Cranberry Blessed Bars Better Than Starbucks

One of the best tastes of the Christmas and Hanukkah holiday seasons is the arrival of the coveted Cranberry Bliss Bars at Starbucks. The cost of a tiny triangle puts the kibosh on any idea of ordering a decent family-size serving. With that challenge in mind, I set out to recreate this delicious bar at an affordable price. I knew I was on the right track when I found a 5 pound Flintstones size bag of dried cranberries on sale for $5 at Costco, of course! Yes, I bought 2 bags.

The Starbucks version relies on a cream cheese base, which I think is impractical for adding to kids lunch boxes, since it requires refrigeration. The recipe below borrows from the familiar Magic Layer Cookies of old, and they are delicious. They look similar to the Starbucks version by using white chocolate chips both whole and melted. Easy. Tasty. Timeless.

Cranberry Blessed Bars

Preheat Oven 350 bake 20-25 minutes makes 24 or fewer if cut larger.
Must: line pan with parchment paper in order to cut into bars!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups crushed graham crackers about 28
1 stick melted butter
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup walnuts (can eliminate if needed)
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 can 14 oz sweetened condensed milk

Topping:

For decorating when cooled out of oven
1/4 cup white chocolate chips melted in a baggie inside a bowl then clip a corner to stream out.

Substitutes:

Can add 1 cup of coconut. Can remove nuts.


Method:

Place parchment paper in a 9 X 13 pan. Spray with non-stick oil.
Melt butter in a pan and add the crushed graham crackers. Mix and move that mixture to the 9 X 13 pan. Sprinkle cranberries, walnuts, and white chips on top of graham crackers. Pour entire can of sweetened condensed milk over all.

Bake in preheated oven 20 - 25 minutes or less if it starts to brown. You don't want it to brown that is too much caramelization.

Remove from oven and cool. When cool removed from pan in one piece using the parchment paper. Then decorate the top using the melted white chips by streaming from the cut baggie. Alternatively, you can melt the chips in a bowl and drizzle by using a fork. You want a small stream affect as seen in this photo.

Cut 4 rows across and 6 down using a sharp serrated knife or 3 across and 6 down for larger serving. I used a bread knife. OR to mimick the Starbucks version cut the larger bars into triangles. The design part you can control!

Bon appetit!

Ireland: Spuds and Stars (of the Michelin Variety)

I am the odd bird that cannot sleep on an airplane. Even as a passenger on a first class Cathay Pacific flight in a pod the size of a small apartment complete with a cozy bed, toasty pajamas, and unlimited Johnnie Walker Blue, I arrived in Hong Kong 16 hours later looking and feeling like a cargo-hold stowaway.

On my first trip to Ireland in 2001, I arrived in a similar catatonic state as I drove with my son towards Waterford on the wrong side of the road in a manual transmission car. Yes, that means shifting with your left hand and foot. I recall very little of that harrowing experience, but I remember in specific detail the very first meal I ate in a village pub on the outskirts of Wicklow.

The lunch special was beef and potatoes and the platter arrived piping hot smothered in dark, delicious gravy and beef. Next to the mound of whipped mashed potatoes was a stack of roasted potatoes. Apparently in this land famous for spuds serving multiple styles of their favorite root vegetable was not unusual. It also explained my mother's habit of serving mashed potatoes along with rice when she made beef chop suey!

Back then, Ireland did not have a reputation for great cuisine. Even Starbucks did not arrive in Ireland until 2005, so finding a thimble of espresso was a challenge. Over the years, with the global trend towards slow food and the farm-to-table movement, this land of shamrocks and grass-fed beef has emerged as a hub of gastronomic delight.

With this transition, the country has wisely taken their assets on the road by growing their food export segment. In 2017, Ireland became the first EU country to sell beef to China and their exportation of dairy and beef recently exceeded 100 million euros. Cathay Pacific launched seasonal service four times weekly between Dublin and Hong Kong last year. Beyond this expanding global demand in the Irish agri-food sector, visitors can now experience excellent cuisine throughout the island.

Since the 1990s, the number of Michelin-rated restaurants in Ireland grew from 6 to 16, with the restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin being the highest rated and longest tenured on the list. Open for lunch and dinner the prices are modest compared to other 2-star rated restaurants around the world. You can see for yourself at the link below. Interestingly, the word potato is not on this menu. 

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud

Another export item, Irish cheese is on par with the some of the very best French cheese. Ireland produces more mozzarella cheese than Italy. In Dublin, Sheridans Cheesemongers has an amazing selection from local farmers as well as special international producers. They will cryo-pack your selection of hard cheeses for safe and TSA approved international travel to the USA. This tiny cheese emporium is a must see stop while touring Dublin or visiting their larger country shop in County Meath.

Sheridans Cheesemongers

Ireland is a quick overnight flight from the USA, and you can launch to the European mainland easily from the international airport in Dublin. The next time you head to Paris, London, Rome or Copenhagen add a few days in this amazing country to savor the memorable meals and more.

Starbucks finally landed in Ireland in 2005

This Old House Swapped for That New Condo

I told people it was a downgrade of home style for an upgrade in lifestyle. After twenty years in the same home, I began prepping, purging and packing decades of memories and dragging them down the road to a modest condo within walking distance to not one, but two Starbucks. Check. Check. 

Not unlike that last move, I approached this enormous task by myself, mom solo, despite having four grown children with lives and homes of their own. I won't lie - it was a challenge. Like my lovely white French lilac tree, I, too, aged over the last two decades, and the preparing to move process was. . . interesting. The painter showed up without paint. The handyman showed up and asked to borrow a screwdriver. Without missing a beat, I quickly shot back, "Phillips head or flat head?"  You laugh. I cried. 

My experience has shown me that workers of a certain younger age consider people of a certain older age, like me, completely oblivious to the home repair and remodel world. Clearly, they are unaware that we were bred on the world of PBS's, This Old House long before the capital letters HGTV evolved into a proper noun. My people, baby boomers, are defined by the Pew Research Center as the nearly 80 million Americans, representing 26% of the population born between 1946 and 1964. I proudly rank in the upper percentile. 

We are the focused group who intently studied the episodes of Bob Vila refinishing aged oak floors and restoring kitchens and baths. Along the way, we gleaned the nuances between wax versus polyurethane and satin versus eggshell, as we grew weary over the plethora of baseboard options (by the way, you can’t go wrong with the ubiquitous 5.25-inch primed colonial, always primed). As a result, members of the baby boomer generation are well versed in the world of home restoration. 

This trend is not only my impression obsession. Researchers from the Kennedy School at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) published a report titled, Improving America’s Housing 2017, Demographic Change and the Remodeling Outlook.  The study related a prediction that homeowner improvement spending will increase 2% annually over the next decade to a staggering $25 billion by 2025. 

The authors suggested that homeowners 55 years and older will generate 50% of all the home improvement spending. The report pointed out that the 55 and older demographic was growing in both size of population and market share of remodeling. The researchers attributed some of the demand due to aging in place. This trend was in contrast compared to previous generations. I would have liked to ask them: Did they or did they not watch Bob Vila?

For added validation, I investigated the 10-year price performance of the stock of Home Depot. On January 2, 2009, the stock closed at $24.13, and on January 2, 2019, the stock closed at $172.41. I did the math using the handy calculator on the HD website. The stock price with reinvested dividends increased +800% during that 10-year period. There appears to be a correlation with the data on remodeling trends. 

Before embarking on my road ahead, I made a calculated self-assessment to consider if I was really ready for radical change. Having moved twice during my childhood and several times as an adult, this property represented my longest layover. I would never again assemble my coveted farm sink, barn door, French door, and spa bathroom as an ensemble in my more modest, miniature estate.

The outdoor green space that I lovingly tended for two decades was on the site of a former golf course where my father treaded 60 years ago. I have told my children that from my window I could imagine grandpa on the 9^thhole in my patch of tall evergreens digging for his wide-left tee shot. In the quiet breeze, I could almost hear him declaring a Mulligan. 

It’s in that same plot that I planted tiny blue snowdrop bulbs which I legally, or perhaps not, brought home from Ireland at the turn of this century. They popped up each spring simulating little blue stickie notes reminding me that Ireland was calling me back. Melancholy can be a paralyzing emotion. Then, I splashed myself with a dose of reality: Walking distance to not one, but two Starbucks!

The universe has a way of keeping things real. Thankfully, finding my next suitable perch was surprisingly seamless. Devoid of lists of hopes and dreams my younger self required in earlier home purchases, my current list had one subject: needs. My new home checked my few boxes. 

As luck would have it, I located my new home in a nearby village of winding streets. Naturally, on my way to see it, I made a wrong turn. After a few twists and turns, I found myself adrift on a charming little street named Sheridan Avenue. The Sheridans are my great-grandfather’s family from County Cavan, Ireland, that I tracked down and connected with in 2005. 

I took that ordinary street sign as extraordinary divine and directional intervention, as if to say I was heading down the right path. After a few grateful breaths and a duly programmed GPS, I took this road less travelled, and the rest is my new history.

Realistically, that doesn't mean I won't revisit the repair and remodeling cycle that so absorbed my previous homes. In fact, I've already lined up my next project to modify this old condo into my newish condo. After all, life has taught me that it is not mine until I knock down a wall. Or two. 

Keep in mind now, if you are a member of the demographic cohort identified in the Harvard study, you are likely to find yourself in the good company of younger, skilled tradespeople sometime over the next decade. 

They will politely enter your home and introduce themselves as Chase or Morgan or a similar sounding hip name you won’t find listed in your baby boomer high school year book. Resist the urge to ask them to spell it. Nevertheless, when your correct response to a home repair query is met by a surprised look, be sure to follow it up, as I do, with, "What else do you have for me?"

 

My Old House Farm Sink, Island with Wine Fridge, etc.

My Old House Barn Door, Spa Bath, etc.

My Newish Condo Starbucks Just Beyond the Trees

Annotation Links:

Pew Research

Harvard Study

Home Depot

Tricky: Rice Crispy Treats

Three ingredients, no bake, no gluten, no trouble? These crunchy, perfectly sweetened chunks of nostalgia are my go-to treats for family members avoiding gluten. Topped with a dash of rainbow sprinkles, my grandchildren look at me like the star-worthy chef that I wish I was. . .

Imagine then my disappointment when I found myself up-to-my-elbows in stickiness, as I was throwing together a quick batch last week.

Since I wanted to capture this familiar recipe for this blog, I attacked the recipe on the back of the generic box of cereal with the finesse of a seasoned inspector. The recipe cannot be easier, as listed below, and I've made hundreds of batches over the years. However, I am sharing the things NOT to do when making these All-American favorites.

Here are some useful tips:

• Never make these treats with children! The butter and melted marshmallows are extremely hot and could burn even adult cooks.
• Use a stainless steel, not too heavy, pot to melt the butter and assemble ingredients so you can lift the pot to scoop the mixture to the dish you plan to cool it in.
• Do not use a cup to move the combined ingredients to the cooling dish. See my disastrous attempt in the picture below.
• Always mix these sticky ingredients with a rubber spatula, not a wooden spoon, and use wax paper or parchment paper to protect your hands when pressing into cooling dish.
• Do not refrigerate bars when cooling at room temp for 15 minutes before cutting into bars. After they are cut bars can be refrigerated overnight as they have butter in them. 
• Always cut the bars using a serrated edge knife - a steak knife works perfectly.

Despite these warnings - these treats are loved by everyone!!

Read entire recipe and instructions first.

Rice Crispy Treats (makes 12 large bars)

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
2 packages of miniature marshmallows (20 ounces total - a staple I purchase at the Dollar Tree store)
1 box 12 ounces of generic or name brand Rice Crispy cereal


Method:

In a large stainless steel pot melt the butter over low heat. Add the marshmallows constantly stir until melted. Remove from heat and add the box of cereal. Quickly transfer the mixture to a 9 X 13 inch pan or serving dish sprayed with no stick cooking spray. Scoop the hot mixture with the spatula and use a piece of wax paper or parchment paper to press the hot mixture into the pan. At this point top with colored sprinkles if you want.

Cool at room temp 15 minutes or longer. Cut into bars as shown in photo.

Enjoy!

Do not scoop with coffee cup! Yep, showing off my Starbucks mug I purchased  in Cannes, France!

Cool in pan at room temp before cutting.

Cut into bars using a serrated knife - DELISH!