Showing posts with label bars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bars. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
White Chili and 7 Layer Bars
I cooked up White Chili (from Aunt Debbie) and 7 layer bars (from Gretchen). I went to Safeway instead of my normal trip to Kings and was utterly confused. Everything was in a different place and they didn’t have tortilla strips! Tragic, I know. Once home, I cut up the chicken. I am getting close to being a professional chicken cutter, touching the chicken even! The chili is amazing and easy to make! The Seven Layer Bars were easy as well. The recipe starts with a stick of butter, which makes me happy any day. I tossed on some crushed graham cracker, chocolate chips, butter scotch chips, coconut flakes, a can of condensed milk and nuts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6……and the butter counts at 7. I brought the chili in my crock pot and the bars to a Pot Luck for my boss’ birthday party at work. Both the White Chili and 7 layer bars were a huge hit! But all that eating led to a very lethargic afternoon. I was tempted to leave a note on my desk with a bell saying, ‘sleeping under desk, ring if you need me’.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Chicken Nuggets, Baked Potato, Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Mary’s Easy Bars, Homemade Croutons
I decided to host a Sunday lunch party at my apartment to get some recipes out of the way and to have my grandparents over to visit for the first time. I did all of the shopping and cooking on Saturday to leave my stress level low for Sunday. I caffeinated myself up and got to shopping. Once I finished and got home, I decided to carry all of the bags in one trip. This included 8 potatoes, a 2 liter of sparkling soda, Pepsi and a gallon of orange juice. It was heavy! It took quite a bit of strength to lift the bags up onto the counter. The caffeine made me invincible and I pulled it off. The chicken nugget recipe, vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies and Mary’s easy bars are from Mom, and the baked potato and homemade croutons are from me.
I feel totally lied to….Mary’s easy bars are in fact, not easy. Sure the recipe looks simple enough, mix some ingredients and layer them with a chocolate mixture. Sure it only has a few ingredients. The problem comes when the recipe says mix…batter will be thick. I try to stir the batter, which is useless, apparently thick means cement clay. I think hmmm I can probably do this with my hands, kneed the ingredients together. This was a failure! The batter was not only cement clay, but also super glue. I was covered with a paste and every time I tried to scrap it off one hand, it just stuck to the other. I did the best I could, but eventually had to wash my hands and lose some batter. Then I put the mixture in a greased pan…It was too dang thick though to spread out in the pan like a normal cake! It just slipped along the greased bottom. I decided to do something drastic, creative….perhaps a litter weird; I sprayed cooking spray all over my hands and spread it around like a lotion. Stick to this batter! The oil helped the batter to keep to itself and I was able after a lot of finesse to get the batter ready. I added some chocolate and put batter chunks on top (not an easy task either).
I cut up the chicken pieces without making any contact with the chicken and prepared the coating for the next day. The Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies went off without a hitch and I ate a warm one as my dinner. I decided to use up some old French bread and make croutons. I cut the bread into small cubes and tossed them in olive oil with garlic salt, pepper, and parsley and then put them in the oven. I started the dishes and wiped the counters down and played with Max..and why is the oven still on? Oh yea! I am making croutons! They ended up burned (I know you aren’t really surprised) but still decent to eat.
I put out some other leftovers I had, salsa, cranberry salsa, and scramble. The guest list included; Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Ali, Shannon and Shannon’s boyfriend Conner (or if you are Ali you can call him Simon cause you can’t remember his name). We ate and visited; Max was excited to have people over to play with. Thank you for coming family!
I feel totally lied to….Mary’s easy bars are in fact, not easy. Sure the recipe looks simple enough, mix some ingredients and layer them with a chocolate mixture. Sure it only has a few ingredients. The problem comes when the recipe says mix…batter will be thick. I try to stir the batter, which is useless, apparently thick means cement clay. I think hmmm I can probably do this with my hands, kneed the ingredients together. This was a failure! The batter was not only cement clay, but also super glue. I was covered with a paste and every time I tried to scrap it off one hand, it just stuck to the other. I did the best I could, but eventually had to wash my hands and lose some batter. Then I put the mixture in a greased pan…It was too dang thick though to spread out in the pan like a normal cake! It just slipped along the greased bottom. I decided to do something drastic, creative….perhaps a litter weird; I sprayed cooking spray all over my hands and spread it around like a lotion. Stick to this batter! The oil helped the batter to keep to itself and I was able after a lot of finesse to get the batter ready. I added some chocolate and put batter chunks on top (not an easy task either).
I cut up the chicken pieces without making any contact with the chicken and prepared the coating for the next day. The Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies went off without a hitch and I ate a warm one as my dinner. I decided to use up some old French bread and make croutons. I cut the bread into small cubes and tossed them in olive oil with garlic salt, pepper, and parsley and then put them in the oven. I started the dishes and wiped the counters down and played with Max..and why is the oven still on? Oh yea! I am making croutons! They ended up burned (I know you aren’t really surprised) but still decent to eat.
I put out some other leftovers I had, salsa, cranberry salsa, and scramble. The guest list included; Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, Ali, Shannon and Shannon’s boyfriend Conner (or if you are Ali you can call him Simon cause you can’t remember his name). We ate and visited; Max was excited to have people over to play with. Thank you for coming family!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Snicker Doodle Crispy Snack and Caramel Bars
Sunday, I made Snicker Doodle Crispy Snack, a recipe from my mom and Caramel Bars, a recipe from Gretchen. And here is the recap…
I am tired, really tired today. It is snowing big flakes and will continue to all day. I am at the point where I am sick of cooking and sick of dishes. I am sick of grocery shopping and sick of going out in the snow. Maybe I can take a break this week? No…then I will have too many recipes for the end of the year. Fine, I will cook! I write down the ingredients I need (which gets smaller every week as my inventory increases), bundle up and head out. I decide to go to Whole Foods first and get as much as I can. It is out of the way and more expensive, but I feel so much better when I eat more natural things. Unfortunately, you can’t get instant Quaker oatmeal or 1 lb of caramels at Whole Foods, at least not that I could find. I don’t feel like wandering around to find anything and just commit to making a trip to Kings Soopers. I had no great adventure at either store today. I didn’t put food in any unsuspecting person’s cart, I didn’t have a panic attack, and I didn’t even get cheese samples. Just in and out as fast as I could.
I am home and I procrastinate for a while, organize my pictures, and watch some TV. Finally, I realize the food is not going to cook itself and I start with the Snicker Doodle Crispy Snack. The recipe calls for 4 cups of popcorn, which takes me a little longer than normal because I only have 100 calorie packs. I mix the popcorn with chocolate rice crispy cereal (I use organic EnviroKidz). I melt some butter, toss in some sugar and cinnamon, and put it in the microwave for while. Then I add some dried cranberries and presto! Done! This recipe is really easy and really good. It is crunchy, a little sweet and won’t totally break your diet. When my parents took Jeff and I to Las Vegas, my mom made this snack for me. I was gluten free still and she was worried that I would get hungry during the trip and wouldn’t have good choices around to snack on. Thanks Mom!
The next recipe was a little more challenging for me. I turn on CSI: Miami…not my favorite, but all I have to work with. The recipe calls for 1 lb of caramels…so that translates into sit down and unwrap 1 lb of caramels until your fingers bleed! Not really, but it took some time and a few samples. I melt the caramels with a little milk and work on the ‘bar’ part of the caramel bars. I open a container of instant oatmeal, which apparently is packed rather tightly. POW! An explosion of oatmeal covers me, the counter and the floor. I clean up right away so Max doesn’t eat any. This is a good time to mention…DON’T LET CATS EAT PEOPLE FOOD! I thought his cute little begging was enough to let a few things slide. Little did I know that onions cause anemia in cats. He appears to be okay, but I don’t want to risk anything else! Sorry Max, you are stuck with turkey flavored cubes in turkey flavored juice (NASTY)! So I clean up little pieces of oatmeal, trash them and continue to mix up the base. I don’t have a ‘1 cup’ measuring cup, so I use a ¼ cup measuring cup to add 1 ½ cups of brown sugar (was that enough math for you?) That should have equaled 6 scoops…by 5 or 6 though I got distracted and lost count. So if anyone tries these bars, they could be missing that little bit of brown sugar flare, or be too sugary….we may never know. Alright, next problem arises. ‘Place brown sugar mixture in a 9x13 pan’…I have a casserole dish (smaller) and a pie pan (round). Hmmm, perhaps I should have checked ahead of time? I put most of the mixture in the casserole dish and fill half the pie pan with the rest. This will work right? Not really…I sprinkle with chocolate chips and pour the caramel over. The caramel works great in the casserole dish, but spreads across my ‘unused’ portion of the pie dish. I just ignore that this might not work and bake them anyway. I pull out the pans after they are finished baking to my result: a beautiful looking casserole pan of bars and a lump of crap surrounded by burnt caramel. At least some of it worked! I try to cut out a caramel bar and it is just plain stuck! Was I supposed to grease the pan? Probably. Jeff comes home later and says that these are usually hard to get out. You really have to know what you are doing with a knife and I am too tired to even try. Jeff wrestles one free, however, and approves with a YUM.
My cooking was finished on my sleepy day and I watch the Canada-USA Hockey game. Maybe next week I will have more gusto to cook, more passion to bake, more energy to shop. But for today, I am glad to be done.
I am tired, really tired today. It is snowing big flakes and will continue to all day. I am at the point where I am sick of cooking and sick of dishes. I am sick of grocery shopping and sick of going out in the snow. Maybe I can take a break this week? No…then I will have too many recipes for the end of the year. Fine, I will cook! I write down the ingredients I need (which gets smaller every week as my inventory increases), bundle up and head out. I decide to go to Whole Foods first and get as much as I can. It is out of the way and more expensive, but I feel so much better when I eat more natural things. Unfortunately, you can’t get instant Quaker oatmeal or 1 lb of caramels at Whole Foods, at least not that I could find. I don’t feel like wandering around to find anything and just commit to making a trip to Kings Soopers. I had no great adventure at either store today. I didn’t put food in any unsuspecting person’s cart, I didn’t have a panic attack, and I didn’t even get cheese samples. Just in and out as fast as I could.
I am home and I procrastinate for a while, organize my pictures, and watch some TV. Finally, I realize the food is not going to cook itself and I start with the Snicker Doodle Crispy Snack. The recipe calls for 4 cups of popcorn, which takes me a little longer than normal because I only have 100 calorie packs. I mix the popcorn with chocolate rice crispy cereal (I use organic EnviroKidz). I melt some butter, toss in some sugar and cinnamon, and put it in the microwave for while. Then I add some dried cranberries and presto! Done! This recipe is really easy and really good. It is crunchy, a little sweet and won’t totally break your diet. When my parents took Jeff and I to Las Vegas, my mom made this snack for me. I was gluten free still and she was worried that I would get hungry during the trip and wouldn’t have good choices around to snack on. Thanks Mom!
The next recipe was a little more challenging for me. I turn on CSI: Miami…not my favorite, but all I have to work with. The recipe calls for 1 lb of caramels…so that translates into sit down and unwrap 1 lb of caramels until your fingers bleed! Not really, but it took some time and a few samples. I melt the caramels with a little milk and work on the ‘bar’ part of the caramel bars. I open a container of instant oatmeal, which apparently is packed rather tightly. POW! An explosion of oatmeal covers me, the counter and the floor. I clean up right away so Max doesn’t eat any. This is a good time to mention…DON’T LET CATS EAT PEOPLE FOOD! I thought his cute little begging was enough to let a few things slide. Little did I know that onions cause anemia in cats. He appears to be okay, but I don’t want to risk anything else! Sorry Max, you are stuck with turkey flavored cubes in turkey flavored juice (NASTY)! So I clean up little pieces of oatmeal, trash them and continue to mix up the base. I don’t have a ‘1 cup’ measuring cup, so I use a ¼ cup measuring cup to add 1 ½ cups of brown sugar (was that enough math for you?) That should have equaled 6 scoops…by 5 or 6 though I got distracted and lost count. So if anyone tries these bars, they could be missing that little bit of brown sugar flare, or be too sugary….we may never know. Alright, next problem arises. ‘Place brown sugar mixture in a 9x13 pan’…I have a casserole dish (smaller) and a pie pan (round). Hmmm, perhaps I should have checked ahead of time? I put most of the mixture in the casserole dish and fill half the pie pan with the rest. This will work right? Not really…I sprinkle with chocolate chips and pour the caramel over. The caramel works great in the casserole dish, but spreads across my ‘unused’ portion of the pie dish. I just ignore that this might not work and bake them anyway. I pull out the pans after they are finished baking to my result: a beautiful looking casserole pan of bars and a lump of crap surrounded by burnt caramel. At least some of it worked! I try to cut out a caramel bar and it is just plain stuck! Was I supposed to grease the pan? Probably. Jeff comes home later and says that these are usually hard to get out. You really have to know what you are doing with a knife and I am too tired to even try. Jeff wrestles one free, however, and approves with a YUM.
My cooking was finished on my sleepy day and I watch the Canada-USA Hockey game. Maybe next week I will have more gusto to cook, more passion to bake, more energy to shop. But for today, I am glad to be done.
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