Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

***Add raspberries to the jam layer for a little zing. 

Ingredients…

1/2 cup packed light brown

sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8 inch square pan, and line with greased foil.

Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats. Rub in the butter using your hands or a pastry blender to form a crumbly mixture. Press 2 cups of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam to within 1/4 inch of the edge. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top, and lightly press it into the jam.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

Recipe from ALLRECIPES.COM

The family made Cream of Celery soup today.  That’s right, it took all of us.  Lots of chopping, stirring and more chopping.  I used this recipe, but I opted not to pour the soup through a sieve.  Lose the vegetables?  No way!  But, I learned that you have to boil the celery a loooooong time before it becomes tender.  After about a half hour at a high boil, it still wasn’t quite there, but we were hungry so we pushed on.  Butch set to chopping up the veggies (this is where you would normally puree them).  There were more than a couple clumps of celery flying through the air.  All the while, Rocker in position at the base of the counter—-that’s his strategy for catching small bits of cheese that might fall off the grater or a sliver of chicken, today it was celery.  I wasn’t really paying attention until we sat down to eat and the poor guy had three green spots where celery had splatted on his nose and head.  What a mess this soup was to make!  I have to admit fantasizing about my Kitchen Aid stainless blender (Ooooooo) that’s in storage back home.  That thing would have put this celery in it’s place.  Never the less, it was all worth it because the soup was fabulous, especially on this cloudy day.

You know you’ve been looking at this scrap-booking paper too long when your food takes on the same color palette…  I love this recipe because I can get all the ingredients at our local grocery store across the street.  Only, I still buy imported skim milk, but not for long—-with the exchange rate it’s pushing $10 a gallon!!!  Yikes!  I know some of you can relate because I heard gas was up to nearly $4 a gallon in some parts of the States yesterday.  I’m thinking we need some comfort food.

Spring Chowder, Anyone?

Ok, I sort of made this up myself–it’s not as thick as a chowder, but yummy none the less.

• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 head of cauli
• a handful of chopped onion
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
• chicken broth
• butter

(I’m not so precise on measurements—it’s soup.)

In a large pot, saute onion in a bit of butter until lightly browned. Add chopped broc and cauli and cover with chicken broth.  Boil until veggies are tender.  Then I take the end of my wooden spatula and smash and chop the veggies until they get small.

Make the Cream Soup Base:

• 1/2 c. butter
• 6 tbsp. flour
• 2 c. milk
• 2 cubes chick bouillon (optional with broth)
• pinch o’ pepper

Melt the butter, add flour to make a paste.  Add the milk, pepper, bouillon and heat—stir, stir, stir.  Add this base to the veggies.  Throw in the chicken and now comes my favorite part….fold in the shredded carrots.  Done, unless you want to toss in a couple of small cheese cubes…which I do on occasion.

You can add and modify this to your liking…I think there should be some herbs in it of some sort though.  Any suggestions?  Mrs. Eikenberry, thoughts?

  Wishing you all a cozy and relaxing weekend…

Here’s a sweet painting that caught my eye leaving school the other day.  Who can resist a Robin perched on a cherry blossom tree branch?  Signs of Spring all around us…

Ever since I made the granola bars, I’ve been hooked.  Those had a lot of sugar in them, but the recipe I’m about to give you doesn’t.  It was recently passed along to me by my friend, Inger from Norway (quite possibly the most healthy person I know).

Inger’s Bird Balls — (affectionately named by Candie)

• Ground up your oats in a food processor-enough for 2 c.
• 1 browned banana (I used 2)
• add some dried fruit, coconut, nuts and so on (I’d say 2 handfuls at least)

Mix it all together.  Inger says "if the mixture is too dry, she grates up an apple or melon or anything she has on hand" and adds it to the mixture.  Roll into balls and bake for 15 minutes at 300F/150C.

Store the balls in the fridge.  Inger also says they freeze well.

Thanks everybody for reading my blog and checking in over here.  Thank you for the notes and thoughts.  I always love reading them.  I hope you’re all have a good week.  I just got some new pictures of the workshop, so I’ll post those tomorrow.  I know I said that yesterday, eek. I’m off to buy some materials…let’s hope I find some good treasures.

West African Peanut Soup and homemade granola bars.  Last night it was just me and Rocker for dinner.  I’ve been in a soup rut and hungry for granola bars.  I went to buy drill bits and made a detour to Croissants de France to get a baguette.  Somewhere in the middle I bought some Manuka honey at the New Zealand store.  Which by the way, I indulged with a spoonful of that honey straight from the jar and had to grab the edge of the counter it was so good! Oh honey!  Let me tell you, a perfect blend it was!   

Now the price of a box of granola bars is going to set you back about 5 to 6 dollars here so I opted to make my own.  I used this recipe—skipping the chocolate and basically using a random mixture of dried fruit, lots o’ nuts, cinnamon and a dollop of the honey.  "Why did I think granola bars were an ok healthy snack" ran through my brain as I dumped a can of sweetened condensed milk into the bowl.  Oh well.  They don’t use ovens in these parts, so we have a toaster oven of which the top element is kaput…or nearly kaput.  As a result the tops of the bars are a tad anemic looking, but taste just dandy.  I opted for a more gooey granola so everything works out for a reason. 😉 

The Chicken-Peanut soup recipe is from my pal, Krissy’s mama, Gale.  A fusion of crunchy peanut butter, tomato paste, chicken broth and curry powder—it was awesome!  And surprisingly easy to make with a one pot stop.  Love a savvy soup almost as much as a savvy craft project.

Now I’m just wishing you were here to have lunch with us! 

AND THE BLANK BAG TAGs WINNER IS:  CYNTHIA~commenter #4!  Yay Cynthia!  Email me your address so I can mail these off Saturday when I go to Hong Kong!