Where (and How) the Magic Happens...

Mixing the ooey-gooey for Peanut Butter MAGIC Bars

Back in June (yes, still in the past), I had just commenced the frantic stage of a work project that involved not only an online election, but an offline election as well, to be managed in tandem, for all intents and purposes, by me. June was a bit of a blur.

Cookie-crumb crust-- nothing but the best!

But one of the silver linings was that I got to work with 2 computer programmers from Tennessee who were pretty dang chill. I was in a situation where I needed to funnel a lot of information to them and see it go up quickly online, and they were so smart and responsive about it, it just took a load off my mind. Plus, they have a great sense of humor. So I decided to send them a care package for all their (overtime-inducing) hard work-- baked goods!

I was inspired by the recent candy theme of this particular recipe, which was at the time on the blog of my friends Katie and Becky Bignell: Sunday Treats. This is a another pair of really wonderful people, in this case, twin sisters, who have only recently started their baking blog, but have obviously long been pliers of the trade.

She's drowned, captain! (in sweetened condensed milk)

I also added my own version of Midnight Chocolate Cookies from Love and Olive Oil. Here, "my own version" means that I had to tweak a lot of things because I didn't have exactly what she add, but I was aiming for the same effect: TOTALLY CHOCOLATE-Y. I figured that flavor has an audience, somewhere.

Troops ready for battle/ Care Packages ready for assembly

And then for good measure, I rounded it out with something vaguely healthy: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, which will do for the less exuberant connoisseur of chocolate. This recipe came from another one of my favorite blogs (but whose author I don't personally know, to my chagrin): Pink of Perfection.