How has your week been? Are you gearing up for the holidays?

As we move into October it is time to start thinking about cookies and other Holiday baking. 50 Best Cookies and 50 Best Cookies Scene 2 are both good places to start. Remember that you can easily freeze cookie dough OR baked cookes and they will be fine for the holidays. Start picking up extra baking supplies so you will have them on hand when you want them.

Chocolate Espresso Sandwich Cookies
Boston Cream Pie Cake
Salsa Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken Apple Sausage
Black Bottom Mini Caramel Cupcake Bites
Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
Triple Threat Brownies
Mushroom Ricotta Ravioli
Fruit …read more

Coconut Cherry White Chocolate Bars are amazing. The bottom is a layer of  shortbread, followed by a gooey sweet layer of coconut, cherry and white chocolate and the thinnest of sugary, crispy crusts forms on top during baking.  Pure bliss. Pure richness. Best of all these, like all bar cookies, are  super easy and quick.

O.k..so it took me nearly all night but I did some baking. In fact this recipe is out of my cookbook….sort of. I found out something interesting tonight. I can’t even follow my OWN recipes verbatim.

So…Ethan comes up this stairs this afternoon carrying a huge, and very heavy box.
“Mom! I think Your books are here! Can I open it?”
Within seconds the entire brood is gathered aound barely staying out of harms way as Ethan wields a knife, expertly opening the box and…….

Twenty-five cookbooks! Author’s copies. ….WITH MY NAME ON THEM. Seriously…look at this:

That’s ME!
Not that I am excited or anything, I am absolutely too cool for that… I am still wondering how my name got on these cookbooks.
I heard that amazon im sending out the preordered copies on the 28th of August, so if you …read more

When I got the fennel pollen I knew I wanted that flavor in something unique. I considered a lot of things and decided that it needed to be something simple to make and yet complex in flavor.
These thumbprint cookies fit the bill.

The cookie base is a buttery shortbread and the fennel pollen gives it a delicate anise flavor. There is a crumbly texture which complements the cookie very well. Blackberry jam adds tangy sweetness while white chocolate ganache pulls all the flavors together into one big blast of “WOW!”.

Wow, time has gone by so fast!
I just got the news this morning that the author’s copies of the book are on their way. I should be receiving them sometime in the next week.

With being just a week post thyroidectomy I am feeling overwhelmed, flustered, excited, and dismayed. How’s that for a combination? I am feeling very well but my energy drains sooner than usual and it has been hard to keep up with my writing and editing duties. Trying to behave so that I will heal properly and quickly, and I am not so great at that either.
I have …read more

I promised Kyrie that we would have tea. I feel so frustrated sometimes because she is growing up so fast and I am so busy. I have never worked until the past two years so I have never had to turn down a tea party before. Anyway, we decided on Butterscotch Walnut cookies from an old Farm Journal Cookbook I have.

Once I had them mixed up the dough looked too gooey. I have had this problem with the Farm Journal cookie recipes before and I am not sure if it is a flaw in the cookbooks or the age of …read more

I wanted to share one of the recipes from my cookbook in case you wanted to pre-test it.  This is one of my favorites, and very unusual- blueberry white chocolate chip cookies.  I developed these because I loved the blueberry white chocolate muffins I made so much.  I kept thinking that it would make such an awesome flavor combination in the right cookie-and I was right!

These are crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, with a buttery combination of flavors that just keep revealing themselves as you eat: lemon, white chocolate, nutmeg, blueberry…

So, everyone who knows me  in real life knows I have these amazingly vivid dreams.  Sometimes when I wake up I have trouble figuring out what is real and what is not.  I think I have reality issues anyway.
But, some of my best recipes have been created from a dream that I was eating something.  My dream last night was amazing.

I love making Christmas cookies but get tired of making the same ones year after year. My family likes tradition and by the time they are two most of my kids can tell you what should be on the cookie plate for each holiday, what dishes should be on the table, and if I forget or try to do something different, you can bet I hear about it.
I can add to the basic stuff but never, never take away and do something different.

Tomorrow is the Annual Audet Gingerbread House Party…it is also Sean’s 10th birthday.  So, if you have been wondering at the lack of Christmas festivity here at Baking Delights, wonder no more.  It isn’t Christmas until Sean’s birthday is over!