Recipe #2 – Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

Ina’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars from Barefoot Contessa At Home

Last night, on a whim I felt that I was in the mood to bake. So, naturally, I chose an Ina recipe. I figured since it was late and a weeknight it would be best and easiest to bake something from the “Dessert” sections of the cookbooks. I thumbed through each of the 11 books I currently own, narrowed it down to three top choices then picked from those three.

And the Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars won….mainly due to the fact that I needed a limited number of ingredients from the grocery store.

After heading to the local Big Y, standing in line for almost 10 minutes while the elderly woman in front of me took her sweet time loading her groceries on the cashier’s conveyor belt, I started baking.

Everything was going well until I got to the part where I had to add the flour. Ina calls for 3 cups of flour for this recipe. I had the flour, but it was a new bag so the flour was more compact than usual and I think I added probably an extra tablespoon or two just because the flour was too packed in the cups.

This recipe looks easy, but peanut butter is hard to handle and I learned that cleaning up anything that had peanut butter in it can be challenging! Also, due to the my inclination that the mixture had too much flour, the dough itself was hard to spread.

It was more annoying than hard to make these. But after they baked and cool, I was impressed! They were so sweet and delicious and I doubt they will last very long in the house.

Disclaimer: I am not a photographer by any means. And I only have an iPhone 8 as a camera, so please bare with me on the sub-par photos.

Cheers!

Ina & Raspberries

In order to help me keep track of recipes and so that I can get a sense of what I would need to purchase equipment-wise, I have begun the process of making a list of off the recipes by book. One of the things that I have noticed, even after only completing three of her cookbooks, is that Ina must LOVE raspberries!

It seems like there are at least 10 different recipes calling for them among these three books. There may even be more than 10, I didn’t really count. I just noticed the word “raspberry” kept popping up in the titles.

I guess those recipes will have to wait till summer to be made.

Recipe #1 – Homemade Applesauce

Yesterday was the first of many recipes on this very long journey. For my first recipe I felt strongly that I wanted it to be one from Ina’s first cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. So, I got it off the shelf and started paging through it. However, I quickly realized a slight problem. Many of the recipes called for ingredients that are “fresher” and “in season” during the summer months.

Now, yes, it is technically still summer (at least until Tuesday!), and I could (in theory) get some of these items now. But doing so I would break one of Ina’s cardinal rules: always use the freshest ingredients possible. So I continued on paging through the book until I stumbled upon an applesauce recipe.

With Fall just around the corner, apples are starting to come in season here in New England and the ones this recipe calls for tend to be “always in season.” So that is what I decided to make.

Her apple sauce recipe is overall quite easy to make. The most annoying aspect was peeling the apples (I had 14 to do!), but it was totally worth the effort. The addition of butter in the pot makes the sauce smooth and helps layer some of the spices included. The added lemon juice and orange zest give it an especially interesting taste. In fact, one of my first thoughts after tasting it was “This tastes like gourmet.”

I also love any excuse to break out my Dutch oven and since the apples cooked for 90 minutes in it, it’s starting to move beyond being used only to make bread.

1 recipe down, 1,055 to go!

First Tool Needed

One of the first things I noticed while thumbing through some of Ina’s recipes is that a food processor is a staple in her kitchen. While I completed agree with this statement, I did have one little problem.

I don’t own a food processor!

Yes, I know what you’re all thinking. “How is that possible?” Well, it is! For some reason I just never purchased one. I’ve always been able to do without it. Yes, that may mean skipping recipes or a little extra chopping work for me, but for the most part, it was doable.

But, now that’s all changed! Cooking through her over 1,000 recipes will be a challenge without a food processor. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go out and buy one!

After much research, I’ve decided on the 11-cup Cuisinart food processor. I ordered it online from Bed, Bath & Beyond and it should arrive sometime this week. I can’t wait! To me the food processor represents almost like a right of passage in the kitchen. I will probably feel like a true adult the first time I flick the switch on and hear the whirl of the blade.

Stay tuned!