You Don't Need a Cookie App or The Only Fig Newton You'll Ever Need

 Don't forget Drop in and Decorate:  Monday, December 20, 4-8pm...................

Watch this space...throughout the season for the recipes for these cookies.

  Are you really carrying your smart phone to the store and searching your cookie app for ingredients?  I'd like to know.  Are you deciding which cookies you'll make based on which cookies are on your app?  Or is this just a cool thing to look at on subway or while you're waiting for the dentist?

I mean, it sounds kinda fun.  Maybe.  Squinting at a screen while in the grocery...trying to remember what you already have at home...bringing the recipe up over and over as you move from aisle to aisle or while you argue with your toddler or husband.   How about stopping in the midst of the Christmas grocery crowd and actually writing a list down?  How's that goin'?  Is a smart phone dictating your Christmas cookie list?  Now, now, now.  I have to know.

New recipe;  Oatmeal cherry chocolate almond....Coming soon!

Maybe it's like watching Food Network.  Of course, I watch Food Network.  Where would I be without Ina?  How would I make (ok, Dave make) Christmas dinner without Tyler?  And how fun has it been to leave the tv on in the sunroom while I cook during the day.  I can't see it, but I can hear the pitter-patter of Jadey's little feet or the whirr of Ina's electric juicer.  I can get the hell out of dodge whenever the Neely's show comes on.  Or, as one person wrote, "I have an incredible urge to smoke a cigarette whenever Neely's comes on."  Yes.  Me, too.  And I don't smoke anymore.  (6 1/2 years now)

But if you keep your eyes on this blog (I'd like that!), I'll give you the recipes for the cookies on the tray at the top of the post.  One or two at a time.. or what I have time for.  We'll start with

The Only Fig Newton You'll Ever Need

The Only Fig Newton You'll Ever Need or How Alyce Conquered The Fig Bar
makes one 9x12 pan of cookies

Ingredients:

 2 c dried figs, stems snipped, chopped (I do it in the food processor w/ a little flour)
1 1/2 c brown sugar, divided
1 c water

2t vanilla extract
1/2 t almond extract

1 c unbleached flour
2 c oatmeal, uncooked
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

• In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil figs, 1/2 c of the brown sugar, and the water.  Reduce heat and simmer about five minutes.  Remove from heat and cool a little while.  Add vanilla and almond extracts.
• Combine flour, oatmeal, remaining 1 c brown sugar, the baking soda and salt, stirring and tossing them together.  Add melted butter and mix thoroughly.  
• Press half the mixture into the bottom of the 9x13 pan.  Spread with the cooled fig filling.
• Sprinkle filling evenly with rest of oatmeal mixture.  Press it gently into the figs.
• Bake about 30 minutes or until gently golden brown.
• Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a  rack.  Cut into squares the size you like.
• Store at room temperature 2 days or in refrigerator 1 week.   Can freeze for up to 2 weeks. 

These started out as Fanny Farmer date bars...nice morph, huh?

Sing a new song; bake a new cookie;
Come listen to "my" choir sing their Christmas cantata this Sunday at 10.  In fact, if you read well, come to dress rehearsal on Saturday at 1pm and sing along.  Blessings if you're moving through Advent right now..walking down the path, following the light, squinting into the distance...

Alyce

Two-Dog Kitchen Returns:  (Skippy Jon Jones, grown up, reappears this weekend for a month.)

Resting while mom bakes!   Tucker (left),  Gabby (right)