Oatmeal Coconut Raspberry Bars

I am not a big fan of bars - I prefer the taste of cookies, but cookies are so much more labor intensive. I found this bar recipe, though, and decided to give it a whirl. They are really good. I burned the coconut the first time that I tried toasting it - I only had them in the oven for four minutes and they were already way too brown, so I had to start over with new coconut. Lesson learned. Now I know how to toast coconut. I also forgot the salt, but they are fine without it. I used Polaner's All Fruit which looked a little better for you than the regular jams on the shelf. I'll make these again.

Chocolate Babka

I made this a week or so ago - I had never heard of babkas, but the picture looked really good so I figured I'd try it out. It was very tasty, but it took a lot of work. Well, it took more time I should say. You have to let it rise a couple times. And then it requires a rolling pin. Any recipe that requires me to break out the rolling pin is immediately labeled labor intensive. All in all it was very tasty but I'm not sure if I would make it again - maybe for a special occasion.