Oat Fig Bars

I was looking for a regular fig bar recipe when I found this and it looked easy and it was already healthy so I thought I'd try it. Frankly, I don't trust recipes that purport to be healthy and I don't know if I even gave it a try in its original form, but this is the version I've settled on - pretty much.



Oat and Fig Squares

1 + cup dried figs, cut into pieces
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 Tablespoons honey
3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon molasses
1/4 cup milk

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰F . Put figs in a medium saucepan, combine figs, water, honey and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally; cool.

2. Grease a 9X9-inch baking pan. In a small bowl, combine flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt and orange zest. In a medium bowl combine, butter, honey, molasses, and milk. Stir in dry ingredients and mix well. Dough will be sticky. Chill to make handling easier.

3. Place a little more than half of the oat mixture in the prepared pan and spread evenly across the bottom. Spread figs evenly on top. Add remaining oat mixture on top of fig layer, allowing some of the figs to show through. Pat lightly to flatten. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. When cool, cut into 16 squares.

These really are very good. I should go try the recipe again, just to make sure it still works.

Whole Wheat Elephant Ear

On any day, but especially a cool day, there is something almost perfect about a warm elephant ear rolled out from whole wheat dough, cooked to perfection and topped with butter that is melting into the honey and finished with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Hot off the grill and sooo delicious!

I can't believe the good ol' days when we made fresh bread almost every day and I had one of these for lunch, or maybe two or three. That was the life.

My sister even made bread today, but it's almost dinner time. Warm rolls out of the oven will have to suffice. Do I hear any pity?

Honey Vanilla Frozen Cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup honey
1 ¾ cups whipping cream

In medium heatproof bowl combine eggs, egg yolks, honey and vanilla. Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water (bowl should not touch water). Whisk mixture constantly for 5 to 10 minutes or until egg mixture reaches and remains at 140⁰ F for 3 minutes or 165⁰F on instant read thermometer. Carefully remove bowl from saucepan and transfer egg mixture to another bowl, beat until thick and pale colored. This should cool the custard mixture to about room temperature.

In another mixing bowl beat cream until soft peaks form. If egg mixture has started to separate, re-beat. Fold custard into cream. Pour into freezer-safe serving bowl; cover with plastic wrap. Freeze until firm (6 to 24 hours). Makes 6 – 8 servings.

This recipe is especially good with a fruit dessert. A warm plum sauce is delicious.

I originally got this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens August 2005 and I adapted it to honey.

Natural Facials

I’ve tried both honey and baking soda as facials before, but wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the results. I have continued to use baking soda, since it helps some, and it certainly didn’t seem to be any worse than the commercial products.

I rediscovered honey and baking soda and now have a very favorable opinion! In the not too distant past, my face was giving me serious trouble and company was coming in a few days and a trip to town wasn’t imminent, so I did I a quick internet search and found honey and baking soda among the most common homemade facials. Well, I’d tried that before, but there was some application instructions that piqued my attention and gave me hope.

Here’s the gist of what I did:

Morning: Using a wash cloth I ran it under hot water and wrung it out, and held it over my face, pressing it gently against my skin, repeating multiple times to really warm the face and open up the pores. Next, I applied honey in a mask, avoiding the eye area. I really don’t have problem with the stickiness on my face - as long as nothing touches it. Make sure your hair is pulled securely away from your face! Leave on for 15 minutes. Wash off with tepid water and rinse face with cold water to close pores.

Evening: Run a wash cloth under hot water, pressing to problem areas, refreshing cloth in water several times to keep it hot. Again, make sure the area is warm and the pores have had a chance to open. Make a paste in your hand of baking soda and a few drops of water till about the consistency of cream (I find a thinner consistency works best. Too thick and it just doesn’t seem to work as well), apply to blemishes. Let dry for 15 minutes. Wash off, rinse with cold water. If you want to know a fact, I have left the baking soda mixture on all night, but the 15 minutes works and it doesn’t dry and fall off all over your pillow and you worry about getting it in your eyes.

Repeat this routine for a week, or until your face is clear, then periodically for problem areas. And if you’re really having trouble, you could do both facials twice daily.

I’ve been very happy with the results. I was only trying to get my face back under control, but realized a goal I’ve had for a long time – not having to wear concealer (foundation) all the time!

The key to the success of this facial routine is making sure your face has been warmed up enough with the water. Another something you can do is rather than using the warm water, steam your face for a quick five minutes over a bowl of boiled water, with a towel draped over your head. Quickly pat with a dry towel to remove excess moisture from the steam and then apply the honey or baking soda immediately. Perfect for early in the morning before anyone else has bestirred themselves. And did you know five minutes is just perfect for brewing a cup of tea to sip while your facial works?

Wild Cherries

They were so beautiful, with their ruby spheres hanging in cascading scarlet amongst the green leaves. Perched precariously on the edge of a very steep bank, where the wrong step would send you through bushes and onto the unfriendly rocks below, some of the clan determinedly picked wild cherries. We didn’t get too many, since we valued out necks, but we got enough for some preserves.

I’ve made a bit of jam, some jelly, but never preserves. In fact, I didn’t really know what classified a preserve as a preserve. Now I do. Preserves are fruit that has been cooked in an equal or ¾ as much sugar as fruit and cooked until the syrup is thick and the fruit transparent and plump. At least that is the gist of what an old Kerr canning book said.

Mummy wanted to try putting up some fruit jams and such without pectin. I used a recipe from Prudence Penny for Cherry Preserves, but rather than sugar I used honey, and only half the amount as specified for sugar. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but I cooked it until it seemed right and then canned it.

Today Mummy and I tasted a small amount that didn’t fit neatly into a jar and it was so good! She’s all for going back and trying to wrestle some more cherries off that tree.

I am too! I just hope Twiglet (an affectionate childhood name for my little sister) will help me pit them again. We have a really neat cherry pitter, but last time I tried it with small cherries it was a dead loss. So we pitted them all by hand with hair pins. Okay, it worked.

One thing I am very grateful for is the beautiful red color of the preserves. That is something to be grateful for after making strawberry jam that had a very blah color. I even added red coloring to the second batch, but I didn't add enough. I'm very happy with my naturally red colored cherry preserves.

Yesterday's Dessert

In honor of my older sister's birthday (she was absent, but I will not be cheated out of cake!) I made this lovely rich fudgy cake. More fudgy than it was supposed to be because it was slightly underdone. Fortunately it wasn't yuck underdone, it was moist, wonderful underdone. I might even do it on purpose next time. It did make it hard to get out of the pan (this is becoming a bad habit), but I was able to manipulate it into a layered confection anyway.


Chocolate frosting between the layers and on top. Except for a small amount of clarified butter, I used the very last of the butter in the house for this frosting. I don't even think there was half a cup in there, but it worked wonderfully. Whew! That was a close one. It tasted quite good - I should write down what I did real quick! I'm always on the lookout for good frosting recipes made with honey.

I garnished it with a lattice pattern of natural shredded coconut and fresh lavender on the side.

It was good, very good. And it doesn't look to bad either.