Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I've been threatening to make some cookies for several weeks now. The threat is an empty one since no one stands to gain from this but me.

That's partly why I used this Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin recipe from smitten kitchen. The recipes is a halfsy. The last time I made cookies in May, I had cookies for days. Not a good thing. I did end up giving lots of them away.  But it's not just the amount of cookies, but the amount of time it takes to bake them as well.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (July, 2011)

The cookies look quite tasty and they are, but they're not quite sweet enough; I mean, they are sweet, but this recipe only called for a bit of brown sugar (and I think I measured it inaccurately because it was clumped together). I did add raisins as well as some cranberries and walnuts.

Previously I'd used this Easy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe and though it makes a large batch, I'll continue to use it in the future because I liked that batch better. Besides, I can always freeze the batter or the cookies.

And that's it ... I need to bag these cookies to give away to my friends.

Sweet Potato Pound Cake

This image should have been posted some time ago, but better late than never, right?

My mom made a Sweet Potato Pound Cake for the Thanksgiving holiday. We'd never had one before. Actually we'd recently had a Sweet Potato Cake at a place called Catfish Fridays in D.C.

We retrieved the recipe from the Internet ... if I can find it, I will come back and update this post.

The pound cake was delicious. I really enjoyed it. Don't know if I would do anything different with it. I ate it plain, but I also had it warmed up w/some French Vanilla ice cream. Quite yummy that way.

Granola Bars - yummy

I recently made a batch of granola bars. I've been wanting to make this recipe for about six months or so. I think the delay was in gathering up the ingredients. I was always missing something and even for the batch I finally made, I was missing the wheat germ. But that's okay by me (and my belly).

I got the recipe from the Food Network's Alton Brown. I must admit that he is not my fav Food Network host. I do like him, but he's just over the top in info for me. Sometimes the back story is okay, but most of the time I am impatient to get on w/the business of cooking.

However, Alton came through w/this recipe. Actually a former colleague made some granola bars using this recipe and I was smitten. She shared the recipe and I am totally hooked.

Here's what I like about them:

• chewy
• sweet

Also, you can add and subtract some of the ingredients like the fruit and nuts. I used walnuts and sliced almonds. I did not toast the walnuts. Along w/dried cranberries and some mixed raisins.

I was going to share them w/my neighbors, but I have not gotten around to that yet ... meanwhile, the granola bars are evaporating ...