Latvia?? Really??

Last Sunday night at 9 pm (which felt like 10 pm because of the time change.  Anyone who knows me knows that is past my bedtime!) I was checking out Facebook before bed.  A friend's post popped up with her son holding a plate of Swedish cookies he made for his Food class report.  Hmmm, I thought.  Zach is in Food class.  Maybe Griffin is in a different class?  Moments later another friend posted a picture with her daughter holding a plate of Swedish pancakes for her Food class.  Damn.

"Zach!  Do you have food report to do?" I yelled.

"Yes, I already did it."

"Were you supposed to cook something??"

"Not really.  That part is optional for extra credit."

Then I laid into him.  I am a firm believer in not turning down extra credit.  You never know when you will need it.  Besides, Foods was the one class Zach got a B in last semester after he screwed up the final (Which was to make homemade pasta.  Who the hell makes their own pasta??).  He needed the extra credit.  He got pissy back and said fine, he would make something.  It was a report on foods in other countries and they were supposed to make something from the country they chose.

"So what country did you do?" I asked

"Latvia" he answered.

"Latvia??  Really??   Is that a real country??!"  I screamed.

"Yes it is" said Peter, who then fell asleep on the couch, his contribution to this project clearly done.

Here it was,  9 pm on a Sunday (And did I mention it felt like 10??  And that it was past my bedtime??) and we have to not only find a Latvian recipe, but find a Latvian recipe that I actually have all the ingredients for.  Ugh!!  Why didn't he choose Mexico or Italy, or something easy that we already had at home.  No, my kid picks Latvia.

After some hunting around we found a recipe for Latvian cookie bars.  It called for 1 stick of butter and 1 stick of margarine which I did not have.  After calling a couple of neighbors, who like me only had butter, I told him to forget the margarine and just use 2 sticks of butter.  Close enough for me.

To Zach's credit he made the cookies himself with only minimal supervision from me.  I went to bed when they were in the oven, leaving him to finish up.  He had to get up early the next day to make the icing layer.  I took a little pleasure in knowing that was probably as painful for him as staying up late was for me!

And you know what?  They tasted amazing!!  They were seriously good.  I may make these for the yearly Christmas cookie exchange I go to every year.  They were that good.

He better get a freakin' A in Foods class is all I can say!