Okay, folks, it’s time for you to declare — Not whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, an Obama fan or a McCain supporter. It is time for you to declare your cookie allegiance.

I’ll go first: oatmeal raisin. Hands down. If forced to pick a second and third choice, it would probably be preacher cookies and white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies.

October is National Cookie Month. But if ever there was a food that could support an entire year of tributes, it is the versatile and delightful cookie. Three hundred and sixty-five different cookies could easily be named for every day of this proposed National Cookie Year. And then some.

In fact, if I started naming cookie types now, it would probably take me about as long as it took Forrest Gump’s pal, Bubba, to name all the shrimp concoctions he knew.

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My Aunt Cindy is the queen of dessert for breakfast.

On holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the rest of us forced down a piece of pie or cake after dinner despite the fact that we were already disgustingly full, she was smart enough to save it for the next morning.

According to Cindy, there’s nothing better than a piece of leftover pie with a hot cup of coffee in the morning.

I wish that we could all eat dessert for breakfast every morning without becoming either fat or malnourished, depending on our respective metabolisms. But this morning, I ran across a recipe that might just be healthy enough for breakfast, and it sure looks delish.

These Cherry Whole Grain Cereal Bars contain a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. They are sweetened with a mixture of Splenda and brown sugar. They contain rolled oats and dried cherries, both of which have some nice health benefits. Of course, there’s butter in the recipe, too. But everyone needs a little fat in the morning to get them going!

I only wish this recipe called for fresh cherries, because there’s been a bumper crop of them this year. If anyone wants to get experimental and try to make it with fresh or frozen cherries to see how it turns out, I’d love to hear about it.

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I would like to award this week’s free cookbook, “The Only Bake Sale Cookbook You’ll Ever Need” by Laurie Goldrich Wolf and Pam Abrams, to blog reader Rebecca!

As usual, you all made it incredibly difficult to choose a winner. In case you missed it, here’s Rebecca’s poignant comment about her dad:

My best ‘peanut-related food experience’ would be Every Day With My Dad! My dad was a peanut addict! His favorite food was anything with peanuts or peanut butter. (I even got him to love Thai food because of the peanuts) He always had a can of Virginia Diner peanuts by his ‘chair’ and ended every day of his life with saltines and peanut butter. I always told my husband and kids that I would never worry about dad’s health as long as he was still eating peanut butter and saltines before bedtime. Dad died in July of 2005 after a four month battle with stomach cancer. He ate those saltines and peanut butter until just a week before his death! Dad was a Baptist preacher who said even though it wasn’t biblical, he knew that the streets of heaven were paved with peanuts, not gold.

Thanks, Rebecca! E-mail me your address at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com and I’ll put this book in the mail.

Here’s one last peanutty recipe from the cookbook before we move on to less nutty topics:

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This is one of those recipes you’re supposed to protect with the assertion that, “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.” Of course, the person who gave me this recipe, retired Roanoke Times copy desk editor Nancy Caldwell, is one of the top 5 sweetest people I know.
She kindly passed it on to me, so I’ll kindly pass it on to you.
It also helps out blog reader Kat with the question of what to do with leftover buttermilk. It calls for 1/2 cup of buttermilk plus several tablespoons.
This cake is rich and brownie-like. The homemade chocolate icing is slathered on in the pan while the cake is still hot. It cools into a deliciously sugary, dense dessert.

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After last week’s entry about National Banana Bread Day, one reader made this scrumptious recipe and said it turned out killer good.
I just had to have the recipe and thought you all would appreciate it, too. It came from Southern Living.
It’s after the jump. Enjoy!

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As we have all learned, there’s a national day or month for just about every different food on the face of the earth.
There’s even a National Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk Day and a National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day.
Those are silly, but tomorrow’s day is one that I can wrap my head around: it’s National Banana Bread Day.
I absolutely love a good slice of banana bread. There’s nothing better with a hot mug of coffee or tea in the morning than a thick slice slathered with butter and microwaved for just a few seconds to get all warm and melty.
I’ve been guilty in the past of simply mixing overripe bananas into a banana bread mix. It’s not as good as made-from-scratch banana bread, but it’s a quick and easy way to avoid letting the fruit go to waste just because it’s too black for raw consumption.
I found a perfectly delicious-looking recipe for homemade banana bread on Simply Recipes. I’m going to attach the recipe after the jump.
Does anyone out there have a killer banana bread recipe? And what’s your vote — nuts or no nuts?

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