Chocolate cravings and the view outside my window

I realize the Muffin Monday posts have kind of hit the fan.  I am vaguely disappointed in myself for not making it through Fall as I intended, but keep hope alive that I will one day be organized enough again to bake on a weekly basis for an entire season.

Today however, as I was lounging on the couch in one of those rare moments of solitude, the spirit moved me in the form of a deep irresistible chocolate craving, so fierce and demanding that no amount of left over halloween candy could satiate it.

This is what resulted:

And the recipe for these babies my dear friends is as follows: grab wallet, head to nearest grocery store, buy a box of chocolate brownie mix, go home, make cookies out of it.

Shameful I know.  It's not that I am not against baking mixes as a rule, it is more that since I had a child I want to make an effort to fill his childhood with memories, scents and tastes of wholesome and homemade baked treats. Muffins and cookies and cakes that he'll long for in his college years and look forward to every time he comes back home for a visit.  There is just something about things that are made from scratch, and in your mama's kitchen, that are good for the soul, and my goal as Jake's mama is to fill his childhood with as much of these as possible.

But today there would be no organic carrot muffins, or orange cranberry cookies. Today was all about getting my chocolate fix.  And I can happily say that this indulgence was worth every last unpronounceable ingredient on the box.

On another note, Autumn is glorious here today.  All bright skies, and crisp earthy air. The colors are on fire now, with yellow and orange and burnt reds saturating the view out of our living room window. 

Spectacular. Really.