Still Behind

Trip to the dentist, and a baby quilt that had to be finished yesterday overruled the salted caramel chocolate chip bars. With a lot on my plate until next week with it being Labor Day weekend, the bars are going to have to wait, along with the next recipe. But I promise next week will catch me up. One of  the Supremes is not at work this week anyway, and they hate when they miss the weekly taste test. I will get back on track ASAP!

Berry Cobbler

The recipe: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/sundberg/2012/08/13.shtml

Well, I am two recipes behind and sorry for the slip. It has been an interesting week with my Mr. having some back problems. I became his arms and legs, when something as simple as bending down to pick up his phone proved to be more than he could do for a couple of days.

But he's back at work today...yay! I have made the cobbler, and the salted caramel chocolate chip bars will be done tomorrow. The house smells wonderful and there's warm cobbler on the counter for dessert tonight. With 3 scoops of it reserved for the Supremes tomorrow. They have been so good to volunteer to be my taste testers.

This is a rich batter with the butter and sugar, but how can you have a good dessert without richness. It's all in the portion control. Something that I am pretty good at, but every so often, the spoon slips a little.

I knew when I read the recipe and saw almond extract that this was going to be cherry and not blueberry. The Mr. will eat blueberries when they are cooked in something, but this needed cherries. He was happy with that, and the pie filling that I get has a LOT of cherries in it. Not like some that is mostly the filling...what is that called anyway? Cherry goop, cherry sauce? Well, there is less of that and more of the cherries, and that's okay by me.

Letting the butter soften makes this first step much easier, but that is cooking 101 for most folks. Folding in the flour/baking powder mixture is easy after the addition of 4 eggs to the butter and sugar. (I told you it was rich.)

The directions said to spoon the pie filling on top of the cake mixture in 16 evenly spaced dollops. Well my puddles ran together a little, and there were so many cherries in that can, that I just let them run in to each other, figuring that the end product would be better for it. I was right.

I have no photos to judge the end product by, so what you see is what I got. However, there is a spoonful missing from the lower right corner, and although I wouldn't call it a cobbler so much because of the cake-y texture, I can call it delicious. The Supremes are eager to get their test containers tomorrow in between Ballistic Missile business.

Thank you Mrs. Sundberg.  :-)

Catching Up

I will be doing the cobbler AND the salted caramel chocolate chip bars in the next few days. The Mr. had back problems, and it has been an adventure. I think we've both had enough of that for a while. :-)

Buckeye Bars

Recipe: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/sundberg/2012/08/06.shtml

That classic peanut butter and chocolate combination is loud and clear with these delicious bars. Of all the times I made what we called Buckeyes when I lived in Ohio, I never thought to make them as a bar instead of rolling them into balls and dipping each one in melted chocolate. Delicious, but time consuming. This recipe was all the goodness with a lot less work. Although, made that way reflected the fact that I lived in the Buckeye State, the Buckeye is the state tree, a football team, and the nut of the tree was called that because it resembled a buck's eye. So who am I to mess with tradition.

I know I said that I wasn't going to change these recipes, but in our house, there's just one peanut butter: CHUNKY. I can take it or leave it, but the Mr. must have it. I liked the addition of it to this recipe. A little texture was nice. I also used my well worn 9 x 9" pan so they were a little thicker, which meant that they were cut smaller...about 1" square. 

This went together quickly. It took about 6 minutes, and they were in the fridge to set up. Cleaning up took longer than mixing up.

They didn't last long either. One of the Supremes is off on a motorcycle adventure to Sturgis, South Dakota, so he missed out. The other two were more than happy to eat his share. The nice thing about these is that the richness makes a small piece satisfying. They had one with coffee early in the day, and another one after lunch. They had two days' worth, and they didn't eat them all at once, but a little goes a long way. Another note: sitting them on the counter for about 20 minutes or so made them easier to cut, and likewise for eating. They didn't melt, but softened up nicely. And tasted GOOD.

 

Thank you, Mrs. Sundberg. :-)

Potato Pancake PS

I did make and freeze the rest of potato pancakes, and they heated up wonderfully in the skillet, with a brush of olive oil, and a lid on the pan to hold in the moisture. We had them with scrambled eggs for breakfast today and they tasted great...the onion flavor came out a little more, which was fine with us!

Potato Pancakes

Recipe: http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/sundberg/2012/07/30.shtml

Well, I say Mrs. Sundberg hit a home run with these pancakes. It is her grandmother's recipe. Plain, simple, good food, like I imagine everyone eats in Minnesota. She did say that she sometimes grated onion to add to the mixture, so I took that as an ingredient, and added it as well. 

It made a lot. A LOT. So my plan is to fry the rest of them tomorrow, and see how they freeze for another meal or two. There's just me and my Mr. here, and we each had two with supper, and there are two for his lunch tomorrow. He usually takes a repeat of supper for lunch the next day. He's one of those people who will eat leftovers until they are gone. He's so handy when I have a refrigerator shelf full of odds and ends. He can make up a meal out of practically nothing. I'm keeping him.

The onion was a good addition. Every once in a while, I like an onion to say hello to me in a dish. Mr. says one can never have too much onion, and he would have been happy with more. I used a small yellow onion because I wanted to know it was in there. And it was. I let the mixture stand for about 15 minutes while I got another pan going on the stove. That thickened up the mixture a bit, and it was wet, but not too wet. Mrs. Sundberg said to drop by blobs into butter, but I did switch that out to olive oil. Since the Mr.'s bypass surgery, butter is a once in a rare while thing. But the oil worked great. It gave the pancakes a crispy, browned edge that was just delicious. I did also put two tablespoons of Hemp Hearts in it, because they are healthy and good for us, tasteless (even better for me), and impossible to detect in anything. We eat them in cereal, mashed potatoes, I put them on my pimento cheese sandwich today for lunch, so we use them all the time. They are a good-for-you thing.

Next would be my perception of 'pancake'. I know these are an accompaniment to a meal, but my idea of a pancake is about the size of a saucer. So I settled on using a 1/4 cup measure, and it was perfect. The onion really added another layer of flavor, and I could see taking this recipe and adding some other things. The good news is, that it tastes just great the way it is. Loved the crispy outside and tender inside. I make corn fritters, and this base will be my go-to recipe for any fritter or veggie pancake I make from now on. It is just that good. We had a dollop of sour cream on them, and enjoyed them with green beans, ham and corn, and a salad of cucumbers, red onion and little pickled beets. Next is having them at breakfast with scrambled eggs. I think these are going to be great when the holidays arrive and the kids come home for a visit. Easy and good. Can't ask more than that from a potato pancake.

Thank you, Mrs. Sundberg. :-)