Alphabet Soup

It's been ages since I've actually participated in the Cookie Carnival , but this month I swore I was going to jump back in!  We were given the choice of two different cookie recipes (or both) but the one that I really wanted to try was the Apple Butter Cookies .  But then, I was presented with a dilemma.  Do I use the apple butter I picked up at a local orchard, or the pumpkin butter that I found at World Market?  The pumpkin butter won out, this time.  I mostly followed the recipe, although I used all-purpose flour instead of pastry flour.  The recipe calls for "fancy molasses" and I didn't really know the difference between types of molasses.  I'm not sure how reliable it is, but I found an explanation here  and another here .  I didn't have any fancy molasses, and wasn't going to go on the hunt for any, at least not today.  I did, however, have plenty of unsulphured molasses in the cabinet, so that is what I used.  The...

Why look!  It's an actual blog post from me.  Shocking, I know.  No excuses or apologies.  It's just life!  :) A couple of days ago I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and after reading through the comments, I got some ideas on how to adapt it.  This is my interpretation.  The original recipe can be found here . I also made some salsa that night.  Some Pioneer Woman Restaurant Style Salsa , which I actually found through Good Life Eats .  Salsa, like most food, is very personal.  What works for me may not work for you.  But here's how I changed the recipe up to suit my family (and I may still tweak it a bit!).  Note:  I started with the adaptation of the recipe from Good Life Eats, except I used two cans of original Rotel.  I mixed my salsa up in the blender.  If you want it slightly chunkier, I'd go for the food processor instead.  Next time, I will drain the cans of Rotel, and maybe the tomatoes too....

This week, Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine chose Peanut Butter Crisscrosses to bake for Tuesdays with Dorie .  I'm not sure why, but I don't often make peanut butter cookies.  Sprout will eat anything.  I think we've established that fact.  And although Munchkin likes peanut butter and cookies, he won't even try one.  Slight surprise there. I really liked these.  It seemed that some bakers had their cookies turn out soft while others turned out crisp.  Mine were more on the crisp side.  Not biscotti hard, just nice and crisp.  I didn't add quite as many chopped peanuts as the recipe called for.  It was nice finding the occasional chunk without them being overwhelming.  D even liked them, saying that he doesn't usually like peanut butter cookies but that these were good.  Leave it to Dorie -- she's become my baking go-to girl!  I must have made mine (much) smaller that Dorie does thoug...