Summer stuff and Coyotes

Family and friends have been requesting these desert bars, so I made up a batch and shared them around the neighborhood. They have been a family favorite for years, and they taste a lot like a "Payday" candybar.

Salty Peanut Chews
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
2 egg yolks
1/2 C. butter
3 C. mini- marshmellows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks into butter. Add egg mixture into flour until crumbly. Press into ungreased 9x13 pan. Bake for 13 minutes. Top with marshmallow and put back in oven until marshmallows puff, not brown. Cool while preparing topping.
Topping: 2/3 C. white Karo Syrup, 1/4 C. butter, 12 oz. bag peanut butter chips, 2 C. Rice Krispies Cereal, 2 C. salted peanuts.
Heat the Karo syrup, butter and peanut butter chips until smooth; stirring constantly. Remove and stir in cereal and salted peanuts. Immediately spread over marshmallows. Cut into bars.

A BIG thank you to Huenu Smith for helping me create my header for my blog. I hope you like these bars, Huenu. You can find originally designed children's clothing on Huenu's site (see my side bar). A multi-talented lady who is brilliant with a camera, and has 2 beautiful children who serve as her models.



Yesterday when Ricci and I were at "Cloves" I found this cute pop-up birthday card. It's not my birthday, and I didn't buy it for anyone in particular, I just liked it! I may even keep it up year round in my laundry room. Notice the wash on the line is missing two letters. The "A" and the "Y" are spinning around in the washer. How cute is that?


Last night I asked my 16 year old son to take the garbage out to the curb. OK- he's 16 years old, so I wasn't too surprized he waited until about 11:30 pm to get it done. I'm in my pajama's by then and he came running back in the house and said "Mom, you've got to come outside!" In his hand he is carrying this huge lantern we keep in our garage. It has a 15 million candlepower and can bring light to items at a very long distance. Out I trapsed, hoping nobody could see me in my nighty and bare feet.



I have been raised in cities all my life. This is my first experience to live in a desert. Our home is in a neighborhood, but behind our backyard is the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, where 62,000 acres have been dedicated to the protection of the Mojave Desert Tortoise. Since we have lived here, I have yet to see a tortoise, but I sure have been exposed to many other desert critters. For some reason they like to think of our pool as a water source. Last night was no exception. As my son and I headed out back, I heard this wild, deep throat type barking. I may be a city kid, but I knew this wasn't a stray dog. My son shone the lantern up on the mountain and there we saw at crest's edge a coyote. This is the same mountain we hike all the time. My son even likes to go out at night. The only thing that made me feel better was the explaination that coyotes do not attack people. They do like to feed off of chipmunks, lizards and other small desert life. OK, maybe I'm going to try and be a little more tolerant if the coyotes want to hang around the perimeters of my house.
After all, I have gotten used to the 2 bats that show up every night at sunset and dive bomb our swimming pool. My son has named them "Bruce and Wayne", and they do keep the bugs down.


The other day one of my next door neighbors informed me we had a Gila Monster walk through our yard, and on through to her yard. I didn't see it, but she took a picture. Maybe there are some things it's just better not to know about!