<Sigh> For want of a nail, right?

rambling, whiny background first. Skip a couple of paragraphs if you
wish... <g> Really, this is more of a whine than anything else, to be
perfectly honest.

Tomorrow is the staff cookie exchange. My idea, sort of. You all know
how they work -- everyone brings x-dozen (in this case, 4 dozen)
cookies, then we all put them out on a big table and select a variety
until we all go home for 4 dozen assorted, homemade cookies.

Long weekend -- went to the grocery store last night to get the things I
needed. Fred Meyer's was completely and totally sold out of baker's
coconut. Not a bag on the shelf, not a bag in the back. Nothing.
Fine. Instead of making seven-layer cookies (easy, everyone likes them,
and a surprising number of folks have no idea how to make 'em), I'll
make raspberry chocolate bars. Scootch over to the frozen fruit section
and there's not a bag of frozen berries to be found. Not one. I knew I
had one bag in the freezer at home, and by this time my head is pounding
and I've got that 'feeling' of an impending migraine and it's late and
I've got work the next morning early with a PTA meeting afterwards,
which means that Monday (which is now today) would mean leaving the
house a bit before 7am and not getting home until almost 10pm.

But it's going to be okay, I figured out, because when I got home I did
some more scrounging and found not one but two bags of coconut, so I can
make the seven-layer cookies (which are significantly less
labor-intensive and dish-intensive than the raspberry chocolate bars.
Besides, the raspberry-chocolate bars are sort of a special treat for my
best friend's birthday (she's also a coworker) so I really didn't want
to make them for the exchange.

Fast forward. It's now almost 10. I'm finally home. The 2 inches of
snow that were predicted is closer to 9 inches in this part of town, so
driving home was -- interesting. Oven is heated and I've got the first
six layers in the pans (I'm doing a double batch). Reach into the
pantry and find...

One. One can of sweetened condensed milk. One. Not the three or four
or five cans I could have sworn I saw in there. One. Not enough for
four dozen cookies and the two batches I already have 6/7th done. And
none of the usual stand-by replacements available. So I start
scrounging. Not enough butter left to make anything else, cookie-wise,
and really not enough energy left even if I had enough butter left. not
even enough butter left to make the one batch of raspberry-chocolate
bars I'd originally planned to make because I used the butter in these
seven-layer cookies that are 6/7ths done.

So I go down the road to the convenience store about a mile away. The
closest grocery store is about 6 miles through unplowed and poorly
driven streets. There's no way I'm doing that. No SCMilk there. plenty
of cans of evaporated milk. So back home to look through the pantry
again.

What I do have is two large cans of cream of coconut. It's roughly the
same consistency as the sweetened condensed milk. So, here's the plan.
One batch with the real SCMilk, the other with an equal amount (perhaps
a bit less) of the cream of coconut just to see what will happen.
They've just gone into the oven -- we'll know in 15-20 minutes.

Today's lesson -- too many things to do during the season means that
*something's* got to give.

Alexis.

Come on, you posted that, what 3 hours ago. Surely you have tasted the
results. Please let us know!

James

Come on, you posted that, what 3 hours ago. Surely you have tasted the
results. Please let us know!

James

In article .com>,
wrote:

> Come on, you posted that, what 3 hours ago. Surely you have tasted the
> results. Please let us know!
>
> James

That was really awful of me, wasn't it? I took the cookies out of the
oven -- baked them for about 25 minutes instead of 15-20 -- and then
went to bed to let them cool (these really aren't good right out of the
oven, IMO). They look good. They're not the same golden brown as the
batch with the real SCMilk. I haven't made it down to the kitchen yet
this morning to cut and taste. I'll let you know!

Alexis.

>
> That was really awful of me, wasn't it? I took the cookies out of
the
> oven -- baked them for about 25 minutes instead of 15-20 -- and then
> went to bed to let them cool (these really aren't good right out of
the
> oven, IMO). They look good. They're not the same golden brown as
the
> batch with the real SCMilk. I haven't made it down to the kitchen
yet
> this morning to cut and taste. I'll let you know!
>
> Alexis.

Would you post the raspberry chocolate bars recipe?

N.

>
> That was really awful of me, wasn't it? I took the cookies out of
the
> oven -- baked them for about 25 minutes instead of 15-20 -- and then
> went to bed to let them cool (these really aren't good right out of
the
> oven, IMO). They look good. They're not the same golden brown as
the
> batch with the real SCMilk. I haven't made it down to the kitchen
yet
> this morning to cut and taste. I'll let you know!
>
> Alexis.

Would you post the raspberry chocolate bars recipe?

N.

>From:
>Date: 12/14/04 6:47 AM Alaskan Standard Time
>Message-id: .com>
>
>>
>> That was really awful of me, wasn't it? I took the cookies out of
>the
>> oven -- baked them for about 25 minutes instead of 15-20 -- and then
>> went to bed to let them cool (these really aren't good right out of
>the
>> oven, IMO). They look good. They're not the same golden brown as
>the
>> batch with the real SCMilk. I haven't made it down to the kitchen
>yet
>> this morning to cut and taste. I'll let you know!
>>
>> Alexis.
>
>Would you post the raspberry chocolate bars recipe?

Yep - here you go:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup softened butter
10 ounces frozen sweetened raspberries, thawed and undrained
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3/4 to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Oven preheated to 350

Beat flour, sugar,and butter and press in an ungreased 9x13 pan. Bake for 15
minutes

In a saucepan, mix raspberries, orange juice, and cornstarch. Heat to boiling,
stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute then remove from heat and cool 10
minutes.

Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over baked crust layer. Spoon raspberry
mixture carefully over chocolate chips and spread gently.

Bake about 20 minutes or until raspberry layer is set. Refrigerate until
chocolate is firm.

Cut into bars (or diamonds or use a good cookie cutter to cut shapes).
Sprinkle with powdered sugar for garnish.

>From:
>Date: 12/14/04 12:55 AM Alaskan Standard Time
>Message-id: .com>
>
>Come on, you posted that, what 3 hours ago. Surely you have tasted the
>results. Please let us know!
>
>James

Official word (from the cookie exchange folks). Very good. Not as rich as the
ones made with the SCMilk, and they didn't hold together quite as well -- but I
put them in the fridge for several hours before the cookie exchange and they
weren't overly 'unstable'. There weren't any leftovers :-)

Alexis.

>From:
>Date: 12/14/04 12:55 AM Alaskan Standard Time
>Message-id: .com>
>
>Come on, you posted that, what 3 hours ago. Surely you have tasted the
>results. Please let us know!
>
>James

Official word (from the cookie exchange folks). Very good. Not as rich as the
ones made with the SCMilk, and they didn't hold together quite as well -- but I
put them in the fridge for several hours before the cookie exchange and they
weren't overly 'unstable'. There weren't any leftovers :-)

Alexis.