Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Bars

It was a good weekend in just about every way (the exception being the weather, by turns downpour and muggy overcast). On Saturday we went out to look at houses and actually saw one that we like quite a bit, was in our price range, and was in pretty decent shape. We're not sure yet what we're going to do about it, but the existence of one such prospect makes us feel better about the whole endeavor.

On Sunday there was the usual cleaning and errands to be done, and in the afternoon I got to spend some time baking. I made D an apple pie, something I do every three years or so. I don't have much of the normal fear of piecrust, but I don't really care for pie most of the time, so he ends up having to eat the whole thing. I use a Mrs. Fields recipe, and previously it's turned out all right, but this weekend the filling failed to thicken. Not sure if it was the apples I used or some other error, or just one of those things. It did look awesome, though:

While the crust was chilling, I threw together these bars, which are one of my favorite things to make. They're basically Toll House cookies with some of the butter replaced by peanut butter, baked in a pan; what's not to love?

1 1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup commercial smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease an 11x7 baking pan with butter or vegetable oil.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a medium-size bowl and set aside.
3. Cream the butter, peanut butter, both sugars, and the vanilla until light and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape the bowl.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on medium speed until partially blended after each, about 10 seconds. After the second, beat until blended, about 30 seconds.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix with a spatula until the flour is absorbed. Then mix on low speed until blended, 7-10 seconds. Scrape the bowl.
6. Add the chocolate chips and blend for several seconds. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
7. Bake the bars on the center oven rake until the edges are deep golden and the center is lightly golden and slightly puffy, 25-30 minutes. The center will drop when the bars are taken out of the oven, creating a chewy texture. Cut the bars into squares after they have cooled a bit on a rack.
   

Black Bean Soup for a Rainy Day

After last weekend's budget-busting entertainment extravaganza, I was determined to be a bit more frugal this week. Saturday was soggy as can be, and we spent a goodly chunk of it looking at a couple of houses in Framingham, one of which actually seems like it might be a good prospect (finally). I did not have time to do grocery shopping; I did have the leftover ham and a bag of black beans. So--black bean soup it was! I made some bread while it simmered, and there you have it, a decent and decidedly cheap meal (with leftovers to have for a couple of lunches).

Got Eggplant?

Then you can make Penne with Sausage, Eggplant, and Feta! Which is what I did on Monday. File under "quick and delish." I like to buy eggplant in the summer, when the farmer's market has small, smooth, perfectly purple fruits, but I have few means of using them so far.

I discovered with this rendition that if you turn the heat waaaay up and don't use a nonstick pan, you get some awesome browning on the sausage, and the eggplant is done without getting mushy (yuck).

You may have noticed a distinct bias around here toward things that can be made in less than twenty minutes and put on top of pasta. There are days I like to fuss around in the kitchen for hours, but they're hard to come by.

JJ's Baptismal Lunch

It was an enormously busy weekend--a D&D game on Saturday, and one of the group had a recent birthday so I made Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cloud Cake. It was absolutely fantastic and I wish I'd taken a picture. The only problem was the presentation, in that the whipped cream tends to slide around a bit when you cut into the cake. Minor problem, though, since it tasted great. While we played, I put together Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies. (Take a pound of butter....)

My in-laws were here to watch the kids during the game. For dinner we gave them Bistro Chicken with rice pilaf and steamed green beans, and then we finished off the cake.

On Sunday morning I made some French-style potato salad, chopped up veggies for nibbling with hummus, plated the brownies, and put the ham in the oven. JJ was fussy at first during church, and complained quite loudly about the water, but soon after that he fell asleep. Here's the little guy in his gown.


We caravaned the family back to our apartment, and it was short work to put all the food out. D's mom and dad brought some bread and iced tea to round out the menu, and his aunt and uncle had thoughtfully brought some prosecco and glasses, and we toasted our little guy and then fell to demolishing the food.

That didn't take long, and there isn't much left over, which is pretty much the best compliment one can have for this sort of event. Everyone stayed for a while, catching up, taking pictures, playing with the kids (L was a little hyper but generally pretty good, and JJ behaved fabulously--must have been the nap).

Midafternoon JJ finally went to sleep again. I took L outside and blew bubbles for her, and we went down by the pond's shore to see the turtles, and the heron that was fishing off the old pilings. I will miss that pond, but I am really starting to look forward to moving.

Here's a pic of the two kids from earlier this week, just for the heck of it!

Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

"OMG. So yummy."
"Wow… that is DELICIOUS!"
"YUM!!"
"Thanks for sharing the delicious apple cake!"

And so forth, from my co-workers. This is a really good cake for fall entertaining. Sweet and moist and big enough for a crowd.

It's been a while since I brought anything in to the office. Hopefully this made up a bit for the drought.

Edit 11/3/08--I just now realized that I have blogged this recipe twice. Oh, well.....

He slept through the night!!!

I will never figure kids out.

Friday night was awful. L brought a cold home from school and gave it to her brother, and he was up I think four times in the course of the night--crying, snuffling, and more than willing to share his misery with his parents. So Saturday night we were braced for more of the same; we got the car seat ready in case he found it easier to sleep propped up, and agreed to take turns getting up with him as needed.

Instead, he slept from 8:30 to 5, had a snack, and went back to sleep for another couple hours. Amazing. He has also become quite competent at pulling himself to standing. While he had done it a few times before yesterday, over the course of the weekend he has gained confidence and proficiency. When I went in this morning to find him standing up in his crib, it was time to lower the mattress level.

Most of yesterday was taken up with a trip to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in RI. We were there last year with our friends the Rs and their daughter, and are trying to make it something of a tradition, since we don't get to see them as often as we'd like. The zoo is on the small side in terms of the number of exhibits, which makes it just the right size for small children; both girls were pretty tired and edging into cranky by the time we finished. When the kids are bigger we might broaden our activity zone to other parts of the park.

Something to remember for next time: with little ones, do not try to leave something good for the end of the visit; they'll be too tired to enjoy it and will rush you through it, too.

Now to spend a rainy morning figuring out menus and shopping lists. Aside from the normal weekly things, JJ is getting baptized a week from now, and I have to figure out something to feed people afterward, plus we have a D&D game on Saturday. Takeout may figure into one or more of these events....

No further news on the house front; we seem to have exhausted the existing stock that meets our criteria in the Framingham area, and are left waiting to see what else comes on the market. We are hoping to take a second look at that one fixer-upper, just for kicks and to see how much work would really be involved. I keep reminding myself that we have plenty of time... but last night I packed up two boxes of videos we don't watch much. There's a big part of me that really wants to have this done with.

Sweet Potato and White Bean Soup

Or just potato and white bean, since I bought a lot of the former at Monday's farmer's market (I always buy more potatoes than I need. Always.). And I had to resort to jarred pesto, since I didn't have everything required to make one from sage and walnuts (which sounds good, but at what point do you have to stop calling it pesto?).

This was one of the best returns on investment I've had in a while. The leeks take long enough to cook that you can do everything else at a rather leisurely pace in the meantime, instead of having everything ready to go before you get started, but the entire recipe can be ready in a half hour or so. And of course, pesto can make almost anything taste good. Together with what was left of the bread from Monday, this made a very satisfying meal for a weeknight.

L ate half the beans out of the colander before I could put them in. She's got the first cold of the school year now. I am still obsessing over that rehab in Maynard, and counting down the days before our big October deadline at work.