Thursday, April 25, 2013

Raspberry Bars


Another favorite in our house are raspberry bars.  I can make a large sheet pan of these scrumptious bars and they are ALL gone in less than 24 hours.  They are very simple to make, and the recipe at the end is big enough to make a 9 X 13 pan.  Since I make a large sheet pan, the ingredients are doubled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease your pan of choice with butter, set aside

In mixer bowl combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Mix thoroughly.
Cut the butter into long sticks, and then into several pieces.
Add to oat/flour mixture, and cut in well.

The mixture should hold together well.
Pour just under 1/2 of the oat mixture into the greased pan.
Make sure to evenly distribute it to cover the bottom, and press down.



Using a small bowl, pour in the jam and mix well to smooth it out (a fork works best.)
 

Pour jam onto crust in pan.  Spread out evenly onto crust.

Evenly sprinkle remaining oat/flour mixture over the jam, then press lightly into jam. Paying close attention to the edges of the pan (this will keep any of the jam from getting on the sides of the pan and burning.)



Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
Cool completely (this is the hardest part of the recipe, waiting!) and cut into bars.
Here's the complete recipe for you....I hope you and yours enjoy it as much as we do!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 sticks (14 Tbsp.) butter
18 oz. jar seedless raspberry jam

To prepare:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease your 9 X 13 pan with butter, set aside.
  3. In mixer bowl combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  4. Mix thoroughly.
  5. Cut the butter into long sticks, and then into several pieces.
  6. Add to oat/flour mixture, and cut in well.
  7. The mixture should hold together well.
  8. Pour just under 1/2 of the oat mixture into the greased pan.
  9. Make sure to evenly distribute it to cover the bottom, and press down.
  10. Using a small bowl, pour in the jam and mix well to smooth it out.
  11. Pour jam onto crust in pan.
  12. Spread out evenly onto crust.
  13. Evenly sprinkle remaining oat/flour mixture over the jam, then press lightly into jam.
  14. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
  15. Cool completely (this is the hardest part of the recipe, waiting!) and cut into bars.
A special thank you goes out to John Paul for all of the awesome pictures!

May God bless you and yours abundantly!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

All Eyes are Upon You (Part 2)

 
The next phase for the potatoes is planting.  The 'tools" you will need are: the potatoes that have dried for a day or two, a bulb planter, and the area tilled (with compost added) where the potatoes will be planted.
 
Using the bulb planter, you want to place it into the dirt deep enough to fill the enter shaft.  Do not remove the dirt from the bulb planter.
Next, place the potato at the bottom of the hole with the eyes pointing up (most of the flesh of the potato should be on the bottom.)

Push the dirt from the bulb planter back onto the potato, and press down lightly.
To plant the next potato, use 1 1/2 lengths of the bulb planter and repeat the above steps.  Part 3 of "All Eyes are Upon You" will show the plants as they make their way through the dirt.

A special thanks goes to Michael and Daddy for planting this years crop.  We sure are looking forward to fresh potatoes from the garden!

May God bless you and yours abundantly!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

My Family's Favorite Cookies


As you can tell from past posts, you probably know that a passion of mine is baking.  With that being said, I've decided to share one of my family's favorite cookies....Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies.
 
The complete recipe is at the end.  I made a quarduple batch of cookies.  In a house with 9 people, there isn't much sense in only making a single batch of anything.  Through trial and error, we have found that making the dough and allowing it to set in the refrigerator overnight produces a better tasting cookie.  We usually make 2 sheet pans of cookies when the dough is first made, and then bake the remaining dough in the next day or two.
 
The first thing that I like to do is make my own brown sugar.  It's very easy, and this way I never have to worry about whether the box or bag of brown sugar in the cabinet has become a brick bat.  For a cup of brown sugar, measure 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar with 1 Tbsp. of molasses.  If you prefer dark brown sugar double the molasses to 2 Tbsp.


Next, add in the white sugar and the softened butter.  Cream well.

 

Next, I crack the eggs into a cereal bowl and add in the vanilla.  Then I use my kitchen scale to weigh out the peanut butter.  This is much easier for me than spraying a measuring cup with non-stick spray or worrying about getting all of the peanut butter out of the cup.  Honestly, I want every drop of the crunchy peanut butter in the dough.

Add the eggs, vanilla, and crunchy peanut butter to your creamed mixture of sugars and butter.  Blend well.

While that's mixing, measure out your dry ingredients, and have the chocolate chips handy.
Once everything is creamed well, add in the flour/oat mixture in 1 cup batches.  When you have about one cup of flour/oats remaining in the bowl, pour the chocolate chips into it.  Stir to coat.



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper, and using a small scoop or two spoons measure out into 1 inch balls.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Pull parchment sheets of cookies onto cooling racks.  Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before eating.


Here is the recipe.  I hope that you and your family enjoy making and eating these as much as my family does.

May God bless you and yours abundantly!

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
 
Directions:
  • In a bowl, cream butter and sugars; beat in peanut butter, egg and vanilla. Combine flour, oats, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
  • Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute before removing to a wire rack. Yield: 2 dozen.


Wednesday, April 17, 2013

All Eyes are Upon You (part 1)

With the rising temperatures comes the time to start thinking about what to plant in the garden this year.  Today, I made my annual trip to Bidwell's for some seed potatoes, lettuce and radish seeds, and red onion sets.
Red potatoes are one of our family favorites since we can do so many things with them.  There is nothing better then a freshly dug red potato, washed, dried with a paper towel, lightly coated in olive oil and salt, wrapped in foil, and cooked on a charcoal fire.  DROOL!!
 
The choice of mixed mesclun and buttercrunch lettuce seeds are so that our fresh garden salads have wonderful flavor!  Throw in some thinly sliced radish for added crunch.
75 red onions should be enough for our garden, but I'm personally hoping that our neighbor trades a few of his yellow onion sets for some of our reds.

In order to plant the potatoes in the garden you don't have to wait until the temperatures are at a warm temperature.  We have found that as soon as you can till the soil, the potatoes are ready to be planted.  Today I'll walk you through what it takes to get the potatoes ready for their trip to the garden.  The tools you will need are a sheet or foil pan for each type of potato you will be cutting, a sharp paring knife, and a cutting board. 

Yes, I realize that in the picture above, there's a large white plastic platter...improvise, you'll get the item back in a day or so and since the platter was just sitting on the shelf I figured hey, why not!  Next, you'll notice that the potatoes look pretty much like the ones you buy from the grocery store.
From left to right there are Yukon Gold (yellow colored flesh), Red Pontiac, and Kennebec (also know as russets).  Do you notice all of the eyes on the potatoes??  Here...how about a closer look...

All of those divots in the potatoes, some are easier to see than others, are called the eyes of the potatoes and play a crucial role when you're cutting them into pieces for planting.  To have the best results, each piece of potato needs to have a minimum of 2 to 3 eyes for each piece.  I'll be you're thinking that the larger potatoes will give you more pieces, well I found out tonight that this isn't always the case.  With some of the smaller potatoes, I was able to get a minimum of 3 pieces.  The same thing happened with most of the larger potatoes.  As I was cutting our potatoes into pieces tonight, I thought back to growing up in Indiana and watching my Dad cut pounds and pounds of potatoes into pieces.  He had several 5 gallon buckets lined up for the pieces.  I could sit for hours and watch him cut those potatoes.  It may sound silly, but it was like watching an painter working on a masterpiece!
Make sure to cut your potatoes and allow them to air dry overnight.  Tomorrow we will be planting the potatoes, and I'll post more pics and information on next steps.  Stay tuned!
Wishing a blessed evening to you.  May God bless you and yours abundantly!