Scandinavian Blondies

No, that's not the corps of nannies we will hire when we have kids (though Markus would love that...)! These are some bar cookies I made last week and they're delicious! I tend to bake when I'm stressed out, so on Sunday I was in the mood to bake. I perused my King Arthur's Flour Baking Companion (or it might have been their cookie cookbook) and knew I would find something wonderful. I highly recommend these two cookbooks for anyone who likes to bake. They have the standard cookie recipes (chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, etc) and then variations on each (do you like yours crunchy or soft and chewy?). The Baking Companion has more varied dessert recipes, so you could find an number of yummy desserts depending on what you're in the mood to bake.

Anyway, the blondies are these plain (just your standard butter, sugar, flour, and eggs) bar cookies with almond extract - they went perfectly with vanilla ice cream. Yes, it was an indulgent weekend (on Saturday, we indulged at my cousin's graduation party), but we did get Edy's Slow Churned Light (1/3 the calories and 1/2 the fat!). I even packed a few of the cookies in a baggie and brought them along to Indianapolis with me! I'm excited to get back home and dive more deeply into these cookbooks; this was the first recipe I made and am inspired, though I will be looking for volunteers to eat my baked goods (I can't eat them all!).

So last week I was at home and made chilled soups (I think my favorite was chilled orange pepper soup with cilantro/pea puree - YUM) and healthy dinners every night of the week except one when we met our old neighbors and friends, Brian and Gretchen, for dinner. Markus had his last midterm on Monday, then I departed for Indy. In just a few hours, I have to pick him up at the bus station - he went to Chicago on business and took a bus here so we could spend a weekend doing fun stuff in Indianapolis. We're staying downtown (thanks to the Marriott points I accrue each time I'm here!) and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the city.

All is pretty quiet on the house front, because we've been trying to enjoy what remains of the summer when Markus doesn't have schoolwork he needs to focus on. I have to say, though, Markus was like a firecracker or super taskmaster last Friday. He has summer hours now and he gets done at lunchtime on Fridays. So, he gets home and in an hour and a half, has hung bike holders on the wall and hung the bikes up, re-hung the blinds on our windows, cleaned the ground floor up, hooked up the dehumidifier drainage hose, and started staining our kitchen windows. I can't wait until he has no school distractions - he'll be doing 18 projects each weekend!!! That's why I love this man! :-)

The other exciting thing is that our courtyard trees were just pruned and the decaying tree on our patio was removed. We get so much more natural light now!! At some point, we'll get the stump removed and we're going to extend our patio so we'll have a little more room. Up on the roof deck, the plants are growing just fine, but the darned critters are eating my tomatoes!!! ARGH! I started with six good-sized tomatoes, then five, then four, and now THREE are left. I think it's the courtyard squirrel that's eating them. I probably won't have any left by the time I get back next Wednesday. One of the other plants in my pot has started blooming, so I have some baby tomatoes just starting out but it'll probably eat those, too. I'll be so happy if I can harvest (he he, I'm such a city farmer, huh?) one lousy tomato. Ah well, at least I'm helping the squirrel survive, right?

And now, I'm signing off from the land of Nascar...two back-to-back episodes of Grey's Anatomy are on!

Oh, by the way, I don't know who this "Anonymous" person who's been adding the comments, but don't click on their links. They're just some crappy online casino type site and they'll spam your email.