2 recipes and 2 Cath Kidston bags

 How does a simple, low cost, low calorie dessert sound?

I read about this butter and oil free bar cookie recipe on Sunny Simple Life, she read about it on the Cozy Little Kitchen  and she says the recipe is from an older Paula Deen cookbook.  

I was not expecting this recipe to be good but it really is!  It got thumbs up from the 6 family members that ate them - the only complaint is it makes a small recipe so they ran out pretty fast. 

  Brown Sugar Bars

1 egg

1 c. brown sugar, lightly packed

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. chopped pecans or other nuts 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Grease an 8 in. square pan. (I used Pam .)

Stir together egg, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. 

Stir together flour, soda and salt in a smaller bowl.

Stir flour mixture into egg mixture.  

Add most of the nuts.

Spread in pan and sprinkle on the rest of the nuts.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.  

The batter will puff up and get golden around the edges, but stay very moist inside.  

Let cool, then cut into bars or squares.

You can sprinkle the top with powdered sugar but I left ours plain- they tasted delicious plain.  

I will be making these again and again!  

I know nuts are expensive but we get usually have pecans from my parents,  I buy walnuts and almonds at Sams so this is not an expensive recipe for me anyway.  

My birthday is in December and my parents gave me some cash.

I have looked at several Cath Kidston catalogs, liked most everything in them, but mostly liked their handbags.  After Christmas,  they had a sale I could not resist- the bags I wanted were about 50% off - 

so I happily ordered 2 with my birthday money.  

pretty wrapper- yes,  I saved the bags from both shipments
They came all the way from England and I had to wait 3 weeks! 

my 2 new bags - my photography is not good,  the pictures are much better on the Cath Kidston site.
I can tell you that these bags are made from very nice materials and seem very sturdy.
I like them both so much,  I don't foresee me buying another bag until these just wear out.  

last weekend I tried a very popular Pinterest recipe
Cinnamon Roll Cake
I halved  the recipe and baked it in a  8 inch square pan instead of the 13by9  for the full recipe.
It made a nice texture cake,  my husband thought it was delicious,  but I thought it was just too sweet and rich -
any body else made any good Pinterest recipes?

Hum Along

this is the cover of the 2012 calendar we got from the Paralyzed Veterans of America.  

I just love  "hum along"  so much,  

it may be my new motto.  

John Deere Fleet from the Thrift Store

I've only been to one thrift store this month and Gavin was with me.
We stopped there after he had been to story time at our public library and before it was time to pick up Elizabeth at her baby preschool.
We did not see much downstairs,  but when we got upstairs to the toy room, we saw all these John Deere tractors.  

Gavin likes tractors a lot!
He lives in the country  and his parents have a real John Deere tractor.

We got his whole fleet plus a bag of pompoms and a package of rose wallpaper border for $8.
Very good bargain, I think.    

Elizabeth lives in town but she likes tractors too, she likes to roll the tractors on the floor.

have you found any good thrift store things this month?