Happy Monday, folks!

I’m pleased as punch that summer has finally come to Rhode Island. If we’d gone the entire summer without a day over 90˚F, I probably never would have forgiven this state. Luckily this week promises to be hot, humid, and sunny – just the way I like it. I celebrated by doing some GRE studying (ugh) outdoors (yay) and then lounging in the pool with VeggaSis. My dad has some ridiculous packrat/collector tendencies, and I remembered that he’d gotten this huge Star Wars Clone Wars blow-up pool floatie thing years ago, so we convinced him to bring it out and pump some air into it. This sucker is AWESOME. Not only is it a fantastic floating lounge device, but it’s Star Wars themed! AND it has cupholders. ;) Love.

But before hitting up the pool, I baked some cookies. Normally I’m not a morning baker, but I made a batch of these snickerdoodles from Have Cake, Will Travel a few days ago, and my mom liked them so much that she requested I make a batch for her to bring to the big back-to-school bash she and all her teacher friends like to have at the end of August.

That’s a photo of the first batch I made, but the second came out just as delectable-looking, despite a minor mishap wherein a quarter of my wet ingredients had a surprise meeting with the floor. These cookies are seriously delicious, soft and sweet and bite-sized. Needless to say, I doubled the recipe (which is halved on Have Cake, Will Travel, anyway) because 7 cookies just isn’t enough for this family. ;)

Mmm. I also whipped up a batch of the Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies from VWAV for a get-together with friends a few nights ago, and these little chocolate lovelies were devoured in no time. I always alter this recipe slightly, substituting vegetable oil for the peanut oil and extra vanilla extract for the almond extract, to make it nut allergy-friendly. I’ve never actually made them with the original nutty ingredients, but the nut-free versions are little morsels of chocolaty perfection, chewy and moist and adorable.

The cookies in that photo have apricot and cherry preserves in their centers, but for the batch I made for my friends I just used cherry, since I think anything with a cherry and chocolate combination is automatically delicious and sophisticated.

And that wraps up today’s helping of cookie p0rn! I highly recommend both these recipes; they’re fast, easy, and – most important of all – delicious.

Ciao!