Basic Granola Bars

While visiting our family in Montana a couple weeks ago, one of the activities I look forward to the most is hiking Mount Helena.  If you start early enough in the morning before it gets too hot, the hike to the top is relaxing, exhilarating, and an awesome workout.  Plus, when you reach the summit, you are rewarded with a breathtaking view of the Helena valley.

I normally have to drag Paul along on the hike.  He seems to have a really hard time adjusting to the altitude and is normally huffing and puffing his way up the mountain top.  I was able to convince him by informing him that he would NOT be carrying a very heavy Mr. Matthew on his back the entire way up.  We were joined on our morning venture by my sister Sophie, who traveled out West with Paul and I, and Paul's brothers James and Peter.  We stopped for coffee on our way to the trail head where Paul gulped down plenty of espresso, with the hope that the extra caffeine kick would propel him up the mountain.

Me and Sophie!

Finally, we set out on our journey towards the summit.  Paul, as expected, took up the rear.  We had to stop and wait for him several times.  James was nice enough to hang back with him just in case he needed a piggy-back ride.

Less than an hour later, we were just about at the top.  Paul decided to cut up the rocky side of the peak in order to reach the summit first via this "shortcut."  Well, his attempts to scale the rocks proved inefficient as he was slower than a tortoise.  He was the very last to reach the summit and we all got some pretty cute pictures of his heroic efforts to make it to the top and not topple to his death.  I knew he could do it!

I tried to capture a picture of all the Nistler boys together.  I must have taken about 10 pictures and this was the best shot of all.  These boys were more difficult to photograph than a group of toddlers.

And then I tried to take a sweet picture with my husband.  He, as usual, was super cooperative...

Fourth times the charm...

I thought it would be appropriate to follow this tale of an epic hike with a granola bar recipe.  This is a basic, basic, basic recipe.  You can choose to add in whatever nuts, dried fruits, etc. that you wish.  If you want them a little chewier, you can add up to 3 tablespoons of melted butter to the mixture.  You can also add a little brown sugar if you prefer your granola bars on the sweeter side.  In the granola bars I photographed, I did not add in any dried fruit, but rather threw in a mashed, extremely ripe banana into the mix along with a handful of toasted walnuts.  They kind of tasted a bit like a banana bread bar.

Anyway, these are infinitely adaptable.  Make them your own!

Basic Granola Bars

adapted from Barefoot Contessa, as seen on Smitten Kitchen

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup sweetened coconut

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

2/3 cup honey

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup dried fruit

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9x13 baking dish.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds, and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ. Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.

While the mixture is still warm, stir in the honey, vanilla and salt until the mixture is well coated, then the dried fruit. Pour the mixture into your prepared baking dish and press, press, press it in until the mixture is packed as tightly as possible.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for 2 to 3 hours on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

12 Days of Christmas Baking: Caramel Corn

I personally love those huge holiday tins filled with three different types of popcorn flavors: butter, cheese, and caramel. There were several Christmas mornings where each of us kids would receive our own large tub full of popcorn (mine was normally adorned with pictures of kittens snuggling next to a stack of presents). I always gobbled down the cheese and butter popcorn varieties rather quickly, but normally gave away the caramel corn. My brother Michael usually had his mouth open and stomach ready to engulf any leftovers I was willing to pass along. That kid was a bottomless tank. But we'll save the stories of him eating soggy leftover cereal and drinking curdled milk for another time...

Bottom line, I only like caramel corn when it is fresh and homemade. Or when it comes from the Boy Scouts - they have a couple different varieties that are pretty decent. I used to help Michael "The Bottomless Pit" Korson sell the stuff around our neighborhood when we were younger and often ended up ordering a few tins myself. Although, at nearly $14 bucks for a small tin, the purchase demolished nearly a months worth of savings from my paper route (paper kids really should form a union and demand more decent pay).

This recipe, while technically not a cookie or pastry, has been in our Christmas rotation for a couple years. It comes from my beautiful mother, who makes the greatest caramel corn I have ever eaten. We usually end up giving little decorative bags full of this stuff to neighbors and friends as Christmas gifts.

If you plan on doing that, you might want to make a double batch. It is extremely difficult to resist munching on this stuff.

Caramel Corn

from My Mom

7 quarts popped popcorn (28 cups)

2 cups dry roasted, salted peanuts

2 cups light brown sugar

1/2 cups light corn syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1 cups butter

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Place popcorn and peanuts in shallow baking pans. I normally use a large roasting pan - we have a ridiculously large one that can hold a 40 pound turkey. I don't know why we own it since we have never roasted anything that big...but it works great for this. Otherwise, those large, disposable aluminum baking pans work really well.

Combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Bring to a boil and let cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly and being sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and baking soda (the mixture will "poof" a bit).

Pour over the popcorn and stir. Don't worry too much about evenly coating it perfectly - it'll do that a little better after some time in the oven.

Bake 1 hour, stirring well every 15 minutes. When dried, break apart onto wax paper.

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! I know this is a bit late, but this week has been extremely busy. We did enjoy a fun Halloween night with Matthew. We dressed him up as a monkey. It seemed fairly appropriate considering his favorite stuffed animal is a little monkey.

He was so excited to get dressed up...

Paul and I had originally planned to just take Matthew trick-or-treating to a few of the neighbors' houses in the area. They see Matthew from time to time and like to ask about him, so we thought it would be fun to pay them a visit. Matthew enjoyed trick-or-treating so much that we ended up taking him to the next neighborhood over to ring some doorbells. There were throngs of children out and about. They were all under the age of 10 and dressed as firefighters, dragons, princesses, and various action figures. They all looked super cute and were enjoying pointing and commenting on the costumes of every other kid who was out and about.

We tried to teach Matthew how to say "Trick or Treat!"

That did not go over so well.

He would just run up to the door, ring the bell and then start waving frantically while yelling "Hi! Hi! Hiiiiii!!" He would then proceed to babble about something very animatedly while the poor person would attempt to give him a treat. He really was not at all interested in the candy - just the social aspect of the whole night! He loved watching all the other little kids and even was stopped a few times by other youngsters his age who would start lightly touching and pointing at his outfit while he did the same right back to them. Too cute.

Paul and I definitely had more fun than we thought we would.

And if you're looking up for a yummy way to use leftover candy, we put it in a pretty fabulous snack mix to take to a party. We're bringing it to a football get together this weekend. My child is hyper enough without pumping him with excess sugar, so we'll hand it out to some engineers and see if it makes them a little more social.

Snacks like this keep your dentist in business. So by making it, you are supporting local businesses. Which is great for the economy. What a patriot you are!

Scarily Delicious Halloween Snack Mix

adapted from Food and Wine

2 cups coarsely broken pretzels

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/3 cup dry milk powder

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 bag Reese's pieces

1 Hershey bar, broken into small pieces

Note: This is just the candy that I chose to use. You could definitely just use about 12 ounces of chopped up whatever you have leftover from Halloween. I really like the peanut butter-pretzel combination, so Peanut Butter cups are especially marvelous.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.

Stir together the melted butter, sugars, and milk powder. Stir in the pretzels and gently toss to coat. Spread onto the baking sheet and bake until fragrant and light brown, about 20 minutes.

Let the pretzels cool completely. Break them apart and toss in a large bowl with the candy.