Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies

So two weeks ago I had this brilliant idea to bake chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting for Rebecca’s small group. They just looked so adorable! So I did bake them, and they were adorable, only it turns out I honestly just don’t like raspberry. (Which I guess isn’t really a problem, considering they were for Rebecca and her girls, not me.) What was a problem was all the leftover raspberry frosting in my refrigerator.

Chocolate Chip and Toffee Cookies

It seems that nearly every person in the food-blogosphere is, or was at some point, on the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Me, I’m not so concerned about the holy grail of chocolate chip cookies. Cheesecake, maybe I could get into that (if I had the time… and, let’s be honest, the money– cream cheese is expensive!). But you’d be hard-pressed to find a cookie I didn’t like, so the idea of putting in all the effort to find my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe holds little appeal. There are so many other wonderful cookies I could be baking!

Whole-Wheat Chocolate-Almond Biscotti (with Orange Zest!)

Honestly, the only way to motivate myself into doing schoolwork is to bake. I’ve been reasonably productive over the weekend, but I really need to do some honest-to-goodness studying this afternoon. The only thing keeping me from baking prolific amounts of muffins, cookies, and cupcakes right now is the fact that I have plans to bake tomorrow for Rebecca’s small group as well. So I decided to keep it quick (I do have studying to do, you know!) and simple.

Banana Cupcakes

Although you wouldn’t know it based on the recent chronicles of my baking ventures, I am a cupcake person. Indeed I am. Leave Amanda to her healthy bran muffins; I want a cupcake filled– and frosted!– with sugary goodness. 

So when I realized this morning that my remaining two bananas were wonderfully brown, I knew what I wanted to bake: banana cupcakes. Amanda and I made these, oh, probably two or three years ago from Martha Stewart’s recipe, so I decided to use it again (although, I admit, I don’t particularly remember how our earlier attempt turned out). Martha calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of mashed bananas, which she translates to about 4 bananas. As I only had two, I simply halved the recipe. (Incidentally, I ended up with seven cupcakes instead of six, as one would expect. Not that I mind.)

Brownies in a Hurry!

I don’t care too much for Sandra Lee (her tablescapes really intimidate me, I’m not kidding), but I have to admit: it’s how the average person cooks. I can’t always make everything from scratch; I have neither the time nor the ambition. Today especially, time has been a commodity I just don’t have. By the time I got home from class and discipleship this afternoon, I needed something quick and easy to bake for Rebecca’s small group (their second meeting of the semester). Fortunately I had the forethought… or maybe the lack of will-power…  last week to buy brownie mix (it was on sale buy one get one free at Publix!). But me being me, I couldn’t just follow the directions on the back of the box and send along any ol’ brownies. Oh no, no, no. 

Oatmeal Cherry Muffins

Due to my determined procrastination on schoolwork over the holiday weekend, I had heaps of reading and translating to do once I got off work this afternoon. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like things that need to be done to make me want to bake instead. (It’s stress relief! or I need a break from studying!) But I was (fairly) studious this afternoon and accomplished most of the reading and the Latin translation for classes tomorrow.

What to do to celebrate such a productive day? Bake, of course! I actually made some muffins on Sunday (slightly modified from Joy the Baker’s recipe again– I used dried cranberries instead of blueberries). My mornings are usually pretty rushed, and I figured muffins would be an easy and healthy thing to grab for breakfast on my way out the door. I should have realized that between my roommate and me, these muffins would not last until the end of the week. Breakfast? Snack? Dessert? Those muffins have been all of those things for the past three days.

Double Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

So in addition to being a full-time student and part-time employee, I am also the honorary “mother” of my roommate’s freshmen ministry small group. I don’t quite remember how I earned this position, but sometime last semester I decided to send cupcakes with Rebecca to her small group… and the next week I sent cookies… and every week after that I sent her with some baked good or another. (Incidentally, all the girls made me the most adorable thank-you notes towards the end of the semester. You know, with big bubble letters and hearts and everything. It was awesome.)

When I got home from classes around 4:00 this afternoon, I realized that today is the first small group meeting of the semester! Time to throw something together fast. Last week I devised some elaborate plan to make mini-trifles based on my amazing almond-chocolate pudding that I mentioned in passing a few posts ago, but that brilliant plan will have to wait for some other week since I don’t have the necessary ingredients hanging out in the pantry.

Experimental Banana Oatmeal Loaf Thing

I know I promised a recipe from Nigella– and believe me, I have one picked out and everything– but rest assured, neither is this another Martha recipe. Like Amanda, I felt inspired by Joy the Baker’s recent Oatmeal Blueberry Applesauce Muffins. I originally wanted to make these into apple-chai muffins– I tried and fell in love with Starbuck’s new Apple-Chai Infusion last week– but when I went in search of cardamom at the grocery store, I discovered that it was far too expensive for a college student in the middle of buying 4958381 books for this semester. Nixed that plan.

But this morning I really, really wanted to bake these muffins. Alas, I have neither applesauce nor blueberries in my house at the moment. However, I did have two browning bananas that were begging to be baked into something yummy. Hmmm… As I began to throw together these muffins with what I had on hand, I realized by the time I finished with this recipe it would only have a passing resemblance to Joy the Baker’s.

Black Bean Stew

I don’t know too many recipes by memory, mostly because I rarely cook or bake the same thing that often. I like to try new recipes and change previously-attempted (and sometimes never-attempted) ones. This black bean stew is one of the exceptions. I’ve made it several times, but the recipe is so simple (and did I mention delicious!) that it’s almost impossible not to remember.

Dark Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Friday Pandy and I made two (!) pumpkin pies with my leftover pumpkin puree (and she still ended up taking some of it home… apparently I had a lot more pumpkin than I originally thought). This morning I whipped my remaining whipping cream with a bit of almond extract, then folded it into a prepared chocolate pudding mix. So needless to say, I do not need any other sweet treats around my kitchen.

Well, tell that to Bake or Break’s recipe for Dark Chocolate Chunk and Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies.