Wednesday, January 14, 2009

8th Anniversary

Yesterday should have been my 8th wedding anniversary. My mom asked me last week what I was going to do for my upcoming anniversary and honestly I thought she had lost her mind. (Sorry, Mom.) When your husband isn't around to celebrate it with you, what exactly are you supposed to do? But she thought I ought to do something so I grabbed New Friend Becky (Remember her? She's around my age and her husband died from cancer 2 months ago. We're now kindred spirits, or peas in a pod, or whatever you want to refer to our commonalities as...) and we went out for pedicures and Hideaway Pizza. She recently posted the following recipe on her blog (I think it originally came from Paula Dean). We both agreed it would cap off my "girls only" anniversary to make a pan of it. This is the result:




I don't know what you think about the picture, but they're even better than they look. So I had to cut and paste the recipe for you all. (Thanks Becky!)

Chocolate Chip Turtle Bars

1 (16.5 oz) roll refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 c butterscotch morsels
1 c chopped pecans
1/2 c butter
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 (12.25 oz) jar caramel ice-cream topping
1 c quick oats
1 c semisweet chocolate chips
(I also added some milk chocolate chips with the semisweet)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 13x9 pan with aluminum foil, letting edges of foil hang over sides of pan. Spray foil with nonstick spray. Press cookie dough evenly into bottom of prepared pan, completely covering foil. Sprinkle evenly with butterscotch chips and pecans. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Stir in brown sugar and caramel. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in oats. Pour butter mixtures evenly over pecans. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until edges are golden brown; cool completely. Cut into bars and enjoy!
I didn't do the foil thing, just greased an aluminum pan. I used an 8 x 12, so I had to bake it a little longer, about 35 minutes. My mom says they're not worth the guilt, but I assure you that my sister and I are about half way through the pan and we have felt absolutely no guilt.
When I got home from my outing with Becky there was a beautiful flower delivery waiting for me. I don't know who sent them, but thank you! That was incredibly sweet of you.

8 comments:

Becky said...

Thank you so much lady for the fun time yesterday. I don't know if you cried last night but I did for you! I know without a doubt that we were intended to travel this road together. Glad you enjoyed the turtle bars, to die for huh?

Brooke said...

They look delicious and VERY nutritious! Yeah right. But I think I may have to splurge and try it. Glad you did something fun.

Erin said...

I'm glad you went out too, but am more grateful that you and Becky found each other.

momoffive said...

Brenda I am so glad I found your blog thru Sami. I love to see you and the pics of your adorable boys. We miss you! I have to tell you do you remember when we went to dinner with you and Matt and before we went we stopped by Old Navy and Matt helped Daryl pick out a couple of shirts( Daryl needed a little help and Matt had a good sense for fashion) So the other day Daryl came down the stairs ready to go out with his brother in a shirt that he still had from when we got married 15 yrs ago(you can imagine quite scarry) I looked at him and said Matt would not approve you need to go change! We both had a good laugh and since then sent the shirt to DI. I hope you are doing well. We think of you and the fun times we had with you and Matt (although they were short) and are very grateful for your friendship.
Love Jonna Wilhelm

Anonymous said...

Bars like that could only come from Paula Dean. Her bread pudding is made from 2 dozen Krispy Kremes and a can of condensed milk (among other heart-stopping things).

I'm glad you had a nice day.

Danell said...

Glad you had a great day Brenda! Looks like yummy recipe- can't wait to try it out and ruin all my hopes for losing baby weight. :)

Mel Newton said...

those look dilish! I wish I had some already made. You blackberry blog was awesome I have wasted/spent around 4hours of my evening trying to figure out how to download music to Joels phone for him, after all the installing and converting still no luck, I quit, I told him to use the ipod

Lorri said...

Sounds like a fun evening. Gonna try that recipe! Thanks for sharing.