These gooey cookie bars are absolutely divine served both warm and cool. The recipe calls for graham cracker crumbs, but my mom has also used crushed up ginger snaps, which gives it a nice little zip. However you decide to prepare them, be sure to have a nice, cold glass of milk handy.
Chocolate-Coconut Cookie Bars
Yield: approximately 2 dozen bars (depending on how big you cut them)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or crushed up ginger snaps)
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl, combine crumbs and melted butter. Press crumbs firmly into the bottom of a 13X9 baking pan.
2) Pour condensed milk evenly over crumb bottom.
3) Layer with the remaining ingredients, with the coconut being on top. Press down firmly using a fork.
4) Bake for 25 minutes (until golden brown). Cool (slightly) before cutting into bars.
*BONUS UPDATE*
Well, I just felt like updating, so there’s no sense in just waiting for the sake of it. I made a very tasty granola today and felt compelled to share it. Granola is surprisingly easy to make, but you just have to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. This tasty treat can be eaten by itself as a snack or with milk or over yogurt in the morning for a good source of sustained energy.
Honey Granola with Almonds and Cranberries
Yield: about 3 cups
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup honey (depending on how sweet you want it)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups uncooked, old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Directions:
1) Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan over low-med heat, melt butter. Stir in honey, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
2) In a 9X9 baking pan, combine oats and almonds. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture and stir to coat evenly.
3) Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally (approximately every 5 minutes or so), until golden brown throughout.
4) Stir in cranberries and let cool. Store in airtight container.
Pies are one of the easiest things to make. They just take a while to cook. This recipe is for Rhubarb Pie but it works great for any kind of berry too. If you’re going to make a berry pie with this, I’d drop the cornstarch down to 1/4 cup and add about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice. But that is for another day. Today is Rhubarb Pie day. If you’re more of a Rhubarb Strawberry pie fan, just substitute half of the rhubarb with strawberries. Also, heads up, rhubarb is a very watery uh..vegetable I guess it is, so you need to let the pie cool down almost completely before serving. Otherwise you’ll end up with a Rhubarb Crumble Pie, which is still tasty, but it’s not quite what we’re going for.
Note: This is a double-crusted pie.
Rhubarb Pie
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds rhubarb stalks, trimmed
- 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- dash of salt
- 2 Tbsp butter, in small pieces
- milk/cream
- additional sugar
- pie crust of your choice
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut rhubarb into pieces approximately 1-inch wide. Mix in bowl with sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Stir to coat. Let sit for 5 minutes.
2) Pour filling into pie crust of your choice. Sprinkle with pieces of butter and cover with second crust (or lattice).
3) Brush with milk/cream and sprinkle additional sugar on top. Prick vents into top crust.
4) Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes and then drop temperature down to 350 degrees for an additional 20-25 minutes. You should be able to hear the juices bubbling nicely and see it turn a golden brown when it’s done.
5) And that’s it! Easy as, well, pie. Just wait a while before cutting to ensure that it stays together nicely.
Now I know this isn’t exactly a main dish, but it’s great for grilling, with it being Memorial Day and all. This sauce is a nice way to spiffy up some burgers or chicken. It’s perfect for either charcoal or propane grills, but I prefer charcoal because it adds a nice flavor to the meat by itself.
For both burgers and chicken, grill them like normal (about 5-8 minutes per side, or until done) but baste the meat with some sauce for the last 5 minutes or so that they’re grilling. This will help lock in the good, smoky flavor in the meat. Reserve the rest of the sauce to be used as a topping.
Happy Memorial Day! Eat some good food and enjoy this lovely weather.
Barbecue Sauce
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 cup ketchup
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 tsp prepared mustard
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 to 1/2 tsp Liquid Smoke
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1) In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients.
2) Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3) Remove from heat, setting aside approximately 1 cup to be served with burgers/chicken.
4) Use the remaining sauce to baste the meat while it is grilling.
Hello all! My name is Emily and I, like many people, love food. Because really, there’s nothing quite like a good home-cooked meal. I grew up watching and helping my mom cook and never really realized that most of my friends did not have the same experience until I got older. I want to show people that cooking really isn’t that hard. Of course it can be quite difficult if you attempt a complicated dish, but that is the same as with most things. The fundamentals of cooking are in fact quite simple. Perhaps the most important thing that I’ve learned from my mom, for both cooking and in life, is patience. It’s when people become impatient that dishes most often do not turn out the way they are supposed to.
To start off with, I will update on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I will feature a main dish, a dessert, and a baked good each week. Perhaps I will update more frequently in the future if I feel compelled to do so, but for now it will only be those three days. I will also try to include photographs when I can, but it will (unfortunately) not be consistent.
If you have any requests about a recipe you’re interested in seeing featured or possibly a good one you’ve been looking for, feel free to send me a message and I’ll see what I can do. Enjoy!