A few weeks ago, a friend asked me if I could make “Energy/Protein Bars that don’t break the bank”. A box of 12 of the kind that he likes costs $25, which is $2.08 per bar. To be honest, I didn’t think that it was possible, and this experiment pretty much proved it: cost per bar ended up at $1.88, not including my time. Nuts, dried fruit, coconut butter, cocoa powder and nibs … all very pricey. I could probably bring the price down for 10 or 15 cents if I bought in huge volumes / bulk, but seeing this was an experiment, I went with normal sized purchases. Also, never having made energy bars before (and to be honest, I never really even thought about making them before now), I didn’t know how they would turn out, or if he would like them. If you like energy bars, these are pretty good. If you are “eh” on the topic of energy bars, you might not like them. I think that they are “good not great”.
sweets
Recipe 1000. One thousand. A one with three zeros after it. Wow. Ugh. Holy Cow. That’s a lot of food. Yes, this French-style Apple Custard Tart marks the 1000th recipe on this here website. I had wanted to hit 1000 at the 4 years mark, but I am a few weeks late. Oh well. I have a day job afterall.
This tart uses the smallest Pink Lady Apples that I have ever seen. They were really only about 2 inches in diameter. They were even sold as mini apples. You could, of course, use “normal sized apples” but as I had these, I used these instead. Note that this tart isn’t overly sweet, so if you are an “a la mode” person, definitely scoop on the ice cream!
Here’s a recipe that is quick and esy and you probably have all the ingredients readily available. Well, provided that you have bourbon. Not everyone has stashes of booze around, but I do (though that is a long story). And if you don’t have pecans, walnuts or almonds will do just as well. Start to finish under an hour, so if you are in a rush for your kid’s bake sale, this recipe might be for you. And yes, as a matter of fact those are mini-binder clips holding the parchment paper sling in place. I’m funny like that.
Snow. Snowmen. Dead Snowmen. Yes, that is right. More snow themed cookies, on the “Winter of Discontent” theme (if you are getting bored with this theme, you are lucky as it is the last one in the mini-series). I normally don’t go in for the cutesy cookies, but as I was bantering with a friend on Facebook about how I could just about kill a snowman, I decided to make these. More commonly called “Melting Snowman Cookies”, they are chocolate and peanut butter cookies, with melted white chocolate, mini-peanut butter cups and other decorations.





