Have I told you about Pete’s most recent Dungeons and Dragons campaign?

I should preface this by mentioning that, in our particular circles, D&D has been all but completely normalized as a social activity.  There’s no shame or self-consciousness about the shroud of intense nerdliness that hangs over any and all collaborative role-playing activities, probably because of their ubiquity. One could take our social networks in Madison and draw an elaborate web of crisscrossing interconnections illustrating who was playing in whose campaign at any given time.  It’s not my thing, but Pete thoroughly enjoys it, and there are certainly worse hobbies for one to pursue.

Anyway, I kind of love the campaign that he’s running at present.  The participants stop by the store before coming over to our place, pay for all the food themselves, and cook up some sort of elaborate dinner with a separate vegetarian portion set aside for me (asparagus-cheese-potato gratin, for instance, and I also remember some particularly excellent garlic mashed potatoes on the side; bacon is usually added to everything at some point).  Someone then does all of the dishes, and they all quietly file out by 10 pm.  It’s amazing.

So, yeah.  Free, fantastic home-cooked dinner, and they clean the kitchen for me afterwards.  I actively look forward to D&D nights.

I sometimes reciprocate by experimenting with dessert recipes that I’ve been wanting to try out.  This week’s experiment was (were?) Halfway Cookies, which were new to me; they’re apparently one of those recipes that are ubiquitous in old church and community cookbooks, but fell out of vogue.  (See also: Tunnel of Fudge.)  They are… pretty great, actually: like a dense, buttery cookie bar with a still-slightly crunchy chocolate chip layer on top, and a sweet, crunchy-fluffy meringue topping.  (Pete thought that the meringue was flavored with coffee, but it’s actually just made with brown sugar.)  Pretty sweet, which I like; hold their shape well; more interesting, flavor- and texture-wise, than a standard cookie bar with icing.  Also, apparently, very uniformly light brown in color.  Behold the tan-ness:

Delicious nonetheless.

Also recently acquired, though I haven’t tried them yet (see: Halfway Cookies), are some Cadbury’s Twisted Bars, a.k.a. a Cadbury Creme Egg made into a candy bar.  Even though the eggs are still plentiful (and cheaper) in these parts, I couldn’t not buy some.  I feel kind of like they made them just for me!

Exciting life in these parts, eh? Desserts, D&D, and candy.

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