Part XVIII: Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

Whoot. Here are more cookies with peanut butter and jelly. I used peach preserves instead of raspberry.

Mixing it up a little

Tulips blooming in my yard

Verdict: I wouldn't make these again. The recipe called for a quarter of a cup of honey, which I thought was promising, but the end result was exactly what I don't like about peanut butter cookies, they were too crumbly and crispy.

Next week's selections are:

Maple Walnut Cookies

Fresh Orange Cookies

Soft Molasses Spice Cookies

Alright-Now I get to go back to reading the biography of Humphrey Bogart that I had to tear myself away from to write these posts.

Part XVII: Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

Ugh. I was not looking forward to making these, because I am sick of looking at brown sugar and oats. Usually I try to follow the recipe as close as I can, but this one called for raisins and walnuts. I omitted the raisins-they have no place being in a cookie, in my humble opinion. I used some stale peanuts instead of the walnuts.

Verdict: I would not make these again. They showcased the lack of time and love put into them, on top of just the blandness inherent in the recipe.

So here are pictures of my cats instead, much better looking, and probably tastier too....

Begbie, the whiskered man about town

Phyllis bothering Begbie

Leave me alone!!!!

Its a party in a jar-straight from the U.K., though I've seen this tasty treat stateside too

Next up: Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumpbrints

Part XVI: PB & J Cookies

I'm not a huge fan of peanut butter cookies but these were rolled in rice crispies cereal, per the recipe.

Verdict: I would make these again. The rice crispies on the outside got brown and toasty and added a pleasant crunch. They were also soft and not crumbly, which is one of the reasons I don't usually like peanut butter cookies.

Next up: Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

Part XV: Oatmeal Hermits

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Oatmeal, brown sugar, dates, nuts and cinnamon. Yep. These cookies were almost identical to the Old Fashioned Harvest cookies, except that it called for real butter and no canned pumpkin. The harvest cookies called for butter flavored Crisco, which, if I think about it too much, is just a weird and kind of gross concept. So lets not think about it!

The recipe had an option for bar cookies, which was a lot less work for me.

Verdict: These were the best from this week's selection. I think the fact that the recipe called for a cup of real butter and not the slightly disturbing butter flavored Crisco worked in their favor.

And here it is, your moment of color! Daffodils from my garden

Next week's selections:

PB & J Cookies

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

You read that right, two peanut butter and jelly recipes and yet another fascinating look into the world of brown sugar, oats, dates, nuts, and cinnamon!

Part XIV: Old-Fashioned Harvest Cookies

First off let me point out that I am still excited about the roman numeral thing. XIV=14. To me that's pretty cool. And probably only to me.

Anyway, Old-Fashioned Harvest Cookies. What can I say about them? This is at least the fifth recipe since I started this blog to have dates, nuts, oat, and brown sugar. This recipe did call for canned pumpkin, so that was a little different.

I am on page 28 of the book, and noticed that the first recipe with chocolate chips is on page 42. Using roman numerals to do that math that is XXXXII minus XXVIII which equals XIV. XIV divided by III cookies a week equals something like X weeks. Crap. We will all have to be patient and wait until May for chocolate chips.

Could those be...wait for it.....dates?

Brown dates. Brown nuts. Brown cookie dough.

In the oven you go!













Finished product. Display bowl provided by Rita.

Verdict: These cookies were, for all their brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg bravado, pretty bland as well. I thought the nutmeg was a little overpowering but that's about it.

Hey look, this is a pretty bag!

Thought I would end this brown entry on a more colorful note.

Stef-big up yourself for getting me this bag for my birthday!

Next up: Oatmeal Hermits

Part XIII: Coconut Cream Cheese Cookies

Well hello again! Its the weekend, isn't it? I know because I've been in the kitchen for 6 hours straight baking cookies!

Coconut cream cheese cookies kicked off this weekend's baking frenzy. My boy toy had homework to do so we put on some soothing, IQ enhancing Bach and while he studied I worked up a sweat in the kitchen.

The recipe called for toasted coconut so I put the pallid flakes in a pan to give them a nice Jersey Shore style tan. Man, I wish I could have heard Snooki impart her wisdom to the students of Rutgers.

They look so much better now don't they?

Phyllis, because its my blog and she's cute

Check out my new plates! My friend Rita gave them to me, along with some other fun stuff that you'll be seeing in future posts. Thanks Rita!


Verdict: I had high hopes for these cookies but they turned out strangely bland. I didn't end up using the marscapone I mentioned in the previous post because it went bad. Maybe if I had these would have tasted better. As it was, they were dry, and tasted like the almond extract called for in the recipe. Fail.

Next up: Old Fashioned Harvest Cookies