cherry brown butter bars

according to my cherry lady at the market, this week is the last of the cherries. bummer. this summer, more than ever, i've come to love perfectly red, ripe cherries. but you wouldn't know that, since cherries haven't really graced the pages of this blog much, have they? i better change that this week...you might want to stock up and get our your cherry pitter, because i have an unbelievable cherry jam coming up...

anyway, back to the bars. couple cherries with a crunchy shortbread crust and creamy brown butter filling and you've got the perfect end to a summer barbecue, or enchilada fest, as i would have it.

black bean stuffed avocados

one of my favorite local restaurants is salenas, in village gate. jason always and i almost always get the flag - one chicken enchilada with white sauce, one pork enchilada with green tomatillo sauce and one beef enchilada with traditional red enchilada sauce - except for the last time, when i got the stuffed avocados. theirs were stuffed with spicy black beans, peppers, and onions, served with a side of beans and rice. i simplified mine a bit (and really, the recipe below isn't even really a recipe, but a suggestion) stuffing them with the same spicy black beans i often put in a taco or serve on the side and a simple pico de gallo. not only was the avocado creamy and delicious, but it got me thinking - what else could be stuffed inside?

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.