myohmyohmyohmy, the menfolk in the house ventured to the interior of the grocery store...and this is what they returned with. It was soooo good for about the first 5 little bites, then the sweet-sweet-sweetness took over. That will last me until this summer's trip to the boardwalk fer shur.
*bonne maman caramel spread image courtesy of mikamika's flickr photo stream
*ice cream courtesy of breyer's
*Miss Vickie's courtesy of Frito-Lay
A container of dried figs called to me at the grocery store last week. They wanted to come home with me and be baked into a delicious and healthy dessert bar. I assured them I would not let them down....they're just little figs after all! I modified this Skinny Fig Bar recipe from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen to suit what I had on hand. (She lists the nutritional values for the original recipe.)
Here's my version:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Filling
8 oz dried figs
4 oz golden raisins
2 tbsp almonds
2 drops anise extract
1 tbsp demerara sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
Pulse the figs, raisins and almonds in the food processor until a coarse paste starts to form. Add remaining ingredients and blend into a somewhat smooth paste. I added a little bit more water (a tsp at a time) while it was blending to keep it moving.
Crust
2 C regular or quick oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp demerara sugar
1/3 stick of butter, coarsely chopped
1/4 C water
Blend 1 C of oats in food processor until fine, then add the rest of the dry ingredients. Pulse into a coarse meal, then add the remaining wet ingredients. Pulse and blend about 20-30 secs. until it becomes a crumbly, sticky mix.
Press half the crust mixture into the bottom of a sprayed, 8-inch square baking pan (use a the heal of your hand to get it pressed evenly and flat). Spread the filling evenly over the crust. Smooth the remaining crust mixture over the filling. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.
Enjoy!
I've been making juice this way since the Peanut Man was little. It's not an everyday thing b/c of the time and clean-up, but when I have a batch of grapes that's about to go south - into the blender it goes! It's waaaay better tasting than the store-bought-from-concentrate-artificially-colored-made-6-months-ago-sugar-water they call juice. And much better for you b/c the micronutrient and vitamin content is maintained - not to mention all the soluble fiber (which is why I don't use a juicer - too much lost).
1) To the blender, add rough cut fruits of choice. No concern here for peels (except oranges) or seeds or stems or cores - throw it all in! I always put grapes on the bottom b/c their water content gets everything going pretty quickly. Here, I added 2 C. grapes, 1 orange, 1 apple and 2 carrots.
2) Blend for a good bit. Maybe a minute.
3) Pour into a food mill and crank until the pulp is all that's left in the mill and all the yummy juice is in your bowl below.
4) Enjoy! This blenderful made about 24 oz. Sometimes Peanut Man will eat the pulp leftover - more power to ya kiddo!
Growing up, we always made snickerdoodles around Christmastime. My sister and I loved rolling the little balls of dough in the sugary sprinkles. So I make them every year and ship them off to my family members as a little reminder of Christmas traditions past. Well, they look yummy enough in this picture (and they taste yummy, too), but they didn't flatten out at all! They look like those round, hard oyster crackers. We didn't have regular white sugar, just the demerara sugar by Domino. It's washed raw cane sugar, and the package says its great for baking. Hmm. Maybe something else went awry with my recipe, but considering this is the only factor that changed in 18 years....I think it was the sugar. Can I send in these oyster-cracker-snicker-doodle-balls to my son's winter party at school? I think they'll eat anything with sprinkles so in it goes!
Fun, basic recipe you can mess around with by creating a variation (adding grated tart apples, frozen blueberries, grated zucchini). I've been using it for years, and it has withstood a lot of experimentation on the "extras." (There was that pesky 'apple jupiter' incident, where each muffin weighed about a pound each...but my husband lets me live that down b/c everything else has been spot-on.) This is from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. I'll give the straight recipe and then my additions:
Muffin Madness - oven at 350 degrees
Mix all basic wet ingredients in a big bowl:
-2 large eggs
-1/2 C. olive oil (recipe says vegetable, but I don't ever use it)
-3/4 - 1 C. dark brown sugar
-1 t. vanilla extract
Mix all basic dry ingredients in a small bowl:
-2 C. unbleached white flour
-1 t. baking powder (I used 1/4 t. baking soda and 1/2 t. cream of tartar as a substitute)
-1/2 t. salt
I then added 3 mashed bananas, 1/2 C. sunflower seeds, 1/2 C. pumpkin seeds and 1/2 C. Ghiradelli bittersweet choc. chips. I didn't feel like messing around with muffin tins, plus I wanted to extend the original recipe. I spread the mixture onto an 11 x 17 jellyroll pan, thinly but evenly. I have no clue how long they baked; I just kept an eye on it until it looked like the top picture. If I had used regular muffin tins, this recipe would have yielded 12 muffins. With the jellyroll pan, the recipe yielded 28 squares....a more appropriate serving size anyway!
**B/c I didn't have baking powder, I googled substitutions and found this awesome guide.
**Checkout the Moosewood recipe archive.
