Martha Stewart, Eat Your Heart Out

Okay, so ever since the kids went back to school, I've had a little extra time on my hands.  I've taken up a bit of baking and am very proud to say that everything on this page has come out perfectly, though I say it myself.  (Name that movie!)

 These are the most awesome chewy chocolate cookies.  I replaced the peanut butter chips in the recipe with mini Reese's Pieces.  Can I just say, "I love my cookie scoop!"  It not only makes every cookie the same size, it also makes them "popable," but it's better to eat them in at least two bites--with a glass of milk, of course.

 There are several different kinds of bread (I almost wrote "brad" there!) that I've tried.  The most popular is banana bread.  I've also done pumpkin bread (Brad made some of that into french toast the next morning--whoa!) and zucchini bread.  I got to use my new food processor for that one, no more grating anything for me!  I want to try the zucchini bread recipe with apples instead.  Doesn't that sound good?  Maybe I'll add raisins to that one, as well.  There has been some experimenting.  Sometimes I add dried cranberries, just like you would add raisins.  Other times the vanilla has been subbed out for almond extract instead (I know, right!).  As always, some people like nuts on or in it (Brad) while everyone else prefers the "unleaded" variety.

 Mmmm...my perfect chocolate chip cookies.  Is there anything more wonderful?  These never fail to remind me of Cindy.  I haven't tried freezing the dough in balls for later baking yet, no one lets it get that far!

 The inside of this banana bread was amazing!  It doesn't last long enough to freeze for later, kinda like the cookie dough.

These were the biggest risk on my experiment resume.  They are the chewy chocolate cookie recipe with dried cranberries added, walnuts added, and the vanilla was replaced with orange extract.  They turned out so rich you could only eat one or two at a time.  I almost replaced half the butter with peanut butter, but thought that would be a bit much.

Now I need to go make some cookies.  Darn!