We Should Be Folding Laundry

Who came up with the phrase easy as pie?

And are they referring to the making of pie or the eating of pie because eating pie is easy. I could do it all day.

In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that if someone decided that eating pie should be a job, I would be the first person in line to apply, resume documenting years of experience in-hand.

Making pie is another story.

I’ve been baking for years and to this day, nothing gives me as much trouble as pie.

Fruit pies specifically.

Bourbon chocolate pecan pie? I can do it with my eyes closed.

Sweet potato or pumpkin pies? Yep, I’m good there too.

Ice cream or pudding pies? All day.

Apple or peach pies? Pass.

I’m sure it’s a matter of just needing more practice but all it takes is one bad pie to turn you off from pie making for a while.

I was sitting at the computer the other day, eating a cake batter rice krispy treat with one hand, typing with the other (because I’m a multitasker), and I suddenly remembered some pie dough that I had just sitting in the fridge. Then I remembered all of the apples and plums we had just gotten from our organic produce delivery service that were overloading my crisper drawer. Then I remembered that packet of raw sugar that my mom made me stuff in my purse when we went out to breakfast last weekend.

My mind automatically went straight to pie. Did yours too? Do you also think about desserts while you’re already eating other sweet treats… or is that just me?

Remembering how much I stink at fruit-filled pie making, I had a brief WWID (what would Ina do?) moment and then realized that if I know Ina as well as I think I do after watching hundreds of episodes of her show over the last several years, I know that she’d probably roll out that dough, dump some sugared fruit into the center, fold up the edges, and bake until golden.

Then she’d serve it to Jeffrey after his dinner of roasted chicken.

So that’s just what I did. Minus the chicken.

You can call it a crostata (Italian) or a galette (French).

Just don’t say that it’s as easy as pie, because it’s easier!

First, slice up some fruit. I used 3 small Gala apples and 2 plums but you could use apricots, pears, nectarines, pluots, peaches, you get the idea.

Dump the fruit into a bowl and add:

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons of flour

zest and juice of one lemon

2 -3 tablespoons of butter cut into cubes

Then sprinkle on some cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg or just use some apple pie spice if you have it. I used pumpkin pie spice because it’s all I had and it worked just fine.

Mix everything up until the fruit is evenly covered and set it aside to do its thing for a few minutes while you flour your counter and roll out some store-bought pie dough.

Keep your dough in as much of a circular shape as possible, just roll it out a little.

Place the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

Now, you can either dump that fruit right in the middle of that dough or you can arrange it into nice neat layers. The choice is yours. Just make sure that the yummy juices that have accumulated in the bottom of the bowl make their way onto that fruit too.

Fold up the edges of the dough as neatly as you please, brush them with egg wash (egg beaten with a couple teaspoons of water) and then sprinkle some sugar on the crust.

If your dough cracks, just pinch it back together gently. If your fruit slips outof place, gently coax it back into its rightful spot.

Or just throw it in the oven as is and tell your friends and family that you’ve made a “rustic fruit galette”.

Sounds fancy, no?

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes until the fruit is bubbly and the crust is golden brown.

To make the fruit shiny and pretty, gently heat some honey or apricot preserves and brush on top of the fruit when the galette comes out of the oven.

I have a secret to share with you.

Sometimes I make things that I know my kids won’t like so that there’s more for me.

For example, my son doesn’t like nuts but he really really likes brownies.

So if I get a craving for a brownie, I know that if I put nuts in them I stand a much better chance of getting to eat some of those brownies.

Got it?

He’ll still eat a few but he’ll complain the whole time and he’ll most likely stop at two or three rather than stuffing his face while I’m in the shower or picking up his sister from school.

That always ends badly.

There’s nothing worse than not being able to satisfy a craving for a brownie because someone ate them all before you could get one.

Okay, there are lots of things that are way worse but you probably won’t be able to convince me of that when I’m standing over a 13×9 Pyrex dish with nothing but brownie crumbs and a butter knife in it.

So let’s talk treats!

There are so many ways to do Krispies Treats.

I could probably devote an entire section of this blog to them.

I love Rice Krispies Treats on their own but I really love to jazz them up.

Cake batter, smore’s, peanut butter and jelly, whatever – all good.

My daughter doesn’t like Rice Krispies Treats.

She doesn’t like peanut butter either.

I know, but it’s fine.

That just means more for me. 🙂

The original recipe for Rice Krispies Treats calls for 3 tablespoons of butter and six cups of Rice Krispies but personally, I think that’s too much cereal and not enough butter. The treats don’t have enough of the gooey factor that I love.

I like my Krispies Treats to be soft and pliable, not hard and dense.

So I use 4 tablespoons of butter and 5 cups of cereal. The treats come out so much better that way.

If you don’t have Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips, or don’t like them for whatever reason, you can always just stir a couple tablespoons of regular peanut butter into the melted marshmallow mixture.

Personally, I prefer Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips to regular peanut butter. The flavor is so much better.

These are insanely easy and fast to make. Unfortunately, they’ll disappear just as fast.

Reese’s Fluffernutter Rice Krispies Treats

1/2 stick (4 tbsp) of butter (salted or unsalted)

4 cups – 10.5 oz bag of mini-marshmallows

1/2-3/4 cup of Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips – honestly, whatever looks good to you. I just kept sprinkling them in until it looked right to me.

5 cups of Rice Krispies cereal (or generic equivalent)

Directions

Lightly grease a pan with non stick spray or butter.

I use a Pyrex dish that measures 7.5 x 11, so anything you have close to that will work.

In a large pot over medium low heat, melt the butter.

Once melted, toss in the marshmallows.

Stir until the marshmallows are melted and then add the peanut butter chips.

Turn off the heat and stir to combine.

Add the cereal and mix gently until everything is incorporated.

Dump the mixture (which will be very sticky) into your greased pan.

You can grease your hands or a spatula with butter and press the mixture into the pan or use parchment paper, which is so much easier. Just lay the paper across the top and press until the mixture is even in the pan.

Don’t press too hard or the treats will be too dense. Just enough to make everything even.

If you want to cut the treats into bars, you need to let them cool completely first.

I prefer to cut my bars out of the pan. Here’s how I do it:

Once they’ve cooled a bit, run a butter knife around the edge to loosen the treats, prying just a little as you go.

Lay a cutting board that is bigger than the pan on top. Grab both the pan and the cutting board firmly and flip.

The cutting board should now be on the bottom and the treat pan should be upside down on top of the cutting board.

Make sense?

I sure hope so.

The treats should fall out of the pan slowly in one piece. Then you can use a big sharp knife to cut them up.

Store in a air-tight container at room temp.

One of the best parts of being a SAHM is when you can get together with your other SAHM friends in the middle of a weekday.

It always feels a little naughty though. Kind of like when you were in high school and you and your best friend would feign illness so that you both could leave school early and go back to her house to watch MTV and eat a bag of Doritos and a tube of cookie dough.

Or was that just me?

Anyway…

On a random weekday, not long ago, my friend Sara invited me over for coffee.

I’d love to tell you that we chatted about current events, cleaned things, organized other things, and were overall productive in any way but mostly we just drank coffee, stuffed our faces, watched lady movies, and gossiped.

Best morning ever.

Not wanting to show up empty-handed, I whipped up one of my favorite treats to share with her.

She, anticipating that maneuver, completely showed me up with some sort of divine pastry situation stuffed with spiced sausage. I’m not sure what their proper name was but they were buttery, spicy perfection that tasted like friendship and hugs.

Totally outdone.

Anyway, I guess these bars are pretty good too. Not magic buttery sausage pastry good, but they’ll do. 😉

In all seriousness, I actually make these bars all the time. I’m sort of addicted to them. I eat them for breakfast, snack, and dessert.

They’re based on a recipe for Raspberry Oat Bars that I found online a few years ago that I adapted to suit my taste because raspberries are the worst.

I prefer to eat these bars when they’re warm so I’ll either stand in my kitchen and eat them with a fork straight out of the pan after they come out of the oven, or I’ll just reheat the leftovers in the microwave.

Fruity Oatmeal Squares

1 stick of unsalted butter – room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cup AP flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup fruit preserves/jam – I used:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×9 inch pan.

Using a hand or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold into the butter mixture along with 1 3/4 cups of the oats.

Press 2/3 of that mixture into your greased pan.

Spread a cup of your favorite jam or preserves on top.

You should have 1/4 cup (give or take) of oats left. Add those to your remaining dough and mix gently to combine.

Crumble the dough over the top of the preserves/jam.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

I normally don’t ice my bars because frankly, they don’t need it. But you can always add a little room temperature cream cheese, freshly squeezed lemon juice, a couple drops of vanilla, and a tiny pinch of salt to some powdered sugar, stir until smooth, and then just drizzle over the top.

*SAHM: Stay At Home Mom 🙂