blueberry crumb bars

these easy bar cookies (er... bar pies?) were a big hit with my brothers on fathers' day. we had them for dessert, but leftovers made nice breakfasts. you'll need a half-sheet cake pan to make this size (a double crust, 1.5 times filling). i found them at allrecipes.com.

crumb ingredients:

• 2 cups butter or shortening
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 6 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• pinch salt
• pinch cinnamon

filling ingredients:

• 4 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbs cornstarch

prep:

• preheat oven to 375*
• line a half-sheet pan with foil & grease

actual cooking:

• combine dry crumb ingredients in a bowl
• work in fat as for pie crust
• add eggs (mixture will remain crumbly)
• combine blues, sugar & cornstarch in a bowl
• spread 1/2 crumb mixture in pan
• spread filling in pan
• cover with the other half of the crumb mixture
• bake for 45 minutes
• allow to cool completely before removing from pan

i'm never making a real pie again!

monkey bread

i bet there's a better way to make monkey bread, but this one was SO EASY (especially since i had some slave labor to roll the dough into balls and coat it in cinnamon sugar) that i need to the the interwebs about it.

ingredients:

• 3 cans of buttermilk biscuits
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1 tbs cinnamon

prep:

• grease a bundt pan
• preheat oven to 350*

actual cooking:

• mix granulated sugar and cinnamon in a bowl
• melt butter, add brown sugar and bring to a boil (keep warm)
• cut (or tear) each biscuit into quarters
• in small batches, lightly shape the pieces into balls, roll in sugar mixture and add to the pan (next time, i would drizzle some of the butter mixture and some more cinnamon sugar on each layer)
• cover with butter mixture
• bake for 35-40 minutes
• let cool for 10-20 minutes

this was a roaring success. which is good, because the cheesecake i made that night had the texture of tapioca pudding... and i'm not sure why. whoops.

hearty banana muffins

this is a huge cheat of a recipe since the main ingredient is a banana bread mix. but, LO! some lady made a damn fortune writing books about making box cakes, so bear with me, k?

ingredients:

• banana bread mix (mine was trader joe's, naturally)
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup egg whites OR 2 large eggs

prep:

• none, this recipe takes ten minutes
• oh, and preheat to 325*

actual cooking:

• combine ingredients in a bowl
• spoon into lined muffin tin (i did 12 regular-sized muffins)
• bake for 30 minutes

the recipe on the box (with eggs & oil) makes nine servings at something like 370 calories each. my recipe make 12 at 175 each. good deal, right? plus, mine have way more fiber since neither eggs nor oil have fiber, but applesauce and oat sure do. but i didn't do that math.