Peanut Butter Toffee Bars

I was flipping through the latest issue of a magazine (Family Fun, I think it's called) and found this recipe. Since James loves toffee, I thought I would try it out.

I only made a half batch of these as a tester. I'll include my measurements.

Peanut Butter Toffee Bars

1/4 c butter, softened
1/4 (plus a little more) c creamy peanut butter
3/8 c packed light brown sugar
1 egg yolk (do not double this if you double the recipe to fill a 9X13 pan)
3/4 c flour
1/4 c instant oats
1/8 t salt
1-1/2 c dark chocolate chips
1/2 c toffee baking pieces

1. Heat oven to 350°. Line a 8-inch square baking pan with foil so that it extends over the edges of the pan.

2. In a bowl, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and egg yolk until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Add the flour, oats and salt and beat the mixture just until the ingredients are blended.

3. Press the mixture evenly into the bottow of the pan. Bake until the crust is golden brown, 15-20 minutes.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Place pan back in the oven for 1 minute. Remove the pan again and spread the chocolate evenly over the crust. Sprinkle with the toffee pieces and gently press the pieces in to the chocolate layer.

5. Allow the pan to cool on a wire rack until the chocolate has set. (May take several hours.) Using the edges of the foil, lift the bars out of the pan and cut the dessert into squares. I was able to get 16 pieces out of the 8-inch pan.

These are pretty yummy. The peanut butter flavor overwhelms the toffee flavor a little, but you definitely still get the toffee crunch on top. James liked them and asked me to keep the recipe.

Great News!

We are finally back in our home after the wildfire that hit our area.  We had massive smoke damage and had to fight the insurance company (State Farm) to pay for the damages.  I am hoping to have a baking day this week to make thank you gifts for the people that helped us!  I'll keep you posted!

Why I've been away.

I haven't posted for a long time. I had some health problems for awhile that we were trying to work out and then almost three weeks ago we were evacuated from our house. We live right in the middle of the area affected by the largest wildfire in TX history. We were evacuated from our home for 10 days before we were allowed back into our area. We did not lose our home thanks to God and the wonderful first responders who worked so hard to save our house. Our home is unliveable right now due to smoke damage, but we are working on that.

This pictures is what is left of the woods to the left and behind our house.

This is from the right side of our house looking from outside our fence to behind our property. You can just see how close the fire came to our house if you look inside the fence. Where the picture was taken is all burnt.

We are extremely blessed and have been surprised and awed by the generosity of others. Even though we were not one of the 1000+ people that lost structures, we have been displaced and most people have been really supportive. The only group we have had problems with is our insurance company, State Farm. We are currently in the process of fighting them to cover more than what the adjustor allotted.

I hope to start posting again soon, but need some time to work out everything with our house. God bless!

Baked Chicken Flautas

Oh my gosh, these flautas were so good!!! We were watching "Hungry Girl" on TV over the weekend and she made a recipe for baked chicken flautas that we both thought looked really good. I love flautas, but James, although he prefers other forms of Mexican food, just likes them. I didn't look the recipe up, instead I just flew by the seat of my pants and made up my own recipe.

Kat's Baked Chicken Flautas

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 t taco seasoning, divided
1 T coconut oil
water
1/4 c salsa (we used homemade)
1/4 - 1/3 c shredded cheddar cheese
7 corn tortillas

1. Sprinkle 1 t taco seasoning over chicken. Place chicken and oil in Crock-pot. Put in enough water to cover the bottom of the crock. I used a little more than 1/4 c. Cook on low until moist and tender. I ended up cooking mine for about 7-8 hours.

2. Remove chicken from crock and use two forks to shred the chicken. Add in salsa, cheese and taco seasoning and stir together.

3. Wrap tortillas in a damp paper towel and warm in the microwave for about 1 minute.

4. Spread 1-2 T of chicken mixture on each tortilla. Roll up each tortilla and place on a lightly oiled baking pan. Bake at 400° for about 15 minutes until crispy!

I hope you enjoy!

"Art" work

I saw some "artwork" in the most recent Family Fun magazine that I thought looked pretty cool. I thought I would give it a try. James thought that I was so artistic after looking at these, but I really just colored in boxes in patterns. It was at least fun and took up some time to do these!

Homemade corn muffin mix

I love corn bread, corn muffins, corn cakes, etc., so I was excited to see this recipe for a corn muffin mix in the latest issue of the Food Network Magazine. I changed the recipe a little so I'll include my version below.

Just in case those don't look enticing enough, here's a close-up!

These were so good with honey drizzled on top!

Corn Muffin Mix

Whisk together the following ingredients and store in an air-tight container. This is about 2.5 dozen muffins when made.

3 c white wheat flour
3/4 c succanat (or use 1 c sugar)
2 c cornmeal
1/8 c baking powder
1/2 T salt
a small dash of cinnamon

To make 1 dozen muffins, whisk 1 c milk, 2 eggs, and 4 T melted butter into 2-1/4 c muffin mix just until blended. Transfer to a greased muffin tin and bake at 400° for 15 minutes.

Oh, I hope you like these as much as we did!

Beef Barley Soup

My boss made this soup last week and I loved it. He got the recipe from Cooks.com and was nice enough to share it with me. I changed it up a little based on what I had in the house and how I wanted to cook it.



Beef Barley Soup

1 lb. stew beef
salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
4 c beef stock
2 c water
1/2 c barley
1 c chopped carrot
1/2 c chopped celery
1 c chopped onion
1 t Italian seasoning
1 15-oz can of crushed tomatoes

1. Brown meat over medium high heat. Add salt and pepper to meat and let cook for about thirty seconds. Add one cup of stock to pan and scrape bottom of pan. Pour this mixture into a preheated crock-pot.

2. Add the rest of the beef stock, water, carrots, celery, onions, Italian seasoning and bay leaf to the crock-pot and let cook for two to three hours on low.

3. After two to three hours, add barley and tomatoes. Check the flavor of the broth to see if you need more salt or pepper. Cook for 5-7 more hours on low.

This was a pretty hearty soup and we really liked it.