SMS No-Show, and Could someone turn down the heat?

Chestnut-honey madeleines was the recipe this week, and they sounded wonderful! Unfortunately, it's been just scorchingly hot, the ac has been running non-stop, and the last thing I want to do is crank up the oven. All I feel like making is ice cream. Go take a look at some of the lovelies baked by other SMSers.

A couple other things I've cooked

Garlic Scape Pesto. Weird, yes? The garlic scapes (and the recipe for the pesto!) came in the Dominion Harvest box . . . they're apparently the green tops of garlic bulbs. They're pretty sharp, but good. We ate it over pasta one night and have been putting it on pita chips ever since.

Brunch for Kenny and Rebeca: Frittata, salad, Billy Bread.

Curried fried rice, from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen. (Not the greatest picture, but I really liked it! Rice, coconut milk, sugar snap peas, and other goodies.)

Chocolate Orange Macaroons

This week's Sweet Melissa Sunday challenge was hosted by BlueTreeGreenHeart. Chocolate Orange Macaroons -- yum!

Here are the very simple ingredients: Coconut, chocolate, orange zest, sugar, and egg white.

(I also added a pinch of salt for good measure.)

The method couldn't be easier: Mix by hand, bake until golden.

Don't you want one right now? John said they were the best of the things I've made so far for SMS. I read previous posts and sprayed my foil with Baker's Joy, so there was no problem getting them off the cookie sheet. I loved the way the bottoms got caramely and crunchy while the inside was moist and chewy. And I think the orange zest really brought it ll together nicely.

Another win! (And something I'll probably make again.) Go check out the baker's links for more!

Pistachio Linzer Thumbprints

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays entry is Pistachio Linzer Thumbprints, hosted by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. I dearly love linzertorte, and like pistachios quite a bit, so I was pleased by the selection. Unfortunately, I just could not find unsalted pistachios, so as suggested, I subbed hazelnuts.

(Also unfortunately, my camera was not in the kitchen and frankly, I just did not feel like finding it, hooking it up to my dying computer, plugging the old computer into a hard line for internets, etc. So just the two iPhone photos. Sorry.)

Anyway, this came together quickly in a food processor. It did fill the darn thing up so much that bits of dough went straight on the counter when I opened the machine up, but that's nothing new. It's a lovely food processor, but it does perplex me.

Also, the dough never did come together . . . . maybe could have used more liquid. But no matter! I just mashed it together and baked it and all was well. They were pretty crumbly, too, when I went to make the thumbprints, but I solved that by bracing the sides with one hand and pressing with the other. (Hence the slightly oval shape of many of the cookies.)

I ended up baking just 20 cookies, saving a goodly amount of dough in the freezer. (I did wish I'd had more powdered hazelnuts to dip the cookies in.) As a final change, I subbed blackberry preserves from our lovely CSA box for the raspberry. They were really quite tasty.

John told me twice that they were awesome, so I think we have another SMS success! Go to Tracey's blog for the recipe (and pictures of a properly made, pistachio-inclusive cookie). If you'd like total cookie madness, check out the full list of SMS bakers.