I mean, it’s too sudden. We’re at 90 one day and then 60 the next. I cannot. Has Mother Nature ever heard of transitions? And by the way, could she just stop with the hurricanes already?

Since I don’t want to spend today talking about the weather, I’ll talk about something far more relevant instead. My blog’s been around for going on three years now, but I’ve never made black bottom cupcakes. Once this occurred to me (in the middle of the night, mind you, and it woke me up), I had to correct that immediately. I also had to make them gluten-free, just to make up for the oversight of never putting a chocolate cupcake stuffed with chocolate chip cheesecake filling onto this site.

A few weeks ago, you may remember that I fell over and injured my foot. Well, it’s all better now, but it’s been a pain-ridden time. Either I was walking funny or I hit something on the way down, because my back has been spasming nonstop. A few days ago, the relief began to seep in, but there’s still some pain.

The combination of all this plus the stress of the Jewish holiday season (it lasts a month) has made me very neglectful of anything but family or work. In other words, I’ve been ignoring the blog world and social media, and I’m sorry about that. But as my blog friends have taught me, there’s only so much anyone can handle before the nervous breakdown begins. Mine is scheduled for November, by the way. I have to hold it together until then. Winky face.

Seriously, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the concept of “good enough.” That’s a really tough standard for me to find acceptable in myself. In other people, it’s usually fine. But for me, I want to be the best. I’m not sure where this overdeveloped sense of competition came in, but I’m pretty sure it was born out of insecurity earlier in life. As an adult, I’ve been set on standing out and setting a standard of excellence.

I’m still driven that way, but I’ve pulled back from that on JAB. I will never be the best baking blogger, or even in the top several hundred. That’s okay. This site began as both an experiment and a hobby, and I’m okay keeping it there.

While I might not be on the Internet much, my desserts are as lovely as ever, I assure you. You’ll never know that these cupcakes are GF, and they’re also not that much of a nutritional wasteland.

The cake base of these cupcakes is positively virtuous: a chocolate cake that is vegan with no butter or eggs. The cheesecake filling is made with lowfat cream cheese and only about 1/3 cup of sugar, which means it’s not too sweet. You can eat a couple of these and not feel bad about it at all!

I’ve been in a tough place for the past couple of months, but I have hope that things will slow down and that I’ll stop waking up in the middle of the night thinking about black bottom cupcakes. Until that happens, I’ll just have to keep baking. Enjoy the fruits of my sleepless labor, friends!

Like, getting a box of chocolates or flowers without an occasion? That sounds like it would be nice. Note to Kenny: do that more. Hear me, love of my life?

Another pleasant surprise? Finding a layer of pumpkin cheesecake in the middle of a delicious loaf of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. It’s double the fun!

Now that TV has started up again, I’m overwhelmed by the obligation I have to continue watching many shows. Yes, it’s a chore. A fun one, but a chore nonetheless.

Last season, we watched Superstore. It’s a silly piece of sitcom fluff, and I like silly in my life. Being serious is so overrated. But now I have to find time to add that to the list. See, I’m still trying to finish Casual on Hulu, Suits on Amazon Prime, and then I have to pick up Once Upon a Time again, even though the storyline has gotten totally weird.

The problem is, Kenny and I watch these together, so both of us have to be available (and awake) to make it through. It’s not that logistically easy. He plays ball sometimes, and I have the habit of passing out at 8:30 every night. It’s not auspicious for good TV watching.

Also, Kenny has a very short attention span with TV shows. He forgets them or loses interest quickly, and then we tend to not finish things. like seasons 6 and 7 of Mad Men, which has fallen by the wayside, or seasons 3 and 4 of Orange is the New Black. Gone.

But hey, I shouldn’t complain. We have so many good options. Do you remember when you were at the mercy of the TV schedule? Those grueling days are gone!

You know what else is gone? Plain old pumpkin bread. Not that I’m hating, because I’m not. But this is sooooo much better.

In the middle of these moist and gluten-free layers is pumpkin cheesecake. It’s lovely. The creamy pumpkin middle layer does full justice to the cakey outer layer. Woohoo!

Hope you have a lovely fall TV season, and that you get caught up on all your shows. It’s hard work! Better have some pumpkin chocolate chip cheesecake bread around to make it easier!

Well, unless you’re mashing up two things that are great separately and gross together, like steak and whipped cream. No, thank you. But when the mash-up combines the best of both worlds, mama is happy.

What could be better than a raspberry crumb bar, you wonder? How about a raspberry crumb bar with cheesecake filling? Do I have your attention now?

The school year starts in two weeks and I’m in overdrive, but I have to pause and fulfill my civic duty. Yep, that’s right. Jury duty calls!

This is the fourth time I’ve ever been on jury duty, and the second time in two years. Lest you think I am a star juror, banish that thought from your mind. That’s not it. I must have some kind of force that emits rays to jury selection people. Otherwise, my popularity makes no sense.

Years ago, I was called to a six-week jury trial at the beginning of summer. They took four days to make a selection, and the whole time I was  really worried that I would lose my entire summer vacation to our justice system. Thanks to the powers above, I wasn’t selected and my summer remained intact. But close call!

Kenny was also called to jury duty a few weeks ago, and he was so excited. Unlike me, he’s never served before, so it was a novelty for him. He went very happily and waited to be called, and…nope. They dismissed him around noon. But he can feel good that he’s off the hook for another few years. Maybe.

Whenever I have jury duty, snacks are important. They keep me cheerful during the monotonous hours of waiting for something to happen. The thing is, though, the snacks have to be easily packed. That’s where these bars come into play!

The bottom and top are made of the same crumbly oat mix (gluten-free, of course). I like to double up on the raspberry jam by first spreading some over the bottom layer, pouring in the cheesecake filling, and then dolloping some more on top, swirling it with a knife. And on top? Those miraculous crumbs!

I might have to do my civic duty for the umpteenth time in my relatively young life, but I’ll do it happily as long as I’m kept fortified. These raspberry cheesecake crumb bars should do the trick!

My family, of course. My kids are still at that age when they want me around all the time, so I’ve been peeling them off me as I head to the car to go to work. It’s a nice feeling, being wanted. I know they won’t always feel that way, so I’m enjoying that. And Kenny is my rock, the one who listens to me talk endlessly when I’m decompressing after a long day.

But let’s not forget you all! JAB is one of my constants as well, and I love the rhythm of baking for the blog. Nothing is quite so relaxing as mixing things together. This week, I decided that the tired bananas on my counter needed a little more than just the usual treatment, so I got sneaky and put a cheesecake filling into the center. Hello, beautiful!

I’m pretty proud of the fact that when bananas turn brown in my house, my son points them out and says, “Time to bake!” That’s right. He knows! I’m proud. Everyone also knows to ask if I’ve taken pictures of dessert yet before they dig in. Life in the home of a food blogger, people. It’s a party every day.

When you bake this much, you fall into the habit of having really good stuff around. Homemade stuff, the good stuff. So as a result, the packaged stuff becomes the treat. It’s a very bizarre reversal of the norm, where I’ll see a package of machine-made chocolate chip cookies and get really excited. I guess novelty has charm, huh? There’s something about that processed taste!

A lot of it is nostalgia, too. When I was growing up, my source of almost all dessert food was Entenmann’s or those really cheap grocery store brand cookies. To this day, no donut tastes better than an Entenmann’s rich chocolate frosted donut with a glass of milk. It’s like my childhood comes rushing back at me with each bite.

Food is a time machine, people. I think there’s no more reliable way to travel to childhood than to eat those foods you ate way back when. Nothing is quite as evocative or powerful. Maybe it’s because taste is such an integral part of our sensory spectrum, along with the sense of smell.

My love of banana in cake or quick bread also goes back to childhood. Now and then, my mom would take those brown bananas on the counter and make a banana bread. I never understood how a fruit that I felt pretty indifferent about (and now don’t eat as an adult unless it’s baked into something) could be the base of such a delicious dessert. That, in a nutshell, is the wonder of baking, and why I never cease to be fascinated at what a little bit of oven and lovin’ can do.

This snack cake is gluten-free, moist, and filled with a very simple cheesecake filling. It’s just cream cheese, sugar and egg. That’s it! The cake is also simplicity itself, all coming together in one bowl. Like childhood, it’s not that complicated. Oh, wait. Childhood is very complicated. I remember!

No matter how old we are, we can always go through adjustments. It’s important to have those constants in our lives that ground us and make us feel connected to something that represents a greater scheme. Along the path, it doesn’t hurt to have a lovely cake with a hidden layer of cheesecake to make life even more fun!

The end of the school year is always a little sad. We say goodbye to students we really liked, clean out our classrooms (only to set them up again two months later), take some time to reflect on what we want to do differently next year, and head out in to the sunlight.

I get much more reflective if cheesecake is somehow involved, and these brownies are the ticket. Filled with chocolate chunks, these gloriously thick cheesecake brownie bars are the stuff dreams are made of.

Every summer, I take on lots of projects for my growth. The list is pretty long this summer, so I’m just trying to figure out how to get through it. I’ve got two months of cake decorating class, a week of meetings at work, a book on starting a business to get through and annotate, a novel one of my students wrote that I promised to edit, two short vacations, and…yeah. That’s just the beginning.

The summertime is when I try to organize the house. My son’s room needs to be decorated, my daughter’s room needs to be shoveled out and organized, and I need to find a contractor. We’re redoing our dining room, and I want to get going on making the prettier house happen.

Did I mention the childcare? I’m also doing childcare this summer. Wish me luck.

The natural tendency of the human being is to get bored easily. We think we want time off, but more than a day or two with nothing to do will really start to get old. I think retirement is tricky for that reason. Sure, you worked for 30-plus years in a job, but what then? The brain needs to be engaged somehow.

That’s why I’m a huge believer in keeping a lot of irons in the fire, even though people tell me that I overload my schedule in a way that’s nothing short of crazy. We’re only around once, and I want to get a lot done. Oh, and somewhere in there, I’d like to go kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding again, and I’d like to try some beach body workouts. Those are fun summer activities. So much to do, so little time!

While I contemplate logistics, these chocolate chunk cheesecake brownies can keep me company. They’re perfect for pensive moments. The textures alone are amazing. I keep them chilled, so the fudgy brownie, creamy cheesecake and crunchy chocolate chunks are beautifully contrasted.

Like any bar, these are not complicated to make. Each layer requires one bowl, and that’s it. So consider these a time-saving indulgence!

I’m raring to get going this summer on all my projects, and rest assured that JAB is one of them. The desserts will keep flowing your way, starting with these!

Every time I bake a cheesecake on the blog, people seem to really enjoy it. If you think about it, that makes sense. Very few people in life don’t want cheesecake.

Especially when it’s filled with Samoas. There is Girl Scout cookie goodness through and through, from the cheesecake to the topping! I’ve gone rogue on this thing.

Last week, I had the flu. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. I’m still not sure because I will go to great lengths before I ever let anyone give me a flu test again.

Have you ever had a flu test? They take this implement and shove it very far up your nose. I have a hard time describing the level of discomfort (translate: pain) that is involved with this test. First of all, that region is usually sensitive and congested anyway, and anything being stuck up there is massively unpleasant.

Let me put it this way: I might rather give birth yet again than have a flu test. It’s much more comfortable. And that’s without the epidural.

Maybe that seems hyperbolic, but I swear it’s not. In fact, here’s a list of things I’d rather do than take a flu test ever again:

• Get five flu shots in a row in a 10-minute period
• Fast for a day (no food or water)
• Watch an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians (oh torture)
• Ask my daughter to pull my hair even harder than she already does while she’s playing hairdresser
• Eat an entire box of stale Cheez-Its (and I don’t even like fresh ones)

And the list goes on and on!

In fact, the flu test is worse than actually having the flu. So now you know how I feel and we can talk about cheesecake.

This one is just happiness. It’s creamy, full of Samoa bits, and topped with more Samoas. Oh, and coconut, caramel, and some hot fudge. Yesssssss.

I brought this to work to give to my friend who loves Samoas. She foolishly put the cake out on a communal table and turned around for about five seconds. When she turned back, the cheesecake was gone. Hey, finders keepers!

You’re going to love this, unless you have the flu. Then you can freeze it and eat it later. But for all you well kids out there, cheesecake away. And remember, when the time comes: the flu test is massively sucky, and it won’t take away your flu. But this cheesecake will be waiting for you when you recover!

Neither, apparently, does closed captioning. I’m one of those weird people who likes to read my TV, so I always have the closed captioning turned on. In the movie Chocolat (one of my all-time favorites, by the way), one of the characters tells another to prepare the ganache. Instead of that word, closed captioning came up with “knish,” which is a pastry similar to an empanada. And as I type this, the word “ganache” keeps getting underlined in red, while the “knish” remains untouched by spell check. Go figure.

At least spell check knows what cheesecake is, and boy, is this ever a good one. It’s got an Oreo crust and a thick layer of ganache on top, and it’s perfect for Valentine’s Day. Or just, you know, for a Monday. You decide!

I’ve been thinking a lot about mothers this weekend. A few days ago, my favorite advice column (Ask Caroyln, she rocks!) ran a letter from a woman whose mother died when she was young, and she wanted to know how anyone goes about dealing with the fact that a mother will never be there to answer some of life’s basic questions about, well, anything.

Carolyn basically said that there is no dealing with it: you just have to soldier on and do your best and live with the loss. That answer really made me wonder about what my life would be like if I hadn’t been able to run some serious questions by my own mother, whom I talk to nearly every day. We live near one another, and she knows almost as much about my life as I do. What if I didn’t have that?

A few years ago, I was in my office talking to a colleague who was complaining about her mother. All of a sudden, another teacher walked by and said, “My mother has been dead for 15 years. I would give anything to have one more conversation with her.”

At the time, I was too startled to do much but watch my colleague apologize and awkwardly get up and go about her day. I thought about it a lot afterward, though, and I remember thinking a few things. I didn’t think that embarrassing someone who was doing what most people do was necessary, but I also felt for the woman who would give anything to be able to complain about her own mother with such a cavalier attitude.

I have no conclusions here, but I do stop from time to time and think about how good it is that I can call my mother when I want to to tell her things, and how life would feel without that. While we should all ideally spend every moment of our interactions with loved ones being grateful, it’s not a realistic expectation. Still, as long as we remember how lucky we are, that’s the most important thing.

As long as we’re busy being grateful, can we take a moment for cheesecake? Great. Thanks!

This one is already in my all-time favorites category. It’s that irresistible layer of ganache on top coupled with the Oreo crust. There’s nothing on this cheesecake that I have a hope of resisting.

While people like to think that cheesecake baking is tough, it’s actually pretty simple. Even this one. The ganache comes together very quickly, too, and has the added benefit of covering any potential cracks on the cheesecake’s surface.

Let’s spend time being grateful, when we remember it. Everything is fleeting, from that slice of cheesecake on your plate to the people who surround us with love. Savor everything!

Who am I kidding? I’m ready all year long! Nothing is more fun than the hearts and flowers and chocolate. Especially the chocolate. And the treats! I really can’t get enough. Too bad Kenny hates Valentine’s Day. More on that some other time.

These red velvet cheesecake bars should get your holiday going. The bottom is a super-easy cake mix cookie bar, and the top a simple layer of cheesecake. And let’s not forget the heart sprinkle bling.

I’m going to be very honest here: I’m not a red velvet person. To me, if you’re using cocoa powder, put a lot in the mix, not just a trace. And the whole red food dye thing really throws me. But I can see that it all sure is pretty!

Besides, whenever I bake something I’m not crazy about myself, I just bring it into work and people devour it there. All my red velvet fanatics were pretty happy about these bars, so I’m gonna assume they were the essence of red velvet happiness. And I did enjoy the cheesecake top.

It’s important for me to experiment with flavors that aren’t my favorite, or otherwise I’m not much of a baker. It’s just so hard to taste test flavors that I naturally dislike. It’s a lot like teaching a book in my English class that I’m not so crazy about. On an intellectual level, I can recognize the worth of a book or a dessert I dislike, but personally, just…no.

It’s like snow. I think I used to like it, and I appreciate it aesthetically from a whole “wow is Mother Nature powerful” point of view. But boy, do I hate it. Last night the D.C. area got a measly inch, but because our local governments were totally focused on the two feet of snow headed this way Friday night, they ignored the one inch and didn’t treat the roads.

Result? Chaos. It took people 9 hours to get home from relatively short distances. It’s not the first time this kind of SNAFU has occurred, either. I got to stay up all night waiting for Kenny to get home. So yeah, snow is nice, or something. I just don’t like it. Give me a beach every day!

And give me a classic brownie with the beach. But today, red velvet will win!

These are an easy way to give someone a cute Valentine’s surprise. The bottom layer mixes up in literally seconds, and the top is a simple cheesecake. No bells and whistles, unless you count the sprinkles. How could you not love those?

When all is said and done, you have a bar worth remembering. And if it’s not your cup of tea, you can still appreciate how pretty red velvet is. Or snow. Doesn’t mean we have to marry them!

Everyone tries to get all healthy in the new year, but they don’t see Valentine’s Day coming. No siree, not by a mile. So imagine how health plans do when faced by giant heart-shaped boxes of candy!

This recipe lets you have your romantic dessert and still exercise portion control. These little cheesecakes are full of cookies and cream goodness, but they won’t do horrible things to your healthy resolves. Winning!

So I’m just wondering here: any of you really big into staying busy? Like, always? Like, you do it to yourselves and deep down you’re not really sorry about it?

People always ask me if I have any spare time, and they do it in this totally pitying way. And while I get what they’re saying on one level, I’m secretly wondering what I would do if I had spare time. Watch lots of Netflix? Absolutely. Nap? You bet! Catch up on my reading? Maybe.

As tempting as all of that sounds, it’s so much better to have free time in scarcity. That way you appreciate it so much more. Besides, what would you rather do in the long term: Netflix binge or learn to play the guitar?

A couple of years ago, I took up guitar. It’s been really fun, even if I’m not that great and I suspect my teacher would dump me in a heartbeat if I wasn’t a good paying customer. Many nights, I practice when I’d rather be watching TV. But hey, now I have a new skill!

Same with blogging. It started as a little hobby, and it’s growing slowly into a part-time job. And yeah, I’d have a ton more time and probably less overall cussing in the kitchen if I didn’t do this, but I’m learning how to take pictures and make videos and work with sponsors. It’s a  real gift, one that taking naps wouldn’t compare to.

There’s more, too. I like to take on challenges at work and do classes on the side, and spend time with friends, and (of course) raise my children. When all’s said and done, spare time is just an occasional treat. But if we had treats all the time, they wouldn’t be any fun.

Well, maybe these skinny mini cookies and cream cheesecakes would always be welcome. I’ve been eating one a day all week and they haven’t stopped being wonderful.

These are very easy to whip up, and they employ the lower-fat version of typical cheesecake ingredients. My favorite part is getting to that reduced-fat Oreo at the bottom. Heaven!

Being busy isn’t good all the time, but it’s better than the alternative, which is boredom and pointlessness. So if someone accuses you of having too much going on, be proud! Own your industry. It’s part of the American Dream, after all!

I’ll be honest with you: I have very mixed feelings about the holidays. They seem to be an elaborate ruse to guide us toward winter with enthusiasm, where we’re left in January with bare trees, chilly mornings and frozen windshields. But on the other hand, those lights sure are pretty.

While I don’t celebrate Christmas, I can get down with gingerbread anything. That includes these gingerbread cookie cheesecake bars, which are both easy and festive. They’re also studded with cinnamon chips, one of my favorite baking inventions.

Here’s my pet peeve of the week: ready? People in parking lots with no manners.

When I was a kid, it was common courtesy (not to mention a safety practice) to drive through parking lots slowly, allowing for the possibility that either a person or a car would appear in your path. I very strongly remember a time when, if a person were pulling out of a parking spot, someone driving past them would respectfully stop and wait for them to finish coming out of the space, letting them go first.

Now, cars shoot through the lots at high speed, and if someone is coming out of a space, they typically swerve around that person and continue on their merry way. I’ve seen more than a few people almost killed by this practice. And aside from being dangerous, it’s also downright rude.

Plus, we all know how hard it is to see what’s behind us in parking lots. My head is always swiveling like crazy, trying to see everything at the same time. As much as I love Trader Joe’s, backing out of a parking space in that jammed little lot terrifies me. My car isn’t fancy enough for one of those rear-view cameras, which I hear really help.

This holiday season, let’s all begin by not just being kinder and more generous in person, but also by letting someone back out of their f-ing parking space. Can we all just do that for one person? Great. Rant concluded.

The last time I was at Trader Joe’s, I picked up some of their refrigerated gingerbread cookie dough. It formed the base for these lovely bars. On top went a layer of simple cheesecake batter with cinnamon chips, and I added some caramel sauce for bling. Mission accomplished. Yet another holiday bar option to celebrate and enjoy!

Bar cookies are my favorite, in case you haven’t figured that out by now. But they’re especially marvelous this time of year, because they pack and go very easily. Perfect for potluck holiday parties!

Whether or not you see winter looming this holiday season, be sure to fill it with good cookies and even better parking lot etiquette. It’ll guarantee you points with Santa or whatever higher power you believe in!