Adapted from a recipe in the Baked cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, these Monster Cookies, are well, monster. (Baked is the well-known bakery with locations in Charleston, SC and New York.)

Be afraid. These cookies are monsterous in size. They are downright beastly they are so big. Each drop cookie contains over 3 tablespoons of dough and is scooped out and plopped down with an ice cream scoop. Post baking, the balls of dough spread out to become a cookie larger than my palm and thicker than a finger.

With the entire recipe only containing 1/2 cup of flour, these cookies consist mainly of a lot of oatmeal and peanut butter, with some tidbit goodies like chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces mixed in. Mmmmm. Party in my mouth.

I brought a heaping plate of these cookies to the Creative Loafing office, and they were all gone before the day was over. Even the sales rep who claims he doesn't like peanut butter was chowing down on cookies. So, if you enjoy cookies that are both chewy and crunchy, and love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, you just might have to make these right now.

Monster Cookies

adapted from Baked

Makes about 30 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

5 ¾ cups rolled oats

¾ cups (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 ½ cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

5 large eggs

¼ tsp light corn syrup

¼ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups chunky peanut butter

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup Reese’s Pieces

In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the oats and stir until combined.

In the bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and pale in color. Add the sugars and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix.

Scrape down bowl and add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth (about 20 seconds) and scraping down bowl after each edition. Add the corn syrup and vanilla and beat until incorporated.

Scrape down bowl and add peanut butter. Mix on low speed until just combined, add the oat mixture in three additions, mixing on low speed until just incorporated.

Use a spatula or wooden spoon and fold in the chocolate chips and Reese's Pieces. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerate for 5 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Use ice cream scoop to scoop out dough into 3- tablespoon size balls on two baking sheets – 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time. Let cool on pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

It's scone crazy in my house. After last week's Pumpkin Scones, I wanted more.

I found this recipe for Cinnamon Bun Scones floating around the food blogosphere recently. The scones looked pretty tasty, so I decided to give them a test run.

These scones are formed by dropping 1/4-cups of dough on a cookie sheet, which beats patting the dough down and using a cutter to form each scone. Cinnamon, sugar, and chopped toasted pecans are swirled into the dough, which makes them similar to cinnamon buns.

So, how were they? High-five fellow bloggers! These were good. I like how the oats in the recipe gave the scones some heft, and the crunchy bits of toasted pecans were amazing.

These babies are best straight out of the oven and freshly drizzled with glaze.

Cinnamon Bun Scones

Scone ingredients:

2 C all purpose flour

1 C oats

1/4 C plus 2Tbs sugar

1 Tbs baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

8 Tbs butter chilled and cut into pieces

3/4 C milk

1 egg lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C toasted pecans

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Glaze ingredients:

3/4 C powdered sugar

3 to 4 tsp milk

Heat oven to 425°F. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray or use a silicone mat.

In large bowl, combine flour, oats, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder and salt; mix well. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In small bowl, combine milk, egg and vanilla; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir with fork or rubber spatula until dry ingredients are moistened. In small bowl, combine remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar with the pecans and cinnamon; mix well. Sprinkle evenly over dough in bowl; gently stir batter to swirl in cinnamon mixture (Do not blend completely.) Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire rack; cool 5 minutes. In small bowl, combine powdered sugar and enough milk for desired consistency; mix until smooth. Drizzle over top of warm scones. Serve warm.

If you like your mac 'n' cheese baked, here's a recipe for you. If you don't, then you can stop reading.

I'm of the crowd that likes their macaroni and cheese creamy, with each piece of elbow-shaped pasta discernible – not a baked-together chunk that gets served casserole-style ... which is what you get with this recipe.

Though I can't say this recipe is amazing, it's easy and makes a decent side dish. It's called Macaroni and Double Cheese because it contains two types of cheeses – Velveeta and cheddar. (By the way, does Velveeta even count as cheese?) I'll post the recipe below anyway if you decide you like what you see. If you can tweak it a bit and make it tastier, let me know.

Macaroni and Double Cheese

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni

2 eggs

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon pepper

8 ounces process cheese (Velveeta), melted

4 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided

Directions

Cook macaroni according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, butter, mustard, seasoned salt and pepper until combined. Stir in the process cheese and 3 cups of cheddar cheese.

Drain macaroni; stir into cheese mixture. Pour into a greased 3-qt. baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and edges are bubbly.

With the snow falling fast and hard, and after many minutes of deliberation as to whether to leave the house or not, I decided to just hunker in for the night and make scones instead.

These cheerful pumpkin scones warmed up the house with scents of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar as they baked up in the oven. The sugar glaze on top is spiced, too, for double the flavor.

Sprinkled with some chopped pecans over the glaze, these scones look and taste good enough to be cafe-worthy. Take that, Starbucks!

Pumpkin Scones

Yield: 12 scones

Ingredients for scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

7 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

5 Tablespoons cold butter

½ cup canned pumpkin

3 Tablespoons half-and-half or milk

1 large egg

Ingredients for glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 - 3 Tablespoons milk

dash of cinnamon

dash of pumpkin spice

dash of ginger

handful of pecans, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in a large bowl. Use a fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious; set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half-and-half and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle about 3 times as long as wide. Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut each of the portions in an X pattern (four pieces) so you end up with 12 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

4. To make the powdered sugar glaze, mix the powdered sugar, spices and milk together until smooth. Add enough milk until you achieve desired consistency. While scones are still warm, use a brush to spread plain glaze over the top of each scone. Sprinkle on chopped pecans before the glaze sets.

A warm layer of apples and strawberries is topped with a crunchy oat topping. Served up with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, this Apple Strawberry Crunch makes for a delicious ending to any meal.

This recipe is really easy peasy.

When rhubarb is back in season in the summer, substitute the apples for rhubarb for a different twist.

Apple Strawberry Crunch

Ingredients

3 apples, sliced

1 pint strawberries, quartered

1/4 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine apples, strawberries, white sugar, and 3 tablespoons flour. Stir well and spread evenly into baking dish. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, oats, and 3/4 cups flour. Stir well then cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over fruit layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Serve warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Beef Bourguignon. I can say I know how to make it, but just don't ask me how to pronounce it.

Ina Garten's recipe for this stew of red wine braised beef gets 5 stars from me. After slaving away in the kitchen for more than two and a half hours, I came out with a dish that garnered rave reviews from dinner guests.

Brace yourself: a whole bottle of red wine and half a cup of Cognac is used in this dish. I'll admit that this dish is slightly scary to make. One step in the recipe says "Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol."

Ok, so no major warning with this besides just "stand back" is stated. Then it can't be that hazardous, no big deal, right? Well, I used a long Bic lighter to ignite the Cognac and what resulted was flames shooting 1 foot out of the Dutch oven. Um ... ok, this will die down soon I told myself. Just like the showy bananas flambe the chef made on the cruise, no?

I started to panic when the flames didn't die out after a good 30 seconds. But before I reached for the fire extinguisher, luckily it died down. Crisis averted.

• Help! My stew is on fire.

As per Ina's suggestion, I served the Beef Bourguignon over some toasted slices of crusty bread which was wonderful. Don't worry about ladling the stew right over the bread. It doesn't get grossly soggy as you might think – the gravy from the stew gets sopped up by the bread and is a actually a tasty touch to the dish.

I served the Beef Bourguignon with an Apple Strawberry Crunch and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert.  I'll be that posting the recipe soon.

Read on for the 5-star recipe.

In honor of Paula Deen, who never made it down to the Q.C. for her Celebrity Chef Series shows that were scheduled at Oven's Auditorium this past Saturday, I've made her top recipe on her Food Network recipe web page. Listed as No. 1 in a collection of 100 "Top Recipes" by Paula Deen, is her Chicken and Rice Casserole.

This recipe has "Paula Deen" stamped all over it because:

1. It's a casserole.

2. It contains at least one white and creamy ingredient. In this case, cream of celery and mayo.

3. The ingredient list calls for items in units of "cans."

4. It calls for cheese.

The only thing missing is the butter. The casserole is easy to assemble – just have a can opener handy. Wink.

Well, despite my kidding about her less-refined dishes, I love myself some Paula. She's always jolly, cooks with her bling on, and throws caution to the wind when it comes to using butter and whipped cream.

This comforting casserole makes enough to feed a family of 6 and would make for an easy weekday meal. I don't know if it really qualifies for the No. 1 spot on her recipe web page, but it's pretty darn delicious. On a cold rainy day, it really doesn't get any better than a big heaping portion of this warm and creamy chicken and rice casserole.

Chicken and Rice Casserole

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

Ingredients

2 (14 1/2-ounce) can green beans, drained and rinsed

3 cups diced cooked chicken

1 medium onion, diced and sauteed

1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

1 (4-ounce) can pimentos, drained

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup

1 cup mayonnaise

1 (6-ounce) box long-grain and wild rice, cooked according to package directions

1 cup grated sharp Cheddar

Pinch salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 3-quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly.