The first version :)

Hey y'all,

So, after Lent was over, I started craving sweets again like crazy, especially since that was the first thing I cut out.

So, a couple of days after Easter, I went to pull down the large package of Chips Ahoy! that I had stashed up for there since forever.

I opened the package, and...they were pale. Apparently the sell by date was back in March. Figures right? I ate a couple, and they seemed just a little stale but not terrible.

Anyways, the search began for a dessert recipe that used ruined/stale cookies. Cause I wasn't about to waste over 30 cookies.

In the end, I ended up drafting one for bar cookies. I crushed up half the package of Chips Ahoy and placed the crumbs with some melted butter in the bottom of an 8x8 pan. Then I melted a Hershey XL bar of chocolate and mixed it with some peanut butter and spread it on top of the crumb mixture. I will say that was easier said than done. Then I placed some dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses to fill in where the mixture missed. Then I placed it in a 350 degree oven for around 15 minutes.

The result? A ridiculously hard crust and a super soft top.

It did taste good though.....

So I tried again, since I only got rid of half the cookies the first time.

This time, I added milk to the crust, enough to wet the cookies that weren't wetted by the butter. Finding out the right amount of milk was really tough, because Chips Ahoy cookies don't need a lot of milk to be soaked. I will say that the milk really helped to soften the crust and it was somewhat easier to spread. However, the layers were a lot less distinct, which produced a blending effect, which I didn't like. However, I'm not sure how to fix that balance just yet. But, the second batch was met with rave reviews, so I will add the recipe file below.

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

*********************************************************************************

Hey y'all,

So...I apologize in advance, but I really need to get this off my chest and combat some evil with some good.

I just sat through one of the most sickening classes that I've ever been in my life.

I made the mistake of taking a class on Utopias for my senior global that I'm required to take. Literally, my other options were a Hiroshima class (which from my roommate's comments is really bad) and a class on the Middle East (in which I would be required to visit a mosque.) What the heck is education coming to????

And since the impression I got was that the class was based on mostly traditional texts like St. Thomas More and Plato, I figured why not?

By the way....those works were in there but it was only a third of the class. The rest of the class literally is all Marxist/Communist and all the CRAPPY BAD IDEAS FROM IT.

By that, I mean crappy bad ideas like eugenics, environmentalism and the bane of my existence, feminism. I'll talk more about utopias later on in the post, but I really need to say a few things about feminism.

I am not feminist. I am feminine.

Believe me, there is a major difference.

Feminism really wants to destroy the following:
Traditional marriage and nuclear family (no procreation)
The idea of gender and sex itself (one gender)
Sexual taboos (including incest and sex with children)
Pregnancy and motherhood (reproducing asexually)


All by eliminating the need for men and their influence on society. Feminists act as usurpers, taking what is rightfully the man's role. Women nurture not just bodies but minds too. But we need men to balance us out and make us stand up straight. There is a universal truth that fathers have a big role in their daughter's emotional development rather than the mother. This is especially true when it comes to the daughter's confidence levels.

Suddenly, after re-learning all this feminism crap, it makes total sense why we have such a crappy society.

I know that this is probably a rehash of what you have heard before. But trust me ladies, I'm not suggesting that you actually look this stuff up. It is so sickening, I can't even begin to describe it. I literally was fighting the urge to scream in total rage.

Basically, feminism is the Woman's version of non servam. 

Non servam is Latin for "I will not serve."

This is the critical phrase that cast Lucifer and his confederates down to Hell.

The church fathers have been clear for centuries that Woman was especially called to be a mother. Whether it physically happens or not. It is her uniquely defined role that she must fulfill. Shame on these feminists who call for such a gross dereliction of duty among our young women!!!!!!!!

Ok, now I'll climb onto my other soap box: utopias.

I have heard (of course AFTER I decided to take this class) that Catholics reject utopianism. I wondered why, especially since I knew about Saint Thomas' More's work called Utopia and had read part of it already.

Well, I know NOW why.

Here's the thing: utopianism is the idea of a perfect world on Earth. Something that most of us know that will never happen.

Saint Thomas More has the credit of creating the word "utopia" (oddly enough, it's Greek for either Good Place or No Place, depending on which Greek word the translation is based off of).

Saint Thomas' work Utopia is about a fictional world that he is (supposedly) told about. He never claims it as a perfect world though.
In this world, the vices seem to be toned down or removed from society. Correcting abuses of human nature in a way while expanding the virtues. Some of the ideas that he introduces throw me a little such as the introduction of religious freedom, which seems to be a defense of the idea of out of free will choosing the True Faith. From reading Utopia, it seems to be a society orientated towards attaining Heaven. Which is good.

Then Marxists got a hold of this idea. And turned it into a hellish concept. Errors being upheld as virtue and perpetuated. No thought of an afterlife ever enters in, just enjoying the pleasures of this society here on Earth. Some of these utopian ideas (such as racial utopias and gender utopias) are so full of contradictions, errors and evil that I just want to throw up.

And since everyone has their own concept of what a perfect world on Earth is like, how can such an idea succeed?

It can't. Pure and simple.

If utopian ideals had remained under a Catholic definition (which is a good society totally bent on the salvation of souls and one that eliminates evil over time), the concept is airtight and the foundation of a good society. Besides Utopia, a couple of other works have operated under this definition, including Dr. Walter's novel Russian Sunrise. A Protestant version would be Addison Russel Peale's work Sub-Coelum.  

Let in one error, and the concept springs a leak, sinking it into the depths of Hell. Quite literally in some cases.

Phew....ok, I feel better. I'll get off my soap box now.

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine