Pumpkin Spice Cookies - vegan

Happy Halloween! And Happy Birthday, Daddy! It seemed appropriate to use a picture of me in costume (from back in the ballerina days for all you people out in the interwebs), and I've always liked how proud you look in this shot. Sorry I cut you out, Mom, but it's not your birthday (and I knew you wouldn't really mind). Have a great time at dinner! I'm glad the restaurant reopened!

I was wearing my cute new jack-o-lantern tshirt, and I was hoping to get Roomba to cooperate because a black dog is almost the same thing as a black cat, right? Well, she had very little interest in doing what I thought she should do. Basically, she was holding on for dear life. By her claws. In my shoulder.

Anywho, I hope all you east coasters are safe and that Sandy didn't cause too much damage for you. When you get electricity, I recommend making sure your oven works with a batch of cookies.

One Bowl Brownies - dairy free

It's been one of those weeks, you know? I'm not going to get into it, because, frankly, I don't want to, and, really, I doubt most of you want to know. You're here because of the brownies, yes? That's a good choice. Because they're really easy. Not quite as easy as a box, but pretty darn close.

DIY Homemade Sugar Cubes

It's the middle of our second Indian Summer of the month, and as much as I would like to be sharing a new bread recipe, I just couldn't bring myself to turn on the oven to try it again with another tweak or two. There have been two attempts thus far- one was pretty much a fail, and the second loaf tasted good but was rather more...dense...that I was aiming for.

However, I've had homemade sugar cubes in the back of my mind for a very long while, and it seemed like a good time to get them out in the real world.

Gingerbread Lite - vegan

So it turns out that sometimes having three days off in a week means that I'm not terribly productive. And by not terribly productive, I mean I caught up on the fall tv season, Netflix, Alex Delaware, & Jack Reacher. I did do about 20 loads of laundry in between, though, so that counts for something, yes?

Also, on the counting-for-something side of the scale, I did extensive (2 episodes worth) research in preparation for Mr Official Taster's birthday and produced these cupcakes. I even managed to photograph them, despite both the oversight and the help I had.