O is for Onions: Oven Roasted Onion Rings (Jennifer)

Hello readers!

Raise your hand if you are watching the Grammys right now!! Me, me, me! Wow, what an interesting show. So far, my favorite performance has been by The Civil Wars, all 60-seconds of it. : ) Favorite dress/frock is a tie between the second dress Adele wore (tea-length, polka dots) and Carrie Underwood's glittery black and gold number. Beautiful! I think she looks like Barbie. : )

Anyhoo, this week's ingredient was onion. Oh, the onion. Most often playing a supporting role, onions can be found in foods of every variety and culture, from chili and hamburgers to Italian and Indian foods. But the onion deserves to play a starring role every now and then, and it definitely does so in this dish!

O is for Oranges: Orange Cranberry Scones (Jessica)

Hey there!

When I got oranges as my secret ingredient, I was really excited. There are SO many things to make with oranges. I poked around on the internet for a while, and decided on a scone recipe. I had made scones once before, many years ago, and they were...good ok. So I thought I'd try a new recipe and hope for an improvement! I also decided to add white chocolate chips to the recipe I found. I guess I'm finally getting creative :)

O is for Olive Bread (Jennifer)

Dear friends,

I may have a slight thing for olives. I really, really like them. Ask my family. When you do, they'll tell you the story of me as a little girl, maybe 6, 7, or 8-years old (I don't remember), eating olives from the bowl set out at Thanksgiving. They'll continue the story, sharing that they tried to stop me from eating so many olives. But I couldn't stop; I wouldn't stop. Nothing could get between me and my olives. Well, then, the story continues with a car ride, and well....you know where this one's going. Hey, I was little and it wasn't my fault. I still love olives--I just try not to eat so many at once. : )

Today I have a much happier olive story to share. In this story, olives are baked into a soft, delicious bread dough that's been *lightly* sprinkled with kosher salt. In this story, olives are cut into squares, wedges, and sticks and dunked into olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Bright, summery flavors. Yum. Enjoy!

*I emphasize lightly because I might have gone a bit overboard, forgetting that olives can be quite salty on their own.

O is for Oatmeal Cherry White Chocolate Chip Cookies (Jessica)

Dear Readers,

There were a surprising number of choices to pick from for this week's recipe. I want to pay tribute to every other kind of oatmeal cookie out there, as well as every recipe with oranges...yum! I settled on this recipe because I'm a sucker for white chocolate.
What IS white chocolate anyway? Well, first of all, it's not REALLY chocolate. Here's what Wikipedia says: it's a "confectionery derivative of chocolate". I think that's just a fancy way to say "it's candy". Read more about it and you can learn about the rules governing what can be labeled as "white chocolate" in America. Whatever you call it, I think it's delicious. I know this very sweet confectionery can be divisive; people either love it or hate it. Guess which group I'm in!

These cookies came with me to my cooking club's picnic over the weekend. Remember my very first post? Well, cooking club rolled around again and I wanted to bring something easy to snack on while we lounged outside in the park. Here's the result!