Spring Déjà Vu & Nest Fodder Status

My husband bought me some really pretty tulips the other night. I'm not sure if it was a mistake or a bonus, but there's a pretty pink flower among the orange ones! So pretty! Especially on these cold and raw days.

April means fundraising time and last year I blogged about making Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cheese Bars for the antique appraisal day that our Friends of the Library was hosting. I was really annoyed at the thought of baking something that would dirty lots of bowls last night but recalled that these bars were pretty easy and had gone over well. I pulled up my post and what do you know?! - A few slight recipe modifications and I was in business and having a major case of déjà vu!

Now onto the most important news: my yarn suet-feeder nest maker thingy!! (I seriously need to come up with a name for this - any ideas??) I've been watching the holder closely over the last two weeks and am sad to say there hasn't been any notable activity. It's still early though! We have just begun Spring and there are many nests to be made!!

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Since the cranberry bars were such a hit, I decided to try another recipe from Ocean Spray (I really am addicted to Crasins). I typically don't care much for cookies that have white chocolate, but I decided to try the Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I read all the reviews before I began and was surprised how many people either loved or hated them - there were hardly any luke-warm comments. Some people said that it was missing something so I added 1 tsp. of pure vanilla flavoring. One reviewer questioned if the brown sugar should be packed. Yes! Brown sugar should always be packed unless stated in the recipe. The mix wasn't dry and after a quick chill in the refrigerator, it was very easy to work with.

I used a cookie scoop but it was larger than the suggested heaping teaspoon. Mine were tablespoon size which I think is much better - I like a cookie that you can really sink your teeth into!

As you can see, they don't really spread very much. The result, however, was a very soft and chewy cookie that tasted AWESOME! Bill approved and demanded seconds but then I wrapped the rest up to take to work with me.

The response to these cookies was great. They disappeared within an hour (many people going back for two or three) and someone even suggested that I bring them in every Monday from now on.

So, I would say this recipe is definitely a keeper. I would highly recommend adding the teaspoon of vanilla - it was delicious and had a very tasty flavor. The Crasins and white chocolate combo worked really well and the oatmeal made it nice and chewy. Ignore all the negative reviews and go ahead and make these cookies!

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cheese Bars & Antiques

Saturday the Friends of Richards Memorial Library held our first Appraisal Day fundraiser. I had to find something quick and easy to bake up late Friday night. I'd been craving Cranberries, so I went to Ocean Spray's website and tried their Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cheese Bars. The dry ingredients mixed together well but I did put the whole thing in the fridge to cool while the oven was warming up. I find it best to do this if the butter starts making the crumble texture turn to mush. (You can also catch a bit of my cherry apron in the background. It was my fist sewing project!) Next I mixed the wet ingredients together while the bottom crust was baking in the oven. You pour this over the hot crust and then spread the reserved crumble on top of the whole thing and put back in the oven. The result is a very heavy pan!

I taste tested the next moring and was slightly disappointed that there was so much in them. I think maybe 1/2 a bag of choco chips would have been enough, or maybe it would have been better to have a larger cheese layer since it came out so thin. I wasn't thrilled and my husband didn't come back begging for seconds, but I put them on a platter and brought them anyway! Come on, you would have too. They were still pretty good!

Well, whatever reservations I had about bringing them disappeared when I saw people gobbling them up. There were several baked goods and these were gone within an hour! Fortunately we didn't run out of cookies/bars/bread - we had just enough!

Appraisal Day was our new idea for a spring fundraiser. An appraisal house in Boston (Skinner Inc - you may have seen them on Antiques Road Show) sent two appraisers for five hours. We sold out after 2 1/2 hours, so it was a very sucessful event. I saw SO many interesting items! There was a gumball machiene that looked and worked like a slot machiene, a ladder that collapsed into one long beam, and my favorite - a stunning crystal bowl that looked like it had sunflowers all around it. One woman had Barbie and Ken dolls from 1962 in their original boxes with the little booklets in the original plastic. They had never even been taken out of the boxes. Apparently Ken isn't worth that much but Barbie was worth quite a bit.

My mom got this Native American knife from her father. The appraiser told us it was used for skinning buffalo and is fairly rare. It's not worth the $20K I was hoping it would be, but it's still a very neat item to have.