It is 1:15 in the morning and somewhere down the block there is a very loud party going on––lots of singing along with loud sound systems and girls screaming. Dan’s watching Bill Maher on his notebook in the sala, Maggie’s gone to bed upstairs, Rhonda’s gone to bed downstairs and I’m cracking the crop over these photos I took earlier tonight that you will soon see below.

For months, I’ve been wanting to try out one of Leland’s scratch recipes that he posts weekly on his blog. Unfortunately, I always lack at least two of the ingredients; but the fact that I have an excellent baker visiting just now caused me to get organized enough to have butter, eggs, baking powder, flour, oranges, carrots and powdered sugar all in my house at the same time. The result is that Rhonda baked Leland’s carrot cookies and then taste-tested them with the help of Dan, Maggie and me. Here are the results:

(Click on first picture to enlarge all photos, then on arrows to view gallery.)