When I was a kid, I loved me some fig newtons. I remember them being moist and chewy and just the right size for sneaking out of the kitchen. Plus, they had actual fruit (or rather, "fruit") in them, so they didn't quite count as "real" cookies. Having eaten a few of these guys as an adult, however, I've been disappointed by the chalky, gristly quality of the dough and the over-sweetness of the filling. So I was really excited when I came across an organic, planet-friendly, small-bakery type of fig newton at Urban Rustic a few weekends ago. And they were really quite good; they were flavorful and chewy and not nearly as gristly as the packaged kind. But they were still a little bland, and I started thinking to myself, "you know what? I can probably make these cookies myself, and make them better." So I set out to do exactly that.

get your filling of figs, below the fold.

Snow days. You probably heard all about it on the news: massive snowstorm batters the east coast, end of the world as we know it, we'll never be able to leave our houses again, Fox News makes outrageously irresponsible and and misinformed statements about global warming, yadda yadda yadda. What it meant for me was that I got to leave work at 1 p.m. on a Wednesday. It was amazing; it felt like skipping out of school at recess. And what was even better than the coming home early was that there was ample time to bake. So I pulled out Elinor Klivans' wonderful Big Fat Cookies, looking for an inspiring idea for cookies. I've made many of the recipes from Klivans' book before, but not in recent years, as my copy lives at my mom's house. But I was wanting to make some of those recipes again, so a few weeks ago, I went out and bought a new copy, and I've since spent a bit of time reacquainting myself with the aforementioned big, fat cookies. And so, on that snowy, blustery afternoon, I chose a recipe for chocolate-dipped macaroons, because, well, macaroons are awesome. Let's get to it, shall we?

get to it, indeed, yonder.

A few weeks ago, my good friend Hiro wrote to me with a desperate plea for some advice on chocolate chip cookies. She recently moved to Denmark, and is having trouble replicating the crispygooeychewy texture that is so desirable in these enigmatic little mounds of dough and chocolate. Always eager to take on a challenge, I assured her that I would do some research and come up with a good recipe, along with an at least pseudo-scientific explanation of why (and which) things can go wrong when whipping up a batch of these suckers.

get your chips on, over here.

Oh, my goodness, it's been so long. There have been many things, some of them terrible, some of them annoying, some of them great, and all of them quite time-consuming. But there's finally been some baking going on, so let's get to it.

Let's do, over here.

Okay, so I've never actually had a subscription to Gourmet, but I've always wanted one. As the Times said this week, Gourmet was kinda like the New Yorker of food magazines: erudite, fancy, well-researched and well-edited. I always pick up a copy when I'm traveling, and I leaf through issues at bookstores, looking wistfully at all the fancy things I have yet to bake, and all the fancy places I'll probably never go. Oh, well. I believe they have a great number of Gourmet's recipes up on Epicurious, so I suppose there will still be at least one way in which to revel in the glory of things past.

Get your chocolate fix and say farewell, this-a-way.

You're in for a treat, folks, because this week, you will know the glory that is messy cookie cake.

What is it, you ask? I'll tell you, but you have to realize that the end result is so much more amazing that you can imagine just by seeing the description: it's basically a cake made out of chocolate chip cookie dough and a sweet cream cheese sauce. And it's so much more than either cookie or cake could ever be. As a child, it was one of my favorite things in my mom's arsenal of sweet treats, and as an adult, it's the dessert I request every time I go home to visit. When warm, and eaten with a glass of ice-cold milk, this cake like sugary-chocolatey nirvana. It is a part of my childhood. Also, it's freakin' delicious. Are you ready?

Are you ready?

It's been quite a couple of weeks, friends: I went on vacation; I've been studying for the LSATs like mad; I've ridden on trains; I've caught up with old friends; and I've started to get to know some new ones. And this past weekend, Kenan (who just moved into some schmancy new digs) and I visited our friend Alli at her apartment in Boerum Hill to say our goodbyes before she flitted off to South Africa for a few months. As I'd just received a request for advice** on oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I thought I'd prepare a batch to take with me to the shindig.

more batches of oatmeal cookies than you'll know what to do with, in the oven