Lemonade Stand: Diamond Bars, Jim's favorite

     Tonight Jim asked if we had anything for dessert. He had burned 3,500 calories in the race and was shocked by the number on the scale. He wanted to know if we had stuff to make Diamond Bars. Said they'd help him put on weight! Great idea hun! They are basically molasses cookies. Jim gets a grumbling for something in his tummy for something he remembers his mom making when he was growing up, so then he or I have to get on phone to get recipe, right away. These Diamond Bars are a fine example. You should see the directions he wrote down for me! {Mix all together, put in pan, bake til done}
     I told Jim I'd make them if he'd help me. Surprisingly, he said, okay, it'll be fun to make them together! There's a reason I don't usually let Jim in my kitchen. Partly because he doesn't have the mult-tasking gene and it takes him way too long to do anything in there and partly because I just don't like the way he does stuff. Perfectionism-It's a fault of mine.
     While he played hide-n-go seek with the boys, I got all the ingredients together and prepared all our tools we'd need.
     Everything was there, pre-mixed for him, all he had to do was hold the mixer, scrape the sides occasionaly, dump in the flour mixture and then spread it out in the pan. The boys were there to help too! They were tugging at Jim's legs, poking their fingers in raw eggs, pulling out dishes. As Jim was tripping over stuff and shewing them away, he said, I don't know how you do this everytime you cook! {He doesn't know it, but that comment made my day!} He was curious to know too, how I got them in the diamond shapes, he thought I baked them that way...As I took over, I finished spreading the batter onto the pan, he said, wow, that was easy! He held the oven door as I put them in. We had the boys pjammed and in bed by the time they were done! WooHoo!
    Here's my version for Diamond Bars there is a similar recipe on the back of the molasses jar you can use as well. I'll spare you Jim's version that he wrote down from his mom!
1 Cup     Sugar

1 Cup     Butter (softened)
2             Eggs
1/2 Cup  Molasses
1 tsp       Baking Soda
1 tsp       Cinnamon
1/2 tsp    Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp    Salt
3 Cups    Flour
     Preheat oven to 350. Cream together the sugar and Butter, then add in your molasses and eggs. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the dry ingredients-Baking Soda, Cinnamon, Ground Cloves, Salt and Flour. {If you are using salted butter or Self-rising flour, only use a pinch of salt or none at all. The flour and butter combined should provide all you need.} Add your flour mixture to your batter a cup at a time, continuing to mix until all flour is moist.

See, he really did help!

Pour batter out onto a large cookie sheet. {If you don't have a silicone baking mat yet, you should go get one tomorrow! Revolutionizes any bread/cake/cookie you bake! Absolutey never sticks!!!} And spread out evenly to edges.