Key Lime Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

Florida is a weird state, am I right?  I'm not even going to go INTO the zombie guy in the news this week from Miami...that's just a cheap shot.  That's not Florida's fault...I don't think...


I'm not saying it's a bad state or anything either...just different.

First off, culturally...the farther north you go in the state the further "south" you get.  If you know what I mean.

It's the Australia of US states...in that everyone seems insanely comfortable living in such close proximity to creatures like alligators, snakes, gigantic bugs and all manner of unsavory wildlife.

It's a haven for the elderly and absolutely packed to the brim with retirement villas, yet Disneyworld is there, so it's also a vacation getaway for families with children.  It's like both the very old and the very young are inexplicably drawn to it.

Florida can't really be counted as "the South", even though it's technically as far south as it gets on the eastern seaboard.  It's just different.  It's its own beast.  It's weird, like I said.

And let's not even BEGIN to get into the way it weirdly dangles there...yeah.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with Chocolate Ganache

Do you ever believe people who claim to not like chocolate?

I sure don't.

My whole reason for making these cookie bars (twice) was I just wanted to put ganache on something.  Most of my normal, waking life is me looking for an excuse...any excuse really...to stuff my face with sugar, butter, and chocolate.  And ganache is all three of those things, plus heavy cream.  What could go wrong?

And so continues my love affair with re-imaginings of the chocolate chip cookie.

These bars are everything I love about chocolate chip cookies, but more of it.  And there's something deeply satisfying to my soul about eating a center-piece bar of dense chocolate chip cookie.

By the way...are you a corner person or a center piece person?  I've always been a center-piecer...with everything.  But I know corners people are out there, lurking sinisterly in the shadows.  To me...the corners are garbage.  Not even worth it.  Sometimes with brownies and bar cookies I just trim off the edges and corners.  Yeah, how do you like that corner people?  Which brings me to the info-mercial invention of the brownie pan that bakes a ton of what amount to corner-piece brownies.  So lame, who wants that?!?

Pita Pizza

Sometimes you're lazy.  And by you I mean me.

I mean obviously you (as in you) are also fairly lazy a good bit of the time too.  But that's beside the point.

The point is this.

We're lazy.  And we want pizza.  We want pizza with less guilt.

I give you Pita Pizza.  You're welcome.

Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies

I wanted to title this post Peanut Butter Snickers Cookies and the Secret to Making People Like You.  But that sounded a little full of myself.  Really I just want to emphasize how if you make these cookies and send them to work with your spouse, his coworkers will proclaim their undying love for you despite possibly never even having met you in some cases.

But what I really want to talk about is how to make people like you.  There are a lot of theories floating around out there. 

This is an idea that has evolved through the stages of my life. 

When I was a little kid, I was certain (not entirely incorrectly) that the secret involved having the coolest toys and inviting people over to your house to play with them. 

Fast forward to high school where, from what I could tell, the secret to getting people to like you was acting like you were too cool for everything.  Yeah I'm talking to you teenagers.  Get it together.  That's not how it works.

Most people will tell you that you should just be yourself.  Or be a good listener.  Or maybe it's as simple as smiling a lot.  

All this life wisdom aside, I'm pretty sure I've figured it out.  Take a candy bar.  Chop it up.  Bake it in some cookies.  Done.  You didn't even have to crack a smile.