Girls Night In & S'Mores

 Last night was girl's night.  I can't tell you the last time this happened in my life.  I actually can't.  I have no clue.  I used to think that there was no difference between a girl's night and a regular gathering of friends, therapy-wise.  I was wrong.  Girl's night is great therapy.
Last night was also the first time I've left Rosanna and not had feelings of dread, guilt, trepidation, angst, sorrow, regret, well you get the idea.  I discovered being a mommy AND having me-time.  You may be saying, "duh" and possibly you are correct.  Consider, however, that a month ago I had no desire to have me-time.  I was totally mommified (new word).  My gut felt like: me-time is time that I could be with my baby, and what is better than being with my baby?  Nothing.   And just like that, me-time died.
So today comes with new realizations.  The kind that older and wiser beings tell you over and over but that you have to experience for yourself to really get it.  I can be 'mommy' and be 'me'.  In fact, I don't have to distinguish the two.  Who I am in this moment is 'me' with some awesome upgrades (see: mom).
And I had fun!  Un-clung (baby reference) fun.  I chatted with girlfriends without my eyes darting about, tracking my crawler.   I WORE EARRINGS!  Then, a few hours later, I reconnected with my little bundle- and it was ok.

On a different note, I made S'Mores bars.  I know!  I was excited too!  I envisioned lovely rectangular bars, layered in chocolate and white marshmallow.  I heard people ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the magnificence I had created.  Dream big!
First I made a dough with graham cracker dust (I accomplished 'dust' by putting them in a big ziplock and using a rolling pin on them).  Then half of it goes into the bottom of a baking dish that I lined with parchment paper.

 Then, cover the whole thing with chocolate bars.  I used the mini hershey bars, this way I could make sure every nook got covered.

Next,the fluff!  Spread the marshmallow alllll over.  I found that it was easier after microwaving the fluff for 10 seconds.

Now it gets tricky.  The rest of the dough needs to get on top.  So I ended up pressing it out onto the lid for this pan, then flipping the lid upside down over the bar pan....and it worked!

 While it was in the oven, Jazzy Belle reminded me of how wonderful it is to be a cat:

Tada!!  The next trick is to leave it alone until it cools ALL the way.  I dare you...

After I pulled it out, using my handy dandy parchment paper, I cut into it and *gasp* beautiful, dreamy laters!

My excitement didn't last long though, upon cutting them up into lovely little bars I discovered they weren't interested in being bars.  They wanted to be free flowing, undefined by straight-edged boundaries- in short I didn't realize I was making a hippie dish.

So here is where I called Kristi- she was the host of girls night.  I let her know my predicament: my finger food was now a goopy mess.  Every bite would result in marshmallowy fingers.  What do I do?  WHAM!  I got knocked back down to earth via Kristi's account of how I did not have problems.  So true, so true.  So I arrived with my mess and people ate it.  Not only that- they liked it!  Hooray!  It was a far cry from my original dream, and that was ok.

Do you wanna make these S'Mores Bars?  I found the recipe at The Hungry Mouse: http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2010/06/05/smores-bars/