book club 27 - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

 2022-27

 

book club 26 - Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom

 2022-26

 

oatmeal raisin bars

 I am at a point lately where I am so mentally and physically exhausted that even making cookies seems like too much work, so I've been looking for bar recipes instead.  Just chuck it all in the oven at once and be done with it.

I decided to try to find an oatmeal raisin bar because I had some raisins and craisins to use up, and it had been a while since I'd made oatmeal raisin.  I soon realized WHY it had been a while when both kids started complaining about me using raisins and could I not swap them out for....oh, I don't know....maybe CHOCOLATE instead???

No.  No I could not.  

 

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart and these were so, so good.  Soft and chewy and comforting and delicious.  And ignored by most of my family, those weirdos.  I found these are best eaten within a few days as even in an airtight container they dry out quickly.

I am hyping myself up to make actual cookies today - I'm still a few hours away from it actually happening, so there's still time for me to wimp out but we'll see.

Happy Sunday.

book club 25 - The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

 2022-25

 

a bunch of stuff we've eaten

 

I may or may not have recently had a birthday, and got some BEAUTIFUL flowers from my BFF.

I made Hambāgu but only followed the recipe loosely - used pork, didn't measure anything, no wine, lots more broth - and it was delicious.

We did not bad using up the zucchini from the garden.  We air fried these zucchini sticks - of course air fried is never as good as FRIED, but they were good.

 Also made some VERY delicious zucchini muffins that disappeared quite quickly. 

AND this very good loaf pan zucchini lasagne (although in our opinion, this is best fresh, not as leftovers)

We also made KFC Fried Chicken Rice but The Boy ate so much of the chicken that we really didn't have enough leftover for the recipe but we made it work.  So good.

I tried cooking a whole chicken in our air fryer and it was game changing - truly.  If you've been around a while you might know that I hate cooking "whole" things like chickens, turkeys and roasts because I'm afraid I will over or worse - under-cook them and ruin everything.  Cooking the chicken in the air fryer somehow made the process seem easier and it was a damn good chicken too.

We managed - barely - to get through all the peaches we bought, and we made 2 peach desserts - peach melba tart and peach crisp.

 

Best dessert lately was definitely these chocolate chip cookie bars.  Delicious!