Tonight we started our baking for Round 9 at BakingGals.com.  Our soldier this round is a woman named Capt Sarah Armstrong.  She is currently stationed in Iraq with Marine Aircraft Group 26, a headquarters group that supports 10-12 squadrons.  I would suspect that Capt Armstrong and company are very busy people!

Sarah Armstrong is also a fellow blogger!  Her blog is Sweets by Sarah, a foodie, family, friendy blog, and somehow she finds time in Iraq to update it on a fairly regular basis.  Sarah has made two posts about her daily life in Iraq, here and here, and they include pictures of her work area and colleagues.  There’s also a great bunch of pictures posted of her and her pals on a run at 6 a.m. because it’s too freakin’ hot any other time of day. Imagine yourself jogging in the Mojave Desert, nice!

This round, since it’s about a million degrees Fahrenheit in Iraq right now, we are making treats that shouldn’t melt, i.e. no chocolate chips or M&M cookies, which are some of my favorites to make.  We’re going a little old school and digging deep into the family recipes for some really great treats.

Gram’s Oatmeal Squares

Gram’s Molasses Crinkles

Grammie’s Brown Edge Wafers

Brownie Drops (mystery contributor)

Plus we have the “cheat” cookies from Pillsbury that were just too cute to pass up – they are sugar cookies with American flags in the center.  :-)  I’ll be sure to include mints, gum, and other candy.  I heard that magazines are welcome as are treats like lotions, soaps and drink mix singles, so I’ll try to include some of that too!  

As always, if you are interested in baking for a soldier and spreading the love overseas, check out BakingGals.com!  If it’s not for you, please pass the word on to others who may be interested.  It’s the first cause I’m really interested in, so enable me, please! Oh, and Dad and I just tried out the Oatmeal Squares and they may unfortunately be too delicate to ship to Iraq, so I may have to substitute something else for that.  We’ll see how they are when cooled.