The Sister-in-law unit and I made the trek to more populous regions yesterday and went shopping. Trader Joe's was on the agenda. [My only source for kosher meat, and all other things delectable.] While we wandered about the store, I spied something I had read about and picked up a jar without any hesitation whatsoever. Turns out that may have been a bad move. Here it is, looking all innocent last night….   What is it? Well, that is a rather difficult question to answer, because this food falls into a previously unknown category, in my experience at least. No, it's not peanut butter, though it looks exactly like it. Speculoos is a kind of cookie they bake in Holland. A spicy cookie. Well, to make cookie butter, they crush up a bunch of those cookies, and mix the crumbs with oils and sugars, and more oils and more sugars, and  just a little more fats of various kinds, and they get…. believe it or not…. heroin. It tastes like…creamy ginger snaps, but not quite like gingersnaps, and your poor brain has a really rough time identifying two such strange qualities [creamy and cookie] in the same spoonful. Part of your brain says…. "That ain't right." The other part says, "Put the spoon in the jar again, this needs further analysis." Anyway. Last night I went on a search for recipes that use this substance and found three to try. Here's the first one...   Yep. Baked oatmeal. Recipe here... http://www.healthyfoodforliving.com/speculoos-cookie-butter-baked-oatmeal-for-one/ Is it as good as MY baked oatmeal? No. Is it good? Oh yeah. I made it exactly as the recipe states, but didn't have a banana to make the yogurt sauce to pour on top. And if you decide to try it, I would recommend the sauce. It needed a little something like that to finish it off. I ate mine with a little apple butter since that is what I had on hand. That was very good as a topping too. If you don't have a Trader Joe's anywhere near you, I'm truly sorry for you. And I'm sorry to tease you with this entry. I don't know where else you can find this stuff, though most likely it's all over Europe. Perhaps we could hire a Cookie Butter runner to score us some? Anyway, I have to go now and haul some wood or something to work off that bowl of oatmeal. It's snowing. That will make wood hauling more of an adventure.