in the craft cave of my dreams, walls are lined with spools and spools of candy striped string. drawers house every rubber stamp ever made. and endless stacks of earthy colored felt sit artfully on a rustic wooden table.

glitter glue runs from a faucet, and yarn from my pet alpaca gets dyed with berries from the tree out back.

maybe a kiln will double as a pizza oven.

sigh.

the things we think of in anticipation of a craft workshop.

a craft workshop! i haven't been to a craft workshop since grade school art class when lisa frank was my bff. but now i am anxiously testing recipes for some goodies that i'm making for the guests at the be crafty workshop in fargo this weekend.

i'm so excited. i'm going to smear elmer's glue all over my hands and then peel it off.

(no i'm not.)

i'm in the early stages of a molasses obsession. i can feel it. i've never before had such strong feelings about molasses, but the other day at the bakery i was making about 12,000,000 gingerbread boys and the molasses smell approached me in a way it never had before. i suddenly needed molasses in all corners of my life.

is this what growing up is?

and speaking of the bakery, one of the owners was in the newspaper this week with a great recipe for walnut butter! i made it. and then i mixed it with molasses and a few other things to produce really delightful, chewy cookies!

i think they'll be the perfect crafting snack.

molasses & walnut butter cookie bars

makes six large bars

ingredients

1 c walnut butter

2 tb molasses

1/2 c brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 c almond meal

a pinch of ground ginger

a pinch of salt

clues

preheat oven to 375.

line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

in a medium bowl, mix together the walnut butter, molasses, brown sugar, and egg.

in a small bowl, mix together remaining ingredients.

add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. (mixture should be a bit goopy, but manageable. if it's too moist, add a bit more almond flour.)

shape dough into bars, place them on your baking sheet, and bake for 18-20 minutes.

-yeh!