I heart brownies in a big way. Nigella Lawson, the cookbook author from whom this recipe has been adapted (begged, borrowed, and slightly stolen), touts as one of their highest virtues the fact that they can be whipped up in a matter of minutes. I would add to that sterling quality the fact that, unlike so many other “easy” desserts and confections, your sink will not look like a dirty dish graveyard – one bowl, one pan, one spoon, and one baking dish is all that this recipe requires.

Ufff… Finally home and back to a regular schedule. Thanksgiving down on the Cape and a few relaxing days up in the New Hampshire White Mountains made for a lovely Thanksgiving weekend, which included my final recipe for the Gourmet-only month of November.

I have to say that my intention for this homage to Gourmet was to be just that, a homage, but I feel like I’m griping about it more than praising it. Here’s the thing about Gourmet… it’s spectacular to look at, day-dream about all of the wonderful urban restaurants and cozy, convivial bed and breakfasts that cure their own bacon, but I’ve found it a touch challenging (and disappointing – I’m sorry!) to cook from.

PT and I went apple picking last weekend and for the price of a dinner for two, were allowed to roam through a local orchard in Ipswich, chomping on apples, and occasionally dropping the most perfect red, round orbs into a peck-sized bag.

It was a gorgeous day, bright and crisp, and the orchard was helpfully marked with signs indicating where the various tree varieties – fuji, macoun, macintosh, golden delicious – were located. After a visit with the farm’s miniature horse, Possum, who was delightfully sweet and gentle, and a satisfying afternoon snack of fried whole belly clams and clam chowder, PT and I were headed home with more apples than I knew what to do.

The weekend is almost here, and I figure we could all use a liberal dose of HAPPINESS right about now. Maybe you’re cranky from work, the lack of beach weather (it goes that way sometimes in October), or just because you’ve stubbed your toe 5 times in the last 3 days…. well, these cookies are easily the best cure.

I dubbed them “Happiness Cookies” the first time I made them – they are instantly cheering, sunny, warm, and unbelievably delicious. The only sad thing about them is when you get down to the last 1 or 2 of a batch. Luckily, more can be whipped up in about 45 minutes, including baking time.

Some much anticipated and celebration-worthy news flowed into the Besotted kitchen last week, to which, the only appropriate response was a confection that screamed “CELEBRATION!”

Now, normally, when eyeing the dessert section of my cookbooks and magazines, I tend towards the rustic sophisticate desserts – things like modern Apple Tarte Tatin, Honey Cream Peach Pie, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie – basically, anything that is part throw-back, part modern chic, baked into a buttery crust.

A few months back, I was faced with the dilemma of making David Leibovitz’s Salty Peanut Butter Cookies with Caramel or Alice Medrich’s Salted Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies. Similar not just in name, but in ingredient list and likely outcome, I took the road more-oft traveled and chose the recipe with an accompanying picture, David’s Salty Peanut Butter Cookies with Caramel. For those of you that read the post, you will recall that I was less than thrilled with the outcome. It wasn’t bad – it is a sweet and salty cookie covered in caramel – but, it was a bit too dry and not sweet enough for my taste, and it left me wondering what Alice’s cookie would have been like.

As an aside, why is it that we can only conceive of a recipe being good if it has a scrumptious picture by its side. Surely, there have been some spectacular dishes made with no SLR camera sitting conveniently nearby. It requires a leap of faith, but I dare everyone that reads this post to go into their cookbooks and pick one recipe that does NOT have a recipe accompanying it. Some of my favorite dishes have been those tucked away obscurely into the recesses of my cookbooks, and I never would have discovered them had I been photo-only prejudiced.

After two previous attempts – one solid, one mildly disastrous – I think I’ve finally got the hang of my ice cream maker. The main take-aways from the first two attempts were:

Follow directions
Re-read the directions and make sure you’re following them as they are actually stated on the directions, and not concocting new directions in your own head.

Once those two directives were firmly planted in my brain (along side the horrid memory of the ice cream maker bouncing and spurting all over my counter), I managed to turn out a really, REALLY good batch of ice cream.

I was a little troubled the other day…. while I desperately did not want to turn my oven to 375° on a day so humid you could practically bottle the humidity, I really, REALLY wanted a ginger scone and did not want the store or cafe-bought variety, which tend to be nothing like a real scone.

Well, as fate would have it, my scones (yes, I did cave and turn the oven on) were also nothing like a real scone, but, in fact, turned out to be more like the perfect ginger cookie. Now, before you think that all of this balmy Boston weather has gone to my head and turned me into some sort of ego-maniac, dropping superlatives like “best” and “perfect” with nary a thought for accuracy, let me tell you that this cookie is worthy of any and all laudations that you care to throw at it.

It’s officially raspberry season in New England, which feels like finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. For 9-10 months of the year, berries are too expensive, not tasty enough, and from too far away to be contemplated…. But then, for a brief window of time, they are profuse, overflowing at farmers’ markets, in farm share boxes, proudly proclaim their local origin in the supermarkets, and are equally boastful of their budget-friendly prices.

If you’re like me, you scoop them up by the armful when they are as sweet and luscious as they are in July and August, get them home, and then wonder what on earth you’re going to do with all of them. Well, this Raspberry Buttermilk Cake recipe should help in some small way to make good use of the now-prolific fruit.

Sometimes, I just don’t know what to make of myself…. I am always one thing and then the other. I was far too shy to put a picture of myself on the ‘About’ page of Besotted, opting for a picture of soon-to-be delicious cupcakes instead, but here I am, posting a video of myself cooking Grilled Poundcake with Cherry Sauce.

In fairness, the video was produced for a Bobby Flay cooking contest that I entered (and, sadly, did not win), which explains the flagrant promotion of Columbia Crest Wines, the contest’s sponsor, in the video.