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Cranberry Bliss Bars / White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
A tempting treat w/ toothsome ingredients.

Ing DOUGH 1 cup unsalted butter melted 1 1/3 cup light brown sugar packed 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk room temperature 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2/3-1 cup dried cranberries 2/3-1 cup white chocolate chips 1 tsp orange zest TOPPINGS Dried chp cranberries to sprinkle on top Melted white chocolate drizzle FROSTING 8 oz cr/cheese room temp 1/4 c unsalted butter room temp 1 1/2 c conf 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions whisk flour, salt, b/powder. In a 2nd bowl, whisk unsalted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla til smooth. Add wet ingredients to dry with rubber spatula---will be between a cake batter and cookie dough, not too thick and not too runny. Mix in orange zest, white chocolate chips, and dried cranberries.

Line a 9x9 or 9x13 pan with parchment. 9x9 for thicker bars; 9x13 for thinner bars. Spread batter evenly across pan. Bake 350 deg 22-25 min---don’t overbake; will continue baking out of the oven. Thinner bars will cook faster. Cool in pan 10 min then remove to finish cooling to room temp.

Make Icing. Add cream cheese, unsalted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla to bowl. Use hand beater or stand mixer w/ paddle to beat fluffy and smooth. Scrape sides as necessary. Frost to desired thickness. Chill to set; optional but makes cutting a lot easier. Now cut bars into large squares then half diagonally to create triangles. Drizzle melted white chocolate on top and sprinkle w/ chopped cranberries.

Thank you. I think going forward, I’ll have her come by the house once a week in the month before, and see if I can acquaint them again. It’s been a few years since they laid eyes on each other. Our other cat, Crick, was a lover, and would come visit every guest we had. So she was very close to him.

Watson is a hideaway type, but he’s a love bug with people he knows. Including our kids who were around when we adopted them at 6 weeks old. Our daughter fostered both of them, and then we adopted those two sweet guys. Oh, their names? Watson & Crick. We celebrate their birthday on DNA Day, April 25th, after their namesakes. It’s real,y close to their actual birthdays.

Yeah. Back in the day, I totally got into scientific research because of DNA. Our daughter is also a scientist, a neurophysiologist. So the names have always seemed appropriate. But in retrospect, I wonder if Crick was the star. In our house, he sure liked the spotlight.

Watson is a cutie, and he was the first to learn his name. Smart kitty, just shy.