Not Tracy's Fudge Bars

I got this recipe several years back from one of my favorite people in Tillamook. I noticed when I found this recipe, I have SEVERAL recipes from Tracy. She's a pretty good cook! After posting the photo on FB, it was suggested I needed to post the recipe. So, I contacted Tracy and she said I could share it! She's a pretty great friend, too! I call these Tracy's Fudge Bars, but she actually got it from someone else in Tillamook.

So, without further ado:
Tracy's Fudge Bars
This is in two steps. One for the oatmeal cookie part and one for the fudge part.

Cookie Part:
1 cup butter/marg softened
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 C oatmeal
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
(may add in 1/2 cup PB and I, of course, added a tsp of cinnamon)
Mix together and pat 2/3 of cookie dough into 9x13 baking pan. Reserve 1/3 for topping.

Fudge Part:
1 can sweetened condensed milk (not sure how many oz are in a normal sized can)
12 oz chocolate chips (I used semi sweet, but dark chocolate may not be too bad at all!)
2 TB marg/butter (now Tracy had 2 tsp, but I have this scratched out and replaced with TB)
1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp vanilla
Melt these together on low heat (keep an eye on it so it won't scorch on the bottom) and pour onto the oatmeal cookie bar.

Use remaining batter to dot on top of fudge layer-I used my cookie scoop and managed to get about 14 or so blobs of dough that I spread out with a knife.

This then gets popped in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25 min or so. I left mine in for 30, but my oven doesn't run as hot as I think it should!

Super messy, deliciousness! Jon said it was like 2 oatmeal cookies with a fudge cookie in between.

An Adventure with Peppermint Patties

Bob (http://photographyonthekenai.com/) and then Celia (http://goddessdigitalart.wordpress.com/) shared this on their FB pages (are not all the best recipes first shared on FB!?!) and I discovered it was actually a link for Peppermint Patties from my favorite cooking website. So, I decided to try it. I have rarely met a recipe from that particular site that was horrid. (read reviews!)

 First step is to read as many of the reviews as possible. (As stated in previous paragraph!) This is very helpful in recreating a recipe. I learned I needed to use parchment paper instead of waxed, that you CAN use a whole can of sweetened condensed milk (which is good, cuz only a part of a can is not useful for anything!), and using foil cups is a very good idea.

 There are only a couple of ingredients in these and you want to mix the milk and the extract together before adding the sugar. Jon thought the mint was a little understated, and I did add more than the recipe called for. Next time, I'll add at least a half a tsp more. (making it 2 and a half tsp for a full container of sweetened condensed milk)

 I did discover I should have added more powdered sugar. I used almost 2 lbs, but it was still kind of sticky. I could never have rolled them out as suggested by many reviewers. BUT, I was doing something else. I wanted them to fit in foil muffin cups and so used about half of a cookie scoop of mixture. I thought I had a small round cutter, and I do, it just wasn't a TINY cutter that could fit inside a muffin cup! I patted them into shape and I let them dry for an hour on one side. When I flipped them over, I had to use a spatula since they were tacky on the bottom.

 Many of the reviews suggested freezing them before dipping. Since I was not dipping the things, I didn't freeze them. They were VERY soft. After trial and error, I found placing a bit of melted chocolate in the bottom of the cup, dropping in the patty, and then spreading chocolate on the top worked the best. The chocolate was melted chips with the shortening. Which I will NOT do again. The foil cups come with a paper lining, I tried both ways to see how it worked..as you can tell from the rest of the candies, I ditched the paper part.

 Jon showing off how the chocolate stuck to the paper--and how lovely the patties looked! Although, they were VERY messy. I had thought it was because they were not quite hardened yet. I was wrong.

 I really like the edges on the patties after being formed in the foil cups. It sort of gives them a Reese's kind of look. Which also makes me wonder if I can use this technique and make my own Reese's PB cups....As we discovered, the mint flavor was almost overpowered by the chocolate, but they really aren't too bad at all. They were given a thumbs up by all 3 of my testers~

 Using the whole container of sweetened condensed milk gave me 60 of these little guys. Which meant I spent a lot of time dinking around with chocolate. I made a complete MESS of my apron (you can't exactly tell, since the moose are already brown!). They took a very very long time to make and I want to try them again. I think I would use a pastry brush on the patties and in the cups, since the spoon was not as efficient as I had hoped it would be.

After being refrigerated, the chocolate was STILL gooey. I also think keeping a candy in the fridge is sort of silly. Especially if you are going to have it at a party. These were not made for a party, these were made just for fun! Next time, I will use almond bark. NOT that candy quick stuff (I find that gicky). The foil cups were spendy, but a great idea. I could stack them in the plastic container and they wouldn't stick to each other and I could use the cup as a spot to place the messy chocolate patty as I was eating it. . 

As I was putting these together, I thought about using the Oreo cookie recipe I have and taking one cookie, putting a bit of mint on top, and then encasing it all in chocolate. I am pretty sure I've had cookies like this before, but I can't recall what they are called. When I make them, however, I will make sure I have all day to create them. They DO take awhile!

February Skies

February 2014 has been full of different kinds of weather. We've had snow, cold, sunshine, and rain. We even have had a chance to see northern lights this week! This afternoon, as the sun set, the skies clouds put on an amazing show for those of us on earth. I love how the lowering sun shone on the locusts and other trees in the yard. 

The interplay of shadow and texture on this roof shot we fun to watch.

Sometimes I get so frustrated with this blog program~be that as it may, as the sun set the world turned pink and blue and  mauve. The first pictures were in the backyard, these are off the porch looking East.

Walking in a winter Wonderland~

Every year I post hoarfrost photos. 

This is a series Jon took today (Jan 26,  2014) up in the mountains at the lower place. . 

The simplicity of winter has a deep moral. The return of Nature, after such a career of splendor and prodigality, to habits so simple and austere, is not lost either upon the head or the heart. It is the philosopher coming back from the banquet and the wine to a cup of water and a crust of bread. ~John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866

holiday treats-more or less!

We grew pumpkins again this year. They didn't grow as well as we'd hoped. We had a few white ones which were too small for much of anything and their rinds were THICK. So, I hacked them in pieces, cooked them down, and stuck them in the blender. They made a lovely pumpkin puree, which I then packaged in baggies. I had done this before, but it is always nice to find someone else who has done it as a reference. 

Make your own Pumpkin Puree

This gal writes a GREAT blog. And her directions are very simple.

I used one of the baggies of pumpkin to make cute little pumpkin pie bites. Jon thought they were named wrong, since they were really just tiny pumpkin muffins with cool whip. (Easy Mini Pumpkin Pie Bites)

I wanted to make cake pops. I did make some gingerbread bombs for Halloween (basically a cake pop using left over gingerbread, rolled in a ball and dipped in chocolate) and made those again. However, I wanted to try this pan I got from a friend. It was for 'bake pops' (as seen on TV....). At any rate, I also didn't have a cake mix, so made a homemade chocolate cake. I'll try these one more time with a cake mix, but I was NOT impressed. I used the last of the batter to make mini cupcakes and put white chocolate chips in them. They sort of didn't rise, so I flipped them over and drizzled them with frosting. Jon calls them Krakatoa Kakes.

The few 'balls' that I did, I used a pretzel instead of the plastic stick because I detest waste! The pretzels, however, are nasty after sitting in the cake ball...so they get tossed out anyway! At least, I know they are totally biodegradable!

The last balls stuck to the pans and were a mess. So, after salvaging the things, I ground them up for the kind of cake balls you make with frosting. I didn't have any canned frosting, except purple, (which I will use on my birthday) so I made some chocolate. I learned you CAN use  home made frosting in these and the best kind is butter cream. I used a recipe I found on Wilton's website, only halved it. Some cooks even use flavored coffee creamer as the sticking agent! But, I used the frosting. I made balls, til I realised they didn't' move if I left the bottom flat. (amazing, huh?) Which was really apparent when I pulled them out of the freezer and half of them rolled around on the cookie sheet and the rest stayed in place.

Since I didn't have handles in them, I skewered the frozen delights with a fondue stick from my chocolate fountain. The empty spot on top I drizzled with more chocolate and then added sprinkles. If you want a more professional treat, score around the bottom of the wet chocolate with a toothpick. After it dries, the excess will break off easily and you can pop it back in the melting pot. (I use a small fondue melting pot I got with my crock pot to melt my chocolate)

I also made Kit Kat Blondies, this week.  They were fun to make, just not exactly what I'd hoped for. My next projects will be a yummy Nestle's chocolate candy pizza for my friend Noelle's Thanksgiving birthday and I might use pumpkin for something or other!

Cheeseburger Bombs or Another Way to Cook Burger

This was a recipe I found via FB. Bacon Cheeseburger Bombs and since they looked like fun, I thought I would try it! I didn't have some of the ingredients the recipe called for (note: does anyone EVER have the exact ingredients called for in recipes and doesn't everyone change things?) and so I adapted. I used beef that is the yummiest stuff ever ground (the family adds bacon!) and it is remarkably lean. Then, added a Ragu garlic cheese sauce for the cream cheese and a whole egg. I didn't have biscuits..but that is normal. So, I made some and rolled them out thin. I didn't quite get 10, but the tiny one in the middle counts, right?

 Once again blogger has taken my sideways pic and made it vertical again-I really need to figure out how to fix that!

 I was wondering if the bottoms would leak-and there was a tiny bit of juices that escaped, but for the most part, they stayed whole and turned out rather nice.

However, as the kid said as he was eating them, "These are just those Wellington's in a biscuit!" And, he is right. I used different ingredients than I did for the Wellingtons (am sure I did a blog for that in spring 2012....), but they are very similar. And just as filling! The Wellingtons use croissant rolls, so they make a flakier and fancier burger dinner. However, the biscuits are nice and we decided next time I should put cheese on both the top of the meat mixture AND the bottom. They will also make very tasty rounds for a fast breakfast if I use sausage burger.

Rivers and Trees, OH MY! (On the Wilson River!)

I believe this is Dorman Pond. An 8-acre pond west of Forest Grove at the junction of Hwy. 

8 and Hwy. 6. It always has fisherpeople there (although, this particular Friday all I saw were geese). 

 I believe this falls is called Bridge Creek Falls. One of the prettier spots to visit-if you don't forget to stop! It is easy to miss this place, but there is a good parking area.

 I took several photos of trees, roots, rocks, moss, and mud. These are the things I miss about the Oregon Coast!

 This irritates me-I can't move it the right way. So, you don't get the proper view of these incredible trees near the falls.

 Further down the Wilson River is another pull out. I loved the views I got from this spot! Tumbling water, pools, currents, and even some falls.

I kept waiting for a deer or other critter to pop out and sun themselves (am pretty sure people use this spot for sunning!). I was going to stop at the Forestry Center, but it closed JUST as I drove past it. Next time I'll stop!