Almond Joy Bars

These sweet treats were the perfect end to a lovely lunch with my parents and in-laws. Not to mention, they were quick enough to whip up with a 1-month-old and overnight houseguests!

From bottom to top: First you have a rich, buttery almond shortbread; that's essentially topped with a macaroon-like coconut layer; and the cherry on top is a layer of bittersweet chocolate and toasted almonds.

They're called Almond Joy Bars, but they are even more delicious because of the rich shortbread layer. It's even just a little bit salty, and counters the sweetness of the other layers perfectly!

Cherry Almond Granola

Having a stash of homemade granola in the pantry is a beautiful thing. First of all, it makes for a great snack, is perfect for mixing in with yogurt/fruit for breakfast, and is good enough to sprinkle on top of vanilla ice cream. (So far this is sounding a lot like my post about Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce.)

Secondly, it's so easy to make — can you stir and do you have 30 minutes? And finally, it keeps for weeks in an airtight container/ziploc bag, so there's no feeling harried to finish it off.

The beauty of granola is that, once you have the basic technique down, you can really experiment as much as you want with the ingredient list. Like cashews? Great! Throw them in or sub out one of the other ingredients. Want dried cranberries instead? Cool — make it happen! Just beware that if you add more ingredients (as opposed to substituting something out), you'll need to up your quantities of honey and oil to make sure everything has a nice coating while baking.

Low-fat Papaya Coconut Muffins

With the wedding around the corner, I haven't been baking much. Maybe it's a little cliche, but I'm trying to watch my figure and also detox a bit from "the white stuff." I came across this tasty recipe when I was poking around Gina's Skinny Recipes and loved that it was so low in fat, lower in sugar, and used whole wheat flour.

Plus, let's be honest. I was thrilled to have an excuse to purchase a papaya.

They're not much to look at from the outside, but they're beautiful on the inside! Never judge a papaya buy it's cover! Isn't that what they always say?

The batter for these muffins was the loveliest shade of pink thanks to the papaya puree. They were good warm out of the oven and for a day or two beyond.

Irish Potato Candy

As a resident of Philadelphia for over 5 years now, I've come to know a lot about foods that have roots in Philly. There's the cheesesteak (duh, whiz wit please!), root beer, the soft pretzel, the hoagie, Italian ice, Tastykakes, pork roll, Peanut Chews, and oh yeah — scrapple! (If you don't know what scrapple is, maybe just leave it alone...)

One more on the list of Philly faves: Irish potato candy.

There's nothing inherently Irish about these candies unless you count the fact that they look like potatoes. Note that they look like potatoes, but do not taste like potatoes. They taste like an injection of sweet, coconut-y deliciousness. Such a confused confection, no?

The Best Coconut Macaroons

My apologies if I've been a little M.I.A. these days. Brad and I are in the process of planning a wedding and buying a home, which means that a lot of my free time has been spent between theknot.com and faxing financial documents to the mortgage lender. Fun times!

While I've been cooking dinner in the evenings after work, I haven't been trying too many new recipes or baking much lately. But somewhere along the way I volunteered to deliver baked goods for a fundraiser that my friend Shannon was hosting on Saturday night. I wanted to bring a variety of bite-sized items, so I ended up making Chocolate Chocolate (Chocolate) Chip Cookies, White Chocolate Walnut Toffee Blondies (I used the recipe on my blog as the base and switched up the add-ins — and yes, they taste as phenomenal as they sound!), and Coconut Macaroons.

I've tried several recipes over the years for coconut macaroons and have never been too wowed. Ina Garten's recipe, however, is the best I've tried — they are light, airy, sweet, and coconutty (is that even a word?). And the recipe is super easy, especially if you're using a stand mixer for the egg whites!

Oatmeal Toffee Birthday Cookies

I'm writing today to assure you that there's no shame in a recipe from the back of a bag. If a manufacturer thinks something is fab enough to make it to the bag, it's probably been tested and perfected (especially when that manufacturer is Hershey)! Which brings me to my next recipe.

This cookie recipe was one I got from a bag of Hershey's Heath Bits O' Brickle (I swear that's what they're called), which are basically just toffee bits. Back in the day when Brad was still living in Kansas City and I was in Philly, I would make these cookies and ship them out his way — and at some point, they were deemed his favorite. So, in honor of his 31st birthday (happy birthday, Brad!) I threw a batch together.

These cookies have a very unique and deliciously chewy texture from the marriage of the toffee and oatmeal. (Speaking of marriage, happy 36th anniversary to my awesome parents! But I digress.) And they're delicious with a little milk.

Food of the Gods

The second sidedish that I know you've been waiting in suspense for (relax, the wait is over!) is ambrosia, which literally translates to "food of the gods." If you've ever had it, you know that it's a sweet, light, and fruity side — not to mention a little unusual looking and old school. But delicious nonetheless!

Ambrosia is something I equate with family poolside BBQs at my grandparents' house — a dish that my late Aunt Patti always brought. When I was asked to bring it to our annual August birthdays party this past weekend, I knew I had to do her proud! There are many variations, but I started with a recipe from Alton Brown and made my own adjustments from there.