Dirty banana cookies, potting soil and baseball

I love weekends. Especially this one. The weather hasn't been too great all summer, but the cool breezes and overcast skies made it a good day to get some stuff done in the yard. We have a pretty big, fairly flat back yard for living in Pittsburgh and big plans on doing fun stuff to it. When we moved in there was a concrete patio, a wooden deck and a raised platform with a swingset on it. We've added some hanging lanterns and a small garden. We tore down the swingset (much to our 5 year old neighbor Maggie's dismay) and used the corners of the platform for some herbs from Mom Melfa. The goal is to put in a veggie garden, a pond and a pergola where the swingset used to be. It's slow going.

Step one: clearing out my makeshift herb garden to make way for the pergola. The herbs (rue, chives, lavender and something unidentifiable, but nice-smelling) have been there for 2 years, enough time to, in the case of my rue plant, develop a root system close to that of a small tree. They are also pretty weather-beaten from a recent storm and leaning precariously to the right. So I dug them all up. We had to dig a 2 foot hole just to uproot the ruta. All of them now have new homes in pots scattered across the patio which looks a lot neater. Hopefully everything survived the move.

Step two: pergola. Eventually.

Tonight we're going to the Pirates Game with DP and Elaine. As with all Melftanzarite/Petragallo outings, this one will involve hanging out at their place, drinking miccrobrews and live music. O.A.R. is playing after the game, which is the main draw for going. (College memories are flooding back...) It should be a good time.

On another note: I made the most amazing cookies this week. Bri and I have been calling them Dirty Banana Cookies. They are well-worth turning the stove on in August, so I'll share. Enjoy!

Dirty Banana Cookies

1/2 cup mashed rip banana (I think I used a little ore an it it turned out ok)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add egg; beat well.

Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to banana mixture in bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets covered in PAM. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes or until golden. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies and cool completely on wire racks.

This is supposed to yield 2 dozen cookies, but my heaping tablespoons only yielded about 17 cookies. They were ginormous and yummy.