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Aunt Fannie’s Toffee Chew Bars

Let me tell you this: I made these on a Monday night when my husband was working late. The next day at lunch he found them, and the dish was 2/3 empty. We’re talking a 9×13 pan here, people. Yikes. They are that good.

Chewy, buttery, caramely – yum. Make some today.

Aunt Fannie’s Toffee Chew Bars, barely adapted from Cook’s Illustrated America’s Best Lost Recipes.

Crust

8 T unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup all purpose flour

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Dump everything into mixer and mix until coarse crumbs are formed. Press into well-greased 9×13 pan. (Recipe recommended to line the pan with foil, with overhangs on each side, and grease well. Probably a good idea, as these bars are very sticky, but I did ok with an extremely well-buttered glass dish.)

2) Bake about 15 minutes until golden brown.

Filling

2 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 T flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup sliced almonds

1) Whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, whisk until combined. Stir in coconut and almonds, and pour over crust.

2) Bake in 325 degree oven until lightly browned on edges, 20-25 minutes. Try to let cookies cool before you eat them, as they are much easier to cut. Or just use a spoon to eat the first row, like I did.

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Posted 14 June 2010 | baked goods   cookies   dessert | Comments (3) Tagged: , , ,

Celery Seed Dressing

While I still have very ambitious garden plans, I’m getting a late start. Having a baby with a two year old already on the scene will do that to you. I did just put in no less than a million tomato plants, and quite a few peppers. Come August, if you need tomatoes for slicing, canning, or salads, I’m your woman. I have 4 kinds of cherry tomatoes, three big slicers, and 4 medium sized early reds. I have red bell peppers, orange bell peppers, mini bell peppers, jalapenos and cayennes. I still have to plant my squash, bush beans, and melons – hopefully in the next day or two. I told myself I couldn’t go strawberry picking until I planted my seeds – and strawberry season is short! (Stay tuned, I have big strawberry plans!)

But for now, the star is the salad greens – just look at this gorgeous bowl of lettuce! This is courtesy of my more than kind neighbors, John and Hilary. I have an open invitation to pick all that I want – although they may rescind once they discover how much salad I can eat.

This dressing is from my new favorite cookbook, Cook’s Country America’s Best Lost Recipes. It has 121 recipes submitted from readers, and has some great old fashioned forgotten fare. I plan on featuring several recipes (as many as I can make until the library demands back the book, or I cave in and purchase it.) Here’s a teaser: World War II Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake — it’s amazing what women came up with when faced with butter and egg rations.

Back to the lettuce!

Celery Seed Dressing

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery seed
2 T grated yellow onion
2 1/2 T white vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil

I doubled the recipe in order to have dressing for a few days. I put all ingredients into a glass jar, and shook well. Let sit for at least an hour, it gets better as the flavors marry. This is a sweet and sour dressing, great for plain salads, or those that contain fruit, like a strawberry spinach salad.

Pick your greens or get them from a farmer’s market. For this dressing, I recommend a romaine or butter lettuce – something soft and not too bitter. Wash them very, very well, and spin dry. Sprinkle them with a little kosher salt and then dress, tossing to coat.

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Posted 10 June 2010 | gardening   salad and salad dressings   vegetarian | Comments (1) Tagged: , , , ,

Mango Curry Chicken

This is by no means authentic, but it comes together quickly and is a great way to introduce children to the taste of curry (if they haven’t had it before.) There are other familiar, sweet flavors (cinnamon, fruit) to ease them into this ‘exotic’ flavor. My two-year-old ate multiple servings.

Hint: This dish is only as good as your curry powder. Since curry is a mix of several different spices, not all curries are created equal.

This was adapted from Emily Franklin’s Too Many Cooks

Mango Curry Chicken

oil for sauteing
1 onion, chopped
2 cups green veggie (broccoli, asparagus, peas,e tc.)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 T curry powder
dash cinnamon
2 chicken breasts, chopped
1 fresh mango, diced (or about 1 cup frozen)
1 can sliced peaches in juice (I used scissors to chop them up in the can)
2 T brown sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

1) Saute onions in oil until translucent.  Add additional vegetables, and cook until crisp tender. Add garlic, ginger, curry, and cinnamon. Stir until fragrant.

2) Add chicken pieces, and cook until beginning to brown.

3) Add peaches (with juice), mango, and brown sugar. Cook until bubbly, and chicken is cooked through. Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve with rice.

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Posted 07 June 2010 | chicken   simple dinners   Uncategorized | Comments (2) Tagged: , , ,

Snickerdoodles

Mmmm…snickerdoodles. Any cookie with a name this fun has to be good. They are very comforting – sweet and soft, with a good dose of cinnamon flavor.

Growing up, my dad made most of the memorable desserts for our family, but this is one cookie that I remember my mother making. They are exceptional after a bad day at school, with a nice glass of milk.

Snickerdoodles, from Lee Bailey’s Country Desserts

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/4 cup sugar mixed with 1 T cinnamon
2 eggs

1) Whisk together flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt.

2) In separate bowl or stand mixer, cream together butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, mixing well after each addition.

3) Add the dry ingredients in four parts, mixing well after each addition. Cover and chill for at least an hour.

4) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place two inches apart on greased or parchment-covered cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until cookies are done, but still soft. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

And what exactly is cream of tartar? Potassium bitartrate, and it is a byproduct of winemaking. It’s always found in snickerdoodle recipes. Baking soda needs an acid to activate it, and cream of tartar does the trick.

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Posted 03 June 2010 | baked goods   comfort food   cookies   dessert   vegetarian | Comments (2) Tagged: , ,

Rhubarb Crisp

Rhubarb is still prolific here in Wisconsin – if you have a nice sunny spot in the corner of your garden, I highly recommend you plant some!  It’s a perennial, and will come back year after year. You won’t be able to harvest for two years, but I promise the wait is worth it.

Some fun rhubarb facts: Rhubarb is a vegetable, although it is used as a fruit. Its nickname is the ‘pie plant’. The leaves are full of oxalic acid, and are poisonous if ingested. Actors who are supposed to be having conversations in the background of film or stage productions often say the word ‘rhubarb’ over and over again – apparently it looks like they are really talking (I guess I’m not sure why they don’t just have an actual conversation – wouldn’t that look like they are really talking too?)

My earliest rhubarb memory is from early childhood, at my first house in Des Moines, IA. We had a rhubarb plant, and I remember my father chasing me around with a stalk, trying to get me to eat it raw. I also remember him sternly warning me not to eat the leaves. I couldn’t figure out why I could eat the red part but not the leaves. Since there was no way I was eating it anyway, it didn’t really matter. Although we had a rhubarb plant, I have no memories of anyone cooking anything with it. Too bad.

If you have an adventurous child, it is kind of a fun snack to give them some slender, tender stalks and let them dip it into a bowl of sugar and crunch on it raw. Kids are kind of down with anything that involves them getting a small bowl of sugar to eat.

And on to the main attraction: rhubarb crisp! This is a totally basic recipe, but it’s the rhubarb recipe I make most often, so I thought I’d be remiss to not include it. The topping is really sweet, so it’s ok to go easy on the sugar in the filling. I like the sweet/tart combination. You can use as large as a 9×13 baking dish, but I often use a slightly smaller oval baking dish – the topping is just thicker.

Rhubarb Crisp

15-25 rhubarb stalks, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 lb cold unsalted butter, diced (2 sticks)

1) Mix rhubarb stalks and 1/4 cup sugar directly in baking dish, set aside.

2) Whisk together flour, 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, salt, and oats.

3) Cut in butter using pastry cutter or two knives. Finish by rubbing the butter into the flour with your fingers. It should resemble small peas when you are done.

4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Press topping onto rhubarb. Bake 40 minutes to an hour, until top is golden and filling is bubbly. Enjoy warm with ice cream, or cold for breakfast.

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Posted 31 May 2010 | baked goods   dessert   gardening   rhubarb   seasonal   vegetarian | Comments (4) Tagged: ,