Oatmeal Jammy Bars

Looking through the Family Meals cookbook today I decided to make the Oatmeal Jammy Bars for an afternoon snack. I really had a craving for strawberry jam bars but only had about a tablespoon, so I am experimenting with apple jelly. They were delicious!! I will definitely make these again!

Oatmeal Jammy Bars
(from Family Meals: Creating Traditions in the Kitchen by Maria Helm Sinskey)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¾ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 ¼ cups old-fashioned rolled oats

¼ cup ground pecans or almonds (optional)

½ cup berry jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9” square baking pan or dish.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, using your
hands to combine thoroughly. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture and cut in the
butter with a pastry cutter or two kitchen knives until the mixture is moist and crumbly. Add
the oats and nuts, if using, and toss to mix evenly.

Press two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam evenly over
the top. Crumble the remaining dough evenly over the top, and press down lightly.

Bake until the top is golden brown, 35-40 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack, and then cut
into bars. Makes 10 bars

Buttermilk Biscuits

With the house to myself this morning I decided to make biscuits to go along with the Red Lentil Soup I made yesterday. The biscuits came out so fluffy and tasted amazing with my soup. I was good though I only ate two. My family has been snacking on them all afternoon. Warm biscuits are great on a cold Winter day!

Buttermilk Biscuits

(from The Best Marjorie Standish: Chowders, Soups & Stews- Down East Recipes)

2 cups sifted flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 rounded tblsp shortening

1 cup buttermilk

Sift flour, measure and sift together with salt, soda, cream of tartar and baking powder.

Cut in the shortening, using a pastry blender or 2 knives. Add the buttermilk quickly, using a fork for stirring into dry ingredients. Knead lightly on a floured board.
Cut in size biscuits desired, place on a greased pan and bake at 475 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
Makes about 12 biscuits.

** I like to add 1 tbsp of sugar to the dry ingredients.
** If you do not have buttermilk you can use milk and lemon juice.

Winter Cooking

Earlier today I went to the wholesale club and restocked our fridge, freezer and pantry. Since we had a lot of bulk meats and other items I decided to do some cooking this afternoon. I prepared hamburger patties, Italian meatballs, BBQ meatloaf, cheesy scalloped potatoes, red lentil soup, and glazed carrots. We ate the meatloaf, the potatoes and the carrots for dinner. It was yummy!

Hamburger Patties
Ground Beef
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Lea & Perron's
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder

Mix together with your hands and shape into patties.

Italian Meatballs
2 lbs Ground Beef
2 Sweet Italian Sausages
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Egg
1 cup 4-C Italian Breadcrumbs
A few dashes oregano and Basil

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Lay out two baking trays. Slice open the sausages, remove the meat, tear apart and put in a large bowl with the ground beef. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with your hands. Roll into small balls and space out meatballs on the trays. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

If using immediately, put the meatballs in a tomato sauce and simmer until ready to eat. The longer the better.

For later use: Once the trays and the meatballs are cool, put the baking trays in the freezer. When the meatballs are frozen remove the meatballs and place in a plastic storage bag. By freezing the meatballs first they will not stick together and then you can remove however many you need at a time.

BBQ Meat Loaf
1 1/2-2 lbs ground beef
2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup 4C Italian Seasoned breadcrumbs
Few dashes onion Powder
Few dashes Garlic Powder
Few Dashes Ground Mustard
Few dashes Pepper
1 tsp Salt
A few shakes of any BBQ rub or seasoning

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layout a baking tray. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Shape into a loaf by hand on the baking tray. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Remove any grease, brush BBQ sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's) onto the loaf and put bake in the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and eat right away or eat the next day.

Glazed Carrots
Carrots-dice into small slices
Honey
Water
Orange juice (optional)

Put the diced carrots, a little bit of honey and a little bit of water in a baking dish and bake until cooked (when you can poke a fork through easily) or cook in a saucepan on a stove top adding the honey towards the end of the cooking.

Christmas Cake?

Last Monday while volunteering in Ehric's class his teacher made the following comment to the class..."All during Christmas break I kept wondering about Ehric's Christmas cake." I thought to myself, "Christmas cake?" A few minutes later I remembered that Ehric wrote a Christmas poem about Christmas being about Jesus' birthday and cake. I went over to his seat and asked him, "Is Christmas cake when we bake a cake for Jesus' birthday?" He said, "Yes!" Then it all made sense to me...for the past several years we have baked a simple cake on Christmas morning and have sung "Happy Birthday to Jesus" before eating the cake. In that moment I felt bad that I hadn't baked a cake this past Christmas. I told Ehric we would bake a Christmas Cake ASAP and sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus"!

Before Ehric got home from school I baked a spice cake. While it was starting to cool the cake split on the top. At first I was disappointed that the cake split, but when I looked closer I started to laugh when I saw that the split was in the shape of a 'J.' Apparently Jesus approves our our Christmas Cake!

Cinnamon Filled Streusel Muffins

Last night I entered my recipe for Cinnamon Filled Streusel Muffins in the Hood New England Dairy Cookoff contest. Top prize is $10,000!

In 2006 I was looking through a popular baking catalog and saw they were selling a prepackaged kit to make Streusel muffins. To make these muffins you also needed to buy their signature cinnamon filling. I thought it sounded delicious and it inspired me to come up with my own recipe. My very picky husband said, "Um, these are good!" and that is saying a lot!

I decided to make a batch this morning and they were indeed so good! Here is the recipe:

Cinnamon Filled Streusel Muffins

by Valerie

Batter:

(Dry)

2 Cups King Arthur Flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tblsp baking powder

(Wet)

1 Cup Whole Milk

1/4 Cup Safflower Oil (or Canola/Veg oil)

2 Eggs (I use farm fresh eggs)

Filling:

1/4 cup Superfine Sugar

1/4 Cup Melted butter

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Streusel:

1 Tblsp flour

3 tblsp Sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Tblsp butter

Preheat Oven to 500 degrees F, grease Silcon Muffins tins with Pam Spray or Crisco.

Batter: Mix together dry ingredients and blend well. In a 2 cup or larger measuring cup add oil, milk and eggs. Beat well. Add wet ingredients to dry Blend for 20 seconds and no more.

Filling: Melt butter (about 40 seconds in microwave), add sugar and cinnamon. Combine.

Streusel: In a bowl combine all ingredients. With a fork stir and press into butter until mixture is

crumbly. Or use a pastry knife.

Spray pans with Pam or Crisco (if you haven't already)

Use a small food scoop (icecream scoop)- scoop batter into 10 cups of the tins (1 large heaping scoop per). Add a dollop of filling, then add another scoop of batter on top. Sprinkle tops with Streusel.

As soon as muffins are in oven drop temp to 400 degrees F. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Makes about 10 muffins in silicon muffin pans.

Suggestions:

Could add walnuts or apple sauce and/or drizzle icing on top (but sweet enough without)!

Cheddar Apple Frittata

Trying to think of an idea for breakfast yesterday I spied the apples we brought home from apple picking. I looked through the fridge and saw a carton of our farm fresh eggs, a block of cheddar and bacon. I immediately knew what I wanted to make...one of my favorite recipes Cheddar Apple Frittata. I have been making this one skillet dish for several years now, and each time the boys and I are always pleased with the results. It also always looks so nice in a cast-iron pan! Please excuse my  burnt bacon.

Sometimes I substitute deli ham for the bacon and Mexican cheese for the Cheddar. Either way it makes a great fall breakfast or dinner!

Bleed by Hot Chelle Rae

I heard this on the radio tonight and I thought it was so beautiful...