Turtle Bars, or Turtle Cake, or How to Gain 5 lbs Overnight

Today I made Turtle Bars for Father's Day at my Mom's. I let Anna have one, and she was very amused by the name.
A:What these called, Mama? Is this cake?
Me: No, honey it's more like a cookie. They are called Turtle Bars.
A: Turtle Cake, Mama? What it has in it?
Me: Well, graham crackers, chocolate, butter, nuts, and sugar....
A: Where you get the turtle, Mama?
Me: What?
A: It called Turtle Cake, where you get the turtles? It has turtles in it?
(She is not concerned about the turtles. Anna is making a joke. She is looking at me and grinning and giggling. She is so funny. She is always trying to make little jokes.

Anyways, the bars were really good. I am trying my darndest not to eat them all before the party tomorrow. Especially since I had the most delicously disgusting dinner ever. Jonathan and I went on a little date tonight. We went to Get Fired Up!. He has never been, and he was so mature about it. He selected a very realistic lizzard, and he chose very appropriate colors for it. He was patient during the three coat painting process, and he loved using the hairdryer to dry his lizzard between coats. I was able to finish my mermaid for Anna. Then we went to Mustard's Last Stand, which has been in Brevard along US1 forever! They moved in downtown, and so we went through the drive-thru. I ordered a chili cheese (if you are going to do something wrong, do it right!) dog, a cherry coke and we split an order of fries. SO! VERY! GOOD! We ate in the car with the radio turned up (Jonathan wanted to listen to disco music on the radio) and Jonathan said we should go to that place again! I totally agree. Mustard's Last Stand kicks Longdogger's hot dog serving butt anyday, as far as I am concerned.
So now that you are thinking about hot dogs, here is the turtle bar recipe:

1 ROLL of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 BAG semisweet chocolate chips
1.5 CUPS chopped pecans
1 STICK butter
1/2 CUP packed brown sugar
1 JAR Caramel Ice Cream Topping
1 CUP graham cracker crumbs (about 15 squares of crackers crushed up)

Heat oven to 350. Press cookie dough into bottom of ungreased 13X9 Pyrex dish.
Sprinkle 1 cup (1/2 of the bag) of chocolate chips and 1/2 of the pecans over dough and press them lightly into the dough.
In a saucepan, melt butter over medium-hi heat. Stir in brown sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and caramel topping. Heat till boiling while stirring constantly.
Pour mixture over crust in pan and spread it out evenly.
Sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips and nuts on top.
Bake about 25-30 minutes until the edges are deep golden brown (all caramellized goodness!). Cool on cooling rack in pan about a half hour, then use a knife to cut edges away from pan. Leave in the pan until completely cool, about 3 hours or so. Cut into 6 rows by 4 rows, or if you are a pig, into 4 rows by 4 rows. If you are really, really a pig and don't plan to bring this to any potluck, stand in the kitchen in your underwear and eat it out of the pan. But please use caution not to burn yourself while trying to lick the spoon that you used to stir the caramel mixture with (like I did). Also, don't trust your husband when he agrees to leave some in the saucepan for you to scrape out, because he will not do so. He will really, really try but will apparently lose all self-control and hand you the pan and say, apologetically, sorry, there's not much left. Not much left will be a huge understatement and you will think seriously about licking the drizzled, drippy bits off the stovetop.
Enjoy!