Apricot Bars

If your tree is brimming with apricots this summer and you need a place to put them. This is an excellent place to start: Apricot bars.

I have always loved raspberry bars and strawberry bars growing up, but they were always made with jam. They never tasted fresh to me. I vowed to never dip into the jelly unless it was for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

This recipe is very simple and you can make a batch in just under an hour.

They go fast! 

Apricot Bars                                                     Makes 16 bars

Crust:

6 tbl whole wheat flour
6 tbl all purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits and chilled
1 tbsp fat free Greek yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. In a food processor or by hand, combine the flours, brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, baking powder and salt and process until combined. Add the butter and yogurt to the flour mixture and pulse/work with your hands until butter is the size of peas and mixture sticks together. 

2. Spray a medium jelly roll pan with release spray (pam) then, turn out your dough, pressing into an even layer.

Bake until evenly browned about 20-22 minutes.  Cool the crust on a metal rack for at least 15 - 20 minutes. 
Prepare the Filling while crust bakes:

6 apricots, depitted, cut into 6ths
1/2 c sugar
juice of one lemon
1 egg

1. Add all the ingredients to a small pot and cook on medium-low for 20 minutes or until apricots break down and begin to thicken. 

2. Whisk egg quickly for 15 seconds, add 1 tbl of hot apricot compote and blend. Add egg mixture to rest of the hot apricots, mix until fully combined. 

Crisp Topping

1 tbl butter
1/4 c oats
1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tbl brown sugar 

1. In a separate bowl, combine all ingredients together in food processor or by hand until crumbly and butter is well blended.

Assembly

1. Spread the hot apricot compote over the warm crust and sprinkle with crisp.

2. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until golden and bubbly. 

3. Cut into bars and serve hot with ice cream or cold for any time :)

Calories calculated using Sparkrecipes Calculator: 109 Calories per serving

Fish Tacos

I LOVE fish tacos. They always remind of of sitting by the ocean and smelling the salty air, being in a foreign place with fresh produce and just having a good time.

I just recently saw this Taco Festival online last night that I REALLY want to go to some day, and the number one most searched for taco recipe? Fish! I don't think my tacos can compare to their seemingly gourmet ones, but they are delicious and the uncomplicated kind (which to me is better).

These tacos are great for quick dinners (not to mention so much healthier then most packaged quick dinners) and they can feed a lot of people if you are having a party.

Fish Tacos                                      Serves 4 -3 tacos each

2 lbs. fresh Tilapia fillets or any favorite fish

2 tbl butter, melted
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder

8 " flour tortillas

2 cups shredded cabbage

2 green onions, sliced

salt

Sauce:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 fresh lime, juiced

Garnish:

sour cream

salsa

fresh lime wedges

1. Thaw fish if frozen and pat dry with a paper towel. Place on a cutting board and cut into diagonal 2" long strips. Spray a shallow baking dish that is big enough to fit all your pieces, lay fish inside dish.

2. Pre-heat your oven to 350F. In a small cup, combine butter, cumin and garlic, brush over fish. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

3. Meanwhile, shred cabbage and slice green onions if you haven't done so already. In another small cup, combine lime juice and mayonnaise, set aside.

4. When fish are done, remove them the oven and lightly salt to taste. Warm your tortillas however you like. I like to take a small saute pan and turn the heat onto med-high. Place tortilla in the pan and let it warm one side until slightly puffy and dark spots appear on the tortilla, flip and do the same to the other side. This takes about 2 mins per tortilla.

5. Assemble tacos by taking a warm tortilla in the hand, slather a tsp-tbl of mayo-lime sauce on one side. Fill with a large pinch of cabbage, then 2-4 pieces of fish pieces. Top with green onions and other desired garnishes.

Calories calculated using Sparkrecipes Calculator: 423 Calories for 3 tacos, does not include salsa or sour cream.

Pomegranate Beef Stir Fry

If you didn't know already, it is National Pomegranate Month!

Luckily, I already had a few of these tasty fruits on hand and I decided I had to celebrate this month by making something yummy. If I didn't, who knows? The National Board of Holiday's may come after me for not showing my respects to this amazing fruit.

You can read all about the health benefits here at the POM website. They also have great folklore and traditions to read about the "super fruit" pomegranate.

I decided to celebrate and go a little non-traditional by making a marinade.

Let me just say, I found ALOT of the same recipes online for chocolate pomegranate cookies (which looked good, but I wasn't too keen on the idea of fruit bursting into my mouth. I don't even like those fruitgusher candies so I'm just avoiding that whole path for now.) If there is one thing the bloggers of this world enjoy, it's using pom's in this cookie recipe.

Also, in my recipe I used beef chuck already cubed for me, or stew meat as my butcher likes to label it. I really think this marinade would have been amazing with pork or lamb. Oh! If I only had some lamb tonight, mmmm. And, I would switch the white rice for quinoa.

Garnishing with walnuts was a nice addition, and I think the nutty flavor of the quinoa would have the same tribute.

Anyways, this marinade was sweet and a bit bitter with the fruit juices, but combined with the tender vegetables and rice, it was a perfect combination.

Pomegranate Beef Stir Fry

Marinade

1/2 cup pomegranate juice (juice of 1 pom)
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
2 tsps minced fresh rosemary
2 tsps minced fresh marjoram
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 lb of beef chuck, pork loin or lamb, cubed or sliced thinly

1/2 cup cold water
2 tbl cornstarch

Stir fry

1 cup carrots, sliced thinly
1/2 cup canned mushroom pieces, reserve juice
2 cups snap peas
1/2 yellow onion, sliced into rings
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced into strips or flowers

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Garnish
sesame seeds
walnuts

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a ziplock bag and mush gently. Take your cubed meat (if using) and tenderized for about 30 seconds, add to marinade and place in the refrigerator, let set for 2-6 hours.

2. When ready to cook, pull meat out of refrigerator and let come to room temperature for about 30 mins (this ensures even browning). Meanwhile, you can chop your veggies.

3. Take out a Wok or a deep, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Heat on med-high for a few seconds, add 2 tbl oil. Heat oil for a minute then add sliced carrots. Cook for two minutes. Add reserved mushroom juice and cover, steam for 4 minutes. Remove carrots to a bowl, keep warm.

4. Add 2 tbl oil to the pan/Wok and sautee snap peas and mushrooms for 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and add to bowl with carrots. Add onions and bell pepper, sautee for 2-4 minutes or until tender. Remove from pan and add to other vegetable in the bowl, keep warm.

5. Add meat to pan and sear, browning well on all sides. Add marinade juice and cover. Cook 2-5 minutes or until medium-well. Remove meat from pan, keeping marinade, and add to bowl with vegetables. Toss gently.

6. In a measuring cup, mix water and cornstarch and add to marinade still in the pan. Cook on medium, stirring frequently until thickened. If using beef chuck cubes, slice thinly.

7. Serve over rice (or quinoa), topped with sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds or chopped walnuts.

This dish is even suitable for little ones that love meat and love sweet.

Simply "Batty" Halloween

So this year I'm not really feeling the Halloween "vibe." I usually don't decorate for Halloween anyways, just a seasonal Fall kind of decorating that I can leave up September through November.

This year I was inspired to do a bit more. Keeping it simple and still nature inspired. I also needed a spash of something to welcome my guests for my upcoming Pumpkin Party.

I have to say, I love this a lot. It was also a lot of fun to see cars slowing down as they drove by to look at it.

Inspiration came from MADE and Country Living (they used stiff felt, if I could afford it, so would I)

please ignore my awful landscaping

Total cost of project: $4.80

Halloween Bat Decoration

Materials:

Black 8 1/2 x 11" Cardstock
Bat Template
Sharp Scissors
Glue Dots or scotch tape
Preserve-It (Krylon) -Optional

1. Take tracing paper and enlarged the bat, 100%, 75% and 50% tracing it each time (paper against the computer screen) to get three different sizes.

2. Cut out templates and fold a black piece of paper in half. Hold one of your templates over the folded side of the paper and just cut around the pattern, don't bother tracing at all. No one will know if they are not perfect.

I am against wasting paper. I just can't do it, so I used as much space as I could on each sheet. I got 8 bats out of the small, 6 from the medium and 3 from the large.

Half my bats were traced on the UNFOLDED side, making them two pieces. I was OK with that. I played around and liked how the pieces also looked like bats flying and not just the part of a wing.

Some of the pieces I doubled up when hanging, so in the end had 5 different looking bats!

3. Cut and cut until you have a nice variety of bats. My house took 100 bats or about 15 pieces of paper.

4. Once done cutting (or tired of cutting), pull out your glue dots, push and stick to any surface. These wonderful time savers are removable, but use common sense when hanging them.

5. For the pieces of bat wings, hold them to the side and see how they look like flying bats, or double them up and use one glue dot for both so you can see two wings. These are great filler space bats!

I bought some Preserve-It (Krylon) which is used to preserve photos and paper. I don't want to be cutting out bats each year! So I gave my bats a spray before hanging to give them a little defense against the evening dew and daytime humidity. I'll update on how they survived after Halloween (8 days away).

I hung my bats wanting them to look natural, flying in a smooth stream across my house. We have bats around here in California, but not the kind thay fly like these. Oh how I'd love to witness something like that!

Enjoy this project and have fun with it. You've got to love those easy, thrifty and big impact ones!