Recipe, Recipe, Who's Got The Recipe?

There's a problem with being an avid baker. Well, two actually, but we won't be discussing my hips today. No, the problem that's bothering me right now is the recipes.

I love recipes. I'm always thrilled to get a new recipe to try. I tear recipes out of magazines, I clip them out of the newspaper. I can't bear to throw away freebie recipe booklets, just in case I suddenly need one of those recipes. I've got bazillions of recipes in cookbooks, and I won't even talk about the recipes on the computer. I need another recipe like I need another baking pan (wait, I do need one of those!), but family and friends who know my problem still send me recipes that they've cut out of magazines and newspapers and e-mail me yet more recipes.

I feel like I'm awash in a sea of recipes. My countertops I have dubbed The Cookbook Breeding Grounds because I always have at least 3 cookbooks in a queue . I have folders for recipes, baskets for recipes, and serious shelvage for cookbooks, yet, there always seem to be more, lurking in stacks of papers, hiding inside drawers, and popping up randomly around the house.

The problem arises when I want a specific recipe. I have to remember first of all if it was in a cookbook or not. Then, was it a computer print out or not. Was it on a recipe card or clipped out of a magazine? Too much strain for my poor cheesecloth brain!


My daughter invited me to a tea party she was hosting and said that I was welcome to bring something along. I had 2-1/2 hours in which to whip up something suitable for a tea party. I knew she was making a cake, so my mind naturally went to cookies. Bar cookies are the simplest and quickest and I decided on one of my favorite recipes which taste like pecan pie in a cookie. They're super easy to make and they look lovely, too.

I thumbed through my recipe cards in my first recipe basket. Not there. I looked again. Drats! Had I put it somewhere else? Was it in a folder, a pile, or somewhere else instead? After 5 minutes of searching and language enrichment, I did a mental forehead slap and realized I should just look on the blog. Of course it would be there. Not. What??? I hadn't blogged these wonderful cookies yet?

I eventually found the recipe, baked the cookies, and they were greatly enjoyed. This recipe makes a lot of cookies that are quite tasty in a "have just one more" kind of way, so be sure you have friends to share them with as you'll feel wretched if you eat them all. And now we both will know where to find this recipe.

Pecan Pie Squares
- adapted from Taste of Home

Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into small chunks

Filling:
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups corn syrup
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Grease a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan

2-In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Pulse a few times to blend. Add the butter and blend until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press firmly and evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

3- For the filling, in a bowl, combine the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla. Stir in pecans. Spread evenly over hot crust. Bake 25-30 minutes longer or until set. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares. Yield: 4 dozen.

(I didn't have time to let the bars cool all the way, so they were a bit gloopy. Delicious, but not dainty enough for a tea party with gloves.)

Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container, with waxed paper separating layers.