If you guessed Rosh Hashana, you’re 100% right! That’s the Jewish new year, when it’s traditional to eat sweet foods to usher in an equally sweet new year.

Honey is one of the most popular Rosh Hashana foods. A lot of people make a honey cake, but as Kenny pointed out, it’s not the best of cakes. So instead, I offer up these honey cookies!

The school system I teach for actually gives everyone the first day of this holiday off, so I only have to take leave for the second day. Yay for my wonderful county!

At the same time, most of my colleagues don’t celebrate the holiday, so they’re all excited to be getting into a three-day weekend, whereas I’m just looking ahead to lots of cooking and cleaning.

It’s traditional to make a lot of food for our holidays, and it’s all good stuff. There’s the requisite brisket, or honey-baked chicken, or kugel (look it up if you don’t know what this is). It’s all so much food, and yet people seem to eat every bite.

Seeing as how I’m doing a lot of work this weekend to prep, I’m keeping this post short. We all good on that? I’ll also be incommunicado through Tuesday night, so it is what it is. Goodbye, pretty iPhone. For now.

Honey cake is controversial because it’s often dry and comes across as an inferior version of spice cake or carrot cake. Therefore, I’ve jettisoned it completely in favor of honey cookies.

These are a snap to put together, and they are delightfully honey-ish without going fully over the threshold of being too sweet. If you pair these with tea, it’s a match made in heaven.

To all my friends celebrating, shana tovah (happy new year). May this be a year filled with all the good things!

Yes, my post is later than usual this week, and no, it’s not on purpose. I just forgot what day of the week it was because, as usual, there’s a lot happening at work. I’m usually pretty good with time, so I’ve managed to surprise myself by losing track of it a little.

Or maybe I just wanted to wait longer to bring you this autumnal take on my favorite cookie, the snowball. These pumpkin snowballs are the perfect afternoon snack on a crisp fall day!

When I was a kid, catalogs were a pretty big deal. Before online shopping happened, I would happily spend hours poring over the pages of different catalogs. My favorite by far was the Sears Wish List, which came out in the fall and was full of holiday cheer and tons of toys. I could look at those toys forever, imagining that I owned them all.

A more consistent and less exciting offering was my mother’s L.L. Bean catalog, which I would look through and privately wonder at. My mother always said that their clothes were “classic,” but to me, that just meant dull. I was always much more into sparkly things and spur of the moment trends. And khaki chinos? Shiver. No, thanks.

Now that the holiday season is in the kind of imminent future and the leaves are starting to turn, I’m definitely thinking about those catalogs. Time has a way of slipping by, and I’m not trying to rush things. At the same time, there’s been no opportunity lately to stop and smell the crunchy leaves. Or read a catalog. We’re going to have to work on that.

The best way to get a break in my world is with cookies. Snowballs have always been a huge fave of mine, and adding just a small amount of pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice makes them more than ready for fall.

If you remember the days of leafing through catalogs while lying on your tummy on a carpeted floor, then we’re simpatico. If you think time is going by too fast, join humanity. We’re all there. I hope you get some time to stop and look around. If not, I hope there’s a cookie break in there somewhere!

These might look similar to snickerdoodles, but they’re not. Do you know why? Because I’m not that fond of snickerdoodles. They often have a crunchier texture and aftertaste that I just do not enjoy.

Cinnamon, though, is the best. So these soft-baked sugar cookies are rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked to happy perfection. These are the way to get your school snack munchies on!

If you know anything about wearing high heels for a day, you also know that it’s always a stupid decision. They make everything hurt as you get older, from your feet right up to your back and beyond.

Men never understand why women subject themselves to this torture. Men also never have their calves up for inspection in form-fitting dresses. High heels might hurt like the dickens, but they also make you look darn good.

Of course, I wore heels on the first day of school all day. Oh, the pain. The horrible pain. Remind me in a year never to do that again. I’ll have to atone all winter by wearing Uggs every single day.

Yesterday as I was hobbling around, I took a few minutes to put out a plate of these cinnamon sugar cookies for the teachers. I wanted us to sit down at lunch and share first day trauma stories. It’s always much easier to share trauma over cookies.

I’m not sure if anyone had a story like that (yay for good first days!), but we chatted about our lives. Who was getting married, who had a baby, who had a kid starting kindergarten, all of that. You know, real life stuff. It felt good to take a cookie break with everyone.

These cookies are so inviting and comforting. They’re super soft, and their buttery sugary goodness is unbounded. You’ll be very popular if you bake these!

Whether or not you choose to suffer with high heels in life, there’s always a cookie out there to comfort you. That, above all, is sweetly reassuring!

Because life, everyone. It can be stressful and overwhelming, and I’m in the middle of a crazy week welcoming teachers back and getting them set up. So do you know what I need?

Cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. The easiest, simplest recipe. You ready?

Being ready is hard. Whenever I’m talking to people without kids who are thinking about becoming parents, they often worry about being ready. That’s just silly, because nobody is ever ready to be a parent. You jump in and do your best and that’s kind of how it goes.

Of course, some people know they’ll never be ready, and that’s cool.

Teachers never feel fully ready for the start of school either. It’s funny, because we do it every year. Still, we work all week to get our classrooms set up and lessons planned because we know that come the first day, the kids are with us and we have to be totally good to go. There’s still that nagging doubt about being actually ready, even with maximum preparation.

Personally, I’m never ready to turn down a chocolate chip cookie. Who’s with me?

There are as many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there as there stars in the sky. Well, maybe not that many. But close. Why? Because everyone has a different idea of what the perfect chocolate chip cookie is. Chewy or crispy? Thin or thick? Soft or crunchy?

This recipe ignores all the drama and just combines simple ingredients to make a cookie that serves as a nice middle ground. It’s crispier at the edges but soft in the center, and it’s neither ultra-thin nor pillowy thick. It’s just…a cookie. You dig?

Listen, life is busy these days and all I really want to do when I get five minutes of alone time is sit around and eat chocolate chip cookies. I’m ready for that, and I’m guessing that you are, too. Let’s do it!

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!

My dark hair has been graying for a few years now, and my approach to that is to dye my hair increasingly fun shades of whatever. Right now it’s kind of cherry cola red, but I really wanted to go blue for winter. Kenny vetoed that choice, but the game isn’t over yet. There’s always next winter!

But now it’s summer, and for some reason, I always think of butterscotch when things heat up. One of the best combos ever is butterscotch and oatmeal. These oatmeal scotchies are the perfect lazy day snack!

Back to the hair, though. Sorry, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. We all age, but I’ve decided to age as gracelessly as possible. Instead of deciding that I’m too old for the stuff I love, like blue hair, Converse sneakers or t-shirts with obnoxious messages on them, I’m just gonna keep on trucking with the trends.

Part of the problem is that I teach in a high school, so I’m very much aware of what’s on trend. My goal is not to dress like a teenager, because that would be ridiculous. But I also don’t want to dress like a grown-up a lot of the time, because that’s boring. Kenny describes my style as “funky,” and I’ll stick with that. Funky is forever.

I’ll also keep eating like a teenager, because you know, they actually eat really well. My students always have apples around them, or cheese sticks. They seem to get the importance of nutrition. Gotta say, they’re a lot healthier than I was at that age. Back then, I regularly ate Little Debbie’s snack cakes for lunch.

They do, however, love eating cookies, so I’ll do that too. Because really, what’s better than a cookie that’s chewy and yet still crispy at the edges? And full of butterscotch goodness?

This one is a classic, and I enhanced its oatmeal flavor by baking the cookies with oat flour. That makes them even chewier. It’s a win all around.

Whatever you might be doing this summer, try and have some fun with trends. Summer is a great time to experiment with new fashion or food. If that means you go running for the pink hair dye, so be it. I’ll be right there next to you!

These are key lime, you see. The very best of summer citrus condensed into a buttery, decadent cookie. Regular snowballs, move over. It’s time for a warm-weather makeover!

Well, that’s assuming we get any warm weather soon. It’s been raining for like 17 straight days. Why did nobody warn me about DC being moved across the country to Seattle?

Last week, somebody made a comment on FB about how people get really whiny about rain and how it’s no big deal. I’m guessing that this person’s mood is not at the mercy of the elements, and I’m jealous. I really need sunshine to feel happy.

Also, it’s apparently good for my bones to get lots of Vitamin D, which is easier when the sun’s out. No, no, I’m not advocating sun worship of any kind. Protect your skin with sunscreen, always!

The downside of that is, of course, less natural exposure to Vitamin D. For some people that’s no big deal, but I recently failed a bone density test with flying colors. I’ve been very good with the sunscreen, but not so great with the calcium.

So here I am, loyal readers, asking you for tips. I’m not much of a dairy person, which I realize is a problem. I don’t like yogurt (unless it’s frozen) and I could never eat enough cheese to make it worthwhile to my bones. So what else can I eat? I hear kale is good, and spinach. Give me some recipes or ideas! No beans, please. I’m picky.

In the meantime, I’m all good on the cookie front. I get plenty of cookies. If only they had calcium!

I’m a snowball girl through and through. These are easily my favorite kind of cookie. The texture gets me every time. It’s because the dough (egg-free, so you can eat as you work!) is made with powdered sugar instead of granulated, so these have the most melt-in-your-mouth, velvety feel.

To spice things up, I added in a little bit of lime juice and a lot of lime zest. The zest is in both the cookie dough and in the powdered sugar that the cookies get rolled in. I wanted to find key limes (and I still will, thus the title of this post), but all I could get for this baking day were the regular kind. Either way, it’ll taste amazing!

It’s rainy out and I want some awesome, sunshiny calcium. Help a girl out!

In theater (yes, I used to be a theater nerd), that term refers to someone who can sing, dance and act. They don’t just barely pull it off, either. They can do all three with amazing ease and style. We tend to hate people like that. I kid, I kid.

Consider this bar the triple threat of the cookie bar world. All other bars look at this bar and they’re jealous. You know why? Because we have three things going on here: brownie, cookie, and more cookie. Sandwiched between the layers of brownie and chocolate chip cookie is…Chips Ahoy!

Normally I give bars away freely to hungry scavengers, but not this time. I know how to guard what’s valuable. That’s why I never let my beloved iPhone out of my sight, either.

Several months back, Kenny bought me the iPhone 6+. I call it the “phablet” because it is particularly huge. I have tiny hands (a ring size of 3 and a 1/2, y’all), so holding that phone can really present some challenges. But I love it. Have I mentioned that he bought me the one in rose gold? Swoon.

Of course, my children immediately picked up on the glory that is my phablet. I know they want one too, and I’ve told them they can have one when they’re 18. Does that make me one of those strict moms? Heck yeah!

Maybe I’m exaggerating the age at which my children will be allowed to get phones, but I see the opposite extreme going on all over the place. This one girl in my daughter’s kindergarten class has her own iPad, and another has my exact same phone. Disposable income issues and child engagement aside, can a child that age care for a device? I see how my kids treat their toys.

But yeah, having kids makes me more inclined to try and remember not  to look at my phone all the time. Their generation is the first that was born into this technology. My teenage students are actually worried about the younger generation, and they’re pretty tuned out themselves. What happens when we all just stop looking at one another and hang out with our phablets instead? Oh, wait. We’re there.

Maybe if I distract my kids from looking at screens by having them look at dessert instead, they’ll learn how to socialize? Or maybe that’s not a good idea. But the dessert is awfully pretty!

These bars are easy to make and extremely rewarding to eat. The bottom layer is a brownie. The middle layer is Chips Ahoy cookies, and the top is refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough. Done and done and done! Triple threat, here you come!

At the rate technology is going, I’ll probably be prying my kids’ faces off of their phablets before they’ve reached adulthood, but for now, I’m gonna try and fight it, dessert in hand!

See, he’s a vanilla kid. He loves plain desserts, like sugar cookies. He’ll usually opt for crackers or tortilla chips instead of something sweet. He’s also as blonde and blue-eyed as the day is long, whereas I have extremely dark hair and eyes. So much for dominant genes!

One of the only desserts I make that he’ll eat are peanut butter cookies, the plain kind. No mix-ins allowed. I tried it once with peanut butter cups and he was pretty annoyed. So until he can bake, I’ll keep making the plain cookies. This recipe is pretty old school, and it works great!

Old school is great when it comes to food, but not so great when it comes to aging. As I get older, my body is more prone to failing me unpredictably. Sometimes it’s my lower back, sometimes my hamstrings, sometimes my neck or shoulders. I can be fine one minute and unable to turn my head the next.

From what I understand, these little body fails are all a natural product of three categories I easily fall under: getting older, exercising intensely and frequently, and having arthritis. And with my usual approach, I power through the pain. Movement is a friend. True, exercising with a bum knee can really suck, but the extra blood flow loosens everything up and at the end of an hour of movement, I feel better.

The phrase “use it or lose it” might be cliche, but it’s true of just about everything. If you don’t eat those veggies in the fridge at their peak (or cook them one they’re no longer fresh), they just turn to slime. If you don’t use your brain and challenge yourself intellectually day after day, you start worrying about inconsequential nothings and become unhealthily obsessed with minutiae. And if you don’t let your body move consistently, especially if you suffer from pain, it’ll just get harder and harder to be active.

In other words, to quote the great Dylan Thomas, “Rage against the dying of the light.” We’re all getting older, and while we can’t change the inevitable outcome, we can sure make it the best possible journey. Giving up is for the birds. Making yourself proud? That matters.

Making my kids happy also matters, which is why these peanut butter cookies exist. Oh, who am I kidding? I ate my fair share. They came with me to school every day for my lunches to hang out with my PB & J. Peanut butter all around!

These cookies are soft in the middle but firmer at the edges, like every good cookie should be. They don’t puff up as much as some of the other peanut butter cookie recipes I like to make, but that’s because old school cookies don’t do that. So let’s keep it real, yo.

While my son and I don’t seemingly have a lot in common on the surface, we share a love of peanut butter cookies. We also love being on time (or even early) for everything, we love music (both playing and listening), and we are into working hard for good results. Yep, he’s eight with a work ethic.

Anything worthwhile is worth striving for. It might not be easy, but that can make the end result that much sweeter. Fight for your right to party and eat cookies, but also fight for your own best self. You won’t be sorry!

Not outside, actually. The D.C. area is expecting a balmy 60 degrees through the week. But in my office, the temperature has dropped like a rock. It makes me want to put on a blanket and eat these cookies while my students huddle into their sweaters.

These cookies are my favorite, and I’ve upped the fun by sticking a candy cane Kiss in the middle. They melt down in the oven, making for a perfect surprise center. Hello, holiday cookie!

Now it’s time for me to vent, so get ready.

Did you know that women freeze in their offices all the time because the average temperature in any building is set to a man’s sense of heat and cold? In other words, even the dang HVAC system all over the country is sexist.

Seriously, I’m tired of accommodating for a man’s world. Folks, I’m petite. I’m gonna be cold at work for the next several months. But it isn’t just the temps. It’s little things, like how I’m always jumping up (in heels, mind you) to reach shelves in stores, which makes me look and feel ridiculous. It’s how the water cooler refill at work is impossible to lift and put on the stand without getting water everywhere. And it’s how people expect me to be good at crafty things, just because I’m a female.

Really, guys. I can’t craft to save my life. Zero interest. I try to tie bows on things and it doesn’t work. I’ve heard of decoupage, but for years I just thought it was something dirty.

So as I sit here freezing my butt off, I’d rather think about what’s all fine and dandy in my world, and that’s holiday cookies. Lots and lots of them! Like these.

The dough for these is made with powdered sugar instead of granulated. That makes the consistency of these cookies completely different from any other holiday cookie. You can call these snowballs, but I made them flatter to make that filling spread out more evenly throughout the cookie. You can call them wedding cookies, but ain’t nobody getting married right now.

So instead, I call them snowdrifts. These are a dreamy, soft, minty sweet escape from the perils of life. One bite of these and I totally forget that I’m cold. In fact, winter seems kind of quaint, just for a minute.

And when the cookies are all done, I can rail about the patriarchy controlling my office temps until I stick another cookie in my mouth. Seems like a perfect routine, really.

As the winter looms and we get more easily irritated by life’s little inconveniences, remember to be grateful for holiday cookies. I know I am!