the baking machine.

Goodness – I was a cooking machine today.

I mean, every day I’m sort of a food-producing/preparing/cleaning/serving kind of machine anyway.  It’s the price you pay for living with seven other humans – six of whom call you “momma” and assume a portion of your life is fashioned to be the Food Prep Guru.

But today – today I felt like baking.

I just went crazy.

I clicked on all those pinterest tags I’ve been saving and went to town.

(Not literally.  Well – kind of.  I did have to go to town first in order to purchase supplies.  But once I returned home that’s when I really went to town.)

I started with oatmeal bread first.

Making it only reminded me of how much I want a Kitchen Aid/Bosch type kitchen tool.  Especially when the recipe said, “Let your Kitchen Aid knead the dough for six minutes.”  But no Kitchen Aid here.  You know who was kneading that bread for six minutes?  This machine!

While I kneaded all that dough, London whipped up homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Cooking on the stove for dinner was from-scratch potato soup.

In the crock pot I was slowly baking some amazing smelling cinnamon almonds.

I had high hopes for these, my friends – high hopes – as I have been happily forking over big bucks once in a blue moon at any carnival or street fair that would sell these crunchy bits of delectability in a waxy cone-shaped paper.

(And by “big bucks” I mean a good $4.50 or $5 you know?  And by “carnival” or “street fair” I mean the Hendersonville Apple Festival and by “any” I mean the festival we attended there last month.)

Whilst the almonds were simmering slowly and releasing their tempting aroma, I was attempting to discover the perfect granola bar.

I’m on at least my fifth attempt at finding the perfect granola bar recipe.

I might have a winner this time.

These granola bars are good – very good.

The blog were I found the recipe described these as good as the Quaker ones which I know are filled with high fructose corn syrup.  These are definitely as good – well, better.

But wrapped in parchment paper and ooey gooey with the too many chocolate chips I put on the top, they will never be as convenient as the Quaker ones.

I will experiment some more, however, with placing the chips on later so they won’t melt as much and I plan to even play with the toppings.  I definitely think I’ve found the perfect granola bar base in this recipe.

I think that’s it.

No – wait – for dessert with our friends we baked Needletips – a Keigley classic.

Phew.

I was a machine – wasn’t I?