Crispy Brown Butter Pecan Cookies

I love the idea of brown butter. I mean, what's better than plain ol' butter? Butter with extra delicious flavor! These cookies are all about the butter. They're rich and crunchy, and just as decadent as chocolate. The pecans are the perfect complement to the brown butter, adding a really nice extra texture. All that butter makes these cookies quite crispy. They're not soft at all in the middle. In most cases I prefer a cookie with a soft middle and browned edges but for these it just worked. I'm sure if you really want them a bit less crunchy they could be pulled from the oven a little early.

Molly Wizenberg's Banana Bread

I have very limited kitchen space and even less cooking equipment, so I don't cook or bake that often. But lately I've been really trying to make more of my meals from scratch. I've had some success so far, with various soups and pasta dishes. But this weekend I got the urge to bake! I'm reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, creator of Orangette, and basically all of the recipes in the book sound amazing and delicious.