The Sweetest Thing

Post-vacation reality set in with a vengeance today. Thursdays are my toughest day of the week to begin with, but when you add in the work that doesn't get done when self-employed people are out of town, well, suffice to say it is taking some juggling to keep all of my clients happy right now while I trudge through a mountain of paperwork. I finally made it to the bottom of a week's worth of mail today and found an invitation for an event tonight that I would have loved to attend if it weren't for bad timing. This started the day off on a bad note to begin with.

Too much work piled up, coupled with saying goodbye to my father (we have been known to go as long as three years between visits), made for a sulky Sarah. This afternoon, when I started growling with frustration on the phone, Mom suggested I go home and have a good cry. She must have mistaken me for one of her other daughters, because I don't have time to cry.

I comforted myself by working my butt off to knock my to-do list items down, and then I spent time going through the photos I took last week. The one above, with Odd Toddler kissing his cousing Emily, was so sweet as to make me roll my eyes until the former English major in me started to make connections. Kissing is to sweet as sweet is to...dessert. Aha!

Before I got sick, and then left town, I had purchased the ingredients to make Seven-Layer Cookie Bars from a recipe I cut out of the AJC Food Section recently. Tonight, since we had salad with leftover Blackberry Vinaigrette (which was even better on the second day), Lenny's Lasagna with San Marzano tomato sauce, and baguettes with an olive oil and herb dipping sauce, I was freed up from cooking duty. Leftover night is necessary since Thursdays are so hectic, but it is the act of whipping something up in the kitchen that relaxes me on a nightly basis. I found the remedy for all my ills in this little square of newsprint.

SEVEN-LAYER COOKIE BARS

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I got out most of my frustrations by pounding a package of graham crackers until they bled)
• 12-oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 12-oz package of milk chocolate chips
• 12-oz package of butterscotch chips
• 1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 (14-oz) cans sweetened condensed milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
3. Melt butter and pour into baking pan.
4. Sprinkle crumbs evenly on butter and pat them down to even out.
5. Sprinkle semisweet, milk chocolate and butterscotch chips evenly over crumbs.
6. Sprinkle with coconut, then with nuts.
7. Pour milk over layers.
8. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until mixture bubbles and browns on top.
9. Let cool.

In my painful lack of patience, I skipped the last step and ate a piece with a spoon. It was worth it. Now if the rest of the batch would just harden up...