Sharpening My Spoon!

July 1st is the day that the cooking challenge began. I was sharpening my spoon in anticipation. day was yesterday. I have been salivating all week for this challenge to start and when if finally does, all I want to do is not be in the kitchen That could has something to do with it being  in the mid 90's  in Fahrenheit coupled with a humidity that makes a person feel like they are wearing wool underpants in a  desert.  Not the ideal weather to be preheating the oven. 

I did not want a little bit of weather to stop me from accomplishing crossing at least one cook book off of my list. (Here reminder of all the cookbooks in this challenge.) I felt like if I started out avoiding the kitchen, then I would be setting the standard at avoidance. Then I would be disappointed in myself at the end of the year for not doing what I said I would be doing. The guilt would make me miserable and more miserable than having a little bit of perspiration roll down my forehead.  Iggins decided to  hang out in the kitchen hoping for miracle chicken to fall from the sky  and keep me company as I embraced  the heat and cracked open  Taste Of Home's Complete Guide to Baking. 

I have never used this cookbook, and I honestly was not sure what was in it. Years ago my mother and I both subscribed to the Taste of Home magazine and we would talk recipes and gather ideas. After a while, I realized that I had a million magazines that I wasn't really using and some of the recipes began to feel like variations of things I had seen before. I canceled my subscription and continued to chat with my mother about idea's she was finding and the probability of using them.  I was going through a big baking phase and because of this my mother bought me The Taste of Home's Complete Guide to Baking. 

I did not look all the way through this book. I opened the book at random and went from there.  The first recipe that I found that I did not have to buy any ingredients for was on  page 76 under Bars & Brownies. It was the Chewy Peanut Butter Bars that was submitted by a Mrs. Sanford Wickahm, in Holbrook Nebraska. When ever I look at a Taste of Home book, all it makes me want to do is make my own family cookbook.  I gathered my ingredients and poured myself a large glass of apple juice to try and quench my parched throat from the oven that I set to preheat. Iggins seems oblivious to my heat and shows me his belly, hoping it would inspire me to give him canned cat food.  

With a total of nine ingredients, I managed to change or alter three of them. A third of the ingredients I mucked about with.  It called for crunchy peanut butter and all I had was creamy peanut butter. I am sure that the lacks of chunks will not be missed. The only butter I have in the house is Amish butter that I traveled to Lancaster to purchase, and I frankly did not want to use it bars. I wanted to savor the creamy goodness of Amish butter that I utilized margarine in this recipe. I think that most people use margarine and butter loosely and don't always understand what the difference between the two are. Lastly it didn't specify on the corn syrup. I had  light and dark corn syrup in the cabinet and decided that the dark would work. I have only used corn syrup for two recipes, Special Christmas Cookies and Pecan Pie. Corn Syrup is one of those things that if I understood better, I would probably use more often, but because I don't, I don't employ it all that often.  It is odd to think that corn syrup is on of those things that seriously had me debating on if I should even do this recipe.  Girding my loans and wiping the sweat off my brow I plunged forward and learned very quickly that warm weather makes corn syrup really runny. 

The bars did not take long to make, and while they did not turn out like the picture they did for the most part turned out. I needed people to experiment upon, so I did what I do every time I need to pawn off sweets. I took it to work. To work it went, and surprisingly it went over well.  They were not really chewy but they were good. They tasted a bit like Magic Cookie Bars crossed with Pecan Bars.  I don't know if I will every try this recipe again. It didn't knock my socks off, but it wasn't bad.  The one thing that I did appreciate about the book is that it made me appreciate my mother and made me move a little beyond my comfort zone with working with Corn Syrup. 

How they are supposed to look.

How mine actually turned out.