Boy, howdy, these cookies are everything you’ve ever wanted a cookie to be (and by you, I mean me). It’s that time of year again: baking treats for my company’s annual bakesale, which raises donations for the Alameda County Food Bank. And I take no credit whatsoever for this epic chocolate-oat-coconut-pecan creation. One of my favorite food bloggers, Brown Eyed Baker, whose website I drool and marvel over regularly, posted this recipe and I knew it was a match made in cookie heaven. I love cowboy cookies and this recipe promised to make giant cookies—even better.

Once I read the recipe over I realized I didn’t have a mixing bowl large enough for the amounts called for, so I cut the recipe by half and still ended up with 25 hefty cookies—they really do spread quite a bit. Mine are at least 4 inches diameter. For the whole scoop on these delicious cookies, please see the original post at Brown Eyed Baker.

The only tweak I made was adding about 3/4 cup raisins, because to me, a cowboy cookie ain’t a cowboy cookie without a currant of some kind. But maybe that’s a cowgirl cookie? What’s the difference?

One year ago: A little army of holiday prints

This weekend was destined for pie baking. Pie fever kicked off a few weeks ago when I picked up the Thanksgiving issue of Martha Stewart Living. I’ve never read her magazine before, but the Sweet-Potato Meringue and Apple-Pear pies on the cover looked so beautiful that I couldn’t leave the bookstore without it.

Pie love continued on Friday when I rode my bicycle near Jack London Square and found the walk-up window for Pietisserie on Oak Street near 4th Street. At the 2011 Eat Real Festival I tried one of her handheld beet pies and found it to be amazing—not overpoweringly sweet as pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie can be. Her beet pie has a mild sweetness and the filling is very light. So I was excited to see her window, and the entire corner of Oak Street and 5th transformed.

I couldn’t leave without a miniature Spiced Apple pie with cardamom-oat crumble:

With extra-wide lattice crust on my mind Sunday, I broke down and made a blackberry-apple-pear pie laced with chocolate. I know. Crazy. I’ve never used chocolate in a fruit pie before, but I figured since chocolate-strawberry and chocolate-banana are great combinations…Why not pear and apple too?

The results: good. The fruit combination is delicious—a little tart from the berry, a little grainy from the pear. Truth be told, as much as I love chocolate, I might skip it next time. It overpowers the flavor of the fruit, and, really, I’m happy to let fruit pie just be fruit pie.

Super flaky crust recipe here, if you’re curious. So flaky in fact that I had a lot of trouble working with the dough. It calls for freezing 3/4 of the butter, which was all-new to me.

I baked my first ever loaf of crusty white bread this morning, and I am amazed. I am awestruck. The process could not have been simpler as I used a no-knead recipe, and most of the work involves just waiting for the dough to rise. Note: some planning ahead is required. I waited out the whole 20 hours of rising time, mixing the dough Saturday afternoon so I could work with it Sunday morning.

I’ve worked with dough plenty making pizza and baked dishes and desserts, but this is a whole other thing. Each time I peeked at the dough as it was rising, I was startled by it as a pulsing, moving thing. It was alive. And when I removed the loaf from the oven, perhaps the most exciting part was hearing it pop and hiss as the surface of the bread cracked.

After 18 hours of rising

I used the New York Times No-Knead Bread recipe, adapted from Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery. The only way I altered the recipe was by adding rolled oats and sunflower seeds to the flour mixture before pouring in the water. And before setting the round of dough to rise for the final two hours, I added another handful of oats to the top before placing it seam-side down on the cotton towel.

It looks like a mess when you flip it into the pot and flour gets everywhere . . . Not to worry.

Halfway through baking

Voila! Bread!

Hello, hi-yo. Yes, I’m still here, still cooking. An afternoon or evening spent in the kitchen helps soothe my soul, and I’m discovering that I truly enjoy sharing the results with my neighbors and friends as much as I enjoy making the dish. It might be true…my true calling might be food-related.

The last week was a tough one, culminating in an eerie Friday the 13th and a blue weekend. Cooking and baking can always be counted on to put me in better spirits—cooking combined with Sam Cooke, even better.

For lunch today I made pizzettas:

One topped with marinara sauce, salami, mozzarella, and bell peppers, and the other substituting the mozzarella for ricotta; a sprinkling of arugula on both.

I’m reading Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone, had for only $5 at Owl & Company Bookshop, a memoir of her family, her childhood, and growing up in the kitchen. Recipes are scattered throughout the book and I was inspired today to try her recipe for apple dumplings.

Lay down some dough

Cut pastry dough into squares, lay a cored apple on each square

Fill each hollow with spoonfuls of sugar-cinnamon mixture

Dot with butter

Wrap each apple up pinching ends together; chill then bake

I don’t have photos of the finished result, because my take on the dumplings was not that pretty truth be told…They look like big pastry covered baseballs. My task for next time: better presentation. But, the results were salty-sweet and delicious. It’s like a miniature apple pie served with hard sauce—try this link for Ruth Reichl’s recipe.

With the amount of greenery that gets stuck in teeth, to lips, and in hair (me, me, and me) you’ll have to really be in love with your partner before dining on this recipe together. That said, the simplicity of a fresh pesto sauce can’t be beat and thanks to my ma, a living, breathing cookbook, I now have a new favorite summer recipe.

I remember her pesto sauce well, made many times over the years, but as she noted on the phone today I was also confusing it with a sauce she made for salmon—similar to pesto but a thicker consistency with cumin and some other ingredients.

This pesto sauce recipe she rattled off on the phone and I altered it a bit to fit the available ingredients I had in the house.

In a food processor or blender, mix the following:

2-3 cups of basil
A handful of parsley (which I didn’t have, so I used cilantro instead)
2-3 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbs. toasted pine nuts or walnuts (I used a mix of pine nuts and sunflower seeds)
Salt and pepper

Once blended it makes a kind of paste, add olive oil to moisten and thin until desired.

I tossed linguine noodles with the sauce, added sliced mini heirloom tomatoes, and maybe half a cup of parmesan cheese.