use real butter

Recipe: almond crunch cookies

Whenever I read the word doing I think of it as doing – as in sounds like boing. Anyway, you get another cookie recipe today because I made a veritable boat load of cookies yesterday. I really enjoy holiday baking except when I have surgery and then a head cold right before the holidays. I had to wait until I was fully well enough to 1) bake and 2) not make everything all nasty and sick because that would be a really unkind token of appreciation.

But wait! It is Teh Last Day of the Menu for Hope IV fundraising campaign. If you haven’t skidaddled yourself over there to bid on some prizes, please consider doing so now (and then come back to my post). Pim has neatly organized the prizes according to your statistical chances of winning if you should bid (and you should bid!). Thankfully, my prize is not listed under Great Chances, but under Good Chances. See, you have a good chance of winning this prize from me if you bid on UC01. Repeat – UC01. Just think, you could pay $10 for a raffle ticket to get a print of this image which was featured on the NPR website:

or you could pay considerably more $ for a straight purchase or persevere years of medical training and slice me open like my surgeon to get one. Uh, the raffle ticket is the definite no brainer.

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: chocolate chip banana bread

I am not a banana enthusiast. If all of the fruits were lined up on stage for me to select one-by-one for eating, the banana would definitely be among the last remaining few, looking awkward and feeling self-conscious… I tend to prefer fruits that are juicy and refreshing. The banana makes me thirsty and drowsy. But I do know what is good for me and bananas are certainly that. I periodically buy some, hoping that the guilt of watching them rot will be enough incentive to chop one up to eat with some yogurt.

spotted bananas, my favorite!

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: bostini cream pie

This month, I joined the Daring Bakers which has exploded as far as membership goes. The Daring Bakers is an online community of people who bake a recipe selected by a host each month, and then post about the experience and the outcome on the same day. Our host was Mary of alpineberry who chose Bostini Cream Pie for this month’s DB challenge, and today is the day everyone is posting. Go to the blogroll to see everyone’s fine creations!

The Bostini is a variation on an old favorite, the Boston cream pie. The main components are: pastry cream, orange chiffon cake, and chocolate glaze. So I began with the pastry cream, because I looooove pastry cream. Love to eat it, love to make it.

crème patisserie: mixing in the yolks

**Jump for more butter**