An affordable - and tasty - new tradition

Kristin and I have bought each other birthday and Christmas gifts for years. But with the economy what it is, and both of us trying to save money for various endeavors, this year we decided to try something new.

Instead of shipping gifts across the country, we shipped... yes, that's right... baked goods!

It's brilliant, really. We co-author this baking blog, but living 1,000 miles away means we never get to reap the benefits of the other one's creations. So now we do!

I admit that I *may* have dropped one or two *tiny* hints to Kris that if a container of Oatmeal Carmelitas appeared on my doorstep, I would not be overly disappointed. I had the joy of tasting them once when I visited her in Florida, and have dreamed about them ever since. Yeah, I could have made them myself. But somehow it's just not the same, you know?

Thankfully, she's a smart girl, and the 50 or 60 hints I dropped appeared to have been received, because I came home from work today to this glorious site:


If you are ever looking to bake something that you need to ship, these held up extremely well. Not a broken one in the bunch. I popped them right in the fridge (well, after devouring one or two), and they stayed fresh and tasty forEVER. Yuuuum.

I wonder if she'll send them to me again for my birthday....