I really wanted to post a timely s’mores recipe, but Kenny and I were away. And not only were we away, but we were also at a hotel hosting the Girl Scouts for National S’more Day. Talk about hitting pay dirt! There were s’more kits and fire pits everywhere.

Now that I’m back, I wanted to pay my respects to what is truly a marvelous holiday. Sorry if I’m a few days late! But these s’mores cookie cups should be worth it. They’re chocolate chip cookies filled and topped with everything you need in a s’more: the chocolate and marshmallow love. I’m excited to have these in the house!

The other day, I had a good belly laugh, and I really needed it. I’m sure you understand. They can be hard to come by, those hearty belly laughs, but they’re the best.

Kenny has this habit of sneezing his way through the first few hours of the morning. Some mornings are more extreme than others, and so I often don’t even notice. When I do, I usually just make sure he doesn’t have a cold before I give him a kiss.

Anyway, the kids and I were sitting at the kitchen table having a peaceful breakfast when Kenny sneezed. He was walking around gathering laundry, and he sneezed again. And again. And again. The poor guy was just on a roll.

For some reason, the kids and I found this to be massively hilarious. I can’t really explain why, but the symphonic sneezing had us in stitches. We laughed until our sides hurt. Well, except for Kenny. He was waiting for one of us to say, “Bless you.” Which we did eventually.

It just felt good to laugh, especially with my children. I have to be the disciplinarian so often, which means that I don’t always have the ability to just burst into laughter. I should do it more often, though, because it’s a quick and easy way to get some therapy.

Do you know what else is quick and easy? Yep, these s’more cookie cups!

I used refrigerated cookie dough.  It was the gluten-free kind, too. Immaculate Baking makes the best GF cookie dough! The inside is filled with a large piece of Hershey’s chocolate and half a marshmallow, and then the whole thing is topped with the other marshmallow half. Inside the oven, the marshmallow inside melts, but that just makes for more gooey goodness. And that flavor remains!

There’s plenty of time in life to be serious. Sometimes it’s better to let your guard down and be silly. Having an easy treat along the way doesn’t hurt, either. After all, it’s much cheaper than a therapist’s office!

When it comes to my birthday, I still feel like a little kid. I want presents, parties, and many celebrations. Sometimes that means I’m setting myself up. Let’s face it: I’m a mom of three and nobody has thrown me a party since I was 25. That was a loooooong time ago. But still, I hold out hope!

One thing I’ve learned to do is bake my own birthday treat. A few years ago, I baked this cookie cake for the first time. It was my favorite cookie cake ever, but my photo skills weren’t so great back then. Plus, I wanted to see if I could make the whole thing GF and a little easier. Done and done!

Now that I’m off the hook for jury duty (I didn’t get selected, but I did make it into a courtroom, so that’s always fun), I’m full steam ahead on getting ready for the school year ahead. That means a lot of organizing, cleaning, and decision-making.

When I changed schools earlier this summer, I left a very beautiful school building behind in exchange for one with a lot more history and age. My new work home is a lot older, but it’s kept up nicely and I’ve been feeling at home here.

The thing is, I’ve been getting this reaction from some people about my change of venue that is less than desired. People tend to set a lot of store by new and sparkly things. Hey, how can I blame them? New is usually very nice. But no matter how nice a space is, a school especially, the end result is what everyone makes of it.

Students make schools come alive, not awe-inspiring entryways or corporate-looking office spaces. This is a school, and it looks like one. Personally, I find that comforting.

Okay, end rant. Can I talk about this cookie cake now?

It’s chewy in the center and crispy at the edges, just like my favorite cookies are. There’s a layer of hot fudge that glues the peanut butter cups (both chopped up snack-sized and miniatures) to the top. And there are more chopped PB cups in the actual cookie.

Hey, it’s about to be my birthday. I want to do it up, and that means lots of peanut butter lover’s cookie cake for me. And if anyone wants to throw me a crazy wild party, just name the time and the venue. I’ll be there!

I’ve been on a banana kick this summer, and it’s probably just me making up for lost time. I barely posted any banana recipes in the first two years of the blog, so this summer it’s just bananas all the time. Plus, I don’t like to keep them on the counter in the summer. The bugs, they will come.

Plus, this feels like the right time to write about this cake. There’s a slice of it on my desk in my new office, and I’m looking out at the tree by my window and contemplating happy thoughts. Why not add a moist banana cake filled with both peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips to the mix? A gluten-free one, might I add?

I’ve never had a tree by a window where I work, and I’m finding it to be a very cheerful thing. There’s something about connecting to nature when you spend the day encased in cinder block that is very soothing.

The cinder block leads me to my big question here. You ready? Adhesive.

Yes, I said adhesive. I’ve been doing a lot of wall mounting as I set up this office, and things keep falling down. Seriously, one crash after another. I’ve been using adhesive mountings because I can’t make holes in the wall, but it’s not going well. You see, cinder block is very resistant to adhesive.

Any tips? And no, super glue is not one of them. I can’t do that. Or crazy glue. Or any glue at all. Can you help me before I lose my mind? If I hear one more thing come crashing to the floor, I might run for the hills.

A few months ago, I made this banana toffee snack cake, and people loooooved it. Seriously, I can never predict what people will go for. I make the most amazing thing and the pictures turn out great, and barely a reaction. But sometimes, a recipe just goes sailing through the interweb in the most gloriously unpredictable way.

This, then, is an experiment. I used the same cake base, but I changed up the mix-ins. To be honest, I love both versions. If they were my children, I’d love both equally. But as a peanut butter lover, I’d have to direct you toward this one. I mean, come on. It’s so happy.

Like my other banana recipes, this one is effortlessly gluten-free, thanks to oat flour. And it’s also super easy with no mixer or crazy bowl action needed. That means if I see a banana on the counter, it’s getting baked. This recipe is too simple not to go for it.

If you have any help to give me with adhesive matters, let me know. I need it. Pleeeeeeease!

Well, you might not realize that if you don’t live near an east coast beach town. For those of us who are in the know about boardwalk treats, we get the joy of candy shops with thick slabs of fudge for sale everywhere. It can’t be beat!

I’m not due to hit the beach for another month or so, and I could just throw up my hands in despair and decide to wait. Or I could make this rocky road fudge, which takes about five minutes to put together and tastes oh so beachy!

For her birthday a few weeks ago, we gave my daughter a doll and a tricked-out stroller. She really wanted an American Girl doll, but I mean, come on. They’re a hundred bucks a pop, and that’s before clothes and accessories. Plus, she’s a child. Can she really take care of a hundred dollars’ worth of anything? We had doubts.

I’m glad we got her the cheaper doll, since she’s been dragging it around by its hair or swinging it by its arms. I feel really badly for the poor doll. She’s probably wondering why she had the rotten luck of being adopted by this crazy family.

The other day, my mother brought over the doll cradle that I used when I was growing up, and I was actually surprised to see that it was in pretty good condition. But then I got to thinking about it, and I took pretty good care of my toys. I was never neat, and I was certainly no angel of a child. But somehow, the toys stayed nice.

With my kids, it’s a totally different story. They’re not precisely destructive, but they’re not good at understanding how caring for something lengthens shelf life. So in yet another episode of Mir’s Mom Guilt, I ask you: how to create learning opportunities for them? Short of confiscating all their toys, that is?

I’d like to see somebody try and confiscate anything of mine. I’d be pretty fierce. Especially if they were trying to take away dessert. Not happening!

Whenever I’m in a hurry, I make fudge. Seriously. The whole thing takes less than five minutes, thanks to our good friend, Mr. Microwave. And after the requisite chill time, it’s time to dig in!

This fudge is loaded with mini-marshmallows, walnuts and lots of chocolatey goodness. Your inner rocky road fanatic will be quite pleased!

If you can’t get to a beach town this summer, here’s the next best thing. Give it a shot!

Last week, I stopped by CVS for a quick trip to get some cleaning supplies. I’ve just moved into my new office space, and it was pretty dang dirty, so I needed to rush out right away and get cleaning spray, wipes, paper towels, the works. I was only going to pop in for a second.

But you know, CVS has the best stuff. Makeup and hair stuff and gel pens, oh my. And have I mentioned the bags of candy? Yep, I walked out of there with snack-sized Reese’s, Mega M & Ms and yes, fun-sized Snickers. Rather than eat the entire contents of each bag immediately while I cleaned dried-up Jolly Ranchers off a desk in the office, I chose to save them and bake this candy bar brownie cake instead.

This past week, I went to cake decorating class. I originally signed up for this class before my job promotion when summer was supposed to be uneventful and relaxing, and now I just don’t know if I can do it. I was sitting in class at night trying to form a fondant and gum paste flower, and the table was making waves in front of me. I was about two seconds from face-planting onto my sugar daisy.

Fondant is a tricky beast, for those of you who work with it. It’s like play-doh, except it theoretically tastes a little better. I know it looks really nice, and I like making decorations with it. That said, I’ve never been the biggest fondant fan. For one thing, it doesn’t taste as good as frosting. For another, it really gets handled a lot. I know (or hope) that bakers are working with really clean hands, but the image of someone handling something that much before I put it in my mouth is a turnoff.

Also, the stuff cracks really easily, and once that happens, there’s no fix. I know we’re into this whole smooth cake trend, and it’s totally pretty. But I get frustrated sometimes at all the fondant cakes that look alike. Or maybe that’s just me looking for an excuse to drop cake decorating class so I can get more sleep.

For the first time this week, I’ll be making a tiered cake. I’ll let you know how that goes. Send me tips, okay? I’ve chosen to frost it as a mostly-naked cake to keep the work down to a minimum, but boy, I’m scared.

When I’m trying new things in the cake decorating world, it’s nice to make a dessert that it low-maintenance and no-fuss. This brownie cake is exactly that. The base is a fudgy brownie, covered with easy chocolate ganache and topped with my CVS collection of chocolate bars. Could life get any sweeter?

And now I’m off to try and dowel some cake. Wish me luck! I’ll be stopping by here for therapy if things don’t go well. Have a great start to your week, everyone!

Theoretically, we’re halfway through the summer after July 4th. But since the school year here didn’t end until June 20th, we’re not at the halfway mark yet. Nope, no siree! It’s in the 90s, my schedule is more flexible, and I’m getting in lots of quality family time!

There’s something really satisfying about hanging out with everyone when the weather is hot. We can log in lazy pool days, enjoy evenings in the cul de sac after dinner blowing bubbles with all the extra sunlight, and stop looking at the clock so much. We can also pause for afternoon ice cream snacks, and let’s face it. Those are the best. Right now my freezer is fully stocked with EDY’S® Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream and EDY’S® Baby Ruth Ice Cream, and they’re getting a lot of attention. How could they not, when they’re inspired by two of my favorite candy bars?

Since you all know I’m the biggest bargirl ever when it comes to baking, I made a batch of Butterfinger® cookie bars to go along with my ice cream. There’s pretty much no greater combination in life than a good dessert bar and a bowl of ice cream.

The other day, my middle kid had her birthday weekend. She was born right before July 4th, which means that the doctors didn’t bother us at all in the hospital after she was born. They literally ran off to picnics and barbecues, leaving us behind. In fact, the doctor who delivered her met his wife that night at a party. It was a strangely tranquil weekend, and I remember just relaxing with my newborn and eating an entire package of cookies. Hey, I’d earned it.

What struck me at the time was how important family is to everyone, even busy-seeming hospital staff. I mean, the place was nearly deserted. There aren’t many times of year when people just clear a place and head home en masse, but summertime is when we all want to be together. The summer nights might be long, but the months pass quickly. Actually, so do the years. That newborn is now six years old, and she’s not a baby anymore.

Thankfully, she’s someone whom I also like as well as love, and we have a lot in common. One is our endless fondness for ice cream. When she saw the containers of EDY’S® Ice Cream in the freezer, she knew that the best kind of Walmart trip had just taken place.  We took out spoons and had a snack moment together, just my birthday girl and her proud mommy. Plus, I feel a lot better about sharing ice cream with my kids when it’s made with fresh milk & cream with no rBST (milk production hormone). This ice cream is so good, and it has the good stuff in it too!

To go along with our ice cream, I made these Butterfinger cookie bars. The base is a chewy peanut butter cookie, and then I filled the dough with chopped up fun-sized candy bars. I even crumbled some more Butterfinger on top for the perfect finish!

When paired with EDY’S® Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream, these cookie bars make the perfect summer snack. It’s even better during these long summer days that we all spend together. Take some time out with the people you love! This is the time, y’all.

This time of year, I’m usually basking in summer with not much to do. But thanks to a recent job promotion, I’m burning the candle at both ends. I wake up, work, work some more, and that’s kind of how it is. But at least the sun is shining!

And I have these to sustain me. The base is my favorite flourless peanut butter cookie dough filled with my even more favorite candy aisle choices: patriotic peanut M & Ms and Baby Ruth bars. Heck yeah!

Here’s the thing about holidays: baking bloggers LOVE them. You see, it’s hard to get constant inspiration from just life itself, so holidays provide a lot of ideas. Or at least, they provide a lot of candy with color schemes. I can’t tell you how excited I get every time the candy matches the season. It’s so darn cute.

Now that I’ve been blogging for two and a half years, I sometimes sit back and take stock of what I’ve accomplished so far. You see, I’ve been teaching for much longer, so compared to the time I’ve been in that profession, my time here on JAB is a drop in the bucket. Even so, I’m happy with where I’ve gotten so far with this little blog, and I try and take time to enjoy it.

Just a few days ago, I was texting back and forth with an old friend of mine. He had a rough day and wanted to know if I had “baked anything for the pain.” I immediately let him know that I’d just been paid to buy lots of ice cream and bake something to go with it, and that he should come on by with a huge spoon. In that moment, I felt very lucky. Lucky to be paid to work with ice cream, and lucky to have good friends to come over and share it.

They say that it’s super healthy to keep your brain active by trying new things and doing crossword puzzles. In theory, I love crossword puzzles, but my house is too hectic for me to sit back with that cup of tea and enjoy one on a regular basis. So instead, I’m a big fan of trying new things. This blog pushes every ounce of my creativity, and I’m so happy it’s here. Even though my day job is about to get a lot more hectic, I still want to hold on to what I’ve created here on JAB.

One of my favorite discoveries this season has been transferring flourless peanut butter cookie dough into bars. It’s even better than regular cookie dough. Wanna know why?

It’s the most intense peanutty flavor ever. When you reduce a cookie dough to mostly the star ingredient (peanut butter, in this case), it’s amazing. The flavors are so good. Add in peanuts and candy and the happiness overflows.

Another good thing about this cookie base? No mixer. About five seconds and no chill time is pretty much the situation! Feel free to thank me later.

It’s summer and things should be quiet, but they’re not. I’m cool with that, since we only go around once. Trying new things is important! Well, as long as we take our dessert breaks in between. We all need a moment here and there!

This summer, I’ve got the kids when I’m not working, and it’s great. But I need some hours in the day to get things done, so hello to camp! And hello to having a smidgen of peace and quiet.

And hello to peanut butter cups! My favorite candy is back in these flourless PB cookie cups. They might not have any flour, but you won’t miss it at all with all this peanut butter goodness!

People don’t really understand what the summertime is like to a teacher, so I’ll try to explain as best I can. See, we are on overdrive for 10 months out of the year. We show up to work at crazily early times (I’m there around 5:45), get set up, and then we’re on. All day.

With teaching, you can rarely sit back. Checking e-mail is often impossible, as is using the bathroom. There is a constant flow of human interaction, ranging from pleasantries to several nonstop hours of active instruction.

Back when I was earning my certification in college, a professor told us that anyone entering the teaching profession would never have trouble sleeping at night. Boy, was he right. Every day, after running around and then running around some more, I crash as soon as the light goes off. It’s a nice perk, really.

In the summertime, our lives resemble other people’s. We can go to bed late (meaning 10 o’clock), we can have moments of leisure, and we can get some sunlight. It’s a totally different experience, and we love every moment of it. It’s a complete change of pace.

You can bet that during these months, I do a lot of baking. In addition to my two months of cake decorating class, I’m in the kitchen every day, testing recipes and trying out new things just for you! So be sure to stick with me during these lazy months as I bring you more dessert.

These are the way to start off a life of leisure. The cookie base is just peanut butter, two sugars, egg, baking soda, salt and vanilla. These ingredients get combined and chilled for a few hours, and then you put the dough into mini-muffin tins with a miniature PB cup pressed into the center. A few minutes later, you have the best cookie cup ever!

Hope your summer is filled with promise, just like mine. Can’t wait to share my adventures with you!

You all know that I have a passion for bar cookies, and I have an equally great passion for chocolate and peanut butter. In my world, no snack beats a Reese’s peanut butter cup. In fact, the absence of PB cups in life is a really good reason to never give up on sugar.

These are dense, chewy, peanut buttery, and flourless. That’s right. Why do you need flour when these bar cookies are decked out with enough peanut butter cup goodness to satisfy even the biggest fanatic?

To put this in perspective, my son ate these. One of my favorite bloggers in the whole universe, Dorothy, has a category for food her husband actually ate. I should institute a similar category for my own son, because he usually turns his nose up at my baked goods and opts to eat rice cakes instead. No, I am not kidding.

He ate these yesterday, and then he had seconds, and then he asked for more later in the day. #success #victoryismine

Of course, he needed some extra TLC after a particularly violent fight with his little sister. Here’s how it went down:

Boy: (screeching at top volume)

Me: What happened?!

Boy: (exhibiting red arm) She pinched me!

Girl: (also crying at top volume) No!

Me: (to Girl) Why are you crying?

Girl: It was sort of an accident!

She maintained that injuring her brother was “sort of” an accident and I never got more details. So I “sort of” punished her by sending her to her room in floods of tears while my son nursed his arm and talked me into giving him more of these bars.

On my trip to Hershey’s Chocolate World a year ago, I learned the secret to baking with peanut butter cups by observing their baked goods and methodology. In my field, that’s the best kind of research. Anyway, I noticed that they use the snack-sized (i.e. regular-sized) Reese’s in their baked goods, which makes so much sense. It packs a more powerful PB punch. So now I try to use them when I can.

The cookie base is simple: peanut butter, egg, sugar, baking soda, salt and vanilla. The baking soda and egg help these bars to rise, and the absence of flour makes the texture super dense and chewy. These are perfection.

If you’re a peanut butter fan, these bars are for you. No Reese’s addict can resist!

The other day, I was really worn out. But since I’m not a coffee drinker, I did the next best thing: I gave myself a shot of this mousse. It’s not alcoholic, but it sure is caffeinated. Be still my heart. Nope, it’s beating too fast for that.

Not only is this the epitome of coffee and chocolate goodness, but there are also chocolate Heath bits through and through. Mousse has never tasted so incredible!

Mousse is definitely a sensitive topic in my family. When I was growing up, one of my brothers didn’t put such a high premium on staying out of trouble. To make matters worse, he had this really bad habit of laughing at my parents whenever they were trying to punish them. I always told him that was a dumb move, but he didn’t seem to care that much.

On the rare occasions when my brother wasn’t wreaking havoc, my mother would reward him by making chocolate mousse. My mom didn’t bake often, so this was quite a treat. He loved chocolate mousse and I guess it was supposed to be a behavior incentive, but it didn’t work in the long term because, you know, kids.

Anyway, I have another brother who always a model of kindness and goodness. He was in trouble, oh, never. So all these years later, he’s still kind of amazed that while the majority of my mother’s children behaved well and never received mousse, my brother got it for being good now and then. It seemed like a great injustice.

And, well, I guess it was. But I’ve learned that it’s impossible to treat your children the same way. They’re different people, and it’s inevitable that they can’t always have the same things. It might come across as unfair, but I think it’s unavoidable.

Besides, my brother can have all the mousse he wants now, because I’ll make it for him! I’ll even make it for the one who didn’t behave. I love them both.

This takes almost no time to whip up, and it’s so nice and cool and light for these hot days. The toffee bits give a delightful crunch amid all the mocha creaminess, and you’ll be very happy. Plus, if you put this mousse in elegant glassware, it becomes the best company dessert ever!

If you want to stall some family squabbles this holiday weekend (or anytime, really), give mousse a try. It might make your kids behave, anyway…for about ten seconds!