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Recently, I learned one very important thing about siblings: you never outgrow sibiling rivialry.

No matter if they are 4 or 40, if one sibling receives something the other does not, tantrums will be thrown.

Case and point?

My uncle and my mother.

The battle?

Peanut butter sandwich cookies.

When I was visiting my parents in Virginia, my mother admitted that Nutter Butters are her ultimate comfort food.

I, stupidly, made the mistake of saying I made a homemade version of these cookies for my uncle’s birthday.

Apparently, my mother, a devout reader of my blog, missed this post.

The scrunched up nose preceded the huffing and puffing.

She read my post out loud, in a whiny, bratty voice that would have landed my sister or me in timeout a few years ago.

Lordy.

Seeing my intelligent, caring, giving, sweet mother reduced to the equivalent of a child throwing a tantrum in a crowded department store was just too much for me.

So I whipped up a batch as a thank you for my Mum and Dad. Although, if my Dad was able to sample one of these, I would be highly impressed.

To avoid any future outbursts, I decided to include the steps and recipe this time around. Just to be safe.

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When I was growing up, my favorite treat on a warm summer night was a slice of freshly baked shortcake with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream and a generous topping of strawberries.

The shortcake recipe was passed down through many generations of my family and truly has a perfect kiss of sweetness.

While summer strawberries are the best, often not requiring any extra sugar at all, I couldn’t resist buying a pint this past Sunday. A rainy, chilly spring day just seemed to beckon for a hint of the summertime.

Mike, however, was not convinced. In fact, he wrinkled up his nose in disgust when he learned the destiny of the strawberries.

I found this offensive. I informed him of this. And then I set about to end his four-year standoff against strawberry shortcake.

Enough was enough.

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The past two Saturday evenings, Mike and I have made the long trek from Manhattan to Harrison, NJ to watch the opening two games of the New York Red Bulls.

The MLS team is playing in their very own, brand new soccer arena.

Last weekend was lovely - a 75 degree spring day melted into a beautiful, warm evening. No winter jacket, or any jacket for that matter, was required.

But yesterday, the temperature peaked at 43 degrees. The evening promised to be a chilly one and I dreaded having to pull all of my winter gear out of the closet, the same gear I had so blissfully tucked away last weekend.

So, in order to make the cold, bundled-up night ahead just a bit more manageable, I decided to make a batch of caramel-peanut popcorn to take along for the game.

I detest the dry, stale, fake-butter popcorn at sporting events. Even more, I think the $4 price tag for such popcorn is ridiculous.

Plus, this gave me the opportunity to whip up something Mike could potentially think was delicious.

And, in my mind, when I make something that makes Mike say, “Wow, honey, that’s amazing!”, I like to believe he is secretly thinking how he could never, ever possibly find someone to take my place.

In the ultra competitive dating market of Manhattan, I find it necessary to ensure I am not replaceable. And I am not above using my sweet creations to achieve that status. Sad but true.

Anywho, let’s get started on that popcorn!

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Remember a couple weeks ago when I couldn’t stop blabbing about how much I love macarons? After being assigned the task of making macarons at the restaurant, I fell deeply in love with creating, eating, researching and dreaming about macarons.

And it turns out, I’m not alone.

Since then, I have received several requests from people, trying to perfect the art of macaron-ing, to give step-by-step instructions for making macarons.

Let’s begin with a few important notes. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and join me.

First and absolutely most importantly - you need to muster up every ounce of patience possible as you practice creating these treats. There is a lot of room for error and some things, like humidity in the air, are completely out of your control.

Did you just get home from a stressful day at work? Do you feel fed up and at the end of your rope for the day? Today is not the time to try making macarons for the first time. Seriously. Pour yourself a glass of wine, relax and try it some other time.

When you are feeling as though you have some patience to spare, make sure you also allot yourself enough time to read the instructions thoroughly, prepare everything and slowly and carefully go through all the steps.

Macarons are not the easiest of desserts, but once you become comfortable with the techniques, the creation process is actually quite enjoyable.

Feeling patient? Have some free time? Me too. Tie on an apron and join me in the kitchen!

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We are officially in those tough few weeks between the dead of winter and seeing the first sprouts of green life appear again on the bare tree branches.

The sky is overcast, giving off a slight mist and making it especially difficult to chose which thickness of coat is appropriate for the commute to the office.

I miss the sunshine on my face.

Wednesday’s weather was particularly sullen; I longed to be laying on a beach somewhere with a margarita in my hand.

After a frustrating morning at the office, I decided to escape on my lunch hour to the Whole Foods. Holding a pineapple was about as close as I was going to get to paradise today.

And then I saw a small barrel of sunshine. Or at least, something that was so blindingly yellow that, in my depressed mood, it might as well have been the sunshine.

I was drawn in. A slight squeeze gave way to the flesh, just a bit, of these beautiful, juicy, tender meyer lemons.

I stood in awe. And then I bought a pound of them.

After much thought and consideration, I concluded the best use of these delightful fruits would be to make them into a sweet Meyer lemon curd.

Curd. What an awful name.

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Every month, I look forward to the evening when I return home to find next month’s fresh copy of Martha Stewart Living on my doorstep. I immediately break it’s fresh, crisp binding to rip open the very back page of the magazine.

I cannot even contain my excitement long enough to fish my keys out of my pocket and open the front door. I need to know what the cookie of the month is - now!

I stand in the hallway, allowing a cookie recipe to serve as my horoscope of the month ahead. Date and Walnut Sandwich Cookies? Heavy sigh. Head drops. Long month ahead.

Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bars? All is right in the world.

This recipe actually appeared in MSL last November and I carefully placed it in my recipe binder for some future date. And then I forgot about it.

It sat there, neglected, until this past weekend when I was attempting to restore some order to my life through my recipe binder, which was laying open on the coffee table with this recipe accidentally (or subconsciously on purpose) exposed.

I heard a loud gasp behind me. Mike had emerged from his studying for a coffee refill. I turned around to see him staring, wide-eyed, mouth open at the recipe photo.

“Those…those look like really fancy Twix bars!”

And that was all I needed. You don’t deprive fancy candy bars from your guy.

Reading through the recipe, I noticed the yield of 16 bars from a 9×9 cake pan. I held up my 9×9 cake pan and raised an eyebrow. This seemed like a lot of bars for two people.

Since they had to be served straight from the refrigerator, I wouldn’t even be able to pawn the extras off to my friends.

I knew I could easily half the recipe, but what vessel could I use that would be half the size of the recommended cake pan? My trusty, much loved bread loaf pan!

Revelling in my genius, coffee in tow, I sinched my apron just a bit tighter and set about creating these chocoalte caramel bars on an unexpectedly sunny Sunday morning.

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Last weekend, I set about to actually try this recipe. The recipe listed a yield of 40 cookies, which was entirely too many for, not only a first-go at a recipe, but also for two people. So I halved it.

I began by creaming the butter.

Then added the brown sugars…

…and creamed for about three minutes.

Then, the egg, molasses and spices were added.

Finally, the flour mixture was incorporated in two additions.

I scooped the dough with a mini-ice cream scoop (no.50 pastry scoop).

I decide to roll half of the cookies in the recommended granulated sugar…

…and the other half in a coarser turbinado sugar.

Onto the sheet pans and into the oven!

After about 12 minutes, they were ready to come out of the oven. I allowed them to cool on the pans for about five minutes and then transferred them to a cooling rack.

Finally, it was time to taste them.

They were good, but not amazing. They tasted much more like a molasses cookie than I had expected. And I do love molasses cookies, but these were supposed to be ginger cookies. Or as Mike named them “Ginger Three Ways” cookies.

Both versions of the rolling sugar, granulated and turbinado, tasted fine. I preferred the coarser texture of the turbinado sugar, but it is completely up to the preference of the baker.

Due to the fact that these tasted so much more like a molasses cookie than a ginger cookie, it will not find a permanent spot in my recipe binder.

One test recipe down. Many more to go.

Triple Ginger Cookies

adapted from Bon Appétit (December 2009)

yields about 40 cookies

Ingredients

2 ½ cups AP flour

1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup light brown sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

¼ cup light (mild-flavored) molasses

1 ½ teaspoons finely grated fresh peeled ginger

1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/3 cup sugar (granulated or turbinado), for rolling

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 2 baking sheets with SilPats or parchment paper.

Whisk flour, crystallized ginger, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

Using electric mixer, beat butter until creamy and light, about 2 minutes.

Gradually beat in both brown sugars. Beat on medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes.

Add egg, molasses, fresh ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Beat to blend.

Add flour mixture in 2 additions, beating on low speed just to blend between additions.

Place 1/3 cup sugar in small bowl. Measure 1 tablespoon dough. Roll into ball between palms of hands, then roll in sugar in bowl to coat; place on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining cookie dough, spacing cookies 1 ½ to 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until surfaces crack and cookies are firm around edges but still slightly soft in center, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool on sheet tray about 5 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool completely.