We love oatmeal cookies.  We also love almost anything with apples and cinnamon in them.  So when we had more apples from the apple orchard than I knew what to do with, I thought making apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies sounded like a great idea.  My husband apparently thought so.

Lately I have found myself staring at my kitchen counter, wondering what on earth to do with all the apples we got from the apple orchard!  I wanted something easy that had a caramel apple flavor. Voila!

My oldest daughter loves to cook, but her real passion is baking.  Almost every weekend our home is filled with wonderful smells of homemade cookies, mini pies from my new Babycakes Cupcake Maker, or some other delectable treat.

As a child, I was actually not a big fan of cupcakes.  They were alright, but there were other desserts I would pick over cupcakes.  As an adult, I have a much different viewpoint.

In our household, birthday cakes aren't chocolate, vanilla, or marble.  They're carrot cakes.  This is a tradition that I started as a kid when I fell in love with my stepmother's carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  Every year thereafter (even into my 20's!) she would make me a carrot cake for my birthday.  When I finally asked her for the recipe, I was a little surprised that it wasn't some vintage Grandmother recipe hidden in a recipe box somewhere.  Nope, it was straight out of Better Homes and Gardens.  I've been using it ever since.

Tired of making banana bread?  Make cake instead! [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:127]

A 'dump' cake (deemed by my Grandma - dump in all the ingredients and bake!) that's so sweet you serve it with cool whip or vanilla ice cream. [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:124]

My stepdaughter makes these spontaneously, making the house smell so wonderful! [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:123]

A great drop cookie that smells so wonderful while baking. [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:122]