White Chocolate Blondies

I don't know why but I've always been a fan of blondie bars. They're definitely in my top 5 favorite desserts. I think it's the different taste that appeals to me (I do like butterscotch). So when it came time to choose a new recipe for weekend lunch dessert, I decided to make a pan of blondies. Rather than use the Betty Crocker Cooky Book recipe I usually make, I decided to look in the 50 Brownies insert that I got in an issue of Food Network Magazine. I made a fudgy brownie recipe from it and was IN LOVE (seriously, I think it was better than the box mix that even I prefer for brownies) so I figured the same would be the case for blondie bars.

Lemon Raspberry Sugar Cookie Bars

This year for Mother's Day we kept it small again: like last year, I went to Auntie Vicki and Uncle Rob's house. It was the three of us, Carly, and Nonni. This time, Uncle Rob's mom Ruth joined us as well. As always I offered to make dessert. Auntie Vicki suggested something fruity, specifically raspberry or lemon, and cookie bars. So after looking through my magazine cutouts, I started combing through Pinterest (it's actually a bit quick to go through when you're looking for something specific). I ended up finding a recipe that was both raspberry and lemon from the blog Butter with a Side of Bread.

Jell-O Cookies

While delicious, my chocolate caramel macarons unfortunately didn't last long. Apparently, while great in theory, adding caramel ice cream topping to the filling of sandwich cookies that aren't going in the fridge leads to white fuzzy mold after a couple months (especially when there are some warm days during that time). So I had to toss my hard work in the trash and find a new recipe. Fortunately for my indecisive brain, I had a starting point.

You see, a year ago while on Facebook during lockdown, I came across a sponsored post for an artisanal soft pretzel company called Eastern Standard Provisions. I was hooked from the start. There are two options for buying the various types they offer: individually or as a variety in a box. Almost everything comes with regular salt but one of the boxes, a collaboration with St. Jude's, comes with Raspberry Lime sugar. Since I like my soft pretzels plain I usually toss the salt but I decided to keep the sugar when I bought the St. Jude's box, figuring I'd bake with it.

Because it's sugar I decided to take the obvious route and find some cookies to roll in it (like with snickerdoodles). As always I wasn't sure where to start on Pinterest at first. Except with lemon, since that's a flavor that goes well with both raspberry and lime. After some searching I decided to look at the Jell-O cookie recipes I've saved and see if there was one that included rolling the cookie dough in sugar. Didn't find that so I just decided to pick one and roll as many cookies as I could. I finally settled on a recipe from 99 Easy Recipes.

Chocolate Caramel Macarons

Last fall when I thought I was going to be staying home for a while I decided to start baking what I wanted to go with my lunch. Yes, I shouldn't really have dessert with my meals but I honestly can't remember a time when I didn't have something sweet to finish my lunch (well, on a regular basis. And when I eat alone). So for the first time in a long time (if not ever), I made something for me.

Several of the recipes I made asked for only egg yolks. But rather than toss the whites like I usually do (i.e. my famous pepperoni pinwheels) I started saving them. My intention was to make a macaron recipe for someone for Christmas. When that plan changed, I decided to make that recipe for me.

As most of you know, my history with macarons has been hit and miss. One of the main things I've struggled with is size: as soon as the batter hits the cookie sheet, it starts to spread. No idea if this was because the batter wasn't mixed enough or I just made them too big to begin with. Which is why I bought some macaron mats at the Culinary Apple last summer while in Chelan. Didn't entirely help but the shells were better than before, so win?

The recipe itself was easy to find: a while ago I bought a book called Mad About Macarons! by Jill Colonna. She's a bit of an expert on these little French treats, having lived in Paris since the 90s. I followed her instructions, even using metric measurements instead of the usual measuring cup/spoon that I'm used to. It was a longer process than I was expecting (which is why I didn't get to making the filling until almost a week later) but totally worth it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I had something different planned for Kevin. However, I can't remember what it was because about a week after Thanksgiving he sent me a picture of a recipe for some chocolate-covered peanut butter "cookies" and said I should make them sometime. I figured (and got confirmation) that he wanted these to be his Christmas present. They didn't seem too hard to make: about 4 ingredients for the main "cookie" and melted chocolate for dipping. So I switched gears. It didn't take me long to make them either (well, kinda - more on that in the notes). He loved them - as did everyone else who tried them. 

Also, I found out where he got the recipe: apparently the company he works for has a family business as one of their clients (or something along those lines) and they brought these in one day as a thank you with the recipe attached.