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...

How is it possible that it has been over a year since I posted in this blog.  I made a huge decision last year that I wanted to sell my house.  I am a single mom and wanted my kids to be able to live in a home in their school district.  They no longer need to do that so hence, the decision.  I knew it would take me a year to get my house in order, weed out a lot of things, and put it on the market.  I did all of that.  I let go of things that were very dear to me, but realized they were only possessions.  I sold a lot, gave away a lot and dumped a lot.  I had no choice since I was downsizing to an apartment.  I put my house on the market on a Friday, the first week of May.  I had an offer on Sunday.  It was that quick.   I am so grateful it sold that quickly and I am also grateful that I have a very lovely apartment that is cozy and comfortable and perfect for me and my daughters, who are only going to be here during summe...

Recipe number two from Lauren Chattman's "Mom's Big Book of Cookies".  These are nice and chewy.  Enjoy!

Last weekend I took Ryan for a overnight college visit to Wells College in Aurora, NY.  We got there earlier than we needed to so we could explore the area.  The first town we went to was Ithica.  We went there because that is the only place in the entire area that has a mall.  It seems that Ryan needed to buy a pair of pants for her college visit.  I would have rather driven by Cornell University instead of shopping at Sears, but these things happen when you have a teen.   One of the places we ended up was a used book store. While Ryan bought Animal Farm by George Orwell, I went the more fun route. I purchased "Mom's Big Book of Cookies - 200 Family Favorites You'll Love Making and Your Kids Will Love Eating" by Lauren Chattman.  I looked the book up on Amazon from my phone and it looked like I was getting a really good deal.  On top of that, it looked brand new.  Not to mention, the recipes really caught my eye.  I knew ...

Thanks to my friend, Robyn Gray, I saw this on Facebook.  I immediately passed it onto Ryan (who thinks Oreos are the bees knees) and knew that I would be making it sooner rather than later.  I've always said there are two flavor combinations that are my favorite:  mint and chocolate and peanut butter and chocolate.  Adding Oreo cookies to the mix just makes it that much better. The hardest part, and by that I don't really mean hard, but time-consuming, is adding the brownie batter to the cookies.  Other than that, you will complete these in no time at all.  If you need a baked good right away, then pull out these three simple things:  Oreo cookies, peanut butter and a brownie mix.  You won't be sorry (and neither will those who eat them)!