In case you’ve never had a brookie before, it’s just the kind of dessert that inspired me to begin food blogging. A cookie/brownie hybrid deserves a food blog, right?

But you see, these are even better. The bottom layer is a chocolate chip-filled fudgy brownie, and the top is pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough. I’m so glad brookies are a thing, but even gladder that pumpkin brookies can come out of it!

Almost three years ago, I decided to start Just About Baked. It was a love story to the desserts I push to decadent limits, and a way to write and express my creativity in a way that I hadn’t been able to before. I started this not knowing anything about what I was doing, and boy, did it show.

Those early pics? Don’t look. And as for the rest of it, I learned a lot about so many things. The learning curve was steep, and I was excited to get a chance to absorb whatever I could.

But here’s the rub. All this time, I’ve been doing my first passion during the day, which is teaching. I’ve been teaching full-time in public high school for 17 years. It’s a full-time job and then some. I work a minimum of ten hours each day and then come home to make dinner, do homework with kids, have playtime, put them to bed and then work some more. In case nobody’s ever told you this, grading papers and planning lessons takes forever, for English teachers especially. Case in point? Before I wrote this post today, I spent five solid hours grading about 35 essays. And I’ve got many more to go! Not complaining, but it is what it is.

Somewhere in the middle of having three kids and being a teacher, I needed some additional stimulation. Anyone who knows me realizes that my days are packed, and I like them that way. So I created this site, nurtured it, and managed to keep it fairly functional for a while. Until recently.

Over the summer, I got a lot busier at work thanks to a promotion, and working all day and part of the night all week long is tough enough without having to bake, photograph and organize JAB on weekends. See, I like to hang out with my kids, and that’s more important than social networking. I’m also not that good at social networking, to be honest. It’s always felt uncomfortable to me, like I’m existing in a world that’s not quite real. I also like occasional downtime, and working 24/7 takes that away. Oh, and did I mention that my house is falling apart because there’s no time to fix things or clean up after my three kids?

I like to give what I do time and attention, and it’s not happening on this blog the way it should or could be. I wish I could be Superwoman and just do everything, but nope. I’m not going to hold myself to impossible standards, and I’m not going to let the time I have with my family suffer either. My first professional passion was teaching, and there it stays. Prioritizing has to happen sooner or later.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t still consider myself a baker. It also doesn’t mean that I’ll never pick this up in an official capacity again. However, I need a break. I need time to think about things. It goes against the grain of who I am to do anything that resembles giving up, but I have to show myself some compassion. Better to take some time and figure out whether JAB is a chapter that will continue, or if it’s about to become a piece of my past.

I have one more post later this week that will thank all the lovely people who have helped me over this journey, and that I hope will express how much I’ll miss them. I’m emotional enough that I can’t even write about these pumpkin brookies for now, so just enjoy the pics, okay? I’ll see you in a few days, but for now, already feeling the separation anxiety. It’s been a heckuva ride, and I’ll miss it terribly.

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!

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!

Because I do that all the time. Several months ago, I saw a gluten-free version of Pillsbury’s funfetti cake mix on the shelves, and I knew I had to buy it. After all, Kenny is a funfetti addict, but he also eats a primarily GF diet. My original plan was to go home, bake him the cake and be done with it.

But you know, I’m a baking blogger. What does that mean? I have fun with mixes! So instead of just baking the cake, I let the mix alone for a while to brainstorm ideas. Finally, these cookies came to light. And they’re great!

As part of my training to be a department chair, I’ve been sitting in a lot of classes all summer long to get up to speed. The learning curve can be pretty big and it’s an abundance of information to absorb. And yet, people seem very concerned about the snacks.

That’s right: the snacks. We have a rotating signup sheet for who brings snacks on particular dates, and people are very into coordinating with one another. On the one hand, I get it. You don’t want too many chips or cookies or whatever. But on the other hand, I kind of don’t care. I’ll bring in snacks on my designated day (I already bought the Tostitos, y’all) and eat whatever is there. It doesn’t matter. I’m too busy having my brain stuffed with information. Today I skipped the conversation where everyone coordinates snacks so that I could get home in time to see the kids. Does that make me a bad person?

Usually, I’m all about the snacks. It’s just that when I get into a zone of concentrating, I don’t really think about food as much. That’s when food becomes fuel rather than a hobby.

When I’m not in class, though, bring on the fun food! And fun means funfetti. These cookies might be gluten-free, but they pack a whole lotta funfetti flavor!

The best part about cake mix cookies is that they’re just about as easy to make as the cake mix itself. Just don’t forget the pudding mix, because it’s the best part!

When you’re done, you have a thick and fluffy cookie that won’t upset any tummies. Maybe I should bring these in along with the Tostitos. That would make people forgive me for skipping out on snack duty conversations!

One day a week, the possibility of sleeping in until 6 looms. It’s so lovely. On Friday nights I snuggle into bed with the knowledge that I can just loaf in the mornings. Well, no. But I can be dragged out of bed by a child, go downstairs, sit on the couch, and hope that nobody wants to play with me so that I can read my book in peace.

Another special thing about weekends? Good snacking options! While I’ve always been a big fan of peanut butter blossom cookies, I’m not as into how they need to be made with shortening to prevent spreading. I don’t like shortening much. So instead, I put them into cookie cups, and that works just fine!

Bear with me for a few minutes as I talk about teaching. Ready? It’s a heavy topic for the almost weekend, but I need to express myself.

Years ago, a mentor told me that if I went into teaching expecting appreciation, then I was barking up the wrong tree. Instead, she told me, I would have to find satisfaction in my work from within. That intrinsic motivation would have to drive me.

The thing with teaching is that when people are feeling appreciative, they don’t necessarily express it. I have taught some lovely students who are thankful, and some parents of students who are as well. For the most part, people appreciate teachers and that’s really nice. The problem is, they’re not as vocal about it, so teachers often wind up hearing only from the people who are dissatisfied.

I’ve been lucky enough in my career that I have been given appreciation on a regular basis, but this week I heard a conversation that stopped me in my tracks. Someone was talking about teaching, and they made the argument that any warm body could stand in a classroom full of highly motivated students and the results would be the same as with a teacher who was putting forth the best possible effort.

Boy, did that rankle. All teachers who are working to help students of any background or skill level are making a difference. We’re not babysitters, caregivers, or place holders. There is an unimaginable skill set to teaching, and it still shocks me sometimes when people (some of whom otherwise seem intelligent and perceptive) just don’t get it.

If you’re a satisfied parent whose child has good teachers, tell them that. Tell them you appreciate them. Well, not right now. It’s the summer, and they don’t want to be bothered now. But you get the idea!

On to less deep topics: cookie cups! Peanut butter blossom cookie cups, to be exact.

The best part about cookie cups is that the mini-muffin tin holds in the cookie dough so that it can’t spread. The result is a thick cookie. And you can just press the Hershey kiss right on into the center, making it quite a blissful experience.

Happy almost weekend, and go hug a teacher. Or buy us chocolate. Or bake us cookies. We need it!