake itself pretty while you get some homework done.  No biggie.

Caramel Corn

  Caramel corn.  My first caramel.  One of the first recipes I did by myself.  You know that cookbook I'm so gleefully holding in the About Ellen page?  My first caramel corn recipe was in there.

  All through my younger youth days I did it exactly as the instructions said, except for one time when I added a bit too much salt...and then came a time where I decided that it wasn't caramel-y enough.  Something was lacking.  I doubled the caramel portion of the recipe for a single pan of popcorn, and it was so ooey gooey and wonderful.  But it still wasn't quite right, there had to be something more.  This was something I thought about as I got older, it just seemed way too basic for my maturing taste.

Raspberry Ginger Oat Crumble Hearts (Bars)

  Valentine's Day for us is like a little bit of leftover Christmas in February, but with paper hearts and chocolate.  When we were all younger and people weren't in college, our parents would get up early and adorn our plates with candy and little gifts.  I love chocolate, sweethearts, and the like, but what was so beautifully special were the cards that my papa still makes us every year.

  Usually it's a sheet of paper folded in half, adorned with some crazy awesome red-penned illustrations that only my father could think up.  Then inside there's a special message, from him and mom, telling each sister how special and loved she is.  We'd eat candy, fry some eggs and bacon, snarf down on some disgustingly sugary cereal, and tell each other, each in our own way, "I love you."

Surprise Pancakes

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  There are five things that help after a bad or stressful dream:

1. Wake up, and get up.  Do not lie still and think about it.

2. Take a looong and warm shower, pretend your scrubbing all the icky dream residue off of you.

3. Whip up a batch of bake-able breakfast food, like these pancakes.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

  I always feel sort of stupid when I start talking about how good something I made is.  I mean, I've made recipes that didn't taste so great, why on earth would I pass them on?  So it might appear as if I rave on here, but I just love how all these things taste!
  And yet, I feel like I'm trying to self-promote.  Dumb.  I recommend making the things I post, why else would I post them?  I'm promoting the recipe, not my abilities.  Does this site look like a business?  Nope, I sell nothing.  I give away and pass on awesome ideas, that's where the promotion goes.  I'm just the humble soul behind all of it.  I want happiness to enter kitchens.  It's why I take 53 pictures of bar cookies and spend an hour working on a post.  It's for a good cause, and I love it.
  Just a little reminder, mostly for myself.