Cooking up a storm!

My oh my, have I had a productive weekend...in the kitchen.

On Friday I made granola bars! No real recipe, but the ingredients were as follows:
Butter
Oatmeal
Brown sugar
Honey
Cinnamon
Raisins
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Dried cranberries
Dried apricots (chopped)

They came out wonderfully! Our Battlestar Galactica group tried them when they came over and loved them (I didn't find this out until Saturday because I was asleep at the time).

On Saturday I made these squares from Chef at Home. They required 2 pounds of chocolate, 3 cups of peanut butter, a pound of cream cheese, and 4 cups of peanuts. I have to say that they would have turned out better if Chef Michael Smith had specified the SIZE OF PAN REQUIRED instead of just saying "a large baking pan" (he is ALWAYS ChefMichaelSmith to us and not Michael Smith, just to be clear. In fact, it only just occurred to me that his name is Michael Smith. Huh.). See, to me a "large baking pan" is, you know, a 9x13" pan. That's the largest baking pan I've ever used besides cookie sheets, and he definitely didn't mean those! But apparently there exists somewhere some kind of super-massive baking pan that dwarfs my 9x13" one, because what should have been a layer of peanuts-and-brownie 3/4" thick (or thereabouts) ended up being a layer about 2 inches thick instead. Oops!

I have to say, though, apart from that minor issue the squares were excellent. The top two layers were the best, and I plan to use them on top of either my own brownie recipe or cheesecake next time I make them...which won't be for months because I would like to not weigh a million pounds or have a heart attack any time soon.

Today I baked muffins for breakfast -blueberry muffins. They turned out spectacularly well, and you know what the secret was? I had no milk and therefore used whipping cream instead (it was the only liquid dairy I had in the house!). MAN, where they ever good!

And then for lunch I baked this...which was absolutely spectacular. I have no notes, ChefMichaelSmith, no notes at all. Bravo. Papa Bear liked it so much that he's already talking about making it with other things...like ham and cheddar (yum!). Also not something to eat daily, but then again...the entire dish only had 2 eggs and 1 cup of grated cheese...that ain't bad at all!

So...yeah...a culinary weekend to say the least! I still haven't finished all the dishes. That, sadly, is my job tomorrow. But you know what? it was totally worth it.