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.

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!

When I was a kid, my dad would pick us up after school and on simpler days, we’d go straight home. But sometimes there were errands to run, so we had to go out and about. While I hated errands, it usually meant I got to pick out an after school candy bar. For years, that candy bar was Baby Ruth. Those chocolate-covered peanut and caramel bars have a great deal of nostalgia for me.

Which kind of got me to thinking. I rarely bake with Baby Ruth bars, and that’s a crying shame. So today, I’ve remedied that neglect. They’re getting their very own brookie!

For those of you who are way behind the trend, a brookie is a fantastic mashup of a brownie and a cookie. It’s one of my favorite combinations, right up there with pake (pie and cake, a combo I fell in love with thanks to the show Drop Dead Diva) and pookies, a pie and cookie combo. Mashups don’t just belong in music, after all. They hold up even better in dessert. If you want to learn more about them, read my friend Dorothy’s amazing cookbook. She has some rocking recipe mashups!

Mashups also extend to other areas of life. Like the spork. You know the spork, right? That miraculous blend of spoon and fork? Why in the name of all that’s holy don’t cutlery sets (the real ones, not the plastic) come with sporks? They’re the only answer to the question, “What is the best way to eat an ice cream cake?” Duh! Spork!

Another mashup I love is the skort. I know that sounds incredibly dorky, but hear me out. As the mother of daughters, it’s so great to have them wear something that looks like a skirt, but has shorts underneath for when they inevitably do a downward-facing dog pose in front of a crowd. See, little girls love to show off their fancy underpants. The skort stops that from happening.

In fact, the skort is so awesome that I found a couple of really chic ones (no, I’m not kidding) on sale at Athleta. They look like miniskirts, but really, they’re miniskorts. I look cute, and I don’t have to worry that someone is looking up my skirt when I’m not sitting with my knees clamped together.

So if you haven’t gotten it by now, I love mashups. And these Baby Ruth brookies are no exception. The bottom layer is a brownie made with real chocolate. That happened because I ran low on cocoa, so I made it up as I went along. It worked! Brownies are forgiving, and now you have the recipe below. The top layer is a cookie dough, and it’s run through with chopped fun-sized Baby Ruth bars. If ever there were an appropriate name for smaller candy bars, it’s “fun-sized.” What marketing genius came up with that?

If you haven’t spent much time thinking about the joy of mashups, you’d better start now. Begin with a neglected candy bar from youth and then branch out to cutlery and clothing. It’s the perfect way to reject having to compromise. Get something exactly the way you want it!