Granny's Oatmeal Bread

Dear Ginny,
Yesterday it was finally cool enough to turn on the oven and bake my first loaves of bread for autumn. I used a recipe for oatmeal bread from my aunt's mother, who died about ten years ago. She was an amazing woman who used to take us on walks to "gnome caves" in the woods behind her home on an island off the coast of Maine, and she baked bread all the time even though she was allergic to wheat! I thought this one turned out pretty well, though it was a little too molasses-y for my taste. I think I prefer honey as a sweetener in bread dough. We had friends over for dinner, and I served it with a big pot of soup au pistou, made with vegetables from the farmer's market.

A Quick Fix

Dear Caitlin,
I have to admit that I've been feeling like a bad neighbor lately! After we decided to do this blog together I got pulled into a vortex of last-minute projects and plans, no doubt a result of my starting school this week. But now I've started school, and everything went off smoothly...and I'm still alive! I do have to thank that person that called in a bomb threat on Wednesday though, because I missed two classes as a result of it, and I'm sure that those teachers had a lot of homework planned for my weekend! Therefore, in lieu of homework I decided to bake a quick batch of cookies.

I chose a recipe from the trusty Martha Stewart website because I wanted to make a bar-style cookie and I didn't want to make a trip to the store for any special ingredients. The beauty of this particular recipe is that it calls for the butter to be melted, which is perfect when you want a quick cookie fix! You can find the recipe for them if you click here.

The recipe calls for walnuts, but I didn't have any walnuts. I substituted with Pecans and I toasted them, which the recipe doesn't call for. I think that as a general rule I prefer to toast nuts before I bake them. What do you think? It seems to bring out the flavor and cut that bitter aftertaste, but do you know if there would be a reason to not toast them?

Either way, the bars were chewy and delicious! A truly perfect quick fix when you're in need of a cookie.