Butterscotch Bars

My husband has an unholy obsession with butterscotch. Seriously. He loves cookies or bars with those butterscotch chips that are sold next to the chocolate ones. I find them a little gross - something about super-sweet hydrogenated palm oil and artificial flavors just doesn't please my palate. But, this recipe rocks! Leave it to the folks at America's Test Kitchen!

Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars

Makes 36 Bars

Bars
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, each stick cut into 8 pieces
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg

Glaze
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1. For the bars: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 13 by 9-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving overhang on all sides.

2. Mix flour, oats, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until combined. Heat butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat until nutty brown in color, about 12 minutes. Pour hot butter over butterscotch chips in large bowl and whisk until smooth. Whisk in brown sugar until dissolved, then whisk in vanilla and egg until combined. Stir in flour mixture in two additions until combined.

3. Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake until edges are golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 17 to 19 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack.

4. For the glaze: Bring brown sugar, water, and salt to simmer in small saucepan. Pour hot sugar mixture over butterscotch chips in small bowl, whisking until smooth. Drizzle glaze over warm bars and cool on rack until warm to touch, about 1 1/2 hours.

5. Using foil overhang, lift bars from pan and cool completely on rack, about 30 minutes. Cut into bars and serve. (Bars will keep in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.)

Granola

Today I made granola with my son. He's 4 months shy of three and a great kitchen helper. I try to get him into the kitchen at least once a week. He is a big fan of granola and yogurt but every time I look at the ingredients, I think there must be a way to improve the nutritional value.
This week I accidentally bought plain yogurt instead of our usual vanilla flavored. I think this was serendipitous because it made me look at how much sugar was necessary to sweeten the yogurt to its normal sweetness vs. how much made it just yummy. The same was true for the granola. We combined:
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup Grape-Nuts cereal (this cereal has 90% of daily iron and since my son isn't much on meat it's a great power house for him)
1 cup rice flake cereal (like Special K)
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds

He had a great time scooping all of these and then mixing them together. He also likes to taste the ingredients one by one which was a great way to get his buy-in on the final product.

Then, I added a glop of vegetable oil, a bit of maple syrup, and a bit of brown sugar along with some cinnamon. (maybe about 1/3 - 1/2 cup total.) I threw that liquid combo in the microwave to get it well combined before tossing it all together and toasting it in the oven at 300 for about 45 minutes.

We added some chopped dried apples and cranberries to the finished mix as it cooled. Yum!

Pancakes!

Picked this up at Costco the other day. Great flavor and, aside from a lot more sugar than I'd like, really good. Especially delish with wild blueberries in the batter!

Rub Down

I picked up this rub because the grocer was out of herbs de provence and I wanted to make this white bean salad:

Quick and Easy White Bean Salad Recipe
Ingredients
1 14.5-ounce can white beans, drained but not rinsed (I admit, I rinsed)
2 Tbsp chopped red onion
A squeeze of lemon juice
2 teaspoons wine vinegar (red or white)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dry herbs de provence (crumbled) OR 1 teaspoon of some combination of finely chopped rosemary, tarragon, thyme, and lavender
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Method
1 After you chop up the onion, squeeze a little lemon juice over it and let it sit while prepping the other ingredients. According to my mother, this will take the edge off the onion.
2 Combine all ingredients into a serving dish. You can serve right away if you want, but if you chill for a few hours, the flavors will come together better.
Serves 4. Lasts a couple of days in the refrigerator.

This salad, BTW, is fabulous. It's mind-numbingly easy and healthy. Gotta love the bean!

Anyway, I still had most of the rub remaining - staring at me each time I open my spice cabinet. Last week I went to a lavender-themed dinner and enjoyed a lavender-scented roasted pork. It was fabulous. Wanting to recreate something similar I picked up some pork on a recent outing. I used the rub for the pork as well as some potatoes I roasted in butter and olive oil. Shazaam! It was great. I don't usually buy pre-combined herb mixes but I may be a convert. Even the pan sauce I made with some champagne and butter was great.

Rice Crispy Treats - revisited

I love these things straight up. I've been known to eat a whole pan in a day. Tonight, I only had corn flakes so I gave them a try. Delish! I threw in some Craisins for good measure.
1/4 c. butter
4 c. miniature marshmallows
5 1/2 c. corn flakes cereal
3/4-1 c. cherry Craisins

Fudge Pudding Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sauce:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup hot water

Preparation:Sift flour with dry ingredients; stir in milk and shortening. Add pecans and vanilla. Mix until well combined then pour into a generously greased 8 x 8-inch square pan. Combine sauce ingredients; pour over cake batter. Bake the cake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 40 minutes. Set on a rack to cool slightly (do not remove the cake from the pan). The fudgy sauce will end up on the bottom of the pan. Serve hot or cold.

I made this today because I was having a chocolate craving. I somehow missed the vanilla extract (having a baby on the hip will do that to you). All in all, I wasn't impressed. The cake part was not very chocolatey and had that made-with-AP-flour taste. Sort of heavy and dense but not in a good way. I can really taste the molasses in the brown sugar and it just doesn't work with the chocolate. But, with the missing vanilla, I can't be sure how the equation would change so I may have to try this again with more cocoa (I'd go with Dutch-processed next time), only white sugar and cake flour.

Caramelized Onions

Caramelized onions are one of my favorite additions to darn near anything. They are great on pizza, a wonderful addition to soups and awesome added to a pan sauce after cooking steaks (a reduction of red wine and caramelized onions -perfection!) They are also time consuming to make. So, I like to take a couple of shortcuts. First, the food processor. I chop up at least 6 onions and throw them into my slow cooker. Then, I add *gulp* a stick of butter and turn it on low for the next day or so. I give it a stir when the spirit moves me and turn it off when they're golden brown. Once they are cool, I line my muffin tins with saran wrap and fill them up. (I don't like to take a chance that my next cupcake will be oniony) Once they are frozen, I pop them out and put them into a Ziploc bag. The muffin cup size works perfectly and they are handy as heck. This time, I'm planning to add them to meatloaf. I'll let you know how it goes.