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!

For a special day like this, I couldn’t just make any ice cream. No, siree. I had to really stretch my creative boundaries and think of a flavor that I wish someone would just go ahead and invent already. And you know what? Jackpot!

This is probably my favorite ice cream that I’ve made, and I’ve made a lot of winners. The base is creamy cinnamon with the best mix-ins in the world: cinnamon chips, chocolate chunks, and Rolos! Prepare to swoon.

It’s been super-hot in the DC area over the past week, with temps pushing well into the 90s. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to hit 99, and I think there’s even a 100 in the 10-day forecast. Everyone is complaining about it.

Well, everyone but me, that is. I revel in the heat. It’s just so welcoming. Last week, Kenny and I took paddleboards out on the Potomac. He was very busy paddling to and fro, but I had a different idea. I paddled mine toward the edge of the river with a nice view of the Key Bridge, and then I put down my oar and stretched out onto my board, staring up at the sun while the board bobbed gently over the water. When it got too hot, I dipped a foot in the river. It was sublime.

The upshot is that Kenny got back thirsty and tired, and I paddled back to the dock feeling pretty relaxed. Either way, the heat made the whole water trip even better. I felt like a cat in the sun.

You know what else is better in extreme heat? Frozen treats. I’m telling you, nothing feels quite so good as drinking something frosty or scooping up a cold spoonful when the sun is beating down on us all.

There’s no better time to have National Ice Cream Day than the middle of July when we’re all inhaling the frozen desserts right and left, and I really wanted to do it up right this year. You can’t go wrong with this one, and there’s no ice cream maker needed!

Here’s a tip from me to you: don’t cheat with Cool Whip. Not on National Ice Cream Day. Whip up the real stuff. It’ll taste just so much better. The hardest part of this recipe is whipping the cream, and it takes very little time if you have a stand or handheld mixer. The rest is super easy!

I wish you all a very happy time with your ice cream. Make it a day that’s worth its weight in ice cream. This is the time!

The week should be winding down, which is good. My head is packed with to-do lists and tasks, and it’s always a good feeling when Friday evening hits and everything comes to a halt. No calls, no texts, no notifications. Just me and the fam!

When life gets crazy, cups of tea are important. Sometimes, I need a little more than just tea to calm down, and that’s where a good cookie companion comes into play. These Eastern European cookies are very similar to biscotti, but they’re built on a smaller scale and have a little more softness to them. The traditional version just contains nuts, but I added chocolate chips and a nice sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top. You can’t go wrong with that!

As I write this, I’m halfway listening to my daughter’s tutoring session. She’s entering first grade, and I’m that crazy mom who wants to make sure that her math and reading are up to par before the school year starts. In case nobody told you, first grade is where things get serious. No more free play or downtime, except for recess. They drive those kids hard. And there’s not really a transition from the free and easy days of yore, so it can be quite a shock for the kids.

Not to mention the parents. I really dislike coming home from a day of teaching to, well, do it some more. I love teaching other people’s kids, but my own? Not so much. There’s too much emotion involved, and it mixes business with personal. Trying to be patient while teaching your own kid to master basic math can send anyone to the loony bin.

So, for the sake of sanity, I hired a tutor. It’ll be easier on my daughter and easier on me, and she’ll be ready for all that homework. It seems like a good solution, even though when I was in first grade, I didn’t know what a tutor was. Times change and all that.

Since working is the opposite of winding down and Friday evenings only come once a week, I’m very into enforced chillaxing. That’s where a tea and cookie break comes into play!

My favorite part of this recipe is that, aside from mixing up in one bowl, it’s also butter-free. In other words, it’s kind of on the healthier side. No objections from this quarter!

I hope you have a relaxing weekend free of all hard work. We all need some chillaxing!

Lately, I’ve been all about the recipes you throw into a bowl and mix together. No mixer, no butter to cream. Not only is that absence of butter healthier, but the actual baking process is just a teeny bit simpler. So why not?

This particular bread is filling and hearty, but full of chocolate chips just to brighten your Friday morning breakfast. Anyone wanna argue with that? I didn’t think so.

If you’ve heard me talk about my job before (my other one, not the blogging gig) as a high school English teacher, you know I love it. There’s not much that is more energizing than spending the day teaching and learning, and if not for the whole having to grade papers thing, it would be the perfect job.

I’m heading into my 17th year as a teacher next year, and it’s given me a lot to reflect about. When I first began teaching, there was so much fear. I thought I wouldn’t be able to reach kids, or help them, or manage a classroom. And while I worked through those fears as the years went on, this job allows nobody to become complacent. The second I decide I have it all figured out is when I get knocked for a loop.

Humility is a huge part of staying successful in teaching, and probably in other fields as well. Every now and then we read about actors or athletes whose stars burn brightly and then explode (in a bad way). Among these stories is a common thread: they weren’t humble enough. They thought they were irreplaceable.

Sadly, we’re all expendable professionally. I might be a good teacher, but there are a bazillion more lined up and waiting to do my job, so I have to give it my all. And in order to do that, I need a good breakfast every morning before I face my amazing students.

This oatmeal chocolate chip bread is incredibly simple. As I mentioned, all you do is mix everything up. No special equipment is necessary. And when you’re done, the result is a not-too-sweet breakfast treat. Actually, I also ate it after work.

However you spend your professional time, it’s important to realize how lucky we are to be given opportunities. Having self-confidence is important, but translating that to an over-inflated sense of ego is where it can all go wrong.  Be good enough, and strive to be great. But never forget that it takes constant effort and humility to keep your star in the sky.

It has nothing to do with a fear of yeast, which has never really bothered me. It’s pretty easy to use, unless the yeast is dead. And that doesn’t happen very often. No, it’s more about the ultimate convenience and endless wonder of a bread machine. Why work on the dough myself when there’s a lovely machine sitting on my counter that can do all the heavy lifting for me?

Now, now, bread enthusiasts. Back off. I’m sure that my machine can’t do the wonderful things you can do, but it sure can make some cinnamon rolls lickety-split. I made these (and they’re dairy-free, too!) the night of our big snowstorm, and they made a perfect breakfast to wake up to.

While the snow is slowly melting, more disasters loom. I was looking forward to a snow day or two to myself (my kids’ school went back midweek while my system remained closed) when my youngest came down with a fever. She can’t go to school like that, so now I’m on full-time nurse duty. If history repeats itself (and it does), I’ll catch whatever she has just in time to go back to teaching this coming Monday.

Parenting 101, y’all. Ready? The more children in the house, the more disease. It’s a given, and it’s totally gross. I used to think I wouldn’t be able to clean up anything disgusting, but I’ve proven myself wrong. I’m not saying that it’s fun, but I’ve seen enough stomach-churning sights over the past eight years that I’m kind of regretting my decision not to go into medicine. Would I have passed organic chemistry? Maybe not, but I would have been able to look at any kind of human ickiness without batting an eyelash.

Plus, I’ve become extremely adept at diagnosis. Most of the time when I go to a doctor, I already know what they’re going to say. If not for their magic access to prescription-only medication, I wouldn’t even go.  Oh, except for the fact that they know a lot more than I do and can save lives and all of that.

It’s a passion for research that has me scouring medical encyclopedias and cookbooks alike. With so few years on this planet (relatively speaking, that is), we’ve gotta learn whatever we can while we can! And have I mentioned that for me, a bakery visit also counts as research?

Whenever I go to the mall, I smell those famous Cinnabon devils baking. They had to put that right next to a DSW to tempt me, right? But I resist the urge every single time because I know I can make cinnamon rolls that are just as good and less of a calorie bomb right here at home. The dough comes out perfectly in a bread machine. See?

These are non-dairy. Translation: I used margarine. Or you can use any non-dairy butter substitute, or just use butter. I wanted to see what would happen without butter, and I’m happy to report that I still couldn’t stop eating these. So if Khloe Kardashian is still on that dairy-free diet, she’s welcome to dig in. I don’t think they’ll qualify as a health food. Sorry, K.

These come together super fast, and I also put mini chocolate chips in the filling to make the rolls especially melty and irresistible. Instead of a traditional cream cheese glaze, I used a simpler glaze for shine. Sometimes I like the cream cheese glaze, but most of the time I actually prefer a plainer roll. With the heavy glaze, it can be too much.

You’re one bread machine away from this happiness, so I recommend you hit it! And if someone gets sick, you can eat all of these to keep your energy up as you nurse the afflicted toward recovery. Either way, they make for a much cozier winter!

In bars, to be specific. Soft, lovely blondies. If we’re talking dangerous, these squares of heaven are it.

Not that you should run away now. Come closer. Take a look!

This fall, I’ve been all about celebrating the flavors that make these months stand out. Sure, there’s pumpkin and apple, but there’s also butterscotch. And cinnamon! Seriously, in the autumn, there is no better spice. It’s everywhere, and we just forget how important it is.

In general, people are inclined to take things for granted. It’s only natural. That’s why I try  really hard to be grateful for not just the material things in my life, like my iPad (oh, how I love you), but for the people as well.

Just in case I’ve never mentioned it, I’m married to the nicest, most patient man in the universe. Back when I was little, my dad used to tell me something like, “Never marry a man who won’t cross the desert just to get you a Coke.” Maybe I’m misquoting a bit. But the idea was, my dad wanted me to wind up with a guy who would go to any lengths to make me happy.

When I first started dating Kenny, I kept waiting for that thing to happen where about six months into being with a guy, they stop exerting themselves quite so much for you, and then it just keeps fading until the relationship loses that glow. Well, it never happened. I’ve known Kenny for half my life and our ten-year wedding anniversary is coming up this year. He’s never stopped treating me like a queen.

So you’d better bet that I’m grateful. I make a concerted effort never to take him for granted and to be the best wife ever. But yesterday I was kind of snappy, and he just took it with his usual good humor. How amazing is that? I wish I could be that cool.

Anyway, I try not to take anyone for granted. Not Kenny, not our children, not my family, not my friends, not fellow bloggers. We only do this once! Let’s do it up right, and with appreciation.

Boy, do I appreciate these bars. Enormously and endlessly. They’re comforting and full of cinnamon and brown buttery goodness. Plus, they’re full of cinnamon chips. If you can’t get them at the store, you can buy them online. I get them on Amazon, home of all shopping glee.

You won’t believe the softness of these guys. They have cornstarch in them, which makes them pillowy soft. Whatever you do, take the blondies out of the oven as indicated, or trust me, they won’t be as good. The key to a good blondie is underbaking them just a touch.

When you’re done, you’ll have a dessert you can appreciate. We should never take any delicious food for granted, starting with these bad boys!

With the exception of one twisty road trip through the mountains where I drank a cup of cider right after and things didn’t go well, I’ve always been a fan of apple cider. Not apple juice. Cider. Totally different animal. The alcoholic version is nice, too.

And donuts are just a natural next step. You may have had a fried apple cider donut before, but have you tried the healthier baked version? With a maple cinnamon glaze? Step right up!

So the other day, I was sharing some of my thoughts about body image and the challenges that most (not some, most) women face when it comes to accepting and loving ourselves. And then this morning as I was doing my workout, I started thinking about where women develop our shared insecurities.

How many of you were made fun of as children? Just wondering. Because I was mercilessly teased. For whatever reason, I never got the cool memo, the one that signals the popular girls to let you alone. So of course, I spent a majority of my childhood thinking that I was ugly, that I was somehow wrong, and that I was missing whatever elusive piece it took to be part of the in crowd.

That probably explains why as an adult, I’ve always been very careful about all the external stuff, like fashion and appearance. It’s a self-defense mechanism to prevent people from making fun of me. That might sound silly, but the younger version of me still exists somewhere, and she’s afraid of being teased or left out.

We all have a backstory, and I’m insatiably curious about everyone’s stories. So if you ever want to share, put it in the comments! Did you have an experience that shaped the way you view yourself as an adult? If it’s private, ignore me. If not, then just stop to consider that as long as women continue to operate under the mistaken assumption that other women who seem fine on the outside are perfectly content with themselves all the time, nobody is benefiting from that kind of charade.

I’m all for sisterhood, and we can bond over childhood trauma or over donuts. Or both. Because both legitimately deserve to be discussed.

Donuts are evolving along with every other treat under the sun, and I’m glad. As delectable as a fried donut can be, it doesn’t exactly help your heart stay healthy. And it’s not even a sacrifice to  go the baked route when a donut is this good!

These have a lovely apple cider kick, not to mention a perfect maple cinnamon coating. The glaze is made from sugar that gets pureed in the blender to be somewhere between granulated and powdered sugar. The result is a topping that is a hybrid of a traditional donut glaze and an equally delectable cinnamon-sugar topping. Who says you can’t have it all?

We never stop being who we were as kids, and that’s a mixed blessing. Even painful experiences can become empowering after the fact. And along the way, we can gather good friends and good donuts to help us on our journey.

For the record, I find Martha as intimidating as most women like me do. You know, the women who can’t tie ribbons or decoupage their way out of a perfectly wrapped present. In fact, I’m not even sure what decoupage is. We had an intern once who was really into it, though.

Intimidating or not, I love Martha’s cookbooks. Her baking book on cookies is a constant goldmine. This is a recipe from her book, except I made some changes. That’s just my way!

The summer is ending, and with it, everyone’s hoping that the D.C. crime wave settles down. For many reasons all intersecting at the same time, this has been the worst crime season in a long time, and it’s pretty scary.

If you know the basics about Washington, D.C., then you know that we’re known for a lot of not-so-pleasant problems, like the aforementioned crime rate and the number one worst traffic in the country. Considering that D.C. isn’t even a warm-weather destination, a lot of people wonder why this area attracts so many people.

The thing about D.C. is that it has its own magic. In the autumn, parts of the city actually smell like cinnamon and cloves. I have no idea how or why, but it’s true. And while visiting the monuments and historic places is an obvious attraction, along with the free Smithsonian museums, there’s so much more to do.

D.C. has character. From the four quadrants of the city (two of which boast fun waterfront areas) to the independent shops and restaurants, I can spend an entire summer just tooling around, taking everything in. So if you’re ever heading to D.C., let me know! I’ll tell you all the good stuff about my adopted hometown and leave the negative reporting to the local newspapers.

And I’ll tell you where you can get the best cookies. I mean, my kitchen, obvi. But other places, too.

These cookies are mainly chocolate chip with just a hint of peanut butter and a slightly bigger hint of cinnamon. If you’ve never had these three flavors together, it’s time to get with it. This particular trifecta is worth sampling.

The cookies are soft, chewy, and like all Martha recipes, full of the best stuff. I mean, I put a whole cup and a half of chocolate chips in here. And while the recipe makes a ton of cookies (I baked in multiple batches so I didn’t precisely count, but at least 35), there’s only a half stick of butter in the whole thing. So you’ll want to pop at least three of these at a time.

Martha always has something to offer. And so does D.C., our nation’s capital. Both have been exposed as imperfect, but who cares? Perfection is boring and lacks character. Besides, I’m all about taking the positive and focusing on that!

For some reason, people associate Mother’s Day with brunch. Okay, I know that it’s traditional to take mothers out for brunch on the big day, but why? Don’t we rate a fancy dinner?

Listen, I’m not trying to knock brunch. The food is delicious and decadent, and it’s totally fine to feature chocolate in your pancakes, or waffles, or French toast. How could I possibly object to that? But I really, really love going out for dinner. Dinner out means one night of not having to cook for greedy little mouths.

Still, to appease you brunch fanatics out there, I made this cinnamon crumb bread. It’s pretty awesome, and to be fair, you can also have it for dessert. After dinner out.

I’m being appreciated a lot this week. Yes, Sunday is Mother’s Day, but apparently, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. That means I got a Reese’s peanut butter cup bar in my mailbox this morning (how well they know me), chips in my box yesterday, and an apple the day before. And it’s really nice to get all the free stuff.

The thing is, I really love coming to work. People talk about how exhausting teaching is, how drained you feel at the end of the day, how demanding everyone can be. So true. But sometimes we get into such a negative place about this profession that we don’t see the great stuff. Like, how every morning, some kid I don’t know holds the door open for me to enter or exit because their parents raised them properly. How my students say “thank you” as they leave the classroom. How I laugh out loud every day so many times, even though I’m not much of a laugher. I mean, kids are funny. Even the 17 year-old ones I teach.

They are also really cool about sharing ideas. I needed some baking inspiration last week, so I asked a few about summer dessert ideas. Boy, did they step up to the plate. It turns out that teenagers really like to think about food.

And so do I, which might be why I love being a high school teacher. It’s even more exciting when ideas come by surprise, like this bread. I never thought about making it until I made these Cinnamon Donuts with Chocolate Dipping Sauce a couple of weeks back, and that formed the basis for making a bread with tons of crumb on top.

You can’t lose with crumb. You can’t lose with cinnamon. And you definitely can’t lose if you celebrate life regularly, not just on the days or weeks that are meant as designated appreciation moments. Translation? Eat dessert daily. And for you moms and teachers out there, enjoy the next few days!

My third (and not final, one more Monday) Cinco de Mayo offering are these easy dessert…quesadillas? Tortillas with a rich cinnamon chocolate filling?

Who cares what they’re called? As Shakespeare said, roses are cool even if they’re not called that. That’s exactly the way he phrased it. And while I wish my name had been different, I’m still me.

How many of you feel like you were given the wrong name? Names, no matter what Shakespeare said, matter. And the thing is, our parents never know how we’re going to respond to a name. I hope they do their best and hope in turn that their kids have names they love. But it doesn’t always turn out that way.

As a high school teacher, I have met my fair share of odd names. I can’t share any with you, of course, but let’s just say that parents should probably think hard before naming a child after an evil dictator, giving them a name that sounds like a cuss word, or giving them a number instead of a name. Yes, that has happened.

This dessert might not have a name that fits any specific category, but it’s delicious and not too unhealthy. I used whole wheat tortillas, for instance. That’s good, right? And the rest is simple.

All you do is brush the tortillas with melted butter laced with cinnamon and cook them in a skillet with a cinnamon chocolate filling. The filling is completely addictive and becomes appealingly gooey. Honestly, a scoop of ice cream on top would be perfection. Unfortunately, I ate all my ice cream before the photo shoot. That’s how I do, y’all.

If messing around in the kitchen a lot isn’t your bag, these dessert quesadillas are the answer. They take minutes to put together, and they are ridiculously good. I ate mine for breakfast, but I’m a weirdo with the wrong name. Hey, if I had a different name, I’d still bake sweet desserts. But I still wouldn’t know what to call these!