Normally, I am not much of a cooker, but the lazy, blissful boredom of summer has lead me to try new things. Usually, I can't be convinced to spend more than ten minutes making dinner. I just don't see the point when you're cooking for one. The leftovers are far too many and the clean-up (especially during the school year) takes way too much time away from my much needed relaxation. Yesterday, however, I decided to break the mold. I have a recently acquired obsession with Food Gawker. I have legitimately spent hours this summer flagging recipes that I plan on trying "one day". So, over the weekend, I stumbled upon this gem: Pretzel Chicken with Mustard-Cheese Sauce. It was a lot of effort to make (aka, I had to get out the food processor), but my taste buds sang a hallelujah chorus at first bite. I am even excited to eat leftovers tonight (and I hate leftovers). The mustard-cheese sauce was off-the-chain good. It tasted like cheese fondue. I wanted to dip my spoon in and devour it right out of the sauce pan (which I may have done a couple times...guilty). The pretzel crust idea...genius! It had the perfect amount of crunch, and despite the food processing it was pretty easy to make.
Today, I wanted to keep the Susie Home-Maker persona going. I have been hoarding baking supplies for quite some time now, so I decided it was time to clean out the pantry. Triple Threat Cookie Bars were just the thing to accomplish this. This was a very in-depth recipe and I managed to turn it in to quite a mess, but it took up my free afternoon (which was exactly what I wanted). Now, I am not sure why I thought making a tray of the most fattening (I used Splenda to counteract the one and half cups of butter...that makes it okay, right?), thick cookies bar I could find online was a good idea when I am the only one will be passing through my front door this evening, but i did. Mine even turned out more like mini cakes than cookie bars (probably because I made them in a too-small dish), and they fell apart a little (a lot). But, boy, do they taste good. They are extremely rich and I will probably only be able to eat one bite, but that one bite will be delicious. So, if the next time you see me I am 50 pounds heavier, at least you'll know why...
