I am not one of the unlucky who stress about the holidays. Christmas is fun for me. I usually start out with grand plans then they dwindle and we do something a little less dramatic.
This year Big Brother is leaving on Christmas Day. In fact, I think he's on the same flight my sister and her family arrive to visit us, the turn-around plane thing airports do. So he'll get to see his cousins for exactly 5 minutes until he boards and goes back to where they live. He's excited about this trip but I am not. At least they got a few extra days off for the break since they didn't have to use any hurricane days in the school calendar. Planning them in seems to be almost enough to keep those guys away.
I had all these plans today to bake and deliver cookies to the neighbors and all that great stuff today then I realized there's still another weekend before Christmas. Yes, I just publicly announced what a ding-a-ling I really am. So I'm totally relaxed about Christmas, I have a whole week I found! We live on one of those blocks where everyone bakes for each other, it's a friendly group, and this year we are making Joy of Cooking's Butterscotch Brownies.
Here's the recipe:
preheat the oven to 350, grease a 9x9 pan
melt in a saucepan:
1/4c butter
stir in until dissolved:
1c brown sugar
cool these ingredients then add:
1 egg
1t vanilla
sift then measure:
1/2 c all purpose flour
1t double acting baking powder
1/2t salt
stir these into the butter/sugar mixture
I never do but you can add
1/2 to 1c chopped nuts
or 3/4 c grated coconut
I like them just plain
*whoops, you do bake these for 20-25 minutes, the oven's not on for just fun!
I am including the recipe here because my Joy is the old, unhealthy version. Somehow miraculously spared from the floodwaters. It is dirty and crumbly and marked with sticky notes and scraps of paper, little pencilled in instructions in the margins, all that. The pages I use most open up on their own, which makes me happy.
I have finished two of the four headbands I wanted to make. PeeWee has decided there's no knitting time allowed while she is anywhere in range. These are a super quick knit so I am not too worried about getting them wrapped up by Tuesday.
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