Peanut Butter & Chocolate Heaven, Bar Cookie Style

You know I have a thing for bar cookies, right?

This is an old recipe, found in a cookbook when I was a teenager. I've been making it ever since then. And, despite the fact that my younger sister gets grouchy when she doesn't get carded, it's been a very long time since I was a teenager, so I've made these for years. And I giggle a little if and when I do get carded.

Anyway, I had a craving for the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. I tried some chocolate brownies with peanut butter frosting last week, but the brownie part wasn't satisfying. The frosting was.  Even peanut butter M & M's didn't satisfy my craving.

It's also too early to beg for holiday Buckeye's from mom, so I decided to make the Peanut Butter Fingers. I mixed up the base ingredients of butter, sugar, egg, peanut butter, flour, oatmeal and baking soda.

And I used all white sugar, instead of a mixture of white and brown sugar; this changed the texture and taste slightly. I tasted several times to be sure it was acceptably peanut buttery, then patted into a 13x9 pan. And realized I'd forgotten the vanilla. Oh well, the base was still yummy.

As that was baking, I measured layer #2: dark chocolate chips. I tasted a few to be sure they were OK.

Layer #3 with these cookies is a peanut butter glaze made from powdered sugar, peanut butter, and milk. I didn't have milk, so substituted whipping cream (which I bought for a recipe I never made.) This made the mixture thicker, more like a frosting - it's usually a more runny glaze consistency.

While waiting for the cookie base to come out of the oven, I tasted the frosting repeatedly to ensure complete peanut buttery satisfaction.

The cookie base came out of the oven and I poured on the chocolate chips. And applied quality control standards to the frosting.

I spread the chocolate chips all over the cookie base. And tasted the frosting.

Then, I tasted the frosting and spread the frosting over the melted chocolate chips. I also licked the spatula as needed  to ensure quality control.

I had a little frosting left over, so made sure was still delicious. These are easy to make because you can get away with mixing the base in one bowl, and turn around and make the frosting in the same bowl a little later.

Just be sure that you test repeatedly throughout the baking process to ensure they're as good as I think they are!

Peanut Butter Fingers

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
2-4 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan and set aside; I have also made these cookies successfully in a jelly roll pan. The 13x9 pan makes the base thicker, while with the jelly roll pan the base will be thinner.

Cream together the butter and sugars, along with the egg, peanut butter, and baking soda. Then mix in the flour and oatmeal. The mixture should be fairly stiff. Pat into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.

While the base is baking, make and repeatedly taste test the frosting by combining the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup peanut butter, and milk until smooth.

When the base comes out of the oven, pour chocolate chips over. Let stand until the chips are melted and spread over the base. Wait just a bit longer and drizzle with peanut butter glaze. Devour.

Halibuloo, Green Beans, Baked Apples

So as you probably know (or at least you've heard,) there's an "app" for everything.

An app is a small application to install on your iPhone that helps you organize your life. There is an app to  helps you (and your pet birds) destroy mean pigs - or perhaps save your virtual home from zombie invasion? I confess to enjoying both - and the Osho Zen Tarot Deck, too.

But don't even get me started trying to count the number and variety of apps out there to help you in the kitchen. I tried the Cooking Light app recently.

I used to subscribe to Cooking Light years ago, when one would actually subscribe to a magazine. With the internet, that doesn't happen much anymore. I can Google for just about anything, and most recipes from magazines are available online either before or shortly after publication. Still, I always liked most recipes I tried from Cooking Light, so I figured it was worth testing.

Despite being challenging to navigate on an iPod touch, browsing on an iPad would be no trouble as with a simple swish of a finger you see one glorious mouth-watering photo after another. I was entranced by the Halibut with tomato relish. I selected Brown-Butter Green Beans and Baked Apples with Chai Syrup as accompaniments.

Screenshot of Halibut with Tomato Relish

There was no halibut in my local grocery store, so I substituted fresh cod. While at the grocery store, I figured I would receive a tomato or two in this week's CSA package, so didn't buy any. But after I got home, I decided to make the fish immediately so improvised with avacado, shallot, lemon, pepper, garlic, cumin, olive oil, and a little sesame oil.

I reviewed the recipes, decided to not have the iPod on the counter while prepping and quickly wrote vague directions for all recipes. I taped them to the overhead cupboard, and winged the rest of the meal.

Hand-written vague directions

With the app, it's nearly impossible to know what needs to be prepped unless you've got all of the recipes in front of you.

With an archaic piece of paper, though, I could easily see that I needed to have the apples in the oven first, then prep the green beans, followed by the avocado mix for the fish. Only after those were prepped and the apple was in the oven did I begin to cook the fish and beans.

And while there is a menu feature, the app doesn't give suggestions for preparing a meal in a timely and efficient manner. And that is one huge strike against the app as time and efficiency are crucial for the modern cook. I stuck to my piece of paper and carried on.

The water came to boil, I dropped the green beans in, and the fish went into the pan to saute. A short while later the green beans were drained, shocked in cold water, and combined with browned butter, lemon, lemon zest, and salt and pepper. The fish finished shortly, flaking apart perfectly in the pan, and onto the plate they both went. About that time the apples were coming out of the oven, and I was ready to eat.

Browned-Butter Green Beans with Lemon

Cod with Sesame-Avocado Relish

Baked Apples with Chai Syrup

These recipes didn't disappoint; they were fast and easy to prepare, and quite tasty. But frankly, I didn't use the app while cooking.

With all of the potential liquids to invade the delicate interworkings, I just didn't want to chance an iPod disaster in the kitchen. And besides, have you tried to read and follow a detailed recipe from an iPod? It's a tiny screen. No way. Maybe on an iPad with a stand...and waterproofing.

There was, however, one app I did use while cooking - and I use it often when preparing multiple dishes. Kitchen Pad Timer kept track of cooking times for all items; in fact, it can manage up to four items on the stove top and four items in the oven. I wonder if the Cooking Light app will improve with a second use? We'll see soon.

Neither A Meatloaf Song, Nor Meat Loaf Himself

This week I'm exploring recipes from Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families - Even Yours!Kitchen Life: Real Food For Real Families -- Even Yours! by Art Smith. The Roasted Asparagus and Roasted Beets with Walnuts really impressed me, so I looked forward to trying other recipes.

The Salmon on Cabbage and Dill on page 208 is a keeper for me.  It went from fridge to table in about 30 minutes and was really easy to prepare - so easy, in fact, that I didn't take pictures of the preparation or cooking. You simply saute a small package of coleslaw mix and 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped dill in a little butter until wilted. Season with salt and pepper, and remove to a platter and cover. Add chicken broth to the same pan, boil, add salmon and more dill; cover and cook 7-8 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through then transfer to the platter with the cabbage. Whisk some sour cream and cornstarch into the remaining broth and heat until thickened; pour over the salmon and cabbage and serve. I particularly liked the fresh dill that really shined in this recipe.

Salmon on Cabbage and Dill

Another night I tried out the Quick Vegetable Chili Tostada on page 244 and was truly disappointed. It almost worked...until the sour cream was added to the sauteed vegetables. And I did have my hopes up that the freshly squeezed lime juice would rescue the whole endeavor, but alas, my wishing was in vain. The tostada part was not crunchy (undercooked?) and the chili part was missing (not enough spices or heat? Me? Never!) Regardless, this recipe didn't work for me and I sure won't be making it again.

Quick Vegetable Chili Tostada

I have a thing for bar cookies so the Butterscotch Blondies on page 301 piqued my curiousity. I was particularly wondering how the butterscotch bits sprinkled on top, melted, and spread over the bar would taste. I mixed the ingredients up in no time on a very hot Saturday morning and threw them into the oven.

The buzzer sounded, I removed the Blondies from the oven and sprinkled the butterscotch bits around. Then I walked away for, maybe 15 minutes? Anyone who's ever melted chocolate knows that is far too long. The chips refused to spread and were completely beyond their ability to spread. Not a problem for me. I got some vanilla ice cream, a little dab or ten of Smucker's Butterscotch sauce, and dug in for a delicious Butterscotch Blondie Sundae!

There you have it, three recipes with three different results. Two out of three ain't bad, so I believe I may dip into this cookbook again sometime. I'm sure Meat Loaf would agree.

Watermelon and Chocolate

So I was reading Rick Tramonto's Amuse-Bouche the other night and bemoaning the fact that I would probably never own a sous vide machine. After that I bemoaned the fact that the ice cream machine I tried was a dud, and that I probably should have picked up the Zoku popsicle maker in the store the other day. Custom popsicles anytime! Sign me up!

Reading through the book also brought me back to earlier in the weekend, sitting on a friend's porch in sweltering weather, eating some of the first watermelon of the season, liquid dripping to the ground with every bite. Unadorned, watermelon at it's best.

The amuse on page 34 of Tramonto's book caught my attention: watermelon with balsamic vinegar. And like a dream, the memory of the dark chocolate balsamic I'd received for Christmas floated right to me. I was scared to try it over vanilla ice cream. I've seen recipes for a pork tenderloin marinade, a salad dressing, and truffles. But watermelon? With Balsamic vinegar? This is definitely worth hunting down a good bottle of balsamic.

Get brave. It's summer, and definitely time time to challenge your taste buds in miraculous ways. Go to your kitchen and try this unsual combination. Tramonto gussies it all up by suggesting you get a melon baller and scoop out a smallish divet in precisely cut 1 1/2 inch cubes of watermelon. His recipe even says something like juice some watermelon and mix it up with the balsamic. I say, "It's summer, Rick, it's too hot to be fussy."

Sure for the first couple of pieces, I was cautious. I used a knife. I dug a little divet into the chunk of watermelon. And dripped out a teeny puddle of a drizzle of the Dark Chocolate Balsamic. Then I popped the first one in my mouth and moaned with pleasure.

Dear me - must have more. Now. As in, I know I just had a spectacular dark chocolate truffle, but I must have more NOW. Eventually I got impatient with the fussiness and just dipped. Either way, this is totally satisfying, ultra-summery. Yahoo! Bring on the sweet corn, tomatoes, and poolside dining!

Lemons, Not Lemonade

I love the flavor of lemon. I love the particular cheery shade of yellow that lemons are. Recently, however, I had a true lemon of an experience attempting to make the lemon sorbet from Cook and Tell by Karyl Bannister. She gets lemon-fresh cheery (teary?) describing the luscious lemon sorbet made by a "dainty and dear lady" who made prepared this recipe in "her coastal cottage in Maine for over sixty years."

Made with just lemon juice, sugar, salt, milk, and heavy cream, I figured this would be a breeze. There are no eggs involved, so no cooking or coddling involved. Just mix up the ingredients and dump them into the new-to-me Deni ice cream maker from my local Goodwill.

Now don't get all wacky on me about buying stuff from Goodwill to use in the kitchen. I've been doing it for years. In fact, I have a fanastic used Zojirushi bread maker that makes a perfect half loaf. I figured the ice cream maker would turn out lovely soft serve ice cream for me all summer, saving me the one-block walking commute to the nearby Dairy Queen for service from indifferent teenage girls. I popped the gel-filled cylinder into the freezer and let it sit there for more than twenty-four hours.

The next day, I mixed some ingredients together, starting with lemons...

I juiced the lemons by hand, and stirred everything together until the sugar had dissolved...

I also added some yellow food coloring so the sorbet would be a lovely light lemon color. I set the machine up properly, checked the user's manual twice to be sure, and turned it on.

I quickly discovered that the cylinder wouldn't rotate with the top down completely. And the top wouldn't go down completely unless the plastic paddle was fixed just so. And the plastic paddle NEVER...I'm talking NEVER EVER EVER sat correclty.

I tried holding down the clear part (there's a cylinder, a paddle, and a clear part that is like a cover - except it has a hole in the middle where you pour the liquid.) Not working. I took the clear top off and let it spin. I left the paddle in, and the paddle spun with the cylinder.

After thirty or so minutes of the grinding of the machine, and me cussing, I gave up. The liquid was still very much a liquid, and I was cussing in oh-so-many ways.

I poured it into several ice cube trays...

and I poured it into cheap plastic popsicle trays I got years ago but have never used.

I cleaned up the kitchen. I waited two hours. And had the beginnings of a delicious frozen dessert as the liquid had begun to change to a soft ice cream consistency. I tried making a different dish and also failed miserably in the first step. I nuked something for dinner instead.

I couldn't resist attempting the accompanying hot blueberry sauce, and prayed that the third attempt at cooking a recipe from Cook and Tell would work. I really didn't want another disaster on my hands. I was also questioning my cooking mojo. I took the blueberries out of the freezer and put them into a pan, then added sugar, cinnamon, lemon, nutmeg and powdered ginger (the recipe called for crystallized and I had none.)

Then I heated up the blueberries and cooked until they were liquidy.

By that time, the sorbet was frozen enough to eat. I plopped some sorbet cubes into a fancy glass, and topped with blueberry sauce.

And went to lemon-blueberry heaven. All that fuss and muss was certainly worth it. Kind of. Taste-wise it was. Mess-wise it was not. The sauce is outstanding, all berry and ginger. But now I  need a new ice cream maker - any recommendations?

Upside Down, You're Turning Me

I'd chosen five or six dishes from The Passionate Palate to try, and then it was late Sunday afternoon. I was thinking about making the Vegetable Lasagna on page 43 and accompanying the dish with the Wild Woman Wilted Salad on page 146. Further inspection of the salad showed that it was just a gussied-up name for a spinach salad with hot bacon dressing. I also considered the Upside-Down Apple Gingerbread on page 186 - and you know what won?

The gingerbread, of course, because I only had two eggs in the house. I could have  made all three items, but it just seemed like too much work and I really didn't want to run to the grocery store. I'm not one to shirk cooking challenges often, but on this particular Sunday it was worth it. Besides, I had leftover Tamale Pie (which you'll learn about in a few days.) I really didn't need one more tomato-laden dish hanging around in my fridge to become green and moldy.

Also, this reminds me of the Pineapple Upside-Down cakes that were so popular in the 70's. This was much better and required no spiffy placement of pineapple rings or maraschino cherries.

I think this would be easily replicated without a recipe. If you've got a favorite gingerbread recipe, try to prepare it this way. The most important ingredient after the cake mixture is the apple filling. It requires enough thinly sliced apples to cover the bottom of a 9x9 well-buttered pan. I used two large Granny Smith's.

Thinly Sliced Granny Smith Apples

Sprinkle on a little over a half cup of mixed brown sugar and cinnamon...

and pour in your gingerbread recipe.

Mine went into the oven for 30 minutes. I used the toothpick trick and determined that more time was needed. So it went back into the oven for another 10 minutes. Then I let it cool while I cleaned up the kitchen and ate my dinner of Tamale Pie.

I spooned the Upside-Down Apple Gingerbread into the Fiestaware bowl and stopped. Something was missing. The recipe suggested a sprinkling of confectioner's sugar and a dollap of bourbon infused whipping cream; I had none of those in the house. I did, however, have just enough vanilla ice cream. Perfect!

Sweetness, Peaches, Almonds - Sigh

I have a sweet tooth.

Correction, I have one whoopin' humongous sweet tooth.

So the description and photos of Peach Cobbler with Candied Almonds in new Tupelo Honey Cafe Cookbook had me at hello. How could I say no to a recipe that insists I serve it over vanilla ice cream?

I was surprised by the end result in that it didn't remind me of a traditional cobbler. I was imagining some warm fruit (which there is) and a floury-buttery-biscuity topping (which there isn't.) It didnt' matter.

Like several of the recipes I tried from Tupelo Honey, this requires a couple of steps - all that can be done before you actually want to eat the food. I recommend making the candied almonds the night before.

I combined vanilla, water, and cinnamon, added blanched sliced almonds and stirred. Then they went into a skillet until simmering and the liquid was reduced. After that, they headed into the oven for a few minutes until the moisture was gone. And after that, they sat around for me to munch on.

But first taste told me something wasn't quite right. I like cinnamon and vanilla, but if these were supposed to be candied almonds, shouldn't there be sugar involved? I consulted the recipe but no sugar was called for.

How can the almonds be candied without sugar? They didn't taste candied. Before the almonds were cooled off, I stirred in about a half cup of sugar. And THEN I had candied almonds. I couldn't stop eating them.

Candied Almonds

The next day I worked on the peaches. As the book recommends, I used canned peaches; perhaps in the summer I'll try fresh. First you have to take peaches and put them into the oven for 10-12 minutes until they and the juices are bubbly. If you would like bubbling juices, be sure to turn the oven on first. It's most helpful. Otherwise, like me, you will be waiting for a long time.

No Boil Peaches

So I turned the oven up to the recommended 300 and waited. I wanted a half hour for boiling. No bubbles. I waited a little longer, learned the words to Uberlin from the new R.E.M. release, and checked Facebook. Still no boil.

Instead of waiting longer, I took the peaches out of the oven, put them into a pan on top of the stove, and boiled along with some reserved peach juice. We're talking a simple sugar here, not rocket science.

After this torture, the peaches were still not properly prepared for cobbler. Nevertheless, they were drained and placed into a 4-cup baking dish. Now I don't know about you, but I had no clue what size pan would be a 4-cupper. I poured four cups of liquid into a 9x9 pan and had my answer. The peaches look rather pitiful, don't you think?

I combined some reserved liquid, brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and poured over the peaches. The peaches still looked sad.

The peaches went into the oven for 20 minutes, and looked much more promising.

They were then topped with the reserved candied almonds for an additional 3-5 minutes until the almonds were looking slightly toasted. And after that?

Vanilla Ice cream. Warm peaches and candied almonds.

Need I say more?