Cranberry Orange Pistachio Thumbprints

Whoot!  I am super excited to share these cookies with you!  They are amazing!  If you had walked past the front of our house this afternoon and looked in the window when I tried one, you might have thought I was a touch crazy.  That's because with my first bite, I had to let out my inner dance.  [Full disclosure:  I was listening to the Mariachi El Bronx (II) album, and how can you not dance when it is on?]  Even though I took my share of modern and ballroom dance classes in college (admittedly, this was a while ago now...), my inner dance still scares the crap out of Scott.  I'd like to believe that is because my dancing is so amazing that it intimidates him, but honestly, it's because I look like a crazy person.  Generally, I try to keep my inner dance harnessed until the curtains are drawn to minimize his embarrassment (and mine), but with all rules, there are exceptions, like this afternoon when I ate my first cranberry orange pistachio thumbprint.

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Pumpkin Muffins

I have been enjoying these muffins all week.  In particular, I have been eating one along with a fudge drop cookie as a snack around 3:30 or 4 pm at my desk.  Muffins make the perfect afternoon snack, don't you think?  Plus, these muffins contain both a vegetable and some whole wheat flour, so you can wear your baked-goods-masquerading-as-a-healthy-food halo.  Score!
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Caramel Apple Sour Cream Crumble

A few weeks ago, we bought some beautiful apples on our way home from my parents' house.  At the time, I was certain the apples were destined for a perfectly cooked pie.  I had told a friend that we would bring a dessert over the following weekend for a get together, and I hoped that my apple pie, paired with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, would make everyone swoon.  All week long, I thought about making the pie.  Its crust would be flaky and golden brown, and the apples, mounded impossibly high, would retain their structure so the filling wouldn't collapse into apple-cinnamon mush. 
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7 Layer Bars

The only redeeming quality of jet lag is that it can turn even the most stalwart of morning sleepers (i.e., me) into early morning risers.  Don't get me wrong; I am no longer a sleep-until-noon kind of person, but I can still manage to sleep in until 8 (or occasionally 9 am!) on a weekend and historically have been known to require 3 alarms to get up.  Yesterday morning, jet lag got the better of me and I had my feet on the floor at 4:57 am, was sending emails by 5:20 am, and Scott and I were traipsing about in the wet grass of the backyard to measure the distance for our new clothesline before the first rays of the sun sent their silvery fingers of light over the horizon .

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