Party Hardy, my friends. And eat lots.

We got over a foot of nastiness dumped on us over the last few days. Gross. I couldn't make it out of my parking stall for the damned wind drifted snow, and the roads were about as big of a mess as I've ever seen them. And its not like we had reason to stay home, with everyone semi healthy to mostly healthy.

( Semi to mostly is all I ask for these days, LOL )

I baked a loaf of onion dill bread. oh... onion dill bread, how I love thee. The base was ( again ) Arie's sour cream potato bread. MMMMMM. Actually, it was horrible and i refuse to admit that I ate nearly half the loaf slathered in butter, straight from the oven.

Then I baked these graham blondies. Delicious! Folks, you must make these! oooey... Gooey. YUMMY. And mine. No, I didn't share with the children. I did share with Shannon, my " wife ". She's got two kids - one Mila's age, and one Shayla's age. It makes for lovely playdates!

Shannon's daughter had a party for her birthday yesterday and I braved the snowstorm to go out. WTF was I thinking? First Alex had to 4x4 the car out of the parking spot. ( Gee, that was lovely. The smirk on my husband's face as he EASILY got the car out of the snowdrift from hell that used to be our parking spot.... I won't share blondies with him. Ever. ) Her hubby took some pictures of the kidlets.. .and so, I share them with you.

In the oven...

Out of the pan and into the fire. We're all sick. Again. Still.

I have some sort of viral walking pnuemonia complete with coughing fits. As the doctor put it : the more I cough, the more inflamed my airways become. The more inflamed my airways become, the more I will cough. He prescribed codeine.

( The side effect of which, I'm told, is that the baby will be sleepy. YAY sleepy baby PLEASE be kind to sick Mommy. )

I've been experimenting, and DAMN have there been good results :

Cheddar Salsa Bread ( from potato bread base ) 9 / 10 - if I had simply let it cook a big longer and cool QUITE a bit longer, I think it might have earned a 10. Alex ate it plain. So did most of my friends.

Beef piroshki ( Arie's recipe ) 9 / 10 - Again, i must let things bake longer.

Chicken Piroshki 10 / 10 They were horrible, and i refused to share them with anyone in case they were posioned. ( read : I ate every single last one )

"Best Recipe " Chocolate Chip Cookies 6/10 Too much brown sugar. Too sweet.

" Tollhouse " CC cookies 8/10 Needed more salt, and maybe a minute LESS in oven. Ooops.

Peanut Butter Cookies 5/10 Not peanutty enough. Not chewy, had an odd cakey flavour.

Challah 8/10 Texture was spot on. Flavour was spot on. Until i burnt it... Oops!

Potato Onion Loaves 9/10 Might mash the filling next time. Tasted fab, but fell out of the bun when I was eating it.

Carrot Cake Muffins with Whipped Cream Cheese Icing 9/10... the only downfall? I shoulda chopped the carrots smaller!

I also made Oatmeal muffins, not from scratch.... and they were damned good. But next time, I will make them from scratch!