My super sweet, always agreeable, never give you a hard time child has finally reached the age of testing his limits.  Now every direction is met with a resounding NO, every explanation is followed by but, everything on his plate besides peanut butter and jelly sandwiches gets an ewww, and socks are his worst enemy.

I had a feeling this time would come.  I do know, however, that the sweetness will always be there waiting to be coaxed out with hugs and cookies.

These Macadamia Butter Cookies will surely do the trick for coaxing a little sweetness out of anyone this Valentine’s Day.  They are especially perfect for those non-chocolate lovers out there!  The trick is to process macadamia nuts into ‘macadamia butter’, and use it much like you would peanut butter.  Use whole nuts to start and process until very smooth – when I bought pre-chopped macadamias for this recipe once, the dough came out too dry.

Macadamia Butter Cookies with Dried Cranberries

adapted from Cooking Light, October 2002

makes 30 cookies

Ingredients

Oh, children and the things they will say.  Like “My mom says you can’t come over ’cause you’re a bad influence” to a friend’s daughter.  OH THE HORROR.

So after eating some crow, I barely had room for dessert.  But I had made these Cran-Apple Crisps for Tuesdays with Dorie and I had to make room, and I’m glad I did.

These lovely crisps are made with fresh apples and fresh and dried cranberries.  I used a mixture of Granny Smith and Honey Crisp (my new favorite) apples.  The only change I made was to use walnuts in the crisp mixture instead of coconut, which I thought made a great substitution.

The sweet apples and tart cranberries were very tasty together in these crisps, and a scoop of ice cream added just a little more sweetness.  I highly recommend it.

This Tuesdays with Dorie pick was brought to you by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef and you can find the recipe there.

Craving some strawberry shortcake, but not in the mood to spend too much time in the kitchen?  Well, here’s your answer – the ultimate fusion of strawberries, cream, and biscuits – Martha Stewart’s Strawberry-Shortcake Cookies.  Like a scone in cookie form, these are sweet and tender with a crunchy sugared top.

This month’s Cookie Carnival selection will make your life a little easier, especially if someone in your household’s favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake.  You can even top it with a little whipped cream if you have it.  These are best the day they are made, but still good the next.  After that, if there are any left, 5 minutes in the oven at 350 will crisp them up again nicely.