oatmeal cream pies

i classify almost all of my weekday baking as "stress induced" and "impulse baking." case in point, these oatmeal cream pies. some night last week (i think it was tuesday?) after a particularly long day at work and awork to do list with about six items on it and a home to do list with about right items - neither of them involving "do something fun, like bake cookies" - i had the urge to bake. i scrolled through the 124 cookie recipes i have saved in my google reader. chocolate chip? boring, at least for today. whoopie pies? peanut butter and chocolate? delicious! but oh they're too fussy and i'm in no mood for fuss. i needed a quick recipe with a high success rate; i'm in no mood for a failure. which brings me to these oatmeal cream pies. perfect. at 9:00 at night, while you're watching your favorite show, i'm mixing oatmeal and creaming marshmallow. and forty five minutes later i was licking the cookie & marshmallow cream bowls, assembling cookies.

tomato basil risotto

this year my garden had a major overhaul. instead of trying to cram anything and everything in my two hundred square feet, i decided to focus on four things - romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green beans, and tomatoes. fourteen tomato plants to be exact. six romas, one glamour, one san marzano, six cherries, and one unknown my grandpa grew from seed (and so far is doing the best of the bunch - hopefully they all do much better this year than last). i picked my first tomato of the year this week and celebrated it with the perfect summer risotto. and since my basil has been going crazy for weeks, i couldn't help but stir some in at the end. i bet these would make out of this world risotto cakes.

cherry almond snacking cakes

i'm a sucker for books. and by books, i mean real books, with printed pages. i don't care what the research says, there's something about reading a real book that an ebook can't match. no way. and when i find a book i want to buy, i'm the one who reaches in the back of the stack - past at least four or five of the same book - to get a copy that no one else has opened. i want the new book smell. the crack of the spine when i open to read it. which brings me to borders, a week and a half ago, when their going out of business sales kicked off. and while we were waiting in line to check out, i noticed a huge sale sign in front of the magazines. needless to say i walked out with all the america's test kitchen special editions i could get my hands on. and promptly made these cakes the next day.

creamy corn with cilantro

it shouldn't be all that surprising to hear how often we eat mexican food in my house. with all the burritos, tacos for breakfast and dinner, salsa, taco salad, rice, quesadillas, baked eggs, and fajitas, i am always on the lookout for something new to add to the mexican rotation. and in this case, another way to mix corn - one of my favorite vegetables, especially now, when it's finally in season - with queso fresco, one of my new favorite cheeses.

coconut lime pound cake

when i was a kid, i loved reaching my hand into a box of chocolates, taking a bite, and seeing what i got. and in our house, boxes of chocolate only came once a year, at christmas in the form of a four piece whitman's sampler, so you had better pick a good one. each and every year, as hard as i tried to avoid the coconut, it felt like i always chose it first. and the only thing worse to a kid with braces was the chewy chocolate covered caramel.

lucky for me, i grew up and discovered true coconut goodness - pina coladas, coconut popsicles, samoas. and now i can add this cake to the list. it's the perfect bite of tropical goodness, when instead of lying on the beach drinking a pina colada, you're stuck at your desk at work, day dreaming about your next island getaway. the only thing better? a real pina colada, sitting on the beach, in mid february.