‘Tis the season of baking and I did my share last week!  One of my favorite recipes I make every year is apricot almond shortbread bars, they’re always a big hit at our Christmas party and my go-to recipe if I ever get invited to a cookie swap. 

This recipe originally appeared in Bon Appétit in December 2005, and I made it when it first was published. Over the years I’ve modified it slightly, subtracting the almond paste, adding orange zest, and also doubling the recipe to make a full cookie sheet.  You can find the original recipe here.  The following is my version of apricot almond shortbread bars: 

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Hi all, happy Friday to you!  I was on the phone with my sister yesterday planning our Thanksgiving feast and informed that for the first time in our family’s history of feasts, my brother-in-law has plans to deep fry our turkey this year. This is new to me having grown up on an oven roasted bird, but from what I’ve heard (thanks to plenty of tweets yesterday to reassure me) deep fried turkey is excellent. I’m intrigued and looking forward to it, but just might roast up another smaller bird for old times sake.

The big feast is less than three weeks away, and we’re busily assigning who’s cooking what. It’s just not Thanksgiving without turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie which requires my attire include my most stretchy pants on that day. (I can’t be alone in that.)

menu template via must have menus

So let’s talk about food.  A gorgeous keepsake cookbook arrived in my mailbox last week celebrating the 85th Anniversary of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Do you watch the Parade every year?  We always have it on while we prep the feast (yet another T day tradition).

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When I was a kid, split pea soup was one of the few vegetable soups I actually liked.  Whenever we traveled back home from visiting the relatives, we’d always stop at Pea Soup Andersons for a hot bowl of their famous soup.  Split pea has always been one of my favorite fall soups, but as a habit, I’ve always bought the bag of green ones. Isn’t if funny how we do that, always buy the same things at the grocery store out of habit. 

We’re having cool morning fog lately, and cool weather always gives me a hankerin’ for soup so this week it was split pea. This time, I ventured out into new territory and grabbed the yellow versions instead. That’s me, livin’ on the edge! Green split peas beware, your yellow sisters are convincing me that they’re a tad bit prettier in the bowl. 

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Mmm mmm mmm, I love me some soup on a rainy fall day. A storm blew through our town in the last two days, so I had to whip up one of my favorites: white bean with bacon soup. It’s scrumdillyumtious and perfect on a fall day.  

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