TOFFEE BLONDIES

Piper told me her favorite goodie were these toffee blondies. So I tried these the other night. She of course was right, they are very, very good.

Here is the Recipe. I hope you don't mind if I share it, Piper?

8 T. Butter melted

1C. light brown sugar

2 lg eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 salt

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1 c. toffee candy bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. line bottom and sides of a 8 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving a 2 inch overhang on two sides. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla and salt. With mixer on low speed add flour and beat just until combined. Fold in toffee bits by hand.

Using a rubber spatula, spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven; cool completely in pan on a wire rack.

Using foil overhang, lift cake from pan. Peel off foil and discard With a serrated knife, cut into 16 squares ( 4 rows by 4 rows).

YUMMY YUMMY!!!!!

I made the best bagels last night. I used Sir Lancelot flour from King Arthurs Flour products. It is a very high gluten flour. I used the recipe on the back of flour bag and they turned out chewy and delicous. The last time I made bagels the recipe took 2 days. This recipe took 3 hours. It was sooooo much easier and sooooo much tastier.

Older Post

Don't forget to check the older post. I have posted alot of pictures.

THE TALE OF TWO "GRANDPAS"

First let me explain the title. I was introduced as Grandma Susan and Ezra said it fairly well , but I think it was easier to say Grandpa so we were both Grandpa. Which was okay. We had a truly wonderful time. The weather was beautiful. We arrived at Ben and Pipers friday at about 6:00p.m. The fun of playing with the Grand kids started almost at once. Ezra is pretty free with his luvs and hugs but Wyatt is a little unsure. Although I must say he went to this "Grandpa" right away. It was great to watch Wyatt walk all over the place. And Ezra is starting to be a great talker. He called me the other night on the phone. It was great. I do miss the boys very much. I miss Piper and Ben too. But they so say they will be home for New Years. That will be great.

The first morning was warm and breezy . We a very delicious breakfast ,then we decided to drive to Devils Tower. What a beautiful and unique creation of our Heavenly Father. We walked all around it. It is 1.3 miles around. Going in November seem liked a perfect time to be there. It was not crowded.

Piper decided to climb on rocks and Wyatt really not wanting mommy to do that. So Ben took the back pack and we met Piper at the end of the rocks.

That night after the children went to bed we played some board games. One of the games was monopoly. I really never liked the game because I never really understood it. I sat back and sort of what everybody else was doing relized all my old thoughts were wrong. So I played like everybody else and wiped them out! It was kind of fun.

Just random pictures of my boys

The second morning we headed for the blackhills of South Dakota. We all went but Piper. Her Grandfather had died that week and she need to prepare for her trip to Denver where he will be buried. On our way to Mt. Rushmore we passed by a Christmas store. And of course I had to stop. It had 1000's and 1000's of ornaments. It was great.

To get to Mt. Rushmore you must first drive through a little village much like our Leavenworth. This little village is called Keystone. Only it is more turn of century. It was very windy the day we went up to Mt. Rushmore. But it was warm. It is amazing the reverant feeling you get when you walk to see this beautiful monument. It is just amazing.

Mt. Rushmore has a truely informative museam. It explains the season why the artist chose his subjucts and why he chose the spot of granite. It also shows in great detail how the granite was carved. It was very hard to imagine how someonegot those beautiful figures out of rock. it was truly amazing.

Our third morning the weather had turned cold. We had a few snowflakes. We decided to stick around the apartment and relax and play with the boys. Eric and I went to Wal-mart and bought stuff for the trip home and ingredients to make lemon bars for dessert for dinner that night.

Just some more pictures of my favorite boys.

Wyatt decided he wanted to wear my vest. It was a little long and he did keep falling but that didn't really stop him. Is he just not the cutest!!!!

Eric and I had such a great time just watching the kids play. We needed this vacation very badly. The last time Eric and I took some time off together was when Jake was in Iraq and Amy was moving into a rental house in Utah. That was a long time ago.

Our last day there Eric and Ben went to see one of the many coal mines in Wyoming. This summer on the news we were constantly reminded how dangerous coal mines are. The coal mines of Wyoming are above ground. Men do not have to endanger themselves. They are done with a lot of conveyer belts. Very interesting.

Our last night Wyatt finally warmed up to Eric. Wyatt is quite the lovey dovey little boy but is a little stand offish to men, except of course his dad. He loves his dad. But the last night he finally gave Eric a good night hug. It made Eric whole trip I think.

We stopped at Three Forks ,Montana at our last stop on our way home. We bought lunch and a fifty pound bag of natural white flour there. They make great sandwiches and desserts. They also make about 10,ooo loaves of bread for stores a day. You can buy bags of wheat there also. I have been buying there wheat products for about 4 years now. Did not know about the bakery till this trip. Quite cool.

HEADING TO WYOMING

Eric and I are heading to Wyoming to visit Ben, Piper and the boys. We are leaving friday morning and will be back Tuesday. We are very excited to be going. We will be taking lots of pictures. We haven't had a vacation in I don't know how long. This is going to be great. I just wish Piper wasn't going through so much stress right now. We all love her very much and our prayers are with her and her family.

Just another view to prove it can be done.

CLEAN GARAGE!!!!??????

Eric wanted me to show you that he has worked very hard on cleaning our garage this fall. And we could park a car in it if we wanted to.

GOOD HARVEST

It was a good harvest season this year. It was good to go to green bluff to get fruit to can and to pick our pears that we grew ourselves. It was a great grape harvest. We got lots of juice this year. We get an increase every year.

We finally had some really frosty days and were able to pick our grapes. It was about 19 degrees saturday. A perfect day for grapes. As you can see we had a great harvest. The vines were loaded. We got 30 quarts of juice from them.

We were able to pick 80 to 100 pounds of grapes off of our vines this year.

BIRTHDAY PRESENT

Uncle Jerry gave me a dollar for every year I have been a live. That of course would be 55. I decided to buy a beautiful cast iron dutch oven made by lodge. We have already used it twice. It is very heavy and great to use. Thank Uncle Jerry.

The New Dining Room

The new dining room look. We havn't stained the table yet. The weather is a little to cold right now for that. I will probably put it off till the spring. I love the sleek look of new chairs and the smaller table.

My new chairs. I love my chairs.They go with look of the kitchen well.

Ben, you were concerned about the wall to the left. All the screws and tapeing that had to be done. Well.......