Notice that it isn't National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. There are other things you can do with them besides the cookie route.

You can put them in pancakes, put them in bundt cake, and even in mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Of course, if you want to make chocolate chip cookies, here's the original Toll House Cookie recipe. I keep a bag of the Toll House semi-sweet pieces in my fridge and snack on them constantly.

Like so many other people, I nearly always have a couple of bananas laying around that are getting overly ripe. Sometimes I just stick them into the freezer for later use, but I often toss them into a loaf of banana bread. Banana bread is fast, easy and works great for both breakfasts and for snacking. The only drawback is that you can get tired of it after making the same loaf recipe several times in a row. It is easy to dress up a loaf by tossing in chocolate chips, nuts or raisins, but it's nice to have some more varied variations available, as well. In this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, I saw a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips that looked quick, easy and tasty. Not surprisingly, it lived up to my expectations. The bread is slightly heavy, but not too dense, and has a good balance of peanut butter and banana flavors. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet and cut back on the amount slightly. The bread is good plain and toasted, for breakfast, with tea or for dessert!

• It's the holiday season, and here are some ideas for throwing the ultimate party.
• What's the best beer to serve with various Thanksgiving foods?
• This year, don't just take some plain frozen biscuits and throw them in the over. Do something different.
• The quince is an ugly fruit, but great to eat.
• Add some bourbon to your pecan pie.
• Miss Conduct answers the question: is it rude to pour salt & pepper on your food before you taste it?
• This week's recipes: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Roast Turkey Breast with Cider and Apples, Quince Tart, and Chocolate Chip Walnut Banana Bread.

Partially influenced by low prices and partially by the fact that I rationalize by saying I could use any leftovers up in a recipe, I always buy a few too many bags of candy around this time of year. In particular, I like to buy the seasonally-colored candies, like holiday M&Ms or, in this case, Halloween/Fall Kissables. Instead of their usually rainbow-colored shells, the candies are all coated in orange and yellow.

Kissables have a crisp candy shell, and fall halfway between the size of a regular chocolate chip and a Hershey's kiss, so the crunch is quite substantial. They work very well in cookies, since most chocolate chip cookie recipes make a fairly chewy cookie and the crunch is a great addition to the overall texture. These particular cookies are buttery, crispy on the edges and slightly chewy in the center, though the will soften slightly after a day or two. If you don't want to use Kissables, M&Ms or any other similarly sized candy (cut up candy bars, etc) will work, too.

Read on for the recipe.

Blondies are bar cookies that are intended to have the same dense, somewhat fudgy texture of brownies, but without having a chocolate base and believe it or not, this is actually a Chocolate Chip Blondie, not a brownie. The reason that it looks so chocolaty is that mini chocolate chips were stirred into the batter in place of larger chocolate chips and, during baking, they melted right in. I doubt anyone complained before digging in, though.

This batch of blondies was baked by Vegan Core and it is completely vegan. She used a recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen for the basic blondies, then added a topping of cashews and chocolate ganache to make them a little bit more visually interesting and to add some crunch.

Chocolate chip cookies are one of life's most simple pleasures, particularly if they're homemade. If I posted this picture without any text, you would never guess that these cookies are vegan. In fact, if I gave you one to taste, you wouldn't know it either. This batch was baked by the blogger who posts at Vegan Core, but I know how good they are first hand, since I've made this recipe, which is from the book Vive le Vegan, as well. The cookies are crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. You can find the recipe for my white chocolate macadamia variation here (although the white chocolate chips are not vegan).

One of the cookbooks in my collection that I turn to over and over again is Mrs. Fields Best Cookie Book Ever! Though this book currently is out of print, and perhaps not as readily available as some of the books that we've mentioned here, it is worth it for one thing alone: it has the recipe for Mrs. Field's famous chocolate chip cookies. I have no idea if any of the other books authored by Debbie Fields have this recipe, too, but I frequently have people ask if I know where they can get the recipe or tell me that they've been trying to come up with a "clone" of the cookie. Let me stress that if you want they recipe, just find a copy of the book!

Moving away from the original chocolate chip cookies, the rest of the recipes are easy to follow and produce delicious results. There are lots of simple, but mouthwatering, variations on chocolate chip cookies (like white chocolate chocolate chip), as well as recipes for bar cookies and even a couple of fancier desserts in the "special treats" section. From the white chocolate raspberry tart to the malted milk cookies, there are lots of recipes to choose from and lots of great treats to enjoy in this book.

Who could resist seeing a couple of adorable bunny pancakes on their plate of Easter morning? Best of all, these little guys take no longer to prepare than ordinary pancakes - which is to say that they take about 5 minutes from start to plate. I used this recipe for buttermilk pancakes and, instead of dropping the batter into one large round, I used a smaller spoon to "pour" the batter into shape. Bunnies are a fairly simple shape, so there is no need for a mold to form them. I used chocolate chips to make eyes and noses, but fruit slices would work just as well. If you do want chocolate chips and three isn't enough for you, you could always try adding a few chocolate chips into the batter. And, of course, serve with maple syrup!

With the endearing name of Chocolate Cherry Chip Bada Bing!, the hit HBO show, the Sopranos, has its own ice cream flavor. The ice cream sandwiches are made up of two large chocolate chip cookies with a cherry flavored ice cream in between. The sides of the sandwich are rolled in chocolate chips.

Strangely, CoolBrands International, which released the ice cream, trademarked the name several years ago. When HBO began to hint around that they were looking to expand the Soprano's brand, the coincidence of the frozen novelty sharing the name of Tony Soprano's strip club was too great to overlook and HBO signed up. Product placement and a small percent of the profits are rumored to be part of the deal.

Currently, the sandwiches only seem to be available in the New York tri-state area. where they retail for $$4.29-$4.89