My kitchen is finally (barely) functional. Meaning I’ve got a working range, dishwasher and sink. The range has been working for a week, but with no sink, I haven’t used it for anything but heating up hot water for tea. We’ve still got some painting and cleanup to do before we start moving everything back in, but photos of the progress so far are here.

The first thing I baked was a little batch of thumbprint cookies – just butter, sugar, flour and jam. I didn’t want to start with anything too fussy, but I was really dying to get baking again. These are so good, and so simple. Any flavor of jam can be used – I used blueberry. The key is to add the jam just before serving, or it will start to bleed into the dough like mine did. No matter. They were still delicious. Want the recipe? Check out Two Peas and Their Pod.

• Jammin’ Sugar Cookie Thumbprints (Desserts 4 Today, p. 22)