Chocolate has a back seat position in my life. I totally understand its appeal and get the occasional craving for a piece of dark, dark, chocolate, but it's never been an obsession for me. There are two exceptions to the chocolate ambivalence though: serving it with peanut butter, or swirling it into something. And by swirl, I mean melted chocolate swirl, not lumpy chocolate chips action (can you tell I'm not a big fan of chips?).

This cookie recipe is my ideal combination: the dough is a basic chocolate chip cookie dough flavored with dark brown sugar and vanilla, but the fun part comes in the swirl. Melt those pesky chocolate chips until glossy and warm, mix in an equal amount of peanut butter (I used regular commercial peanut butter since that's what I've always eaten since childhood, but let me know in the comments if you use natural peanut butter), and carefully swirl into the dough before baking. I know that swirling is probably the most fun part of this recipe, but the key is not to overswirl so that you get nice gooey pockets of chocolate-y peanut butter. My method of creating a well in the dough might seem strange, but trust me, it's worked well to make those hypnotic patterns in these addictive, chewy cookies.  (Click "Read More" below for the full recipe.)

I like the biscuit-y, buttery kind of strawberry shortcake, not the bland spongy ones. But here's my weird thing: instead of diving in right away, I like to let the strawberries sit on the shortcakes for awhile so the juices soak in. (I'm also the person whose favorite part of fruit pies is the juice-soaked crust.) So I set out to make an easy recipe that puts the essence of strawberry shortcake into one warm fruit cobbler.

The keys to this recipe are not overcooking the strawberries and having a thick but not gloppy sauce that the shortcakes can happily soak in. Make sure your strawberries are thoroughly dried, and keep them in relatively large pieces so they don't fall apart during baking. The easy shortcake dough is mixed by hand, then formed into cute little discs that sit on top of the fruit. While you can go the traditional route and serve this beautiful cobbler with whipped cream, I find the cream-based shortcake dough plenty rich to serve it as is. (Click "Read More" below for the full recipe.)