Summer's here!

#93 Cherry Coconut Bars
It's officially summer, (even though there were seven days of school left at the time I made these), it's Memorial Weekend at the cabin.  My dad decided that we should all bring something to share for a Sunday brunch - a brunch to rival the Jax brunch.  If you've never had the Sunday brunch at Jax restaurant in NE Mpls, you are missing out on something pretty special.
So everyone brought things to make for Sunday brunch (except my Dad of course).  Mike even decided to make pies.  This is going back to the post about how Mike is finding all these pie recipes he'd like me to bake, but how I'm a little busy making cookies.  On Saturday night at the cabin, Mike starts to make his pies.  He asks my Mom, where's the saucepans.  She points to the cabinet - then he asks "What is a saucepan?"  Oh oh ...
Nevertheless, he made two Amish Sugar Cream Pies - my family was impressed.  Mike said if we had ever had real Amish pies, we wouldn't think much of his pies.
Sunday brunch was very good.  My 12 year old nephews manned the stove making omelets (their specialty), there was Polish sausage, some pastry things with a fancy name I do not remember, egg bake, baked oatmeal, pies of course - but not nearly enough food to come close to rivaling Jax.

Anyways - cherry coconut bars - that I actually made to go with my Taco Salad lunch - pie like crust topped with if I remember correctly, kind of a creamy topping with coconut and cherries mixed in - kind of obvious.

#94 Glazed Peanut Butter Bars
I woke up last Sunday morning debating whether I should go to church or not.  Then I remembered it was the all church pot-luck.  Cripes!  I got up shortly after 8 - flipped through the book to find something quick and easy and something I had all the ingredients for.  I first searched the short-cut creations chapter in my book.  The problem with that is - it all calls for candy bars, sugar cookie mixes, or packages of cookies that you add stuff to - I didn't have any of that stuff.  Brownies were an issue too because most of them called for a frosting which would require the brownies to cool completely - didn't have time for that.  Ended up finding another "delectable bar" to make.  In my opinion, you can never go wrong with peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate.  These are similar to those peanut buttery rice krispie treats with chocolate on top, except the base of the bar is soft.  Both of us rated these a 5.
So got up at 8 - made these bars, ate breakfast, got myself ready, got Joey ready and got to church on time!  Ha!  (Mike was out of town, I was on my own).

#95 Ann's Chocolate Chip Cookies 6/8/13
Our first neighborhood block party - yay!  I'm rather outgoing and extroverted (that may be redundant),  so I'm very happy to be in a neighborhood that seems to be accomodating for people like me, instead of tons of people who keep to themselves. I'm all about community.  Parts of NE Mpls (where I grew up - and really still wish I was there) are like that, but it seems to be harder to find.  I want a neighborhood like I grew up in - the kids are outside all day going from house to house just playing - and everyone knows everyone.   I do not want a small town where the whole town knows what you're up to, just friendly neighbors that will stop and talk if they see you outside.
Anyway, I found a "big batch bonanza" cookie for the block party. I specifically stayed away from high allergy ingredients - so no peanut butter, peanuts, other nuts, etc and tried to find one kids would like - so ended up with chocolate chip.  It's a little different than your normal chocolate chip cookie - cinnamon and coconut are called for.  We both liked it - Mike said he would've gave it a 5 if it had the walnuts added (which were optional).  I told him kids don't like nuts (no kids in my family ever did) - he disagrees.

What do you think?  Do the kids you know like nuts in their cookies/bars, etc - or not?