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Homemade Granola Bars

October 23, 2009 by Shanna Hatfield

My friend Laurie, who is a gifted baker, cook and all around fantastic person, graciously shared her recipe for Homemade Granola Bars with me. I have to fess up … I have not made these yet, but anything that comes from Laurie’s kitchen is guaranteed to be good.

Her family loves these granola bars and they are less expensive than buying them from a store. She said the best part is that it takes just a few minutes to mix everything together.

Laurie’s Homemade Granola Bars

Bring to BOIL:

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Corn Syrup

Then quickly ADD:

1 cup Peanut Butter

1 Tbsp. Vanilla

1 tsp. salt

MIX WELL then ADD:

4 cups Old Fashioned OATS

5 cups Rice Crispies Cereal

1 cup Coconut

Stir well to coat all. Put half the mixture in a foil lined and ungreased 9×13 pan. Sprinkle generously with whatever (mini M&M’s or chocolate chips, crushed up cookies or candy bars, raisins, marshmallows, dried fruit, a combination- use your imagination here!) Then put the remaining half on and press down using a piece of parchment paper. The mixture won’t stick to this or your hands. After they have completely cooled cut into bars of whatever size you like. Laurie said she also individually wraps the bars so they stay fresh and are ready to grab and go.

Enjoy!

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Mess-Free Entertaining

October 20, 2009 by Shanna Hatfield

cutting boardI am in love! And yes, Hubby is aware of the infatuation.  This love affair is with the next best thing since sliced bread – crock pot liners!

OK, so I can get pretty excited about some very simple things but I just tried the liners for the first time yesterday and absolutely loved them. No mess, no scrubbing out baked on food. Just lift out the liner, toss, and rinse out the crock pot. So quick and simple.

When you are entertaining at home, make your prep work as quick and simple as possible. It will take less time and energy to clean up and give you more of both to devote to enjoying your guests.

Line pans with foil or parchment paper before baking (depending on what you are making) for easy clean up afterward.

Use resealable plastic bags for mixing messy ingredients, marinating meat or veggies. You can mix just about anything in a bag my massaging it. It also works great for squeezing our frosting and fillings. Just fill the bag, seal, trim off a corner and you are ready to roll.

Invest in at least one quality piece of heavy-duty cookware and one top-drawer piece of cutlery. The cookware will not only cook better and faster, it will also be easier to clean up. The cutlery will make your prep work go faster and you might even have more fun doing it.

Have a couple of good cutting boards. Keep the one you use for raw meats separate from the one you use for everything else. When you purchase a cutting board, look for one that has a gutter around the edge – it will keep runaway juices contained and save time on clean up.

Keep a bowl handy in which you place all peelings, trimmings, etc., in when you are doing prep work. It saves cleaning out the sink or scraping piles off the counter later.

Use paper cupcake liners to grease pans, or save the wrappers from cubes of butter to use when you need a pan greased.

Make clean up after the party simple, too, by having adequate containers out for guests to toss their garbage. If you are entertaining outdoors, you can even have a container to collect flatware, plates and glasses.

Think about the things you can do that will save time on clean-up and make entertaining even easier. If you have a favorite mess-free tip, please share it here!

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Fall Party Themes

October 13, 2009 by Shanna Hatfield

When you entertain during the fall, think about creating an added element of excitement with a fall party theme.apples

The possibilities are only limited  by your imagination, so have fun with it!

Your theme can be something as simple as Halloween or choose something a little more off the beaten path like a Pumpkin Carving Party, Harvest Celebration, Leaf Wrangling Party, Apple Festival, Pumpkin Bash, or Pasta Potluck.

For an Apple Festival, you could begin incorporating the theme with your invitations. If you are printing invitations, make sure there are some apple graphics on the invite. Or take it a step further and hand deliver an apple with an invitation attached to the stem. Use a variety of apples for your decorations at the party. Cored apples work great as candle holders. A mini basket of apples makes a fun and simple centerpiece.

Serve a variety of fun dishes including several that include apple as an ingredient. You could have cheese and apple slices for an appetizer,  apple slaw or Waldorf salad, pork with apples for a main dish and applesauce cake or apple pie for dessert. Don’t forget to have hot apple cider available as well. Mix in some other non-apple dishes to round out the meal.

You can even incorporate some apple-themed games like who can peel an apple the fastest or in one continuous peel, apple bowling, or a blindfolded taste-test with several varieties of apples.

However you decide to entertain this fall, add a theme and ramp up the fun.

If you would like to receive a complimentary set of fall party cards, please email me at shanhat@yahoo.com and I’ll send you a set.

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Popcorn Cake

October 9, 2009 by Shanna Hatfield

PopcornBarThe first year I was away from home on my birthday, my Mom sent me a popcorn cake.  It was a taste of home, fall and love all wrapped up in one fragrantly satisfying bundle.

It seems only appropriate to share this recipe since October is National Popcorn Poppin’ Month.

This is a fun and easy cake to make that little ones especially enjoy. A warning: you will have sticky fingers both in the making and the eating process, but so worth it!

Popcorn Cake

24 cups of popped popcorn*

1 cup of spiced gum drops

1 1/2 cups of peanuts

1 large bag of mini marshmallows

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup butter

Mix oil, butter and marshmallows in a large bowl. Microwave at 20-30 second increments, stirring between each set until marshmallows and melted and oil and butter are mixed in nicely. (It will still look a little oily). Mix in popped popcorn, peanuts and gum drops. Press into greased bundt or angel food cake pan. Leave standing at room temperature for an hour or so until cake is set then slice and serve. You could also press into balls and wrap individually.

* For a fun variation, use colored popcorn kernels.

Have any fun popcorn recipes to share? Post them here!

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