BOUNTY OF DELICIOUSNESS

Today is a day for taking a break from sorting, rearranging, and tossing crap out.  For two straight days it has been chilly with temps topping out in the mid-sixties, so windows have been open, and the cool fresh air feels wondrous in the house.

This means that today is an ideal day to do some baking.

My friend's daughter just had the same kind of foot surgery that I endured about eight years ago, and the request is for brownies and cribbage over the weekend.  The cribbage board I have; the brownies I will have to make from scratch.  Sure, I could get in my car or walk to the nearest grocery store and get boxed brownies, which would be much fudgier and  more consistent than the homemade ones, but it's not nearly as much fun opening a plastic bag and adding a pint of vegetable oil as it is to measure stuff out and make a total disaster of my kitchen.

After mixing all of the ingredients for the brownies and getting the glass dish into the oven, I am overcome with the need to have a blueberry oat muffin.  This means I need to hand-wash and hand-dry all of the containers and mixing supplies.  By the time the brownies are ready (about thirty-five minutes), the muffins are prepped to go into the oven for about twenty-five minutes.

Right now the house smells fabulous, and it's still cool enough to keep the oven going.

I am about to put the rolled oats away when I realize that I haven't made oat-granola-chocolate chip bars in a long time.  I need to put some of the ingredients into a plastic bag (granola, walnuts, cashews) and beat them senseless until they are pulverized enough to mix in smoothly.  Peanut butter (both crunchy and creamy) and some honey bind everything together, then I add enough mini-chips to make the bars more chocolate than oat, which, to me, is no big deal.

A few hours later, the kitchen is back in order, the brownies have been cut into squares and wrapped up, the muffins have cooled (except for the one I scarfed down hot out of the oven), and the oat-granola-chocolate chip block is freezing in preparation of being cut into individual bars.  The house is still chilled with the afternoon air, and I feel slightly guilty that I didn't spend the day doing more sorting and cleaning (which I might do this evening, if I am so inclined).

I look at the bounty of deliciousness I've created today, though, and decide the day hasn't totally gone to Hell since there are several slices (and paper muffin cups and bars) of Heaven on my counters and table.