Mt. Hood from the local lookout

by Steve, November 29th, 2010

A nice crisp morning in the valley today.

Psychedelic birthday bars

by Steve, November 24th, 2010

You don’t need to be in any particular state of mind to enjoy this variation on the classic dream bar (chocolate chip oatmeal coconut cookie bars).

I only had about a third of the oats I needed to make the classic, so I subbed what I had on hand: multi-grain oat bran breakfast cereal flakes.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 1/12 cups multi-grain oat bran flakes, or some other hearty flake cereal (crushed if you are hand mixing, whole if using a strong mixer)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup shredded coconut

Method:

Cream butter, sugars, and vanilla. Mix in eggs. Mix flour, oats, cereal, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl, then gradually mix into wet ingredients. Stir in chocolate and coconut, reserving a small amount of coconut for topping. Spread dough into a lightly greased 9×13 baking pan. Sprinkle remaining coconut on top. Bake 30-35 minutes. Coconut on top will be golden brown when done.

Boo!

by Steve, November 8th, 2010


A little behind here, but here’s what the front door of Chez Wacky looked on Halloween. Before all the lights were up and pumpkins carved, little Miss Missy intimated that it was kind of a half-cussed attempt at decor. When all was said and done, I think she agreed it was a worthy effort.