The Best Bars Ever

Photos cannot do this scrumptious bar justice.  
It’s like a Snickers candy bar meets oatmeal cookie bar, with the goodness of sweet and salty flavors, and the combination of chewy and crunchy textures.  The best part is that this is one of the easiest to make and easiest to please bars one can make.  I got the recipe from my former 4H leader, Nancy years ago.
Here’s what you need:
Chocolate Caramel Bars
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, divided
2 c. quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. cold butter or margarine
2 c. (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. chopped peanuts (or preferred nut)
1 jar (12 oz) caramel ice cream topping
In a bowl, mix 2 c. flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.  
Cut in butter until crumbly (or melt the butter and mix in, if time is of the essence).  Set half aside for the topping.  
Press the remaining into a greased 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking pan.  
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  
Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and chopped nuts.  
Whisk caramel topping and remaining flour until smooth. 
Drizzle caramel over top.  Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours before cutting (they aren’t kidding on this step!)  Yield about 4 1/2 dozen.  
The golden brown, finished product. 
This was the perfect end to a perfect meal of homemade veggie pizza.  And what made it even better….
was loading all the dirty dishes into my brand new dishwasher!  
The recap:
Chocolate Caramel Bars
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, divided
2 c. quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. cold butter or margarine
2 c. (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. chopped peanuts (or preferred nut)
1 jar (12 oz) caramel ice cream topping

In a bowl, mix 2 c. flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.  Cut in butter until crumbly (or melt the butter and mix in, if time is of the essence).  Set half aside for the topping.  Press the remaining into a greased 13-inch x 9-inch x 2-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and chopped nuts.  Whisk caramel topping and remaining flour until smooth.  Drizzle caramel over top.  Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours before cutting.  Yield about 4 1/2 dozen.  

Happy Cat Bed

The problem:

We were tired of our constantly cold kitty sleeping on our (usually) clean wool clothing in an effort to warm up.

Solution:
Here’s how I made a quick cat bed from an old felted wool sweater.
I started with a 100% wool sweater.  Washed in hot water and then dried on hot.
Next, I cut out a rectangle on the fold so that I would only have three seams to sew.
I cut along the sleeve area, and as a result had a tiny hole to patch.  I decided to work this into my design by turning it into a mouse hole. I pinned a small piece of wool from another sweater, and sewed it on.
Then I added a little mouse design for fun.  I used a piece of ribbon for the tail.
After sewing on the mouse, I flipped the entire piece right sides (design side) in.  I then lined up the seams and pinned them.  This is important to do when sewing felted sweaters, as they can stretch and change shape.  I always pin only one side at a time in case I need to make adjustments.
The pinned edges.  Next, I sewed the seams, using about 3/8″ seams.  My new machine handles the wool pretty well, but takes a little feeding to get started.  After sewing the two seams along the cut edges, I flipped it inside out and checked to make sure I had no blow-outs.  The seams looked good.  At this point, I placed a large square of felted wool inside as cushioning.
Next, I pinned and sewed the last seam.  Since this last seam incorporated the hem of the sweater, I did not fold the edges under.  I did however, have to stretch the wool slightly as I sewed to accommodate the puckering made by the ribbing on the hem.
Here is the (little crooked) finished cat bed.  All in all this took me 10 minutes total.  Hence the crooked seams.  This was a hurry-baby-is-napping project.
The happy cat slept on her new bed all afternoon.

 

Jambalaya & biscuits

Baby-growing has made me want some interesting foods.  For one, spicy foods are now a top priority, not that I did not like them before, but just not at this level.  Cereals have been a high contender as well, and this is coming from a girl who always chose toast or oatmeal over cereal.  Ice cream has been a biggie as well, which is interesting considering the lactose intolerance before pregnancy.  And now in the third trimester, enter, chicken.  Granted it has to be free-range, hormone-free, happy before they died chicken, but it is still meat I am cooking nonetheless.

Last night I made a great dinner combining a few of these food wants – jambalaya and biscuits.

Jambalaya

1/4 c. olive oil
1 lb boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves
       coarse salt & freshly ground pepper
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, finely chopped
1 lb andouille sausage (couldn’t do it, so I used soy sausages), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 c. stock
1 teaspoon Old Bay or other Cajun seasoning
1 can (14 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 c. long-grain rice

1. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Season chicken with salt & pepper.  Cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side.  Cut into 3/4-inch pieces, set aside.

2. Add vegetables to pot.  Cook, stirring, 5 minutes.  Add sausage; cook 3 minutes.  Add garlic; cook 1 minute.  Stir in stock, seasoning, tomatoes, and 1/2 c. water; bring to a boil.  Add rice and chicken.  Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes.  Cover; remove from heat.  Let stand until rice is tender and liquid is mostly absorbed, 30 to 35 minutes. Season with salt & pepper.

I used jasmine rice for this recipe, which took a little longer than the 30 minutes, so I kept a low heat on the pot for about 10 minutes to keep the rice from taking too long to fully cook.
Smart sausages worked excellent in this recipe, I just sliced them and used them as you would regular sausage.  Cajun’s Choice is a fairly mild spice, I amped up the amount in my recipe. 
Buttermilk Biscuits

2 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 c. low-fat buttermilk, plus more for brushing
1/2 c. heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.  Cut in butter using a pastry blender or fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add buttermilk and cream; stir to combine.

2. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface, and pat to about 1-inch thickness.  Using a lightly floured cutter, cut out rounds.  Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing about 1 inch apart.  Gather scraps, reshape, and cut out.  Brush tops with buttermilk (optional).  Bake until tops are golden (or bottom is golden), 22 to 24 minutes.  Transfer to wire rack to cool.

A pastry blender is one of my favorite baking tools.  It cuts in butter better than anything else – pie crusts are perfect because of this tool.  Butter is much better than margarine when making baking.  It is the fat that melts closest to our own body temperatures, hence no greasy feeling in the mouth, and the flavor enhances other flavors.  Butter has an overall better texture, leading to denser baked goods.  I recommend an unsalted, organic butter.  Quality butter makes quality pastries. 
Try to reshape only once, as every time you work with the dough, it will become tougher and result in a chewier biscuit.  This means you will be left with one odd looking biscuit at the end.  I use a small drinking glass dipped in flour to make my biscuits.  Just be sure to re-flour it each time to prevent sticking.  
Parchment paper is next best baking invention.  It prevents the need to grease pans and will catch any melted butter drippings that may occur.  It took one or two oven fires for me to catch on to this nifty product.  I did not brush the tops of my biscuits with buttermilk, and so had to check the bottoms for the golden color.  I made mine a little thinner, and so adjusted the baking time as well.  
The finished jambalaya & biscuits.  I always eat my biscuits served warm with honey.  
Fairly easy meal, surprisingly from Martha Stewart Living, Feb. 2007.  Sometimes Martha has some ridiculous recipes and I find myself cutting corners.  This one was pretty straight-forward.  It had the suggestion of bananas foster for dessert, but I will be waiting on that until after baby comes along so I can make it the proper way.  

upcycled fabric food

What better birthday gift for a creative 4-year old girl than soft fabric foods?

Fruit, made from upcycled tee shirts & ribbon. They are a little lumpy, but not too bad for the first attempt at fabric foods.  
Breakfast platter complete with two slices of toast, felted jam, two slices of bacon, and two eggs.  Mad from upcycled tee shirts, upcycled felted wool sweaters, and ribbon.  
Hamburger stacked up. 
Hamburger patty with string ketchup, bun, one slice of cheese, and two pieces of lettuce.  Made from upcycled tee shirts, upcycled felted wool sweater, and yarn. 
Then I just needed a little bag to store these fabric foods in.  This is side one of the bag.  Made from upcycled fabric bag (Charlie’s Laundry Soap), upcycled tee shirts, and ribbon. 
Side two of the bag, complete with monogramming.  My machine farted out a little and needed a little break, so to get this gift done in time I used the iron-on method for the blue fabric.  
Our friend’s 4-year old will receive these tomorrow, hopefully I can get some shots of her using them in her kitchen set at some point in the near future.  If I am feeling really brave I will try and tackle making fabric strawberries, which are her favorite fruit, maybe even food.  

Save the Date cards

I haven’t made much as of lately.  I did get the chance to cook up some ideas for my sister’s wedding save the date cards.  I made and was not too thrilled about it and decided to go ahead and make two more and just let her decide on the favorite(s).  She ended up using the two drawings, the ones on the ends, as the mailers.

Caroline’s save the date cards. 
Left: chalk pastel on paper, 4 x 5″, 2011.
Middle: Collage on paper, 4 x 5″, 2011.
Right: Oil pastel on paper, 9 x 12″, 2011.