Pumpkin Walnut Scones

I’ve had this can of pumpkin sitting in my pantry for months now. I had secret ambitions of making another pumpkin cheesecake, but I had also promised Rebecca a pumpkin pie at some point around Thanksgiving. Neither intention materialized. So when I was wondering what to bake this afternoon after coming home from the grocery store, I decided it was time to use some of that pumpkin. I settled on scones– something I’ve never made before. After a little research, I cobbled together a recipe and crossed my fingers.

Chocolate Shortbread

Oh my, another Martha recipe.  I promise we’re not total addicts.  It’s just that Mary gave me Martha Stewart’s Cookies book for Christmas, so I had to try a recipe from it.  I had a lot of extra butter in the fridge from holiday baking, so I decided on a shortbread recipe.  Martha calls them “Chocolate Charms,” but I skipped dusting mine with cocoa powder, which gives me reason enough to rename them (drum roll, please) chocolate shortbread.

Whole-Wheat Raisin Biscotti

I’ve wanted to try a biscotti recipe for a while, but for some reason it always seemed daunting.  Maybe the twice-baked thing, and cutting the log into those adorable little pieces.  Yeah… terrifying.  

Nonetheless, I decided to face my fears the day after Christmas!  I found a recipe on Martha’s (we’re on a first name basis) website that doesn’t use butter (some biscotti recipes do, some don’t) and seems healthy (I’m on a whole-wheat baking kick).  Whole-Wheat Walnut-Raisin Biscotti!  It has great reviews.  Then I went and changed the recipe…

Martha’s Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies

This morning was a baking sort of morning. Some days are like that. (Okay, most days are like that.) The only problem this morning was I didn’t have any eggs. And how many things can you bake without eggs? Only one recipe I know off the top of my head: Marthat Stewart’s Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies. Amanda (who I affectionately call Pandy) and I have made these cookies together twice before, but I was certain that the batch I decided to bake this morning would fail miserably. We’re not too neurotic about following recipes precisely– actually, we rather like to experiment– so surely I couldn’t completely botch these cookies.