Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not a fan of bourbon at all (too strong for my taste), but last week, I ended up getting a bottle to make a tasty-looking bourbon molasses pork recipe. It turned out great, but now I have this giant bottle of bourbon that I'm certainly not going to drink!

Lemon Ricotta Cookies

My new favorite weekly activity is going to the local farmer's market on Saturdays. This market sells the leftover "ugly" fruit and vegetables that groceries and restaurants have rejected. Usually this means incredible deals - whole boxes of fruit for a dollar, huge bunches of kale for a few bucks - so I've started to get all my produce from here. 

S'mores cookies

Last weekend, I had plans to go camping in Acadia National Park with the roommates. It was something that I was really looking forward to, but I somehow got terribly sick. It's summer and it was just a cold, but it left me barely able to get out of bed for days. So camping was definitely out.

Chocolate turtle cookies

I don't eat much in the way of sweets, but I do have a soft spot for all things caramel. One of my favorite candies are those turtle chocolates - you know, those little bundles of chocolate all wrapped up in caramel and pecans?

Mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches

Another month goes by, and I have myself another kitchen toy! This time, it's an ice cream machine. So far, I've already made a lemon-basil sorbet, a chai ice cream, and a Nutter Butter cookies 'n cream ice cream. By peak ice cream season, I should have a good base recipe down (and a fridge filled to the brim with ice cream).

Butter and jam thumbprint cookies

So, I pretty much have fallen by behind in updating this blog, but I'm still baking every week!

Caramel apple cookies

Fall is finally (almost) here, which means it's time for all the fall baking spices and flavors! Apples, pumpkins, cinnamon, nutmeg - all my favorite ingredients to wok with!

Oatmeal raisin peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

The students from my department put on a talent show this week, and as my talent, I entered six dozen baked goods for everyone to taste. Not really a performance talent, but no one in the audience was complaining!

Snowball cookies

With all the snow outside, it was only appropriate that I bake something honoring the winter. So today, we have snowball cookies!

Chocolate brownie cutout cookies

As I've mentioned before, I tend to dislike recipes that involve rolling dough out. I much prefer to just scoop and plop the dough straight onto the baking sheets with as little dough handling as possible. For the sake of pretty cookies however, it's an effort that I'll make.

White chocolate pumpkin snickerdoodles

Happy belated Halloween everyone! I usually don't put much effort into my costumes, but this year, someone was awesome enough to make me an amazing TARDIS hat (the light on the top blinks and everything!). All I had to do was put on my TARDIS apron and not move my head too quickly (the hat was pretty heavy).

Chocolate chip cookies

It's been a busy week - homework is starting to pick up, as well as other grad-school related things. I was able to make time on Tuesday to bake, but didn't get around to the blog post until today - but here it is (although short)!

Red bean sesame cookies

I hope to avoid being a stereotypical poor grad student, yet somehow keep up my baking habit. After doing the math, I should be just fine, but still, I can't go wasting ingredients. After recipe though (especially a more unique recipe), I often have leftover ingredients that aren't commonly used in other recipes. I hate to see that food to go waste, so my solution has been experimenting with new recipes that use up what I have.

Peanut butter apple cookies

We are still working through the massive pile of apples we brought from last week's apple picking, but luckily we're not sick of apples yet! Naturally, to help speed along the apple-depleting process before they all rot, I decided to bake with them. Again.

Chocolate cake mix cookies

I don't have much time these days. Moving across the country is no easy task, with all of the logistics to take care of. Plus, I want to hang out with as many of my friends as often as I can before I leave. This weekend was no exception. Lots of fun, but very little time for rest.

Cake mix funfetti cookies

I've heard quite a bit about the Wilton Method classes and always have been curious to try them, but the courses are pretty pricey. Last month though, I was shopping at Michael's for craft supplies, and the store happened to be holding a special on their classes, giving me the opportunity to sign-up for Course 1 (Building Buttercream Skills) for half-off.

Peanut butter s'mores cookies

This past weekend, I was up camping at Lassen Volcanic National Park. I had no idea I lived so close to an active volcano and was really excited to climb. Lassen Peak exploded in 1915 (quite recent for a volcano) and during this time of year was still covered in snow. The view from the top was very pretty, but it was the climb up Cinder Cone that made me actually go "YUP. VOLCANO." It's really hard to put into words (and impossible to capture it all on camera) how different and alien-like Cinder Cone was and was really worth very painful step up that steep slope.

No-bake peanut butter Nutella cookie truffles!

So after making my adorable little Cookie Monsters last week (which were quite the hit), I had a whole bunch of store bought mini-chocolate chip cookies leftover.

"Why don't you just hand them out and pretend you baked them?" suggested one friend. "You have enough baking credibility to pull that off."

Peanut butter cup cookies

I guess April must be my own personal cookie baking month or something. So far, of the five recipes I've posted during this month (including this one), four of them have been cookies. Must be a sign that it's been a busy month - cookies are a lot quicker to bake than baking, filling, and icing cupcakes!

Puffy snickerdoodles

And as promised, here's part two of my Friday night cookie extravaganza: snickerdoodles! I baked these at the same time as I made my caramel gingersnaps and I've been bringing these cookies to every weekend activity so far - but there are STILL cookies leftover. Which is not a bad problem at all to have!