Rhubarb Bars

Our friendly neighbor always gives us an open invitation each spring to get as much rhubarb as we want from his patch. I always look forward to rhubarb because it is a sign of more fruits to come in the summer.

I wanted to make rhubarb bars, but could not find a recipe for them in the three cookbooks I looked through. So I meshed a few recipes together and came up with this rhubarb bar. I wont tell you how many I have eaten. A short testimonial from me.

 Use a cookie scoop to add the top layer. 

Much easier than trying to do it with a spoon.

Smooth the scoops of dough out and bake.

Drizzle with glaze and off to a picnic you go.

Rhubarb Bars

Dough

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla

Filling

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. vanilla

3 Tbsp. strawberry jam

 4 cups rhubarb, chopped

Glaze

1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. cream

In a stand mixer cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix

well. Add flour, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Grease and flour a 9" x 13" baking dish and cover with parchment paper, grease the parchment paper also.

Spoon 3/4 of the batter into the baking dish and spread out.

In a saucepan whisk together water, sugar and cornstarch. 

Heat until thickened, remove from heat and add strawberry jam

and vanilla. Add chopped rhubarb and stir. Pour over dough and top

with remaining dough using a cookie scoop. Smooth out dough,

letting the filling show at some places. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 
or until the middle is set and comes clean with a toothpick.

Remove from oven and cool completely.

Mix together glaze and drizzle over bars before serving.

Enjoy,

Hope

Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches

My husband is a chocolate chip cookie lover.

If I make any cookie other than chocolate chip,

I ask him if he likes them.

His reply is always,

"They are not as good as chocolate chip."

In some ways it frustrates me

because I think he should branch out.

In other ways it makes me happy

because he knows what he likes.

So last night I made him chocolate chip

cookies and froze them in bags for his lunches.

Here is a new creation I came up with 

so he can enjoy his cookies in another way.

A wonderful Valentine's idea.

You could shape the cookies into hearts.

Here is the cookie recipe I have posted before.

Simply add vanilla ice cream between two cookies.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup lard or Crisco

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

3 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Cream butter, lard and sugars. Add ingredients as listed.

Set in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes.

Scoop on tray and bake for 8-9 minutes.

p.s. You must use the lard or Crisco, 

it's what makes these cookies soft.

Enjoy,

Hope

Gingerbread Men

I knew my nephews were coming

over today so I quick mixed up

a recipe of gingerbread men.

I was thinking how much fun

it would be for Austin and Sawyer

to cut out cookies and then ice

and decorate them.

Have any of you every thought

it would be a great idea to decorate

cookies with a 4 year old and a 2 year old?

Half way through decorating I

was regretting my idea of fun.

I was standing in sprinkles,

watching boys load cookies with sprinkles,

mixing colors of sprinkles together and

licking their fingers to get the sprinkles off.

I was hollering at Faith to come see how

cute it was at first, then I was hollering

because I needed help. As soon as I had

one reigned in on how many sprinkles

to use the other one was mixing handfuls

of sprinkles. Faith just laughed and said,

"I decorated cookies with them last week."

She was already seasoned in this area.

Then she starts taking photos
of them making a mess.

The cookies really are delicious,

even though all you can see is sprinkles.

Austy cutting out his cookies.

Sweet imperfection.

Cookies ready to be layered in sprinkles.

It started out fine with Austy until Sawyer woke up.
Then it looked like this...

No caption needed.

Why not add some red to the white?

He dumped a pile of sprinkles on and I told

him it was way too much. He happily grabbed

the dish cloth and wiped some off.

The finished product! I really did have fun.

Gingerbread Men

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

1 Tbsp. vinegar

1 egg, beaten

4 3/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

Cream butter and sugar. In the microwave, heat molasses until

almost boiling. Pour molasses over sugar mixture and add vinegar.

Mix well and cool mixture to lukewarm. Mix in egg.

Sift dry ingredients and mix together.

Chill dough for several hours.

Roll out to about 1/4 in. thick and cut into men.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Do not over bake. If you do they

are more like gingersnaps. Top with icing.

Decorate as desired.

*this cookie recipe is from Esther Shank

Creamy White Icing

1 cup Crisco

 4 cups 10x sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

4 Tbsp. milk

Mix until creamy.

Have fun,

Hope