Summertime and the livin' is easy...

Emily is going through some sort of growth spurt...the kid can't get enough to eat or enough sleep. Last night she went to bed around 8:30 and didn't wake up until almost 11 this morning! She also took a 3 hour nap this afternoon and since waking 2 hours ago, seems ready to go back to bed.

This has been so wonderful, especially since Ava has decided that this week she will try to not only be as difficult as possible during the day, but she will also wake up no less than 10 times a night for various reasons (potty, wanting to be tucked in, bug bites, night light needs batteries, just to say hello...you name it). I'm ready to go against all of my better judgement and get a gate for her door! She's just been a pill during the day, so this morning with Emily asleep for pretty much all of it, it was nice to just get to focus on Ava and try to figure out what her problem is (I think I've figured that out...she's THREE!). She and I took advantage of the cool weather this morning, and some overripe peaches to make these delicious cookies. They are sort of a cross between a scone and a shortbread biscuit with the peaches already mixed in. They came together in a flash and were absolutely delicious with my afternoon tea. I have been subscribing to the daily cookie email from Martha Stewart and saw these in my inbox this morning - yum!

Fresh Peach Drop Cookies
via Martha Stewart

Ingredients
Makes about 4 dozen.
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/3 cup peach jam or preserves
2 tablespoons fine sanding sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.
Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Add peaches and jam, and beat until just combined.
Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing about 2 inches apart. (If not baking all of the cookies at once, refrigerate dough between batches; dough can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days.) Combine sanding sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle each cookie with 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 11 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, and then transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Ayelet's notes: I left out the peach preserves - my peaches were very sweet, so taste test yours first to see if the jam would make the batter too sweet. Also, I only needed to bake them 9-10 minutes.

After the cookies were cooled and Emily (finally) woke up, we went to pick raspberries. It's late in the season here, so I got them for $0.75/pound! There were tons of berries still on the bush, and Ava had a blast putting two in her bucket and then feeding two to Emily in the stroller. Needless to say, after 30 minutes of berry picking (where I had 2 pounds in my bucket and Ava had about 6 berries and a pink face), both girls were ready for a bath!

I'm thinking that the peach cookies would be lovely with raspberries substituted for the peaches...stay tuned for the review!