Pecan Praline Crunch

Woohoo!  Spring Break is next week!  The boys and I love spending time together in the kitchen and here is one recipe that they absolutely love to make and dad likes to eat.  :)  For more ideas of what to cook with your kids check out this post.

Of course, next week we will have to make The Best Corned Beef Ever for St. Patrick's Day as well.  Do you make any special food for St. Patrick's Day?  I'd love to know.

Pecan Praline Crunch

8 cups oat squares cereal (Quaker Oat Squares)

2 cups pecan pieces

½ cup light corn syrup

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup margarine

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix cereal and pecans in shallow baking pan.  Combine corn syrup, brown sugar and margarine in medium glass bowl.  Microwave on High for 1½ minutes; stir mixture.  Microwave for an additional ½ to 1½ minutes longer or until mixture boils.  Stir in baking soda and vanilla.  Pour over mixture; mix well.  Bake at 250* for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.  Spread on foil and let cool.  Break into pieces.

-A Kansas Farm Mom 

Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie was always a staple for my family at the holidays.  I know it had to be a staple in my husband's family.  My father in law has been collecting pecans for the last several weeks.  He has tons of trees that he has grafted and has these amazing pecans.  This year was a great harvest for him.

I was at the grocery store last week and overheard someone ask if they still had the "Pecan Pie Mix."  I was speechless.  I mean even my kids can mix a pecan pie.  (This recipe is on my Cooking with Kids List.)  The ingredient list is actually quite simple and staples that most people have in their pantry if they bake very much at all.

This recipe is one that my mom has made as long as I can remember.  If you are on low sugar or low calorie diets, this is not your pie.  My husband even likes to put whipped topping on top of his pecan pie.  Yeah, he doesn't have to worry about calories.

Mocked Pecan Pie

1- 9 inch unbaked pie shell
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornmeal
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup pecans, my husband adds more
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix butter, sugars and eggs together and mix well.  Then add remaining ingredients.  Pour into unbaked pie shell.  Bake at 350* for one hour.  Let cool completely before serving.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Milk Bars

Corn harvest has finally gotten here.  It is no surprise that it is not a bumper crop for our area.  We have been in a roller coaster ride of weather that can be perfectly explained as "Feast or Famine."  Our area is either too wet or too dry.  I know what you are thinking...farmers are never happy with the weather, but seriously hear me out.  It rained almost the whole month of April and then it quit.  We may have gotten a few showers if we were lucky at isolated fields, but we were back in a drought.  Then the end of July came along.   Our area got close to 20 inches of rain over 3 weeks!  Now, here we are almost the middle of September and we haven't seen any rain for weeks and it is hot, dry and dusty again.

Well anyway, we are busy Picking Corn  and no, it isn't Sweet Corn.  It is always nice to have a sweet treat in the noon lunch boxes that we pack everyday.  I really love making bar cookies and if they have a little fruit in them all the better.

My son and I found the original recipe over on the Ocean Spray Website.  We changed a few of the ingredients around trying to make a recipe to compete at the county fair, but in the end he decided on a totally different recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Milk Bars

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1½ cups quick or old fashioned oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350*F.  Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan

Beat butter and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy.  Gradually beat in flour and oats until crumbly.  Stir in morsels, cranberries and pecans; reserve 2 cups of mixture.  Press remaining mixture onto bottom of prepared baking pan.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Beat cream chees in small mixer bowl until smooth.  Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk.  Pour over hot crust; sprinkle with reserved crust mixture.  Bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until center is set.  Cool in pan on wire rack.  Cut into bars.

Makes 36 bars.

What is your favorite quick treat for a special lunch treat?

-A Kansas Farm Mom