January 25th: Cherry Walnut Bars

Greg had a bad cold this week and was out of commission. After taking on as much parenteral responsibility as I could muster, I had worn myself out by Tuesday night (okay, so I didn't muster much) and Wednesday I decided to take a sick/rest day. Wow, awesome. Olivia and I laid in bed in the morning snuggling, and looked through my Company's Coming 150 Delicious Squares cookbook, finding several we thought we should make. I took her into daycare late, spent the day tidying and resting, then O and I had fun making non-baked squares after supper.


These are cherry, walnut, coconut and graham-filled bites of deliciousness. They are also suuuper sweet; I'm going to try cutting the sugar back to 3/4 cup the next time I make them. Greg said he loved them and he's not even a cherry fan. Of course, he can't really taste anything right now. I toasted my walnuts in advance. Actually, I burnt them. I recommend toasting, but not burning.


Cherry Walnut Bars


9-12 whole graham crackers


1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk


1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup medium unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries, well drained


Icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1-2 drops red liquid food colouring


Line ungreased 9x9" pan with graham crackers, cutting to fit if necessary. Set aside.


Combine next three ingredients in small, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.


Add next 4 ingredients. Stir well. Spread evenly over crackers in pan. Cool.


Icing: Beat all 5 ingredients in medium bowl until smooth, adding more milk or icing sugar as necessary until spreading consistency. Spread evenly over bottom layer. Let stand, covered, for at least 6 hours or overnight until crackers are softened.


Makes 36 squares.

Icing : square = reasonable

October 10th: leftover Thanksgiving feast

This year's Thanksgiving was not much different from last year's, but I made two new things, so I'll share. First up: cranberry sauce. You don't really need a recipe for this; if you buy a bag of cranberries, there will be a recipe on the bag and you can't exactly screw it up. But, for good measure:


Cranberry Sauce


1 cup sugar
1 cup water*
1 bag fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 tsp grated orange zest
fresh squeezed orange juice, optional*


*If using orange juice, squeeze into a measuring cup, then top with water to reach 1 cup.


Combine sugar and water and/or orange juice in saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes, stirring to dissolve sugar entirely. Add cranberries and simmer until cranberries start to burst, about 5 minutes. Stir in orange zest.


Can be served immediately (a bit runny) or cooled and refrigerated overnight, after which time, it will be much thicker.


Serves 10.

We had leftover turkey and gravy on artisan bread, and the same sides as last year: brussels sprouts and sweet potato, as well as the cranberry sauce. 

For dessert, Olivia and I made chocolate marshmallow squares. Last year for Christmas I received Company's Coming 150 Delicious  Squares cookbook, and this recipe comes from it, though I reduce the marshmallow amount just slightly, for better consistency.


Chocolate Marshmallow Squares ("Chocolate Confetti")


1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup unsalted butter
200 g mini marshmallows


Melt first three ingredients together in a large pot over medium heat, stirring until melted and well combined. Remove from heat and let cool about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once cooled, add marshmallows and stir to coat them thoroughly. Press into a 9 x 9" pan, lined with foil if desired. Refrigerate until firm enough to cut.


Makes 36 squares.

November 7th: Thai Pork with Spicy Noodles & Cranberry butter-tart squares

Verdict:
Try Again: pork and squares

Sunday. Tonight's supper is one we've eaten every year for the past three years, and we just can't quite bring ourselves to either put it in the keeper book or toss it. It's really good, it is. It's pretty easy too. BUT. I like the spice level, Greg finds it a bit too much and Olivia (this is her first year eating it, after successful exposure to peanuts) said it was too spicy and wouldn't eat it. She's not going to enjoy her lunch for the next two days, unfortunately. Greg wants me to try again with less chili-garlic sauce. I want to just keep it already. Want to weigh in on the debate? Check out November 2007's Chatelaine: Thai Pork with Spicy Noodles.

I'm getting a bit of a jump start on Christmas baking this year. I have some shortbread and pumpkin chocolate cheesecake in the freezer already, and tonight I baked up some squares to add to the collection. From November 2005's Chatelaine: Cranberry butter-tart squares. I've given these a "try again" up top there because I can't quite decide if they are good enough to keep. They're simple to make and pretty to look at and they taste good, but are they good enough? Hmm. Sometimes I'm just too tired to form an opinion.

October 24th: chicken divan, peekaboo muffins, cheesecake bars

Verdict:
Try Again: chicken, muffins, cheesecake

Sunday usually finds me cooking and baking up a storm, and Olivia likes to help out. Liam brought this Cooking With My Kid blog to my attention, and I saw a recipe I wanted to try out: Peekaboo Jam Muffins. Mini muffins with jam in the middle; what more could a kid want? Olivia's jobs, when baking, include dumping/pouring ingredients into bowls, sometimes stirring (can be disastrous!) and, her favourite, putting paper liners in the muffin pan.

I stuffed the muffins with three different types of jam/jelly, and the best kind was some raspberry jelly that Grandma gave me when we visited this past summer.

The jelly had the strongest flavour, which stood out the best in the completed muffins.

For supper tonight, I went real fancy and cooked up a Campbell's Soup recipe: Easy Chicken and Broccoli Divan. Shannon may recall cooking this for us last year when she lived with us temporarily (come back!). We had this with some tri-colour fusilli and salad. This is a pretty good recipe, but I would make one change: no need to cook the broccoli in advance; it just ends up mushy. I'm wondering if you could get away with not cooking the chicken in advance either. It's not clear to me why it needs to be done.

Finally, my treat for the week: from October 2010's Chatelaine: Pumpkin & chocolate cheesecake bars. I ate one of these tonight while they were still warmish, and I liked it. We'll see how they are tomorrow after firming up in the refrigerator. The candied ginger (love it!) in the crust is the most powerful flavour in these; if you're not a ginger fan, leave it out!