Here’s a baby llama. The first picture is 30 minutes after birth and the second is one hour and a half. This little guy learned to walk in that time. Fun to see!

I was home waiting to go for a long camping weekend and had already packed the camper and made a list of other things to buy after we picked up our special camping companion, the granddaughter. We would need things like yogurt, cheerios, milk, etc. that we usually don’t take with us. By the way, I lost two pounds on that weekend mostly running after her and not sitting around eating cheese and crackers and glasses of wine!

More to the point…I suddenly had the urge to bake something to take with for a dessert. And Blondies occurred to me. Why not? Granddaughter might like these.

I have a favorite Blondie recipe from a coffee table size cookbook given to me as a gift by a dear friend that I have not been in touch with for a long time. Heritage of America Cookbook. It is a Better Homes and Gardens collection. This book puts these in The South and as served in South Carolina saying that the South has a partiality to brown sugar.

First, spray or grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350 F.

• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups all purpose flour (I used one cup whole wheat and one cup all-purpose)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• no nuts as I was not sure about a toddler eating nuts

In a sauce pan melt the butter with the brown sugar. Remove from heat. Stir in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients. Spread in prepared pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cut and eat. Super simple.

Confession time!

• I mixed up the baking soda and baking powder amounts but went ahead with the recipe.
• I cut these when warm, as directed by the recipe, and ate one. I found it way too sweet! I’ve made these before and they were fabulous.
• I froze half the pan and took half camping. The sweetness mellowed out over time.
• They were not the chewy Blondies that the recipe produced before. They were crispier and would be good broken into chunks and served with ice cream.
• I merely ate them one at a time for a bit of sweet crunch.
• Next time I will be more careful about the ingredients and I will use only all-purpose flour.

Live and learn!