Dorie Greenspan's Chewy Chunky Blondies would be off limits if I were only eating local

Dorie Greenspan's Chewy Chunky Brownies (note: after making the jump, scroll down) from her book Baking: From My Home to Yours...gooood stuff! Made these on cheat day. I knew they'd be really good, being a Dorie Greenspan recipe, but because they have coconut in them, I knew I would be able to resist them on non-cheat days.

If we sourced ALL our foods close to home in order to lower our carbon footprint, that would totally knock out some of the sweets we know and love. These brownies, for instance, contain chocolate and coconut...not the kinda stuff growing on trees here in western Kentucky!

THIS is how I ate one of Dorie's brownies on cheat day. I like coconut in only a handful of desserts, but it suited me fine in these brownies when topped with ice cream and drenched in dulce de leche. (Hubby likes coconut in anything, so he's a fan of the brownies as is.)

Hubby found a ripe persimmon for me...my first!!

   Ever since reading "Grow $700 of Food in 100 Square Feet" in Mother Earth News, I've been goaling toward replacing our lawn with edible landscaping. Hubby, who loves his riding lawn mower, is not on board with this idea. As you may know, my evil plan is to steal tiny bites of the lawn each year...y'know, encroach on his territory so slowly that he won't notice! ;)
    Okay, okay, time to come clean: Hubby's biggest complaint is...I plant more than I weed. Meaning, as we convert lawn to garden, he's stuck with more upkeep than the same sized patch of lawn would require. Mea culpa!! (Sue, of Sue's Garden Journal, has given me the key to overcome my lazy procrastinating: git 'er done early! Working on that!)
   While I continue to work on me and my laziness, I'll continue working on changing Hubby's mindset toward lawn vs. edible landscaping.
   Luckily, he's already on board with planting more trees. Six of our fruit trees planted in the last couple of years look like they're gonna make it. Yea! And now that I know I like the fruits, I'll be looking for a persimmon tree to add to the count, especially because the persimmon is native to Kentucky. All kinda reasons for going native; for one, native species need less water. Gotta love that!
   More sources on edible landscaping:

• National Gardening Association's Edible Landscaping Primer
• Oklahoma Food Cooperative on growing an edible landscape 
• Ohio State University tips on edible landscaping

   Anyone else trying to add more native plants/shrubs/trees to their landscapes? 
   Think a locally-sourced fruit brownie could EVER make us forget a chocolate brownie or a blondie with choc chips?? (oh, the very idea!)