Oatmeal Raisin Breakfast Cookies (The Yellow Wallpaper and My DIY Madwoman in the Attic Moment)

I try to never drag dear husband along to the grocery store. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost would be the "impulse issues" we both have when it comes to things like chocolate glazed donuts (in the bag!) and "instant breakfast food stuff". Sunday found us both at the store to pick up a few necessities. (After our walk/hike.) Not even two aisles into the place and he stops cold in front of the Hostess display. (We both are recovering Entenmann's Chocolate Glazed doughnut addicts.) Being a little spent from the morning activity, we had no business going anywhere near food. But yet, here we were. And like a true enabler, I said the unthinkable: Well, if you must. And sort of started down the rest of the aisle when again he'd stopped, only this time, he has a box of NEW Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Breakfast Bars in his hand and says, I had these on the plane last month, they weren't that bad. Really? What pray tell might said "cookies" be made of, I ask. (You can see where this is going.) The look on his face when he turned the box on its side to read the list of nearly thirty ingredients (some undecipherable to me) was priceless. 

Vegan BBQ Chicken Pizza Five Minute Style (DIY: New Kitchen Cabinets with Optional Baking Station Included!)

It started out as a trip to the home improvement store to have a "look-see" at the new interior paints for 2012. It turned into a seven day kitchen-cabinet-remodel-plus-living-room-bedroom-painting palooza. S-e-v-e-n days. Non-stop. During the home improvement festivities, cooking took a hiatus. Well sorta. We survived mainly on the remains of daily rations of pizza dough from this: Artisan Pizza and Flatbreads in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. And now, having acquired all of the cookbooks in the Five Minutes a Day collection, I can honestly say, I LOVE this and consider it one the best. Not only did this book keep us fed and nourished during our remodel project, it also created some of the best pizza dough I've EVER had. (No disrespect to Peter Reinhart.)

Vegan Apple Pie with Uber-Flaky Crust (Martha Stewart Paints "Sea Glass" in My Kitchen!)

It should come as no surprise that next to cake, pie holds the title second (sometimes first) closest to my heart. The art of making a pie is so much more involved than cake. At least it is to me. There is a double reward when pie is complete: pie filling AND pie crust. I am a huge crust fanatic. I admit it here for the first time that I have been known to sneak into my leftover pies to rip apart the crust leaving behind vestiges of filling scattered about cherishing big, crumbly, flaky baked dough. Maybe I should just bake a shell within a shell within a shell? Okay, maybe that would take me down the "shortbread" cookie road. I am thinking really hard on this right now.