Sarah's Clogging Performance

Sarah's clogging class did the cutest performance.  It was such a fun night.  Rob had the boys at a father and son campout, leaving us girls to have a girl's night out.  We started out the evening with her darling clogging performance, complete with yummy treats.  We picked up a movie and chinese food on the way home, and had a great time together.

Sarah's the anxious one in the back that's ahead of all the other girls.

Sarah with her cute cousin Ashley. 

Sarah and her friend Emma.

Sarah and Ashley having fun after pictures.  Sarah has loved being in clogging with her cousin and  friends!

1st Driving Lesson

I'm so far behind that I don't know where to start.  So I guess I'll start here.

When mowing lawn season arrived, Rob was happy to give Nathan his first driving lesson, and Nathan was more than excited to learn.  I think Rob is anxious to pass the lawn mowing responsibilities on to his son.  I just think these pictures are cute.  I can just imagine the questions Nathan is asking.

Unfortunately, Nathan can't reach the brake yet.  Darn!  Both guys were disappointed about that. A few inches, and our boy will be earning his keep. 

We've always mulched, but it's not working so well for us this year.  Pretty soon we're going to have to bale our clippings.  I guess it's time to get a bag attachment.  But then, what to do with the clippings.  An acre's worth of clippings is a lot!  My garden can only hold so much.  I guess we really need that cow we're planning to get someday!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Bars

First of all, I don't usually post recipes because I am the worst at following them.  I get it from my mom- she calls it the "Football Rules of cooking- unlimited substitutions."  My mom probably gets it from her mom.  I have recipes from my grandma that actually call for a glug of milk, or a glug of oil. I look at recipes more as suggestions or guidelines, then do my own thing.  Sometimes things turn out really good, and sometimes... not so good.  Rob likes the way I cook, so I guess that's good enough.  My kids don't want to eat half of what I cook anyway.  I discovered allrecipes.com and found that there are a lot of cooks out there like me.  It makes me laugh when I read the comments, and someone says they didn't like the recipe that much, and that they substituted rice vinegar for apple cider vinegar and left out the ginger or doubled all the spices...  BTW, I do follow baking and canning recipes.

Anyway, my sister-in-law made these yummy bars earlier this year, and passed the recipe along.  I made them for Sarah's clogging performance, and they were a big hit.  So Ashlee, here's the recipe!

2 cups of your favoirte chocolate chip cookie recipe (or 1 tube refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough)
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg

Divide cookie dough in half.  For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 8 X 8 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth.  Spread over crust.
Crumble remaining dough over top.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  Refrigerate leftovers.

I normally would use low-fat cream cheese, but I had some regular that I'd gotten on a really good sale, and was waiting to use it when I wouldn't be the one eating it (mean aren't I?!).  I doubled the recipe, and cooked it in a 9 X 13 pan.  I got worried that  the cookie dough on top was getting too well done, so I took them out a little early.  I was in a hurry to get to the performance, and didn't have time to let them cool all the way.  The cream cheese in the center bars was runny, so I just took the bars on the edges.  I thought I'd totally botched the whole thing, but they turned out really good.  When I got home, the center bars had set up nicely when they cooled.  They were yummy, but oh, so naughty.  So I wouldn't eat them all, I put them on a plate and gave what was left to neighbors.  So try these, when you have lots of people to eat them!

Here's the recipe I like for Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c butter flavored shortening (or 1/2 c shortening and 1/2 c butter)
3 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t salt
1 t soda
3 cups flour
1 bag chocolate chips

Cream together sugars, and shortening.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Add dry ingredients then chocolate chips.  Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.