For August 27

Back from Hawaii! Andrew and I were gone for 10 days on vacation. Now back. Sigh. A very hard landing on return. Anyway, amid the 100-degree heat, I was in the kitchen baking last night, and here are the items I made:

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars, from Nick Malgieri
Macademia Shortbread Brownies, from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet

Both bar-type cookies this week - I didn't get home until 8 p.m. last night, and we still haven't unpacked from our trip, which called for relatively simple recipes this week. The cranberry oatmeal bars are what they sound like - lots of oats, with some cranberries and pecans. The sweetness comes from a combination of dark brown sugar and unsweetened applesauce. Not much fat in these at all. While it is in the high 90s here today, these are clearing the way out for fall to arrive (please!).

The brownie recipe is rather interesting. First, you make a shortbread layer at the bottom of your pan, and add nuts to it - in this case, macadamia nuts, in a nod to the recent trip to Hawaii. After that bakes, you add pour a brownie batter on top, and then bake it again. So it ends up being a brownie on top of a thin macadamia shortbread crust. I made this recipe some time ago, except I used hazelnuts instead of macadamia nuts. There are also two different brownie recipes you can use for the brownie layer; I used the "Best Cocoa Brownies" recipe, which I made recently and was well received. This is a nice contrast of the intense, fudgy brownie atop the shortbread crust, with the macadamia adding an almost ethereal element to the mix.

Next week, the Center is on recess, so we will be taking the week off. However, I just received two dessert cookbooks from Flo Braker in the mail yesterday, so I will use the time off to peruse and plan...

Oh, and I have been doing the "blog" thing now for a year!!! Wow! Happy Birthday to me!