Brown Parchment

There's something about brown parchment paper that I absolutely love. It reminds me of beautiful bouquets of fresh flowers wrapped in brown paper with twine sitting in the basket of someones Parisian bike or "brown paper packages tied up with string," to quote the amazing Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. It makes baking feel so much more wholesome and lovely.
Why buy white when you can buy brown?

Also pictured are frozen oatmeal raisin pecan cookies that are about to be baked off into deliciousness for my dad. Freezing cookie dough like this is so convenient and since my dad loves to request homemade oatmeal cookies it works out perfect. I freeze them on a cookie sheet one layer at a time and then toss them into a plastic ziploc bag. Frozen dough lasts months while refrigerated dough only a few days...and believe me, if you're a cookie dough fan you'll fall quickly for frozen dough...it's to die for (cookie dough ice cream anyone?). I can't believe I've waited this long to make it common practice!