A few of you out there are still looking for ways to use up so-called “leftover” candy. I don’t really get that concept. It’s not chicken, people. It’s not gonna go bad that fast. Eat it and enjoy at your leisure.

But heck, if you really want to bake it into something, make a pookie! This lovely cookie dough is filled with all your Halloween candy favorites and baked into a pie shell. With Thanksgiving looming, we should be getting our pie thing going anyway. Let’s do a hybrid holiday treat!

To be honest, I’m relieved to be in November. October is just a terrifying month, and not just because of people banging on your door demanding candy. Grades are due in my school system on November first, and so are college recommendations. I’m just happy that these weights are lifting from my shoulders.

Now I can focus on lifting real weights, which I do faithfully. Still, there’s this area under my arm. I hesitate to use the word “flaps” because it’s not empowering. But with all the triceps work I do and all those painful push-ups with my hands shaped like a diamond, why don’t I have arms like Madonna? Probably the pie.

There have been times that I get frustrated at the parts of my body that don’t tone as easily as others. But lately, I’ve also been trying to focus on the good stuff. My abs are really responsive to training, and that means I need to stop complaining. Why are we so inclined to focus on the stuff that isn’t as great and not spend time enjoying what we love about ourselves?

That said, if I ever became rich, I would hire the following in a heartbeat: a personal trainer, a personal chef (just on retainer for those days I don’t wanna cook), and a hairdresser, not on retainer. Because I need hair help every single day. I wouldn’t even think about redoing the house or anything until these three people were part of my daily routine. And you know, it would be cool to have an assistant too, just to keep track of my appointments and all.

Anyone out there willing to make my dream come true? I will totally bake for you every day if you make me rich. I do that anyway. No matter how rich I got, I would bake. It just makes me so darn happy.

Like this pookie here. Who can turn away from this? Not me, I can tell ya. The trick is to make sure you don’t bake this guy for too long, or the whole thing goes from slightly gooey and joyously chewy to dry and hard. Watch that oven timer!

Listen, I don’t need recipes for leftover candy. In my house, it’s called eating it. But I understand if you do, and I hear where you’re coming from. So go ahead and eat your candy in a pookie! It’s almost as nice as being rich and having your own personal staff.

Nope. The rain.

Yep, that’s right. Rain. It rained day after day last week, and so even though this deep dish pookie is amazing, I got awful pics of it. I’m terribly sorry. Forgive me, and know that it tasted wonderful and that I am not worthy.

Also, know that this is super easy. Like, crazy easy. One bowl, bakes up fast. I made it in a 9-inch round cake pan to make it that pie-cookie hybrid, and how happy life was!

In a recipe like this, the chocolate chips sink to the bottom, right by the Oreo cookie crust. It’s like this magical burst of chocolate intensity just as your palate is adjusting to the pookie flavor. And as for the texture, it’s a mix of pie and cookie, of course. Gooey and melty and just what you need!

Unlike the rain, which nobody needs. So ignore that, and pookie it up! I’ll see you tomorrow when the sun is shining. Let’s hope, anyway.

Yes, the pookie. As in, a pie/cookie hybrid. Please. Don’t tell me you’ve never had one!

Pookies are the best. They’re thicker than those big cookie cakes you get at the grocery store that always look amazing because duh, they’re giant cookies. You know, the ones that are typically covered in brightly-colored frosting?

Whoops, sidetracked as usual. The pookie has more depth. Think of it as a deep-dish cookie. Now that’s a dessert I can wrap my mind around! Oh, and my mouth, too.

This particular pookie is filled with chocolate chunks. I could’ve gone the chocolate chip route, but this time, I needed something more filling. Now that it’s summer I’m moving around more, and my metabolism is chugging away, and it’s speaking to me. Literally, I hear voices saying, “Come on, Mir. Stop with the chocolate chips already. I ran around all day and you can’t give me something better?”

So I obliged the voice and made the pookie with giant chocolate chunks. And I was rewarded with a gooey, fabulous result. It’s important to bake the pookie fully, but not to overbake it. You don’t want dry pookie! Dry pookie is just a darn shame.

You can leave this undecorated or gussy it up a bit. I used one of my favorite tricks, which is to pipe hot fudge sauce on the surface in fun patterns. Hot fudge sauce is delicious on almost anything, and if you want to go completely nuts, you could have your pookie a la mode! That’s right. Get some vanilla ice cream in there.

Okay, I’m kind of in a sugar coma from all the fro yo. So here’s the pookie recipe. Get gooey!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chunks

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a pie pan or a 9 to 10-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. If you’re using a cake pan, cut parchment paper to fit the bottom for easy release.

This one is special, folks. While I say I don’t like to play favorites with my desserts, this one is too good for me to lie about. It’s ridiculous. If you’re a peanut butter and chocolate addict, making this cheesepake is not even optional. Get into your kitchen. Now!

So I have a little confession: the cheesecake base is skinny. But honestly, you won’t even notice. The filling is nice and thick and tastes completely sinful. You see, I have this philosophy about dessert. Whenever I go to one of those self-serve frozen yogurt shops (okay, I go all the time), I always get fat-free or low fat frozen yogurt and then I cover it with peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, Snickers pieces, and brownie bites. See? Balance. And the same philosophy applies to this cheesepake.

Because, dear partners in crime, mixed into this healthier base is joy. I mean, peanut butter cups. Lots of them. And then the cheesepake is topped with more peanut butter cups and hot fduge sauce. Mmm. And the best sneaky part is the graham cracker crust, into which I melted peanut butter chips to give the base an extra peanut butter kick. To make things even crazier, I always use brown sugar in the crust. It gives the base a caramelized edge. I have been known to eat the crust by itself because it’s kind of like an awesome cookie bonus. Woohoo!

Sorry. Ahem. I’m just so worked up about this. I love cheesecake. I love pie. I love peanut butter cups. It’s like magic has just exploded onto my plate. How could I not be excited?

I’m not going to say anything else about this. I’m a woman of action, and I need to act right now and eat this thing before someone else gets to it. So pardon me and enjoy the recipe!

Crust:

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips (I used Reese’s)
• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1  cup graham cracker crumbs

Filling:

• 16 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese (you can use regular, but not fat-free)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips
• 1 package mini Reese’s (the unwrapped kind)

Topping:

• hot fudge sauce
• 8 snack-sized Reese’s, cut into trianges of varying shapes/sizes

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a pie pan with cooking spray.

Melt the butter and peanut butter chips in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until smooth, and then mix in the brown sugar and graham cracker crumbs until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Press the crust firmly into the pie pan, working the crust up the sides.

Bake the crust for 5-10 minutes until set.

While the crust is baking, prepare the cheesecake filling. Beat the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth. Add the egg whites, egg, yogurt, vanilla and lemon juice and beat once more until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Fold in the mini peanut butter cups and peanut butter chips.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the pie crust and bake for 45 minutes. Do not open the oven while baking or cracks will appear on the surface.

Remove the cheesepake from the oven and allow to cool. Sprinkle the chopped peanut butter cups evenly over the surface and then drizzle with hot fudge sauce.

Chill for three hours (or preferably overnight). Slice into wedges and serve!

Because if you’ve seen the show, you know what a pake is. No, that’s not a typo. I’m talking serious pake, kids. As in, a pie-cake hybrid. That’s right! In an episode of the show, a character accidentally invents the pake when two pages of a cookbook get stuck together without her realizing it. The result is rather marvelous. I mean, it’s a cake inside a pie crust. What could be better?

As soon as I realized that pake could exist, I wanted to make one. Having made many pookies in my life (yep, a pie with a big cookie filling), I knew that pake would be just as fabulous. So I set about trying to decide on my first pake flavor, and in the end, I figured simplest was best for a first try. So here it is: my chocolate pake! It’s a pecan cookie crust with a basic chocolate cake batter and a silky buttercream on top, gently swirled. I didn’t want to pile the icing up too high because there is so very much going on already.

In fact, in an uncharacteristic move, I did not put any chocolate chips in the cake batter. I just wanted to have a crunchy crust with a moist, classic chocolate cake, the kind I used to have when I was a kid. You know, the kind of cake that people usually just put powdered sugar on? It’s the best!

But hey, who can resist a good chocolate frosting? Not me! And this is one of my favorite frostings. It’s simple and very fudgy, but it doesn’t taste too buttery. It has a good balance of elements.

This pake wouldn’t be nearly as much fun with an ordinary pie crust, not to insult more traditional crusts. I mean, they have their wonderful place in life and all, but this pecan crust has a little more character and balances out the simplicity of the chocolate. If you have a nut allergy, just leave out the pecans!

I love those yellow plates. I use them all the time. Has anyone noticed? Anyway, it’s not enough to have cake by itself anymore! We have to up the ante. Cake needs crust!

I’m not gonna lie. This pake does take some time to assemble, and some of the recipe amounts are weird because I only wanted the recipe to wield one pake. But it’s worth it! So here it is, the marvelous pake. Eat while watching Drop Dead Diva. They just loaded Season 5 onto Netflix, so what better time to pake away?

Crust:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, cold
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Cake:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons flour
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Frosting:

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 to 3 tablespoons boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a pie plate with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mix flour and the brown sugar until combined. Cut in the butter and, using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix until crumbly. Stir in the pecans and press the mixture into the pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes to set.

In the meantime, make the cake batter. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Blend thoroughly. Add the milk, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until smooth, either by hand or with a mixer. Fold in the boiling water carefully.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared pie crust, and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick put into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Make the frosting. In a smaller bowl, mix the cocoa and powdered sugar together until combined. Using a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add the cocoa mixture, beating until fluffy. Add the boiling water gradually and beat each time until the frosting can be spread. Finally, add the vanilla.

When the pake has cooled, frost with swirly motions! Eat while watching Drop Dead Diva.