Girls night in

Chris is out of town tonight at a job site so I've got full run of the Hartman Castle all to myself. So what do I do? I vacuum, sweep, iron, make lunches, bake, take out garbages, and exercise. You know, all the wild and crazy stuff I can't do on a normal night. I'm so pathetic....

I spent most of the evening baking up some dessert treats for my co-worker's surprise 50th birthday bash at work tomorrow. I made some cheesecake bars with a caramel and coconut topping. They were time consuming, but look great. I baked a shortbread base in a 9x13 and then topped it with the cheesecake filling, baking it until set.
While it baked I toasted some shredded coconut and made some homemade caramel sauce for the topping, burning two of my fingers and practically steaming the skin right off my hands. Playing with boiling hot corn syrup is not for sissies.
Once everything had cooled to room temperature I mixed the coconut and caramel together to top the cheesecake with. I had to try a small sample it looked so good. It was hard as hell to spread, but once I got it close enough I chilled the whole thing for about 40 minutes before topping it off with some melted chocolate.
In the morning I'll cut it up into squares for serving and whatever can't fit into my travel container will have to stay home I guess. How unfortunate!

When I was done slaving away for the evening I finally got to open my mail which was my new scrapbook kit for the month.
So many pretty papers and trinkets to play with. Assuming I'm home long enough one of these days to do so.