Ladies. Gents. Children. Toddlers…it’s officially the start. The start of the holiday season.

Are you one of those prepared holiday/early shopper people? I wish I was one of you. I am not. I’m the antithesis.

I’m talking…tree finally goes up a week before Christmas. Gifts ordered two days before Christmas Eve. This, of course, leads to frantic calls to the post office. Passive aggressive conversations with Fedex. Paying a bit more in postage so holiday cards make it on time. Staying up late wrapping. STRESS!

Holiday drama. Lots of it. I think part of me likes it…deep down inside I find it super entertaining. And also, I’m busy working. I dunno. I don’t have time to commit all this time to this holiday, man.

So I wing it. Year after year.

You want to wing the holiday season and still come out successful? I have some professional procrastination tips…

Step 1:

Invest in Amazon Prime. It gives you 2-day shipping FREE! No one said this was cheap.

Step 2:

Prioritize what gifts are actually important and which ones you can get away with slacking off on.

Good example of what to procrastinate on:

I know my dad likes books. I know he likes kitchen stuff. I can get alllll of that on Amazon. Why order it now when I can do it last minute?

Good example of what not to procrastinate on:

Business type cards and gifts. These are important. Now, my dad is important, too..even more important, actually; but he’ll forgive me if his present doesn’t show up. If I don’t send a business holiday card? Just not okay. Awful. There’s no room for error.

Step 3:

Look at your holiday party invites. Sometimes parties get stressful–there’s just too many of them. Figure out which ones you can and want to bake for, and which ones you can get away with buying a bottle of wine for.

I say ones that are total acquaintance type parties…a bottle of wine is perfect. It’s nice. Who cares if you picked it up at Trader Joe’s on the way over and only paid $5!! Seriously, no one cares.

The parties thrown by your besties…those are the ones to cook and bake for.

Cue this slightly tart (hello cranberries!), perfectly textured (you’re cute rolled oats!), moist banana bread creature.

I love it so much.

There are so many good things packed in this loaf pan.

I say this recipe deserves to be doubled. Two loaves!

They’re moist and delicious for FOREVER! Like 3-4 days…maybe even longer, but I wouldn’t know because it didn’t last that long.

This means you can totally bake a few off on Saturday morning and keep them throughout the week, handing them out like Halloween candy.

Also, say you don’t want to bake for anyone…because you don’t have time. Well, that’s cool…I say bake this for yourself then…eat it along side a cup of coffee and figure out your procrastination (or not) game plan.

Cranberry Oat Banana Bread

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1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon for dusting pan
1/4 cup rolled oats, plus 1 handful for topping
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup smashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
1 1/2 cup cranberries

1. Pre-heat oven to 325˚F. Lightly grease a 9×5-inch pan and dust with a tablespoon of flour.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together all-purpose flour, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk. To the buttermilk, add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract and mix until combined.

4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs, light brown sugar and white sugar together until thick and pale, approximately 3-5 minutes. Mix in smashed banana and buttermilk mixture. In two batches, add flour mixture, mixing until just combined, being sure not to overmix.

5. Fold in cranberries and transfer batter to prepared loaf pan. Top with a handful of rolled oats.

6. Bake quick bread for 1 hour, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Invert bread onto a rack to cool. Cranberry Oatmeal Banana Bread will be moist up to 3-4 days. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap to preserve its freshness.

Today we’re gonna learn how to make things you probably thought could only come from a store. The first is peanut butter. Peanut butter is delicious. Peanut butter: don’t ever change. Cause you’re amazing just the way you are. Next we’re going to take this peanut butter and make peanut butter oatmeal cookies, made popular first  by the Girl Scouts as a Do-Si-Do. See, we’ve already taken on Thin Mints, so it’s time to branch out a bit.

Let’s talk peanut butter. Specifically, let’s discuss how easy it is to make. Here’s the recipe in its entirety: you take peanuts, and put them in a food processor. Then you blend them until they become smooth and creamy. The End. I personally prefer to use honey roasted peanuts, cause nothing about “honey roasted” sounds like a bad idea to me.

I wish I could tell you that these cookies are just as easy to make as peanut butter, but it’s sort of hard to compare to a recipe that is one step. However, they’re still pretty simple. I actually think that real live Girl Scouts would have an easy time making these themselves. If a Girl Scout tried to sell me cookies she had made herself, I would buy twice as many boxes, just on principle. Unless she had dirty fingernails. It’s hard to eat food that’s been handed to you by dirty fingernails. One time I was served ice cream by a kid who’s fingernails were almost black from the dirt under them. Super gross.

Here’s your agenda for the day: Make peanut butter. Then make cookies. Wash your hands first.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

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Cookie recipe adapted from All Recipes

Makes about 16 cookie sandwiches

For the peanut butter:

2 cups honey roasted peanuts (yields 1 cup peanut butter)

Grind the peanuts in a food processor for about 2-5 minutes, or until they are creamy and have become a butter.

For the cookies:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup quick cooking oats

For the filling:

3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
2 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping crea

In a large bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup peanut butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Add in the egg and beat together.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and combine. Stir in the oatmeal.

Use a teaspoon measure to spoon dough onto a greased cookie sheet, and press each mound down with a fork to form 1/4 inch thick cookies. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes, or until cookies are light brown.

To Make Filling:

Cream 3 tablespoons butter or margarine with the confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, and the cream. Spread filling onto half of the cooled cookies, then top with the other half to form sandwiches.

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is another scone recipe. Adrianna made scones, and I made scones. We did not plan this, we didn’t even know this had happened until she posted her Gruyere and Bacon Scones and I emailed her saying “OMG you made scones!” That pretty much sums up our entire way of handling this here blog. We don’t plan or discuss, and remarkably we always end up making similar kinds of food.

But hey, you’re cool with more scones right? Scones are awesome. These are particularly awesome because they are the perfect breakfast on the go in the morning. Here’s what you do: first, whip up some scone dough and cut it into segments. Then,  lay them out on a baking sheet and flash freeze the dough. Once the segments are frozen, dump them into a big Ziploc bag and put them back in the freezer.

Here’s the hard part: when you wake up in the morning and you’re totally groggy and out of it, put a couple of these scone segments in the oven and crank it up to 400 degrees F. Do this FIRST. Before you shower and before you’ve had any coffee. I told you this was hard. But the cool thing is that now while you’re showering and coffee brewing, your frozen scones will be baking up and you’ll soon have a hot breakfast you can munch on the way to work.

Oh yeah, and these aren’t your normal scones that you might feel guilty about eating. These have whole wheat flour and oats and fruit. Enough to make you feel warm and fuzzy all the way to work.

 

Rasberry Oatmeal Scones

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I like to use frozen berries for things like this since they can stand up to the rolling and mixing a little better, but you can still use fresh if you prefer. This is kind of messy so don’t worry too much about the dough being rolled out perfectly, as long as everything’s sticking together and you can cut it into segments it’ll all work out just fine.

Makes about 15 scones

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tablespoons baking powder
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, diced
½ cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
1 egg beaten with a splash of milk or water (for egg wash)
2 cups frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl sift together together the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in the cold butter and knead in with your hands until the mix begins to resemble coarse crumbs (there should still be lumps of butter throughout the mix). In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, vanilla and eggs. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture along with the raspberries and mix until just combined. The dough will probably be sticky.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and make sure it is completely combined. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough until it is about ¾ to and 1 inch thick. I ended up having to use my hands to pat the dough down since the raspberries got to be a bit messy. Cut the dough into segments and place onto a lined baking sheet. You can either go ahead and flash freeze these to save for later or place them directly in the heated oven.

Brush the tops with egg wash right before baking and then bake for 20 to 25 minutes. If you’re using frozen dough at this point it might take an extra 10 minutes or so, but that’s why I will typically place frozen dough in the oven as it’s heating up instead of waiting for it to preheat.
Once the scones are golden brown remove from the oven and dig in.

So…I may have to apologize for this recipe. I understand that a lot of you have probably made New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, go on a diet, eat healthier, etc. And since it’s still the first week of January, you may still actually be sticking to these lofty ideals. You probably don’t want to be reading about gooey pies made from butter and honey. Yes, there’s also some oatmeal, but even I am not going to try and act like that in any way raises the nutritional value. This is a gooey pie, made from butter and honey, with a little oatmeal to bind it all together. I’ll understand if you have to leave the site now.

See…Adrianna and I were both sent this cookbook, The Green Market Baking Book, which I received as soon as I got home from the holidays. It’s super cute, it even has a ribbon bookmark attached. For future reference, if I ever write my own cookbook, I’m going to make sure it has a ribbon bookmark attached. Irresistible cuteness. As I was flipping through the fun recipes I stumbled upon oatmeal pie, and was consumed with the urge to make it.

Quick note – this pie was supposed to be made using a standard pie plate. However, mine seems to have evaporated while I was out of town . I was so determined to make oatmeal pie that I tore my kitchen apart looking for it. This is what my kitchen floor looks like when I pull everything out of the oven storage cabinet. And in case you’re wondering…yes that oven is being held up with wooden wedges. Please don’t ask.

Luckily this recipe is so simple that it’s pretty hard to mess up. I made this pie in a casserole dish and it turned out just perfect.  Again – we’re talking about butter and honey. Regardless of what you use, it’ll all work out fine.

Maple Oatmeal Pie

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Adapted from the Green Market Baking Book

I tweaked this recipe quite a bit from the original by adding in the maple syrup and subtracting the nuts, although if you want to sprinkle some crushed nuts over the top of the pie before you bake it I think the crunch would be a nice texture to add in. The maple syrup is an absolute must though – please don’t leave it out.

1 unbaked pie shell
¼ cup butter
1 cup honey
¼ cup maple syrup
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup uncooked oatmeal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter in a large bowl. Continue beating and slowly add in the honey. Add the cinnamon, vanilla and salt. Beat in the eggs one at a time until everything is combined. Stir in the oatmeal and pour the mixture into the pie shell.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the pie is set.

Dear Recession,

I hate you I dislike you. I think it’s time for you to go away now, don’t you think? Look! I made you oatmeal cookies…think of it as a parting gift of sorts. So leave…now. You’ve caused nothing but trouble ever since you arrived and everyone is sorta tired of your face.

And to all you people that caused this, you sort of make me sick. My friends can’t seem to fund their movies, or get money for their art projects.  A bunch of my favorite restaurants and boutiques have closed their doors, which in turn has lead to a whole bunch of people now working jobs they don’t like just to pay the rent (and that’s if they can even find a job) all ’cause of you. People have shed a lot of tears, families have broken up, and overall, you’ve just made life a whole lot harder for a whole lot of people.  Sooo…I’m thinking you owe us something, dontcha think?  I think you owe us some cookies…I mean, it’s really the least you could do.  It certainly won’t make us forget, but you know, we’ll call it an olive branch.  And since  I’m pretty confident you can afford it, I’m demanding you put some bacon in those cookies, and I think Valhorna chocolate chips are also in order (see below for example).

So dig into your bonus-filled pockets, put on a cute, little apron and get baking. You suuure do have a lot of cookies to bake.

xoxo,

Adrianna

Depression (or Recession) Era Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe was given to me by my dear friend, Tom. This was his Grandmother Nellie’s Oatmeal Cookie recipe that calls for bacon drippings rather than butter. I keep my bacon drippings in a mason jar in the fridge.  If you don’t save your bacon drippings, or you don’t want to use them, here’s a link to my favorite Oatmeal Cookie recipes that uses butter.  See! Everyone wins.

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3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup  bacon drippings at room temperature

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

4 pieces of bacon, fried and chopped (optional)

6 oz. of chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the white sugar, brown sugar, egg and bacon drippings. Add the oats, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, flour  and mix well.  If you like, then gently fold in the bacon and chocolate chips.

Using your hands shape the dough into 1 1/2″ to 2″ cookies. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for ten minutes or until done.

For a long time I’ve had a love-hate relationship with granola bars. My idea of the perfect granola bar is something chewy, delicious, not too sweet, and that serves as a satisfying snack. I always want to like the store-bought ones, but time and again they disappoint me.

Every few months I’ll be in a grocery store and will wander past a large display of some new variety of granola bars and will then somehow convince myself that these are the bars I have been looking for all my life. Ten minutes later, I’m in the checkout line with a basket filled with granola bars, only to get home and discover that these are no different than any other bar I’ve ever had. They’re  either bland or too sweet and I still feel hungry after eating 5 of them.

So now, I’ve taken matters into my own hands. I found this recipe from the lovely Ina Garten (I love her SO MUCH) and after making a few of my own adjustments I am pleased to announce that these are, in fact, the granola bars that I’ve always dreamed of. They’re chewy, with just a hint of sweetness, and are a satisfying snack that neither I, nor you, have to feel guilty about.

Granola Bars

Adapted from Ina Garten

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I changed the original recipe quite a bit. I was worried about it being too sweet and took out the brown sugar altogether, and am definitely glad that I did. I was also worried after reading some reviews that the butter would make the bars greasy, so I cut the amount down from 3 tablespoons to 1. I couldn’t find wheat germ in the store so I substituted flaxseed meal, but either option would work. My favorite dried fruits are apricots and cranberries, but you can use anything that you like or have on hand.

Also – not a fan of bars? Just break this up into pieces and you can eat it as your morning breakfast cereal.

2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut, loosely packed
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups chopped dried fruit

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 by 12-inch baking sheet and line it with greased parchment paper, or a Silpat.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer to a large bowl and add in flaxseed meal. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.
Combine the butter, honey, vanilla, and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for a minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dried fruit and stir the mixture together.

Pour the mixture onto the baking sheet. Wet your fingers and lightly press the mixture evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Allow to cool for at least 2-3 hours and then cut into squares.