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Scones and Rice Krispie Treats

I've recently decided that in a household of 4, plus two cats, it's rather likely that two or more of us will be grouchy at any given moment. This was a week of grouchiness, including several episodes with Olivia's crazy cat.

But on the weekend I managed to get into the kitchen. Since we were headed to two parties in Columbus, one of which was a potluck for ESL learners at the Worthington Library, I decided to pull out my new Vij's at Home cookbook.

(When we were in Vancouver I had a great French lunch with my friend and colleague Evelyn, and our UBC hosts took us to an amazing Chinese restaurant, called Lin's, I think. But after that our timing got all messed up and it became clear that we were not going to manage to go to any more restaurants. So when we were gathering picnic food at the indoor market, I made sure to buy one of the cookbooks from Vij's, which they say is the best Indian restaurant in Vancouver. The cookbook is fantastic, and I've tried 5 or 6 recipes from it already.)



So I made "Curried Devilled Eggs" for the primarily Asian crowd at the library -- folks from India, South Korea, Japan, and Iran. The eggs were a hit (with anyone who wasn't vegan...).

I also made a big tray of my grandmother's Rice Krispie Treats. These are totally 1970s, made with Karo syrup, but with the important addition of peanut butter AND an entire bag each of semi-sweet chocolate chips and butterscotch morsels. Feel-good cookies like nobody's business. I've never been able to eat normal Rice Krispie Treats, because these have a thick layer of chocolate/butterscotch goodness smeared on top. Somehow Gramma Rose always had them stashed away somewhere whenever I visited.

And then this morning I baked chocolate chip scones and made brunch. That made the whole weekend worthwhile, because we chatted on skype with relatives east and west and ate our brunch by the woodstove. We then played a hilarious game of "Hedbanz," in which Olivia had to guess that she was a parking lot, and Zachary trotted out all the literary characters he knows for about three turns before realizing he was Frankenstein. (If we hadn't clued Steve in on Sylvester Stallone, or me on the Teddy Bear, the game might still be going on.) Hedbanz is truly fun and funny; everyone was in tears when I somehow decided I might be a mailbox.

In short. Grouchy is as grouchy does, but if we stick together and bake something, it all turns out all right.

Recipes TK, as my mom would say.

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