Gladys, we need more bars!

What really spurred this whole blog idea was a conversation I had with my Memamaw a couple of weeks ago. It had recently occurred to me that, as I've mentioned before, we didn't eat like other southerners. When I was a little girl, my friends' were always talking about going to their Big Mama's or Granny's for Sunday dinner, which consisted of things that I'd only ever really heard of. I only recently learned the magic of the ham hock. Now, my Dad, he's originally from Alabama, so I'm sure his side of the family was eating all this good, southern stuff, but we never really did. I'm honestly not all that close to Dad's side of the family, so... yeah, when we ate something delicious and homemade, it was at my Memamaw's. She makes delicious potato soup, Swiss steak, and the best fried pototoes, Anyway, I decided to call her up and ask her, where are we really from, anyway? (I also asked her at this point to send me some cookbooks, if she didn't mind.)

It turns out that her parents are from Iowa, and they moved to Kansas at some point. My great-grandfather, Jim Yount, was a lobbyist for the Labor Unions in Kansas. There was recently a book published outlining his role in helping the unions form, and from what I understand, he also handed out pro-union balloons at county fairs. (The logic being, although some parents didn't like unions, they wouldn't tell their kids they couldn't have a free balloon.) He was also active in the First Christian Church in Valley Falls. I know this because one of the cookbooks my Memamaw sent me is from the First Christian Church, and he wrote a the foreward! (He also wrote a really awful book called "Colored Water", that was published but I could never get through. I think my mom's read it.)

The recipes in this cookbook, being a 125 anniversary addition, are extremely old-fashioned, and look really cool. I'll have to get into those later, though, because a lot of them feature things that I might have to go a-searchin' for, like a squirrel or grade A corn from the feed store.

For blogging purposes, I am starting with a recipe that I'm familiar with. It's my great-grandma Lola's Maple Nut Bars. We used to make these once a year for Christmas only, because they require a flavoring not readily available in Alabama- burnt sugar flavor. My Memamaw had a small stash that we eventually ran out of- and I think maybe once some one sent her another bottle, but at any rate, I don't think she has any anymore, and we haven't made Maple Nut Bars in quite a while. I thought that maybe Virginia was far enough North to have burnt sugar flavor in the grocery store, but it turns out it isn't, so I had to order some from the Spice Barn. Lo, it arrived some time yesterday, so that makes today THE DAY!

The second obstacle I ran into, after righting my lack of burnt sugar flavoring, was that the recipe calls for plumped raisins. I didn't really know how to plump a raisin. I don't remember plumping raisins. After looking it up online, I discovered that you can soak the raisins in any liquid- fruit juices, liquor, or water, depending on what flavor you want for your raisins. I just wanted regular raisin flavored raisins, so I soaked the raisins in warm water. (This is just riveting so far, right?) Also, the recipe calls for margarine, but all I had was butter. Mmm, butter.

The recipe also calls for three other types of flavorings- maple, butter and vanilla. I tried to look up when artificial flavors were first invented, but the internet came up bupkiss on that topic. I was curious because I'd like to know about how old the recipe is. Alas, if the internet doesn't know, who does? (Just kidding, I know it's probably in a book somewhere. Finding it would be the trick. Any librarians in the house?)

Once I creamed and blended and folded everything together, and spread it in the pan, I wasn't sure I had done it right, because the mixture wouldn't spread all the way out to the edges. But, once it was baked, it spread right out. Grandma Lola had noted that it might not look done after 20 minutes, but it looked perfect when it came out- golden brown and slightly crispy around the edges.

One of the things I'll probably appreciate the most about the recipe, is that my Memamaw made hand-written adjustments to it in the cookbook. I'm thinking my Grandma Lola may have been in her later years when she typed the recipe up, and some of the amounts seemed a little crazy. For example, as printed, before Memamaw corrections, it calls for a whole tablespoon of maple flavoring. That seems a little excessive, and apparently it was, because Memamaw fixed it. I just think it's neat that the recipe has been loved and worked with and adjusted.

A challenge I had was that Grandma Lola described a "thin icing of hot coffee, oleo, vanilla, and powdered sugar" which was to be drizzled over the top of the bars. No amounts listed, what so ever. I gave it my best shot, but I ended up soaking the bars in a sweet coffee butter mixture, which didn't turn out too bad, but now there will be no slicing and stacking the bars. They must be consumed from the pan.

I'm really pleased with my first attempt at baking a family recipe. They didn't turn out exactly like I remember, but still, they're delicious. Daniel says he didn't know how yummy raisins were once plumped.