Got Nervous Energy?

So rather than barking at the boys all day, I decided I'd expend my nervous energy in more productive ways.

First off, I took over the job of making (burning) pancake puffs for the boy this morning. Yes, the husband had the brilliant idea of "entertaining" the boy by making him pancake puffs for breakfast. (I stepped in because pancake batter was spilling all over Lumpy, and a 32-year-old man and a 5-year-old boy should never attempt to make pancake puffs together. Never ever.) As I informed him after the smoke cleared, "While I honor your intention, did you really think that I wouldn't freak out over the two of you doing something unsupervised in my kitchen?"

And because the husband didn't really pay attention to how much batter he was making from the Pioneer fat-free mix, after I tired of burning three or four 7-puff batches, I whipped out an old square griddle and decided to use up the 2 cups or so of batter to make good 'ol pancakes. Wound up making a dozen or so of them, much to my delight. (Yes, Gentle Reader, I'm being sarcastic--jokecastic, as the boy once called it.) Finally, about 90 or so minutes after rising, I finally got to turn my attention to preparing and eating my own breakfast. Joy!

A Cherry of a Sunday Morning
Since the misadventure with the pancake puffs only served to fuel my nervous (slightly furious) energy, I decided I'd whip up a batch of some kind of cherry-oatmeal-chocolate chip bars by modify a previously tested recipe--all while managing the morning laundry, for by this point the boys had wisely skedaddled off to the elementary school playground to play Jedis.

Naturally, right after I put the first two ingredients in the bowls, the phone rings. It's the yoga studio, searching for a sub for the hatha class that precedes my hatha flow nooner. Was I available? Hey, sure! Why not? It would beat beating the boys to a grisly death with a rubber scrapper.

Did I stop making the bars? Hell no. I figured I had just enough time to make the bars, clean up the dishes, take care of the remaining loads of laundry, sweep up the yoga room floor and get my body ready to teach not one but two classes of yoga. Need I mention, Gentle Reader, that all my nervous energy had me doubting my ability to teach my own class? That I was feeling uninspired for what to teach my own class? No, I thought not.

Long story short, I got the bars out of the oven and photographed with enough time to spare to wash the dishes I'd used to make the bars (didn't get the chance to empty the dishwasher as I thought I might have time to do), wrangle the remaining loads of laundry (including hanging half a dozen of the husband's dress shirts as well as folding the majority of the large load of colors that had just finished in the dry five minutes before I needed to hit the road), sweep up the yoga room floor, do some yoga, chug a Myoplex and fill my water bottle for classes. Yes, Gentle Reader, I do indeed have that much nervous energy.

Believe it or not, I was probably my least frantic (I won't dare use the word calm) while making the bars. I find cooking very soothing because it's me exerting control over something that has brought me great strife and turmoil for the majority of my life. Plus the damn things weren't that hard to make. Where the original recipe, for raspberry-chocolate chip bars, called for 10 ounces of raspberry jam, I used instead the light cherry pie filling I had left after yesterday's coconut-cherry bars misadventure (approximately 16 ounces since half a cup is 4 ounces and the can held 20 ounces).

Initially I just put the leftover pie filling on top of the oatmeal crust and had planned to mix the chocolate chips (about three-fourths of a cup of carob chips I'd attempted to morsel-ize by running 'em in the Handy Chopper, with disastrous results that I couldn't bear to just throw out) into the streusel-ish topping as the original recipe instructed. But the cup or so of crust I'd set aside for the streusel-ish topping didn't look like it could hold up to all the carob chip morsels/dust I had, so I improvised!

No, I improved. I put roughly half of the carob chip morsels/dust into the streusel-ish topping and then dumped the rest into the pie filling, already in place atop the crust. Then I used a rubber scraper to careful blend the morsels and dust into the goo of the filling. The husband likes chocolate. He loves cherry cordials This way he gets more chocolate and perhaps something like is somewhat like a cherry cordial. He'd also get the winning combination of chocolate and oatmeal since the streusel-ish topping also had morsels/dust in it.

I must say, I was rather proud of how the pan of bars looked before it went into the oven. It looked pretty darn edible--which is something I haven't accomplished in the past few days in my kitchen. See for yourself, Gentle Reader:

Looks tasty, non?

And did they come out of the oven looking edible? You betcha!

I didn't cut into them right away because (A) I didn't make time to do so on my pre-yoga to-do list and (B) I didn't want to tempt fate by cutting into them while still hot as I had with yesterday's coconut-cherry bars. I left them cooling on the dining room table...

...and returned home after nearly 3 hours of teaching (and a quick trip to Target to pick up a wrist band so I can wipe my sweat away while I'm running this evening) to find them sitting on the kitchen counter, uncut. Still full of nervous energy (although the yoga did help some), I cut into those suckers so I could photograph one and blog about it (to, y'know, expend more energy).

Perhaps I should have left instructions for the husband to put foil over the pan and put it into the 'fridge to cool. Perhaps if I'd done that, the cherry filling wouldn't have oozed everywhere as I attempted to cut into the bars. Mind you, Gentle Reader, the goop largely stayed in place, and naturally it is going to ooze since it is, well, ooze. But I think a bit of 'fridge time would have helped it set better.

Still looks tasty, non?

Cherry-Chocolate Bars1 C flour
1 C quick oats
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t NaCl
3/4 C brown sugar
5 T butter, softened
1/2 C chocolate chips, divided
10-16 oz. cherry pie filling

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
   
2. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda and NaCl in a medium bowl and set aside.
   
3. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and butter, then beat it at medium speed with a mixer until smooth.
   
4. Slowly add the dry mix to the creamed sugar and butter, using a spoon or rubber scraper to mix. The resulting dough will be crumbly.
   
5. Reserve 1 to 1 1/4 cups of the dough for the topping. Press the rest into an 8" by 8" pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
   
6. Add half of the chocolate chips to the reserved dough.
   
7. Combine the remaining one-fourth cup of chocolate chips with the cherry pie filling, then pour and spread the filling atop the crust.
   
8. Sprinkle the reserved dough/chocolate chip mix atop the pie filling.
   
9. Bake the bars for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Then remove from the oven and let 'em cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 16 bars

I can't provide nutritional info for this recipe, but if you want the original version with the raspberry jam, I'll happily send it and its nutritional info along.

I wish I could give credit to the source of the original recipe, but I failed to write it down. I don't like that. I don't want to be like Cindy McCain.

Well, now I'm off to whip up some green chile chicken enchiladas for us to after once we return home from the 10K. Or perhaps we'll have 'em tomorrow since I have no idea if I'll feel like eating anything once we get home. I've heard from several folks that downtown is a nightmare thanks to the setup for the 10K, the road closures for Bat Fest, the road closures for all the ongoing condo construction and the general chaos that is downtown. Joy....