3:01 p.m. - 2007-12-29
The end of 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Currently Reading
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
By Sarah Ban Breathnach
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and is getting ready to welcome 2008! On December 31, 2007; we are having some friends from our high school days over after we all eat dinner out together. This will be the last of my hostessing duties for this holiday season. I will be glad it is done for another year.
I will admit it went much better than I anticipated. We had a very nice extended family get-together on Christmas Eve. There were lots of snacks and desserts....and there were lots of snacks and desserts left when it was over! Christmas Brunch with our immediate family was great also. The gifts were very special and everyone seemed to enjoy what they received this year. My Christmas brunch choices were good and all of us had more than enough to eat.
I will be using up the last of the snacks on New Year's Eve hopefully because I don't want to be eating them all next week.
I have decided not to make New Year's resolutions. Instead I am making a list of objectives that I would like to achieve in 2008. Since I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and have confirmed my base health points, I am going to work on lowering my weight and raising my level of exercise and hopefully have a big difference to show for it by my next doctor's appointment in 6 months. No pressure...just making a sincere effort.
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But before I do that, I promised to post the recipe for the white chocolate chip and raspberry jam cookie bars...
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RAZZ-MA-TAZZ BARS
1/2 Cup (1 stick) of margarine
2 cups (12 oz.) white morsels (Nestle Toll House chips)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup SEEDLESS raspberry jam
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds.
Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and sugar 9 in. square baking pan. Melt butter in microwave for 1 minute. Stir in 1 cup of white morsels, let stand. DO NOT STIR.
Beat eggs until foamy. Add sugar, beat until light lemon color (about 5 mins.) Stir in white morsel/butter mixture. Add flour, salt, almond extract. Mix at low speed until combined. Spread 2/3rd of batter into baking pan.
Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven to wire rack.
Heat jam in microwave...about 30 seconds. Spread jam over warm crust. Stir remaining white morsels into remaining batter. Drop spoonfuls over the jam. Sprinkle with almonds.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until edges are brown. Cool and cut into squares.
NOW HERE'S WHAT I DID....
I doubled the recipes using a 9 x 13 cake pan.
I used ALL the white chocolate morsels in the original batter. Then for the rest of the batter, I mixed in a 2 cups of chocolate chips which were colored in green and red. I also dropped in a few miniature marshmallows. I used Vanilla because I didn't have almond extract. I didn't use the almonds either. My pan was huge! The bars were twice as big and loaded with chocolate chips.
I still have some in a covered pan and they still are delicious! I made them a week ago and they are moist and favorful and just.....YUMMY!!!!
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Hope you have a very Happy New Year celebration.
