three cheers for the red, white, & blue

Are these puppies happy-lookin' or what?!? Oh so happy. So Memorial Day is today, which definitely called for a patriotic concoction to be...well, concocted. That called for me to make nothing other than a bar cookie, of course!

How does all this nonsense start out, might you ask? Well, in the words of Alton Brown, enter Wet Team and Dry Team:

Wet Team = butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla

Dry Team = flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt

How official sounding, huh? And after the teams are all mantled, Dry Team is slowly incorporated into Wet Team. Which makes a perfect excuse for the Baker to "sample" the cookie dough between batches of incorporation. Yes, it is fact that the "dough" needs to be tested when half of the dry team is mixed in and again when the remainder of it is all incorporated.

Why, you ask? Because obviously the batter tastes different at these two incorporation stages.

Lie. Just an excuse to eat more cookie dough. ;)

Taste Testing 1.

Look at that whip-page. That'd put an obsessive girlfrind to shame for sure.

Taste Testing 2: Batter thicker and more delicious than before.

And then it is time to dye....

Kinda looks disgusting, but let's just focus on how delicious it is, okay?

So I came up for a great method for flattening down that cookie dough - take a glass and use it to smash down the dough and make it flat. And TA-DA! Enter beautiful cookie dough layering.

Blue and white layer....

The whole sha-bang. Look how pretty it looks!!!! Yeah, just a bit excited.

So this recipe definately reminded me of my work. How fitting for Memorial Day, huh? Anyways, I am working under a registered dietitian for my college along with three other girls who are in the Dietetics program I will be in the upcoming fall. While these girls are really fun to chill with at work and stuff, sometimes they act so healthy, it kind of scares me. Seriously....you do not have to limit yourself to one slice of pizza and only eat half a scone to be a dietitian, girlfriend! ;) Looks like I'll be a really fun dietitian when I grow up.

Ohhh, look at those pretties. Just oozing with chemical additives that would give the serious R.D. a stroke. NOT THIS FUTURE R.D. I laugh in the face of food dyes. Muah ha ha ha!

Oooohhhh yeaaaaah.

Memorial Day Bars
Altered from Icebox Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Red food coloring
Blue food coloring

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray an 8x8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.

Divide dough into thirds. Place one drop of red food coloring into one of the thirds and a drop of blue food coloring to another of the thirds. Incorporate with a spoon until uniform in color.

Press blue dough into bottom of pan. Do the same for the plain dough and then top with red dough. Bake for27 minutes or until sides are slightly browned and toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Cool, slice, and devour.