When that happens, I head to bakeries or farmers’ markets. At both, there are people displaying their wares and their creativity. I need both, believe me!

At the market a few weeks ago, a woman was selling turtle scones. The second I saw them, I knew I had to bake my own. Here they are. Could anyone not want these for breakfast? Nope, didn’t think so!

I’ve had a soft spot for Turtles (the candy, not the animal) since I was a kid. My dad would bring my mom a box every Valentine’s Day, and she would always share with me. How great is that? A mom sharing her special candy with her kids is true love. I’ve loved Turtles ever since.

The animal I’m less certain about. Turtles live for a looooong time. Sea turtles live to be at least 100, and those little ones you buy in the pet store live to about 30. I’m not sure I could ever make that long a commitment. Imagine how attached I’d get to my turtle, and how I’d feel when he passed. If he passed before me, that is. They can really hold on.

Still, turtles are cute. I remember this one from my zoology class in high school that somehow got into a duct and crawled all  the way through and into our vice principal’s office. Oh, the screams. That was such a good day.

These turtle scones will only cause screams of joy, I guarantee you. I promise!

The base of these scones is cream, which makes them light and crumbly in the best way. Chopped caramels, pecans (or walnuts) and chocolate chips get right in there for a true breakfast pastry party. No better way to start your day that I’ve ever seen!

No matter what kind of turtle makes your day, these scones are definitely the way to go on this particular day. Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Do you have a list of things you want to bake that’s about 17 miles long? I sure do. For at least a year and a half, I’ve wanted to bake these. The base recipe is in the Sally’s Baking Addiction cookbook (the first one), and I made one or two minimal adjustments, which I’ll explain later.

Suffice it to say, these don’t disappoint. They’re thick, chewy, and fudgy. Plus, they’re sprinkled with sea salt. Can a cookie get any better?

In case you haven’t read enough food blogs by writers who live on the East Coast in the U.S., it’s been searing hot this summer. We’ve broken records (excluding the desert regions of the country) into the 100s in the D.C. area, and it’s been pretty oppressive.

This week, we’ve been doing the whole water park circuit to try and cool off. Water parks are fun to a degree, but I honestly can’t spend the day at one like some people do. Really, I have no idea how they can stay in one of those places for so long.

For one, it’s hot and there’s not much shade, so no matter how much sunscreen you slather on, the sunburns are inevitable. For another, it’s crowded. People are screaming and splashing and crashing into one another right and left. My youngest doesn’t like to be splashed, so water parks are like a circle of the Inferno for her.

And then there’s the inevitable clearing of the water park when some kid eventually either vomits or does something very similar into the water supply. It happens more than I would like to think about. Suffice it to say that my bias against water parks isn’t exactly unfounded.

Having said that, they do help beat this heat a bit. So let’s give a big shout-out to the water parks, everyone!

Now I can move on to the bigger shout-out. I’ve been reading Sally’s blog along with the rest of the world for many years, and I’ve never thrown her any love on my own blog. She’s probably too bigtime to notice that I’m doing this, but I wanted to make these cookies and I think she’s awesome. So there you go.

The only big change I made here (and it’s not big) was using regular plain caramels in the center instead of Rolos. There was really no reason for that, except that I was out of Rolos. I think I ate them all myself.

The other change is that I waited to sprinkle the salt on the cookies until right after they came out of the oven. While the salt won’t stick as well, it doesn’t melt into the cookie, either. I like my salt freshly sprinkled. It’s just my thang.

If you’re amid this crazy wave of searing heat, I hope you get some relief in some cool oasis. Or hey, if you’re in a pinch, try a water park. But just for a few hours. Any more than that is singular torture. See if you can sneak some cookies in with you. It’ll make the day much more bearable!

For a special day like this, I couldn’t just make any ice cream. No, siree. I had to really stretch my creative boundaries and think of a flavor that I wish someone would just go ahead and invent already. And you know what? Jackpot!

This is probably my favorite ice cream that I’ve made, and I’ve made a lot of winners. The base is creamy cinnamon with the best mix-ins in the world: cinnamon chips, chocolate chunks, and Rolos! Prepare to swoon.

It’s been super-hot in the DC area over the past week, with temps pushing well into the 90s. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 99, and I think there’s even a 100 in the 10-day forecast. Everyone is complaining about it.

Well, everyone but me, that is. I revel in the heat. It’s just so welcoming. Last week, Kenny and I took paddleboards out on the Potomac. He was very busy paddling to and fro, but I had a different idea. I paddled mine toward the edge of the river with a nice view of the Key Bridge, and then I put down my oar and stretched out onto my board, staring up at the sun while the board bobbed gently over the water. When it got too hot, I dipped a foot in the river. It was sublime.

The upshot is that Kenny got back thirsty and tired, and I paddled back to the dock feeling pretty relaxed. Either way, the heat made the whole water trip even better. I felt like a cat in the sun.

You know what else is better in extreme heat? Frozen treats. I’m telling you, nothing feels quite so good as drinking something frosty or scooping up a cold spoonful when the sun is beating down on us all.

There’s no better time to have National Ice Cream Day than the middle of July when we’re all inhaling the frozen desserts right and left, and I really wanted to do it up right this year. You can’t go wrong with this one, and there’s no ice cream maker needed!

Here’s a tip from me to you: don’t cheat with Cool Whip. Not on National Ice Cream Day. Whip up the real stuff. It’ll taste just so much better. The hardest part of this recipe is whipping the cream, and it takes very little time if you have a stand or handheld mixer. The rest is super easy!

I wish you all a very happy time with your ice cream. Make it a day that’s worth its weight in ice cream. This is the time!

And it’s even more a thing when it’s smothered in peanut butter caramel and sprinkled with sea salt. If you’re looking for me, I’m hiding in a closet with a giant wedge of this and a martini. Come find me sometime next week.

Oh, and did I mention there are peanut butter chips inside the brownie? This is one of those times when you run toward making this. No walking!

I’m sure you’ve all been following the news story about the gorilla and the kid at the zoo. The story is tragic and scary in so many ways, but that’s not what I’ve been thinking about for the past week.

To be honest, I’m completely shocked at the response to this event. Without seeing much (or any) footage or even knowing details, people quickly and vocally split into Team Kid or Team Gorilla. They’ve been tearing one another apart online, each side insisting on being right. Experts have been brought in too, just in case the fighting wasn’t loud enough.

Even if you know the details, even if you were there, can I make a request?

Be compassionate. Be kind. Have good manners. Stop assuming you know everything and that you are above reproach. Stop tearing other people apart.

No matter what political affiliation you have, this election season has been marked by the same vitriol and hate. Instead of arguing issues, people are employing the classic logical fallacy of ad hominem rhetoric to make personal insults and senseless jabs the order of the day. It’s as though a reality TV mentality has taken over our political consciousness and landscape, replacing real conversation and intellectual debate with spite and pettiness.

Well, I’ve had enough. I don’t want to read any more about the horrible things people say and do to one another. How can we expect our children to grow up and be good people if the adults around them have lost their minds?

I spend a lot of time practicing avoidance. Instead of letting stupidity get to me, I often pass up reading the newspaper. That probably makes me less informed, but considering how idiotic people can be, I’m cool being out of the loop. I’d rather stay in my bubble and eat dessert.

All I did here was take my happy brownie base, add peanut butter chips, and put it into a 9-inch springform pan. After baking it, I covered it in my super-easy peanut butter caramel, which is a hack. Just combine sweetened condensed milk with a cup of peanut butter over low heat and stir until smooth. Once it’s covered and set, sprinkle the whole thing with sea salt.

The result is a brownie cake you will not soon forget. I wish I could forget all the ickiness going on in our world right now, and that everyone could just behave. But since that won’t happen, I’ll hole up with this instead!

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, bar cookies are my absolute, all-time favorite treat.

Think about it: they’re delicious, easy, and very packable. Someone who bakes as much as I do needs to be able to transport baked goods without an epic fail, and bars are conducive to that. Whether I’m headed to holiday potlucks and parties or just to the office, bars are my jam.

And these bars are the best. Two layers of oatmeal cookie dough ,sandwich a luscious caramel filling, all filled and topped with holiday M&M’s® bling. Who could ask for anything more?

Not me, that’s for certain. I’m trying to really focus on what’s important these days, and that can get hard when everyone is scrambling for holiday gifts. Let’s just say that while I happily shop for presents, I’m also happier when I can create memories that my children and I will share forever.

Some of my happiest memories are simple ones. For instance, I was fixing a seam the other day that had come unstitched, and my children sat there, watching me. I told them that even though I’m not much use at sewing, my grandmother taught me the basics. I’d go over to her house and she’d teach me. I still remember that when I was about eight years old, she and I made a little pink apron together for me. I still have it, put away for safekeeping.

Other memories of people long gone come flooding back at unexpected times. We would visit my grandparents in New York every year when I was young, and at the time, I was an early riser. My grandmother (this is the other one) would get up with me, meet me in the kitchen and make me breakfast. I’d sit at the kitchen table with my juice and peanut butter sandwich (breakfast of champions!) and watch her bustle around, getting ready for the day. I never realized back then how tired she must have been, and how irritating it was to be up before everyone else with just a child for company. But she did it without complaining.

While I hope that someday my children cherish happy memories of our time together, I can’t take any of that for granted. My children don’t really owe me anything at all. Instead, it’s my job to give them the best possible life with a string of wonderful moments. Baking together is one way that I can do that. We like to raid the holiday section at Target to get all the ingredients we need in fun holiday packaging, like Quaker Oats (which is available in holiday packaging at Target) and Glad®!

This recipe is beautiful in its simplicity, making it perfect for bonding sessions with kids. Mine love to dump in  the ingredients, and they also help me pat the dough into the pan. It makes them nice and sticky. But by far, their favorite part is sprinkling those M&M’s® Holiday Baking Minis on top before baking. I mean, they get to eat as they sprinkle. I join them!

When we’re done baking, we let the bars cool, cut them into squares and pack them in Glad® Holiday Packaging containers. They’re so festive, and they let a whole batch of bars pack up tightly and efficiently.

All of my favorite holiday memories involve loved ones teaching me how to pass on traditions and skills to my own children, and I hope you feel the same way! For savings on great products like Quaker Oats, Glad®, and Mars as well as inspiration about making memories in baking, check this out!

Last year, I tried to make loaded caramel apples. I de-waxed the apples, coated them in caramel, and covered the caramel in honey roasted peanuts and mini M & Ms. And they looked great.

But an hour later, the weight of the toppings and pulled the caramel right off the apple. So I got really angry and gave up. Until now. Because if you don’t like the rules, then change them. If a caramel apple loaded with toppings is delicious, then just do the same thing, but deconstruct it. Easy peasy! No more #caramelapplefail in your life.

Sometimes, working a problem just means thinking of new ways to get around it. Too often, we force ourselves to do things that we think we should (and “should” is a dangerous word, my friends) instead of finding another path.

For years, I told myself that a life that included dessert every day was wrong, and that I should just eat healthy foods and live in a state of constant deprivation. If you read any women’s magazines, they’ll tell you that an “occasional indulgence” (boy, do I hate that phrase) is acceptable, but nothing beyond. And for years, I was stupid enough to believe them.

But that system didn’t work. I wound up thinking about dessert all the time. So one day, I got fed up and changed the rules and began eating indulgent desserts every day. Every. Day. Unless I got struck down by the flu or something.

And guess what? Nothing happened. I balanced those desserts with fruit and veggies, and figured that if twenty to thirty percent of my daily diet had no redeeming features, the rest would be healthy. It’s called balance, and so many women’s magazines just don’t get it.

When things don’t feel right, trust your instincts. Make a system that works for you. Listening to other people tell you how to live your life is completely illogical.

And dipping apples into caramel is also illogical if you just want the flavor without the hard work. Solution? Easy. So easy that my kids did it with me.

Cut up an apple. Drizzle a high-quality caramel sauce over the apples. Cover with your desired toppings (I am a HUGE fan of honey roasted peanuts and chocolate chips). Eat. And just think: this snack is even a bit healthy, thanks to the lovely apple.

Don’t waste your time playing by someone else’s rules. Make up your own!

Does that work for everyone? Nope. My friend is more of an evening exerciser. By that time, I am done and a half. Can barely move, except to lift the fork to my mouth to eat dessert. That’s my workout later in the day!

When you want a good breakfast treat that is homemade but easy, I recommend turning to refrigerated biscuits. Not  to make biscuits with, silly. To make something far more fun. This salted caramel pecan pastry ring is delicious and perfect for the morning, not to mention pretty quick to put together. It takes the usual five minutes or so!

When I bake, I often listen to music. It helps pep everything up and I like to fling flour around while I dance in the privacy of my own kitchen. Sometimes the songs are a bit lacking, like this one on the radio lately that just will not stop.

I have no idea who sings it, so bear with me. It’s got lyrics that go something like, “If we’re talking bodies, you’ve got a perfect one so put it on me.” Wow. Those are some lyrics. Yes, I’m being a snob about it. I’m an English teacher.

But the most annoying part about the song is the kind-of chorus, where the singer just bleats one word: “Bodies.” Like, over and over. Or at least it seems to never end.

Why do I keep listening? Well, I don’t anymore. Now I change the station as soon as I realize what’s happening. But the first few times, it was like rubbernecking at a traffic accident. I just couldn’t listen away. I had to figure out if this was really a song.

If I’ve offended you because you love this artist, song, or bodies in general, sorry. I had to get that off my chest before moving onto a much more pleasant topic.

This miracle of a breakfast treat is made by dipping bits of refrigerated biscuit dough into a brown sugar and butter mixture laced with pecans and coarse sea salt. The result is quite lovely, and must be taken very seriously.

In other words, have plans to eat breakfast if you make this. Don’t skip it. Commit.

Breakfast should be something you look forward to, no matter what you crave. Hey, we all like different music, clearly. So we probably don’t all want sweet pastry for breakfast. But I do, so pass this over!

As a baking blogger, I sure eat a lot of cookies, so you can take me very seriously when I tell you that these are special. Once in a lifetime. If you ever make anything I put up here, make these! Now.

Whoops, I got kind of intense there. But I had to. You see, this recipe is something I can share with you, and I love sharing. In fact, I realized the other day that I probably balance out everything I overshare with the secrets I keep forever.

Yes, I have secrets. Quite a few, and that’s no joking matter.

I’ll try to explain. Whenever I’m watching a TV show and a character doesn’t expose a secret that could help clear her name, I get really frustrated. Why would somebody ever keep a secret that would make her look worse? But then I remember that I’ve done the exact same thing.

Without getting too specific (duh, it’s a secret), I once allowed a friend to believe something terrible about me, a complete untruth, in order to save her relationship with someone more important to her. I figured it was better to help her and let her think I was to blame than to expose the truth.

Years later, I look back at that decision with no regret. Do I wish, to this day, that she knew the truth? For my own sake and the sake of our damaged friendship, yes. For the sake of her own happiness and her future, no. Sometimes, we make really hard decisions.

But when we guard important secrets carefully, we have to share other things liberally. So in other areas of life, I don’t hold back. I let it all go. And these cookies are a perfect tribute to the joy of sharing.

This is not a recipe I invented, but one that was passed on to me by another valued friend. These cookies won the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in the 1950s, and boy, can I see why. Apparently, they really could bake like gangbusters back in the 50s!

The cookies are intensely buttery, like Russian tea cakes, and bursting with caramel flavor. And the cream in between has a browned butter base. If you’ve never made browned butter, you’re missing out. It’s easy, and it makes one heck of a frosting.

The only change I made to the original recipe was to chill the dough longer. That resulted in thicker and taller cookies, which aren’t as pretty, but which are infinitely more fun to bite into. One of these sandwich cookies will go a long way toward stomping on your sugar cravings.

To be honest, many aspects of my past haunt me, as do my secrets. But I try to even the balance by sharing bits and pieces of my life, and my baking, with everyone. These cookies are definitely not to be missed. Share them!

Diseases terrify me, mainly because my house is like a germ incubator. With three kids running around, we get no break between October and May in the sickness department. For the past few years, I’ve averaged 5 stomach viruses per school year. Colds are nothing in comparison.

So I’m still going at full speed, and I’m still baking. I’m just washing my hands a lot. But if I’m due to lose my taste buds in a day or two, I want to party while the going’s good. That kind of attitude calls for this pie. This amazing, caramel and ganache-filled Turtle Pie.

My mom likes Turtles. When I was a kid, my dad gave her a box every Valentine’s Day. I always got to have one of them, and it was always kind of special that she was sharing her annual treat with me. I sure don’t share my Godiva truffles with my rugrats.

Anyway, I wanted to make a pie that felt like a Turtle with that amazing caramel center, but better. So I made an Oreo crust, put in a layer of thick caramel, added a lovely layer of ganache, and sprinkled the whole thing with salt. You know, because salted caramel is my friend!

The top has pecans on it and those caramel-filled Nestle chips. And one actual Turtle. They’ve made mini ones. And they’re so cute!

This pie is the business, kids. Don’t eat it on a day that a dessert might be too rich for you. You need to eat it when there’s a horrible cold looming and you’re surrounded by mugs of tea and germy little hands and you just need a break. Or maybe that’s just my life. Insert your own needs here and get you some pie!

To celebrate getting through week one, I had to make a cookie cake. A butterscotch one. Because I’ve been neglecting that particular flavor lately, and that just isn’t right. What isn’t awesome about butterscotch?

Plus, butterscotch is a good transitional flavor. It works well in the summer, but its caramel notes are vaguely reminiscent of fall and back to school snacks. This is me trying to gradually bid farewell to summer, everyone. Humor me.

The key to this cake is getting it to taste all brown sugary and chewy like a blondie while still making sure the cookie is strong enough to get flipped out of the pan whole. See, a lot of blondies are flimsier because they’re so full of moisture. To mitigate that just a bit, I cut some regular sugar into what would normally be all brown sugar to stiffen the dough up a bit and help it bake through faster.

Making the frosting presented the biggest challenge because I’ve never had much luck making caramel, much less caramel frosting. So I made a basic buttercream and added some caramel. It worked, but I had to chill the frosting a bit because it was initially too runny.

What you do with the rest of the cake is your call. I piped on the frosting and sprinkled on toffee bits, but the possibilities are endless. You can even pile on some mini Rolos! They’d go great with this particular flavor.

Enjoy the slow transition of seasons! Don’t rush the cooler weather. Please?

Cookie Cake:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butterscotch chips
• toffee bits (optional, for garnishing)

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons caramel (jarred is fine)
• 1 heaping tablespoon cream cheese

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9-inch round pan with parchment paper cut to fit the bottom and spray the sides with pan-release spray.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Take a larger bowl and mix the brown sugar, sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla until just blended. Add the dry ingredients gradually and mix until incorporated. Fold in the butterscotch chips.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool before turning out onto a plate.

While the cookie cake is cooling, prepare the frosting. Cream the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar, and then mix in the caramel. When the frosting is smooth, beat in the cream cheese. Chill for 15 minutes.

Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cookie cake as desired, or spread it onto the surface. Decorate at will, sprinkling on toffee bits if you’d like. Slice into wedges and serve!