Oatmeal Jam bars

Oatmeal Jam Bars 

 from Pioneer Woman

This recipe is deliciously buttery and pretty high in calories.  The perfect takealong on a backpacking trip or ski outing.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cup oatmeal (quick or regular)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 jar Strawberry Preserves (I used peach in the picture above)

Prepare:

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter a 9 x 13 or 8 x 10 baking dish.
Mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until it resembles coarse crumbs (try adding the oats after mixing in the butter). Sprinkle half the mixture into the plan and pat lightly to pack it a little tight.  Spoon jam/preserves evenly over the surface, then use a dinner knife to carefully spread it around.  Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly again.

Bake until light golden brown on top, about 30-40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool in pan.

When cool, cut into squares and serve.

Banana Bread

from the

Fanny Farmer cookbook

This is my cookbook. I've had it for ages.  It falls open to this recipe automatically.  Its stained and has food spots and the spine is broken.  Its worth its weight in gold.  But, I do want to get this recipe down somewhere else, just in case...


Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a loaf pan (I use two small loaves)

Mix in a large bowl:      3 ripe bananas
                                    2 eggs

Add in:                         3/4 cup sugar
                                    1 tsp salt
                                    1 tsp baking soda
                                    2 cups flour

stir or mix until nicely combined.

Pour into one loaf pan or two mini pans and bake 40-60 minutes, depending on the size of the pans.

This is my favorite all time banana bread.  No fat! Just "pure and simple banana bread, heavy, moist, and dark".

Good toasted, or slathered with cream cheese or butter.  The hardest part of the recipe is getting 3 over-ripe bananas.

OK, I took this one for fun, you can see the photographer/cook in the reflection in the saucepan behind the banana bread.