Thursday, February 25, 2010

What the guys...

Ok, these are not baked or knit:

But they are ADORABLE! That's right. We're taking a time out for some cuteness. For some reason, even though these guys claim VEHEMENTLY that they do not care much for each other, the always seem to be doing the same thing at the same time. And despite what they say about their desire to avoid each other, I have documented proof of them touching.

Boy those guys look grumpy. And beefy.

How about the view from where I sit?

Well, I had one beefer on my lap tonight:
And the other nearby in the office bed.


















Then some jealousy happened.There was a short tussle, some furry fists were thrown, but everyone ended up alright.
Now it is time for everyone to go to bed. I hope I get room to sleep on the bed tonight and don't wake up to any kitty butts in my face.

Honey Nut Bars

My sister was making fun of me the other day because she was looking at my blog and asked, "Ooo, how were those coffee frosted cookies?" and I had to tell her that she had, in fact, eaten them. She had totally forgotten since my post went up about a month after I had actually made them. This seems to be par for the course with my blog. No matter how often I bake I doubt that I will ever have the drive to do a post a day, or even a post a week. I have been sitting here in front of the computer for over an hour and I almost didn't even write this post.

I digress.

Here is a picture of a honey nut bar:
Yes, yes. Not bad looking. I made them about a billion years ago, but at least the picture stays fresh.

These bars were pretty tasty really. They are not something I would want all the time, but they made a delightful little breakfast treat. The bars came out a little dense, but I don't want to make it sound like a bad thing so I'll call them "hearty". Here's the recipe:

Honey-Nut Bars (from The Ultimate Cookie Book)

1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. coconut
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 recipe powdered sugar icing

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and shortening on medium to high speed for about 30 seconds.
  3. Add honey, baking powder, and salt and beat until combined, scraping bowl occasionally.
  4. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined and then add flour.
  5. Stir in coconut and nuts.
  6. Spread batter in prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  7. Cool in pan, cut, and then allow to fully cool before drizzling with icing and topping with more nuts.
Mmmm.... I definitely wish these bars were around right now. I mean freshly baked ones anyway. I don't know about how it is where everyone else lives, but my house is being pummeled with angry rain. It is pouring buckets outside and the wind doesn't sound too happy either. It would be quite glorious to light the fire and have a nice cup of tea with a honey nut bar. ALAS! I am on a cursed diet. I happened to step on a scale the other day and nearly passed out when I saw the number. Terrible, terrible. Who is going to eat my baked goods now? The new job employs a person with a nut allergy which means I have just about no one to pawn my sweets off on. Maybe I should start an account with UPS so I can just keep shipping everything to my old job...