oh hey! sorry you probably don't recognize me, i got a hint of a tan last week while i was hiking with the eggs in one thousand million degree heat down in the great american southwest... what was that? it wasn't the tan you were talking about? i look like a, like a taco??? ohhh, that sounds about right i guess. for the entire trip we had a rule that we couldn't consume anything that wasn't on a tortilla bed, even our hiking snacks were tortilla roll-ups. eggboy (née tacoboy) was in heaven, and that's not even considering that we were staying at the egggrandma house in a retirement community, aka surrounded by all of eggboy's best friends.

we did a lot of hiking, so i'm pretty sure i calorically broke even with all of the tacos, and i'm hoping that i got enough sun to counteract all of my days spent cuddled up indoors this winter. on our way back we made a quick stop in los angeles and saw my family and my pops even played a concert with the calder quartet (do you know those guys? they're so cool and good!), and then we returned to a deliciously cloudy grand forks that is starting to put away all of his snow :-( it's a little goopy and muddy outside, but that hasn't been stopping sven cat and ole cat from climbing all about, indoors and out.

is there a word for me now that i've made one cat gif? does this qualify me as a cat person? i don't know that i'm ready for such a title. but for what it's worth, i've also recently become a loyal follower of sir winston duke of goodland and he's so darn cute. sheep dog instagram is my favorite instagram.

for one second before our trip, we didn't have any sweets in the house, which is weird. but i needed something unfussy to hold us over, so i did something that i don't do often enough: i turned to blondies. they're so easy to make and more casual than a cake, and they stay fudgey in the fridge, so you can keep them longer and eat them at a moment's notice, no reason required. and these use olive oil because it turns out that good fruity olive oil and rich brown sugar go together like ramalamalamalama dingely dingy dong. also olive oil is healthy so these blondies are healthy (maybe????).

here i've used california olive ranch's limited reserve olive oil which is probably over-the-top fancy for sparkly sprinkly blondies but since olive oil is unlike wine in that it doesn't get better with age, i indulged. c.o.r.'s mild and buttery olive oil would also be awesome in these. actually you'd be good with any of their olive oils since they're all good on their own, and that's important with this recipe since the olive oil flavor really shines through here in the tastiest way possible.

olive oil blondies with chocolate frosting

makes 9 large blondies

ingredients

2 cups flour
2 cups lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup california olive ranch olive oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
a pinch of kosher salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

sprinkles, optional

clues

preheat the oven to 350ºf. grease and line an 8" square pan with parchment paper.

in a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. in a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and pour the mixture into the pan, spreading it out evenly. bake until the center is set, begin checking for doneness at 35 minutes. let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, remove to the rack and cool completely.

to make the frosting, use an electric mixer to beat together the butter, confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, salt, heavy cream, and vanilla. spread it on the blondies, top with sprinkles (if desired), and cut into squares. store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.