A Real Blog Post, About Oatmeal

I am an oatmeal-focused person. I eat it daily and make it from scratch in a pan with milk and oats and then all kinds of tasty things thrown in, depending on my mood: walnuts, bananas, dried cherries, crystallized ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, maple syrup. Last summer, I started making granola at the start of each week and that was easier–just add milk and banana–the tasty stuff already lurked inside.

Recently, I gave a reading at the amazing Antiquarian Bookstore in Brownville, Nebraska (an eclectic, tiny town nestled into the Missouri Valley) as part of the Wine, Writers & Song Festival. There are several excellent bookstores in Brownville (as well as a tavern (turned healthfood store) that was once frequented by Jesse James), and I purchased a used copy of The Essential Best Foods Cookbook by Dana Jacobi, at the wonderful A Novel Idea: Chapter Two, right on Main Street. As I flipped through the pages I hit upon Spiced Fig Bars on p. 279. Oatmeal spiced fig bars. Oatmeal. In a bar.

Once I got home, I made them, and they are fantastic. I think I'll stick with my weekly granola routine (quickest, easiest), but these little guys will definitely cycle in every so often as a tasty, nutritious choice. Something to take on my next road trip.

Recipe that I've fiddled with a bit:

Ingredients:

1 c. fresh orange juice (about 3 oranges squeezed)
1. c. chopped fresh figs (or dried Turkish)
1/4 c. chopped, pitted dates
1/4 c. cranberries
1/2 c. toasted walnuts
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/8 tsp. ground mace
1 1/2 c. organic oats
1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c. COLD unsalted butter cut into pieces
1 large egg white

In a medium saucepan bring the orange juice, figs, dates, and cranberries to a boil, then simmer until the orange juice is soaked up. Remove from heat, add the walnuts and the spices, stir, set aside to cool.

Pulse the oats, flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until the mixture has texture. Add the butter and pulse until you achieve a hint of cornmeal. Add the egg white and pulse until you achieve a kind of clumped, cookie dough appearance.

Press half the oat mixture into an 8 x 8 (buttered!) pan. Spread the gooey figgy filling over the bottom crust. Carefully and with great confidence, sprinkle and spread the second half of the oat mixture on top–making sure to seal up the edges.

Bake for 25+ minutes at 350, until the edges are browning and the top is firm and finished glistening. Cool. Cut them up and eat them. Think: oatmeal.