Walk in the Glow of Each Other's Majestic Presence

One of my tricks, when searching the net for recipes, is to preface my search with the word "ultimate". It seems to limit the search to manageable levels and tilt it towards actually useful links.

Last week was my mother's 88th birthday and we had agreed that I would make brownies, one of the very few chocolate desserts I enjoy. (For those who weren't aware, I don't much like chocolate, but there are a few exceptions.) I'm pretty sure I haven't made brownies from scratch since I lived at Fenway House, so more than twenty years ago. Searching brought me to this recipe.

These are phenomenal brownies. As the description promises, they are " tall like a cakey-brownie, but dense like a fudgy-brownie." I made them with pecans for extra yum. And I even bought myself a new brownie pan for the occasion, so now I have to make them again!

I decided to host my family for Easter dinner today--any excuse for new recipes!

( #34 Herb-Stuffed Boneless Leg of Lamb )

( #35 Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Wild Mushrooms and Greens )

( #36 Greek Style Potatoes )

( #37 Green Beans with Feta Cheese )

( #38 Baklava )

The latter was served with the Oatmeal Carrot Cookies from Friday night and deliciously creamy homemade vanilla ice cream, courtesy of muffyjo. She also showed up bright and early this morning to take the savory cheesecake over to her house for baking. For the many of you who've expressed interest, the recipe for that is here. She also did yeoman work cleaning up.

Anne & G. brought a huge salad (and another guest, Divia) and heliopsis brought biscuits and sartorial splendor to the occasion. bex77 brought beautiful blue hydrangeas and took Alice off for the morning while we were in last-minute prep frenzy.

Special mention also goes to my father, who sat and picked thyme off the stalks for about two hours yesterday. He picked more thyme than I needed--about a cupful--which was just amazing and luxurious!

And many thanks to bookly who dropped by yesterday, all unsuspecting, and ended up snapping all the beans for a meal she couldn't even stay to eat.

Lastly, Jason continues to be my hero--he helped so much all around the edges and listening to me talk out the various decisions and then entertained Alice all evening after our guests had left so that I could get a much-needed nap.

I love making big meals for the family, but it's especially nice for it to be such a joint effort.

#33 Carrot Oatmeal Cookies After my success a few days ago, I decided to go ahead and try this recipe. They're just out of the oven and oh yes, they are the tasty! They're lighter than regular oatmeal cookies and the carrot bits make them look festive and interesting. Right now they're quite moist on the inside and I'm interested to see how they change as they cool more. I'm very glad they turned out well, so that now I don't have to figure out what else one might do with coconut oil.

As many of you know, I don't really bake. Neither Jason nor I have much of a sweet tooth and baked goods tend to last a long time¹ at our house. For the rare desserts, I tend to either buy stuff or go with fruit and whipped cream². But the point of this exercise is to get myself to try new things and Alice likes cookies and cardamom is Jason's favorite spice, so when I saw the following on The Amateur Gourmet, I had to try it.

( #31 Oatmeal Cardamom Cookies )