Week 45: Chubby Hubby Bars

This week I decided to make chubby hubby bars.  Actually Dan chose the recipe for this week.  I'd narrowed it down to 2 recipes, and Dan chose this one.  It's only the third "bar cookie" that I have made.  I do prefer drop cookies, but this recipe was too interesting to pass up.  I love love love "Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby" ice cream, and this recipe mimics those flavors.  If you haven't ever had the pleasure, you definitely need to try this ice cream...it's delicious.  I am not really an ice cream person... I do eat it on occasion but not often.  If I am going to have ice cream though, "Chubby Hubby" is at the top of my list. These cookies came out great! I am a huge fan of pretzels and chocolate together, so I loved that this recipe contained both.  I made 2 substitutions to the recipe.  First, I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour.  Second, I substituted "Earth Balance Organic Buttery Spread" in lieu of the butter.  Also, it isn't listed in the ingredients, but if you read the recipe, the author adds 1/4 cup of chunky peanut butter to the dough.  I did that as well, but my kids don't like chunky peanut butter so I used creamy. All in all the cookies are delicious and my family loved them.  Here is the link to the recipe that I used: http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/kk723/chubby-hubby-bars/cookies

From  L to R: Dan, Me,
Greg Spearman and Tracey Alter

I think the name of this recipe is pretty funny.  I also think it's funny that Dan (my "not chubby hubby") picked this recipe.  He picked it and then said "...now you can write your blog about me...your chubby hubby."  He isn't chubby of course, but I thought to myself that maybe I would make him the focus of my blog for the week anyway.  As I have mentioned before, Dan and I met in high school.  I was new to the public school scene as I went to Catholic school for grades K-8.  I remember being nervous as I had gone to school with the same bunch of kids literally for years.  I only knew a few people from my grade school (St. Angela's) who were making the move to East Detroit Public Schools, so I was anxious to make some new friends.  As I entered my first hour biology class, I was assigned to a table with my good friend Tracey Alter, and 2 guys...one of them was Dan. Over the course of the year we became friends, and I told Tracey that I liked him.  She told me that he was smart and quiet. Tracey and Dan had gone to school together for a few years at this point, so she knew a little bit about him.  Well I of course didn't do anything about my crush on Dan, but we did become pretty good friends.  After a few months I was mortified to find out that he had started going out with one of my girlfriends!  She didn't know that I liked him, but I was still pretty steamed.  After they broke up, I told one of Dan's friends (Greg Spearman) that I liked Dan, and he passed the message along...slick eh???☺  Well not long after, Dan asked me to "go with him" and I did.  We dated briefly as freshman until he broke up with me for no apparent reason.  In strict accordance with "high school girl drama law" I was crushed, and went straight to my girlfriends Tracey and Jody Frandle and told them the whole sob story.  Dan and I did remain friends after he broke my heart (I LOVE to tease him about this ☺) and our circles of friends began to mesh.

 John Merlino, Dan, Me, & Greg studying for chemistry
We weren't officially dating yet.  This is what my Mom
was talking about...Dan was always at our house. ☺

In our Junior year, we became really good friends and hung out a lot.  I remember my Mom saying to me numerous times  "...Chrissy, I think that boy likes you...he sure does hang around a lot."  To which I'd indignantly respond "...oh my God Mom he doesn't like me anymore...we are just friends...GOD!  Can't you just hear my sassy voice??☺  "Okay" she'd say, and then she'd walk away smirking, which of course drove me nuts.  Well in January of our junior year, Dan finally made his intentions known.  He wanted to get back together.  Damn... my Mom was right! To her credit, she didn't gloat when I told her.  She simply said "...he is a really nice boy, and he's cute too. I am happy for you."  So on January 24, 1988, Dan and I officially got back together for what turned out to be the rest of our lives.

Dan and I got engaged on Sweetest Day, on October 16, 1993 at Jenks Beach in Caseville, MI.  We were married on November 11, 1995, at the Grosse Pointe Academy Chapel.  We had our first child, my beautiful Victoria, on July 8, 2000, and our second child, my handsome Ryan, on May 2, 2003.  We dated for a long time before we got married...7 years to be exact.  During those years we grew up together. I still think it's so cool that I have spent more than half of my life with Dan.  We met when we were 14.  Now that we are both 40 (yikes) we have been friends for 26 years, and we have been a couple for 23 years!  I still marvel at just how long we have been in each other's lives. All the major developmental milestones that occur in adolescence we did together.  Learning to drive, going to the prom, applying to college, and graduating high school...we accomplished it all together.  I love that Dan knows every single one of my stories.  I love that we pull from the same memory bank when we reflect on our teenage and high school years.  I can say to him "oh my gosh do you remember that time in high school when 'so and so did such and such'..." and he knows exactly what I am referring to.  I love that we can do the same things about our college years.  I went to Michigan State and Dan went to Wayne State, but we saw each other almost every weekend, so again we share the same memories.  I eventually transferred to Wayne State to finish up my my undergraduate degree, and shortly thereafter we got engaged. So for me to recall a time in my life without Dan, I have to reflect back to being 13 years old and younger.  Even then, Dan has heard all the stories about that time in my life, and he knows all the people involved.

 Since I met Dan way back in the 9th grade, a lot of things have changed. We've changed jobs, changed residences, changed our goals and dreams, changed about a million diapers, and I changed my last name.  We have gotten older, and hopefully wiser.  We lost a baby, we lost all of our Grandparents, and I lost my Mom.  All of those losses, definitely changed us, and the way that we relate to one another and to other people. Fortunately, the one thing that hasn't changed, however,  is our love and concern for one another.  I reflect back on the formation of our relationship, and at the core is a solid friendship. I am grateful to be Dan's wife of course, but I am even more grateful to still be his friend after all these years.  I think that our friendship has sustained us during those times in life when we weren't capable of much more. Over the years we have struggled, and at times we've stumbled, but we have remained steadfast in our desire to stay together, and to love each other "all the way."   Dan "knew me when" and has never EVER asked me to be something that I am not. He has accepted the good, the bad, and even the ugly, and miraculously continues to love and support me through it all. I am so proud of the man and father that he has become, and consider myself lucky to have "grown up" with him. Our life together is not glamorous, nor is it wildly romantic.  Fame and fortune will never be ours.  BUT we have created a wonderful and honest life together.  We are raising two beautiful children, and teaching them to be good people.  In my opinion, it doesn't get anymore romantic than that. ♥