Sweet Treats with Peggy

October 1st is National Homemade Cookie Day!!  I haven't baked in a long time due to healthy eating and fear of eating what I would bake.  When I saw that today was National Homemade Cookie Day, I thought it would be the perfect time to pull out all my baking stuff and make some cookies.   I am visiting Megan tomorrow at her college (actually I am picking her up at the University of Hartford and we are driving to Providence, RI to see Josh Groban in concert (be still my heart), staying overnight in a hotel and driving her back to school.  This is the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.  I can honor this great National Day AND bring Megan some cookies.  As I have mentioned in other posts, I have an overabundance of jams and I like to find ways to incorporate them into baking.  Shortbread is one of my favorite types of cookie.  Just add some poppy seeds and yummy jam and you have yourself a great cookie.  How about you pu...

I have lived in my apartment over a year and, little by little, I have been exploring the area of North Andover/Andover, MA.  The other day I read that it was the first day of the season for corn.  I waited until Ryan came home from work and we headed off to  about 3 or 4 farm/farm stands.  Some were better than others.  I can imagine what they will be like in the Fall.  Our favorite was  Smolak Farms   in North Andover.  They had such a cute shop that had lots of specialty food items, homemade donuts and ice cream, etc..  I was able to taste  their homemade strawberry jam and I was immediately hooked.  I have been collecting different jams lately from   Stonewall Kitchen, York, ME .  Those samples will get you every time.  As soon as I tasted the strawberry jam, I knew I had to get it and make a yummy dessert.  I found a recipe online from    Recipe Girl , which I have adapted.  Enjoy...

This is absolutely the best of both worlds.  Shortbread and fudge.  Sometimes you just want a piece of shortbread with a cup of coffee or tea.  Then there are other times you just need some chocolate.   But this is the goodness of shortbread and chocolate together.

I k now th at some people may not understand this, but sometimes I think I like lemon more than chocolate.  It just has this crisp, citrus taste and the smell is heavenly.  This bar combines the best of both worlds:  lemon and shortbread.  And let's not forget the taste of dried cranberries  come on, just yummy.  I will definitely be posting lots more recipes with lemon in the future. adapted from Good Housekeeping article