Donuts are really an instant crowd pleaser. They look super impressive.
These are brown butter baked donuts using this recipe. Instead of sprinkles, these guys enjoyed a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips atop their chocolate glaze. Show stoppers.
PS- I tried to save one of them in a plastic baggy, but it like absorbed the glaze and got all drippy looking. So don’t do that.
Holiday baking season is growing near, so its time to narrow down my cookie selections for gifts. I like to give a nice variety, even though I would personally die happy with a huge tray of just my ma’s gingerbread cookies.
I tried out a new bar cookie recipe over the weekend. Bar cookies are sometimes tricky for me, since I always worry they aren’t baked enough in the middle. I tried a basic blondie recipe, with some big dark chocolate chips, some mini regular chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut. I was too lazy to toast the pecans or coconut, but they were definitely a huge hit with my guinea pigs.
Carved up some jack o lantern cookies this morning, so we can munch on them while we carve real pumpkins. Gingerbread cookies this time. I made sugar cookie versions last year. Halloween is fun. You don’t get to carve gourds on any old holiday.
A while back, my ma and I decided to try to make foccacia bread, but my brother said that it wouldn’t taste as good as the bakery kind. So I got to write in my diary that my brother thought wrong, because it tasted just as good, if not better.
This time, I tried raisin foccacia. I made half a batch, since we don’t need a monster amount of bread around here. I made sure to put as many finger pokes in the top as possible. I also made sure to spill half the raisin water on the floor, but if I were you, I would leave that part out. 
There is just something about freshly baked bread. Its perfect. We ate this warmed in the toaster for breakfast for a couple days, then I sent the rest off to the office. But now that I’m thinking about it, we should have warmed it, and put a little butter/cinnamon/sugar combo on top for dessert. Oh darn, I’ll have to make some more.
I finally changed my name on my drivers license. Crossing that off every to-do list I have made in the last 3 months.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, I planned some baking time. Nothing warms up a house like morning baking. I made some butter pecan cookies. I know I have toasted pecans before, but I think I burned a couple. Shhhhh.
These cookies are like the ultimate in butter. They aren’t the prettiest, but they do taste warm and cozy.
Side note: I always feel more awesome the more clothes I pile on. This is a tshirt, a sweatshirt, and a button-up on top. Layers for days. You can take a girl out of the Northwest, but you can’t take the Northwest out of a girl.
Here are some gluten-free recipes I’ve collected this week that I am excited to try soon. Sweet potato muffins. Flourless chocolate cupcakes. Spiced orange chocolate chunk cookies. Honey oat bread. Yay for fall baking season! I need to get my hands on some fancy flours.
We have been making homemade pizza once a week. This week was bbq chicken pizza (based a little on this recipe). We don’t have one of those fancy pizza stones, but my ma and I are gonna play with hers next visit.
While I am in the kitchen fixing up dinner, this one stares at me. Like I am supposed to be entertaining her instead.
I basically avoided almost all computers this weekend. It was nice. We spent the weekend watching football, eating, napping, and sewing/working. It was thunderstorming up a storm, so it made for a cozy weekend at home eating lots of banana bread.
My one unpleasant task was cleaning out the pantry cupboard (the pantry moths have been upgraded to enemy number one status). But it did make me smile when I found all these cans of tuna fish. My guy sneaks one or two in the cart whenever we go grocery shopping, just in case. :)
We were in Crate and Barrel looking for chairs, so obviously we walked through the kitchen section. And I saw a cookie scoop in real life, and somehow it made it back home with us. And then I had to make cookies to try it out. It was a very slippery slope.
I tried out these double chocolate cookies. So yes the cookies were delicious and kinda like brownies and everyone liked them, but do you see how perfectly uniform all the cookies are? Its like they belong in a tiny bakery window that should be in our kitchen. 
I’m not sure it technically counts, since I just modified an existing recipe, but I have been telling everyone who will listen that I made my own cookie recipe. I am very good at following recipes, but I am not always as good at knowing what will taste good together, and what ratio they should go together at. But I took my best guess, and they turned out so good! I used this recipe, did a couple minor tweaks, and subbed in some oatmeal for some flour, and added butterscotch chips for chocolate. It has actually been cooler, wetter weather around here, and something about butterscotch and oatmeal seemed appropriate for the season!
Have you ever made up your own recipe? I feel like I need to have at least a couple of my very own recipes, so I can pass them along when I am a grandma.
guy and his girl 