Jalapenos from the garden...

So I am growing my first vegetable garden this summer and I've been blessed with a gaggle of jalapenos.

Yeah, I know, a gaggle refers to geese but today I want a gaggle to refer to my jalapenos...and what I say in my blog, goes!

What to do with this gaggle, I pondered. I looked around for some good recipes and one stood out among them all - Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies from none other than The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

First off, how much easier could these get? And anything that involved cream cheese is a winner in my book! I did take a picture of my little guys that I have yet to upload. In the meantime, please enjoy The Pioneer Woman's much better photography. They do these "thingies" much more justice than my picture will. When my next stash of these little guys are ready to pick I will be sure to make some more of these. They are plain old addicting!!! Spicy (too spicy for my husband....but that just means more for ME!), but addicting.

And since they are so simple (p.s. I had to forgo the toothpicks since I couldn't find any in the cabinet and the bacon pretty much stayed put anyway), they make a fabulous appetizer to just have at home one night before dinner (which is what we did) or even to bring to a party. These are an A+ in my book!

Homemade Pita Bread

I have to say that I find it funny that a few short months ago the thought of making homemade bread scared the heck out of me. It took an afternoon of cooking with Dani to propel me past this unreasonable fear of yeast when her and I made French Bread together. Since then I also tackled TWD's Pecan Honey Sticky Buns.


When I saw Brown Eyed Baker's recipe for Homemade Pita Bread, I was excited to make it...albeit that it took me a few months to actually get around to making it, but I finally did!


While the outcome of my pita bread was not complete perfection, it was far from a failure. I think I made the first mistake when I realized I needed just a take more water for the first step...I think I added a bit too much extra making my dough very sticky. This made is extremely hard to work with for the rest of the process because it just stuck to everything! It made it pretty difficult also to shape them into discs, as you can see they are far from perfect looking.


The rising process, however, seemed to be right on target for me as far as times. I made bigger pitas so I got 6 out of this recipe on purpose since I am using this as sandwich bread. The end result is that they tasted great but with one missing detail - they lacked a pocket! I am not sure if this is due to my water error, not giving the dough enough time to rise, using active dry yeast, or kneading the dough too much or maybe even too little (I used my stand mixer for 10 minutes). It could have happned anywhere in the process. The consistency of the pita bread is spot on to what I'd find at the bakery but just without a pocket. I did make these thick enough though that I can cut a pocket into it. Maybe that was even my problem, perhaps they were too thick!


Anyway, I do plan on making this again and hopefully getting a prettier and more of a pocket-y result! It was still fun to make, they still taste good, and the experience has not deterred me at all from making more breads, in fact it only motivates me more! So overall this was more than a worthwhile experience!

Pita Bread
(from BrownEyed Baker's Blog)

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast [I used active dry yeat]
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water [I had to add a bit more water but probably a little too much so do so with caution!].

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces (I broke mine into 6 pieces). Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it’ll be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick - 6 inches in diameter. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Muffin Mania

There is no question there's been a lot of muffin making in my kitchen as of late. I've made 2 different batches in less than a week's time - unfortunately the muffin baking frenzy started almost 2 weeks ago so I am behind on this. Anywho, both batches I made in my jumbo muffin baking pan. Because we all know....there is nothing better than a big ole muffin.

Due to my negligence, there is no picture for the 2nd recipe - Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins from Baking Bites, so just use your imagination a little for what mine look like, and check out the originator's pictures instead! I sent those out as part of the Secret Baker exchange my local nest board is doing. I didn't actually get to try them but my recipient said they were good. My husband was jealous he didn't get to have one of them himself. He did, however, greatly benefit from the first recipe - Dorie Greenspan's Coffee Break Muffins - because he pretty much ate every single one with the exception of me eating the tops of one of them.

Which brings me to the age old question of:

Why are the tops of muffins the best part of a muffin????


Coffee Break Muffins
(from "Baking from My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan)

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (I actually subbed this with 3/4 tablespoon coffee syrup, which is local to New England and may not be found everywhere)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 cup strong coffee, cooled
1 stick unsalted butter melted & cooled
1 large egg
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract


Center rack in oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Butter and spray 12 molds in regular siz muffin pan or fit with paper cups (I instead sprayed a 6 cup jumbo muffin pan). Place the muffin pan on baking sheet.

In large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, espresso powder, baking powder, cinnamon, & salt. Stir in brown sugar, making certain there are no lumps. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk coffee, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough, a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter. Divide evenly among muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes (about 24 minutes for me in my jumbo pan) or until a thin knive inserted in center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack & cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.



Peanut Butter & Milk Chocolate Chip Muffins
(from Baking Bites)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (or smooth)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk (low fat or skim is fine)
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, peanut butter, eggs and milk until smooth. Pour into flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter into your paper-lined muffin tin. Each cup should be filled to the top, not just half way up, to ensure you get a nice dome on the muffin.

Bake for 17-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the top of the muffin springs back when lightly pressed. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12. (***Note: This made 6 jumbo muffins which I sprayed to prepare pan; baking time was about 24 minutes at the same temperature indicated above)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet cake. It's something I had never tried yet saw pop up everywhere - recipe mags, Food Network shows, other food blogs. Even Bobby Flay had a cupcake throwdown where the challenged baker's most famous cupcake was her red velvet. I knew sooner rather than later I would give into the desire of trying these out for myself. That time was this past weekend. I made a long one of it taking Tuesday off to make it a 4 day-er and since I had some downtime I couldn't wait to start baking.


I used a recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes from my friend Danielle of Make No Little Meals. She made mini-cupcakes but instead I went for jumbo cupcakes. That's right, I baked them right in my jumbo muffin pan! Ok, well, I actually didn't own a jumbo muffin pan until about a week ago when I decided that since I've always wanted one and these cupcakes would be the perfect excuse to finally invest in it! I actually halved Danielle's recipe (the full recipe appears below) and it made 6 perfectly sized jumbo cupcakes (which took about 26 minutes to bake).


For the frosting, I opted for a typical cream cheese frosting consisting of cream cheese (duh), confectioner's sugar, butter, and vanilla extract.


So, what was the verdict on red velvet cupcakes??? Yummy! I actually may bake another batch this weekend!


Red Velvet Cake
(from Confetti Cakes)

3 ½-cups cake flour
½-cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½-teaspoons salt
2-cups canola oil
2 ¼-cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/3-cup red food coloring
1 ½-teaspoons vanilla
1 ¼-cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 ½-teaspoons white vinegar
Preparations:

Preheat oven to 350* and prepare pans accordingly.

In a large bowl sift together the flour and cocoa, set aside. In a stand mixer with your paddle attachment, combine the oil and the sugar on medium until combined.

Set mixer to low, add the eggs one at a time. Add the food coloring and vanilla slowly until incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture and the buttermilk—alternating, beginning with the flour. Mix until well combined.

While batter is mixing, whisk vinegar and the baking soda together in a small bowl. Immediately add this mixture to the batter, speed set to medium and blend for only about 10-seconds.

Divide batter into pans and bake until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 20-minutes before removing from pan.

Brownies!!!!!!!!!!!

As I mentioned previously, I hosted a brownie swap this past weekend. It was a blast and so much fun to see all of the different brownies there can be! Blondies were accepted too of course. Half of the fun of hosting something like this is trying to figure out what you will make yourself!

Since I figured there would be a lot of chocolate confections, I stuck with 2 blondie options as my contributions. The first is for Cinnamon Toast Blondies, from The Girl Tastes. This recipe won the first ever Master Baker challenge with the secret ingredient of cinnamon so I knew it had to be good, and boy, was it! I skipped the sugared pecan step since I was running a little short on time but honestly these were fabulous and I'll definitely be making them again. My husband is a cinnamon fanatic so he was probably even more pleased with the results than I was! I baked these in a 9x9 pan since I doubled the batch and only have one 8x8 pan. I cut the baking time down and they still turned out fine!

My second contribution was a Paula Deen recipe for Orange Brownies. I'm not sure why they are called brownies since they truly are a blondie, there is nothing chocolate related in them, but either way I thought it was a pretty unique recipe that I thought was perfect for this event. I'm not the biggest orange fan around, I can take it or leave it, but I have to say they came out pretty tasty. Again this is another one that received 2 thumbs up from the hubby, he loves orange too, which is another reason I made them. Isn't he a lucky guy????

All in all, I would definitely do this again some time. I think it was a fun variation on the typical cookie swap. And plus, who doesn't like brownies????


Orange Brownies
(from foodnetwork.com)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure orange extract
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 recipe Orange Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Stir together flour, granulated sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add butter, eggs, orange extract, and orange zest. Using a handheld electric mixer, beat until well blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven, allow to cool and pierce entire cake with a fork. Spread the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting over completely cooled brownies. Cut into squares.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons softened butter
1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice

In a large mixing bowl, whip the butter and cream cheese together with a hand-held electric mixer. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until it is all combined and smooth. Beat in the orange zest and juice. Spread over brownies.




Cinnamon Toast Blondies
(from The Girl Bakes)

Oven Temp.: 350°
Approx. Bake Time: 20-25 minutes
Yields: 8×8 inch dish

1 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
7 tbsp. butter, melted
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. pecans, toasted and chopped

Topping:
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon


Whisk the flour, salt, and cinnamon together. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar with the melted butter. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients. Stir in the pecans. Spread batter into an 8×8 baking dish.

Mix together the cinnamon and sugar for the topping. Sprinkle this mixture over the batter. (You will likely have more than enough.)

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Don’t over-bake. The blondies may seem underdone, but will set as they cool. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

Potato, Sausage, and Apple Saute

You know how sometimes during the day at work you get hungry and start day dreaming about what's for dinner that night.

And then the next day you catch yourself day dreaming about it again because it was just that good?

This recipe is one of those meals - at least for my husband and I!

I have made this recipe numerous times since Diana (check out her beautiful photography blog!), from my local nest board, shared it with us. For some reason have never blogged about it and I don't know why.

The ingredients are a perfect blend of flavors - some sweet from the apple to counteract the saltiness of the sausage, etc. It's also easy to make! Can't go wrong with easy, right?

I've only made a few of my own personal modifications. I swear it is even better reheated (if you even have any leftovers). Unfortunately there is no picture for this one, as my husband and I were starved by the time I got home from running errands last night and couldn't eat fast enough. Alas, maybe I'll take a picture next time!

Potato, Sausage, and Apple Saute
(From Diana)

2 Tablespoon(s) olive oil
1 small diced yellow onion
1 Pound(s) bulk/links/casing removed/sweet Italian sausage
1 1/2 Pound(s) diced russet potato, diced and cooked
2 large diced apple
1 Dash(s) salt
1 Dash(s) black pepper
2 Tablespoon(s) ketchup
1 Tablespoon(s) Dijon mustard
1/2 Teaspoon(s) dried thyme
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 Tablespoon(s) water

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil over med-high heat in a large non-stick skillet. When oil is hot, add onion & sausage & cook, stirring to break up sausage, until sausage is golden brown & broken into 1/2" pieces. Place cooked sausage & onions into a colander to drain.

Add the remaining oil, the potatoes, & the apple to the skillet, season with salt & pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown.

Mix ketchup, mustard, thyme, garlic, & water in a small bowl. Return sausage & onions to the skillet & stir in the ketchup mixture.

Cook, stirring frequently until nicely browned (5 minutes). Season to taste with more salt & pepper before serving.

Cheesecake Toffee Drops

A couple of months ago I caught a recipe on one of the blogs I like to read, Brooke's ...and a Cookie for Dessert. I knew eventually I would make them. I finally got around to making these last week and they came out great. I probably could have eaten just the batter it was so tasty, but then I figured I should actually try to bake them.

I love that this came from the Small Batch Baking cookbook - it's nice to have a recipe that doesn't make 4 dozen cookies, and instead makes "just enough." Thanks for sharing this great recipe, Brooke!

Cheesecake Toffee Drops

(from ...and a Cookie for Dessert & "Small Batch Baking")

1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon well-beaten egg or egg substitute
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped chocolate-covered toffee bar (such as Heath or Skor)

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 300 degrees. Set aside an ungreased baking sheet.

Place the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend. Place the butter, brown sugar and cream cheese in a medium-size bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the beaten egg and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until dough is light in texture, about 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are blended in. Stir in the toffee with a wooden spoon.

Drop the cookie batter by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies appear dry and golden, 20-25 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack, cool completely.

Makes 6 cookies

I told you I like to blog-hop!

Speaking of "blog-hopping," on Sunday morning I was looking for a solution for what to do with some ripe bananas. A banana bread seemed too mundane. I used the food blog search engjne on the side of my page and eventually I landed on a banana scone recipe from Baking Bites. I love scones and since the recipe only made a small batch it was perfect for my needs.

I made a few modifications by adding more banana, a little cinnamon, and a tablespoon of half-n-half. I also subbed half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. They came out so yummy. I hadn't had a scone in a long, long time, so the timing was perfect.

Banana Scones

(from Baking Bites)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
3 tablespoon butter, cold
4-5 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon half-n-half
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup banana, diced (approx. half a medium banana)

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and ginger. Cut butter into a few chunks and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips.

Mix milk, half-n-half, and vanilla in a small glass. Pour about 4 tablespoons into the flour mixture and stir until the mixture starts to come together. Add the banana chunks and continue to stir, adding more milk if necessary, until dough comes together.

Pat dough into a disk about 1 inch thick. Cut into four sections with a knife and place each on baking sheet.

Bake at 400F for 17-20 minutes, until light gold. Cool on wire rack or eat warm. These scones are best the day they are made.

Makes 4 scones.

Baked Greek Chicken

If you haven't figured it out yet, I do a lot of "blog-hopping" - in other words, I love to read other blogs for ideas and inspiration. I ran across Kate's Blog - Paved with Good Intentions. I loved it and quickly added her blog to my list of favorites.

The Baked Greek Chicken recipe she posted last week was just what I needed to jazz up two chicken breasts I had unthawing in the refrigerator, and better yet, I had all of the ingredients! To top it all off, it was even healthy, especially since I used a reduced fat feta cheese.

The only changes I made to the recipe was adding a little oregano (based on what I saw in Elly's reply) and cooking the chicken with the diced pepper right on top. I love the flavor of red pepper so I thought this was a great way to infuse that flavor into the dish while it baked, especially knowing that my hubby would pick them off when come serving time. He doesn't mind the flavor of onions and peppers, but he doesn't like to bite into them, so if he sees them he won't eat them (hence why I have started to grate onions into dishes and chop things super fine - for instance he had no problem with the peppers and onions in the salmon cakes I made the other night because he couldn't really see them). All in all though, I can't complain, he tries whatever I give him, he's my #1 guinea pig. I mean taste tester! He could be a much pickier eater than he is!

But, I digress....bottom line is that this was delicious. Thanks, Kate, for the easy, yummy, and healthy recipe (if you want nutrition facts for this, visit Kate's blog)!

Baked Greek Chicken

(from Paved with Good Intentions)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 lemon, cut in half
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/2 red pepper, diced

Preheat oven to 350. Arrange chicken in oven safe baking dish. Drizzle chicken with juice from half of the lemon.

Season chicken with salt, pepper, and oregano. Top with feta cheese and diced red pepper. Drizzle with juice from remaining half of lemon.

Bake 35-40 minutes.

Desserts first!

We had my BFF Michelle and her fiance Jay over for the Superbowl last night. Born and brought up in Rhode Island, I am a fan of the losing team and was pretty disappointed, but congrats to the Giants, they played much better than the Pats did. That's all I'll say about that.

On the bright side, at least the food I made last night was good!

I am posting about the dessert first, because I can...so there. I made this from "...and a Cookie for Dessert." I love this blog and I loved this quick, easy dessert idea even more. For mine, I used oreo ice cream for one layer of the ice cream, and coffee ice cream for the other. Two of my favorite flavors all wrapped up together in between layers of brownie!!! I believe Jay's exact words were: "This is slammin'!" Mmmm! Thanks, Brooke!

My Monthly Muffin Challenge

Last night I read my friend Danielle's blog entry about her personal challenge of 50 cupcakes - 1 type of cupcake for every week for the rest of the year. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with. Danielle is just about the most creative person I know!

Her cupcake entry got my wheels turning - that I too should challenge myself - what do I have to lose? The number 50 intimidated me though, so I figured a monthly challenge might be more my speed since, unfortunately, I am not the talent that Danielle is! 12....now that's a number I can handle.

The idea of a monthly muffin was a little bit of a cheat on my part. See, I already planned on trying out a new muffin recipe for this weekend anyway. I'm going over my friend Sam's house for a grown-up girls only slumber party (woohoo!) and I thought some muffins for the next morning would be a nice contribution to the affair. But in my defense when thinking about what type of food I could challenge myself too, muffins first came to mind not only because of the obvious fact that I planned baking a batch in just a few days, but also because I don't have many muffins in my repetoire. So, if all goes well I should have 12 new recipes (or more if I get really ambitious) in my pocket by the end of this year.

That is, of course, only if this challenge is enough motivation for me to fire up my oven in the summer months!!

Thank you, Pioneer Woman!!!

So my husband and I are having a little Christmas get together on Saturday and I wanted to get a jump start on a couple of appetizers, since tomorrow itself is a loss for preparation time. I am celebrating Chrsitmas with my dad's side during the day, something I only found out about after I invited guests over for that same night, so I'm trying to get ready as much as I can ahead of time.

I love looking at other foodie blogs and one that I love is "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" (there's a link on this page to the right of this blog). Not only does she have great recipes, but she also has a great sense of humor. So, I was browsing through her blog a few days ago when I stumbled upon this gem of a recipe! I made them last night and they are well worth the wait. I am not the biggest bacon fan around and even I appreciated the one I taste tested. I'd post a picture of the final product but honestly her pictures are so much better and do this recipe so much more justice! I just wanted to share a great blog and a great recipe! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Oatmeal Cream Pies

This afternoon we had a Yankee Swap exchange at work. We made it a "dessert social" so we were all asked to bring something. I marked down "cookies" on the list. Why I chose such a broad category and why I even chose cookies in the first place is a mystery to me. So, me being me, I decide I need to look for something fun.

I was browsing through some blogs I really enjoy, and I found a great recipe on "...and a Cookie for Dessert." for Oatmeal Cream Pies. After reading Brooke's entry I decided I'd definitely use the recipe. I was able to find a different filling recipe on allrecipes.com (in fact it was associated with a chocolate sandwich cookie recipe) but I did make some modifications to it (more Fluff!). Also, I left the raisins out since a) I didn't have any at home and b) my husband doesn't like raisins. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how these came out! Thanks, Brooke, for the inspiration.

Oatmeal Cream Pies












1/2pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

Filling:
1/2 stick of butter
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 jar (7.5oz) of marshmallow Fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely.

While cookies are baking, beat filling ingredients on low with hand mixer until well combined. When cookies have cooled completely, generously spread filling on flat side of half of the cookies, then use the other half of the cookies to top them to make sandwiches (I made about 18 sandwiches with the amount of filling this recipe makes).

Store in "sandwiches" in refrigerator (this helps filling to "set" - as you'll see by the picture above, it's a little "oozy" at first). Take out of refrigerator about a half hour before serving to bring up to room temperature.

Toffee Blondies

Blondies....they're brownies...but not chocolate. So I guess they really aren't brownies....but you catch my drift. Here's a recipe I used this weekend that I found on Deborah's Culinary Confections (she calls them "Hodgepodge Blondies") which is a GREAT blog by the way, check it out. I made them decidedly Toffee Blondie because my husband and I are big fans of toffee. That being said, I used a lot of toffee in this recipe, so feel free to cut it down if you so choose.

Toffee Blondies

1 stick of butter, melted

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

1/2 cup toffee bits

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine butter, and brown sugar. Beat on low speed with mixer until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla extract on low speed with mixer.

Add flour, baking powder, and salt and beat in on low speed with mixer until well combined. Fold in toffee bits with spatula.

Bake 20-23 minutes or until set in the middle. Cool before cutting into squares.