All white at last...

I snuck out in the sweltering heat to play the contortionist so that I could prime the replaced balusters in preparation for, hopefully, painting on Thursday.  I was stunned at just how quickly I wilted, but I persevered and got the priming done.  It is good, to me, to be able to see all white when I look at the railing after nine months.

Of course, that meant lots and lots and lots of resting for the rest of the day.  Mostly.  I need to water the plants on the front porch, but am hoping for even cooler weather in a while.  Maybe I'll be doing midnight watering.

The back porch and steps have not fully cured yet.  The tackiness is a bit of a concern given that we have light rain on tap for the morrow.  I am crossing my fingers that the sealing job does not get messed up.  That would be entirely too distressing for me.

At this very moment, the house is filled with the aroma of Chipotle Chicken Chili.  For the first time, I actually let myself run out of mason jars of that most wondrous dish before I made it again.  In about a half hour, I will be finishing off the recipe.

Going with what I have learned about cooking spices as a part of recipes, I added the salt, cumin, and chili powder in with the onions and garlic, after they had been cooking for a while, and let them simmer until the kitchen began to smell like the spices before adding in the chicken.  Mmmmm....

I will say that one would never buy a NutriBullet just to deal with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, but it does make short work of puréeing the peppers, sauce, and onions that are in the can.  Three times now I have done that for recipes and really like how smooth the purée is.  If you are not a spicy-spicy person, this allows you to have the heat in your recipe but eliminates chunks of peppers or seeds that will set your mouth on fire.

Becky booked a plane ticket late last night.  That means she could be eating one of these mason jars of Chipotle Chicken Chili.  How generous of me, eh?  Well, not really.  If she's going to try the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars, I will have to make another batch.  We will not discuss just how many are left.

I will discuss the fact that my neighbor went ape over the frosting!  I almost think that she likes it even more than I do!!  Of course, it is the WORLD'S BEST FROSTING.  If I were a better person, I would give her the container of left-over frosting in my freezer.  I am not a better person.

It is decided:  I declare those bars to be my most favorite dessert to date ... even more than the Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares and the Double Chocolate Dr Pepper Cake.  The reason the bars top even the Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies is that I could eat two dozen of those cookies in a day without batting an eyelash; I have absolutely no will power over that culinary wickedness.  With the bars, I can stop after a large one or two smaller ones.  Next batch I will, however, add a wee bit more frosting to each bar.

I am getting hungry, so I must stop typing about food!