This week I made and froze basil pesto, parsley pesto, I made and canned 12 quarts of pasta sauce from a bushel of local plum tomatoes, cooked one of the sauce quarts down to make tomato paste to freeze, baked 6 blueberry hand-pies, made and froze a dozen more mini blueberry pies and a full-sized blueberry pie, I baked peach muffins, and lastly, a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  I am definitely a nester and no time makes it more evident than the start of a new school year.

I’m not suggesting you mimic my crazy cooking compulsion, but now is the time to abandon those easy summer meals that you put together on the fly and adopt a more organized sense of meal planning. Find a good go-to meal for your family and have it handy in your freezer for busy days or keep the less perishable ingredients on hand to make it on the run.  Remember that a homemade meal is always healthier than something store bought or fast food.

Want to make your own homemade pasta sauce?  Join me Wednesday September 17.  Sign up on my “Classes” link.

This past weekend an old friend told me I was a Spice Girl.  (He had been holding that joke in for a long time and couldn’t wait to blurt it out.) So which Spice Girl am I?  While you’re pondering, bake some cookies for the holiday.  Here is one of my favorite cookie recipes.  No bells or whistles – but use your best butter, great salt and restraint.

Dorie Greenspan’s Butter Sables

 Cookies:

8 oz unsalted high fat butter, like Plugra, softened at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

½ tsp Kosher or sea salt

2 egg yolks

2 cups all purpose flour

Decoration:

1 egg, beaten

decorative crystal sugar

Slowly beat butter so it’s smooth and creamy.  Add sugars and salt and gently beat again.  Add yolks. Beat at a slow speed until well combined.

Add all of the flour and beat in until just combined. Shape dough into 2 logs about 1” round and wrap in wax paper. Chill for an hour or two. Can be frozen up to one month.

Preheat oven to 350°.  Line cookie sheet with parchment or silpat.

Brush log with beaten egg and generously sprinkle with crystal sugar.  Slice into 1/4” thick rounds and place on cookie sheet. Bake 18 minutes. Cookies should be pale golden, not brown.

makes 2 dozen.