Days 3-5: Beach Bummin' and Venturing Out

The third day here at Ocean City was mostly made up of beach time. Predictably, there were considerably less people. The water was a little chillier and it was a little choppier, but over all a good experience. After the beach I ventured to the Food Lion again to pick up some items to make spaghetti. Once again, I found the customers and employees to be extremely rude and obnoxious. Most of the night was spent in my room, but I did venture out to get sone ice cream at a place on Coastal Highway. I forget the name of it (sorry, it's been a couple days). The ice cream was very good, though. I wound up getting peanut butter ripple.

The fourth day was cloudy and an over all bad day to go to the beach. I wound up heading out to Berlin, Maryland since the tourist books hyped it up so much. All I have to say is when you get there, don't blink or else you've probably driven through it already. Not seeing a point to getting out and walking around to look in the windows of all the antique shops (which is all they seem to have), I decided to cut my losses and just head back to my room to regroup. Afterwards I decided it might be a good idea to check out what Delaware had to offer instead. Destination? Rehoboth Beach. It's only about a half hour or so from Ocean City. When I got there, I was extremely impressed with the beach's quaint feel. I strolled up and down Rehoboth Ave, dodging in and out of shops that contained spa products, beach crafts, wind chimes, clothes, and other cute things. I did wind up purchasing from a shop called "Scentchips", which sells soy based potpourri that you can either melt in a burner or have sitting around to liven up a bathroom or bedroom. I will warn you, though, that your olfactory senses will be over stimulated by the time you walk out if there.

For dinner I went to the Purple Parrot, which is also on Rehoboth Ave. They serve things like wraps, quesadillas, sliders, burgers, etc. Basically, your typical bar food. I thought the food was really good. I ordered the Grilled Beef Quesadilla, which had bits of steak in it. I thought it was delicious! I loved the salsa that they served with it too. The food was still a bit overpriced to me, but not as overpriced as Ocean City. The staff was also very friendly and seemed more lively than those who work in OC. Over all, a great place to eat.

Rehoboth was a great adventure, and probably the shining beacon in this trip thus far. The people were nicer, the shopping was good, and I was able to relax a little bit more. Great destination.

Today (day 5) turned out, unexpectedly, to be a great beach day. The weather was beautiful and there was hardly anyone there. It provided me with some very welcome relaxation.

All caught up! Until tomorrow...

Day 2: Bringin' Down da House...of Pancakes

My second day here started with a breakfast/brunch at the House of Pancakes. I ordered the banana pancakes with a large milk. I got 3 large pancakes with bananas mixed in the batter. They were really, really good. They were also extremely filling. I took most of it home for breakfast tomorrow. The service was also very fast, although not particularly friendly (I'm learning this is the norm though). It was also reasonably affordable. Over all a great start to the day.

After I got done with breakfast I ventured to the beach. I will say that the best way to get there is by walking or bicycle. It seems that car parking is rather scarce. Also public transportation seems to be pretty cheap ($3 for an all day pass).

The beach was pretty crowded but surprisingly clean. The water was really cold, and today there was a bit of a chilly breeze. I did enjoy my time there though and was able to get a pretty sweet tan and catch some afternoon z's. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain for most of this week but I'm hoping to catch at least one more day out there.

After the beach I showered up and headed to the boardwalk. I ate dinner at "Guys on the Beach". It was a pizza/wings/Greek food place. I had a Shamaba sandwich, which was basically Caribbean jerk chicken in a pita with hummus, lettuce, and black olives. It was amazing! The boardwalk fries there were also really good. It tasted like they were made in sunflower oil. It was a pretty costly venture, though, but the service was good and the food was fantastic.

The boardwalk itself was fairly unimpressive to me. I walked down the half that didn't include the amusement park with the hopes of just getting in some shopping, but I was extremely disappointed. The shops were basically all the same (cheap quality, novelty beach ware for super expensive). Extremely disappointing.

My night ended by venturing to the local Food Lion to buy some basic groceries for the week. My suggestion for any future Ocean City goers is that if you are particular on your diet, bring some of your own food. The food store had mostly extremely fattening foods, promoting snack foods for parties as well as mixers and cheap shot glasses.

My over all consensus on this trip so far is that everyone here is extremely unfriendly. The employed do not seem to be happy about the season and the tourists are some of the most selfish and ignorant people I have ever seen. Also the shopping is awful. Even the main street here (Coastal Highway) has very repetitive and overpriced items. Finally, unlike most beach locations, this one doesn't seem to have a good candy outlet. The best one we could find was Wockenfuss, but it's quality was lacking.

With that, here's to keeping an open mind for tomorrow.

Day 1: Ocean City, Maryland

I want to start off by saying that this is my first time in Ocean City. Thus, this week's blog will be filled with a lot of first impressions, and hopefully a lot of good reviews and ideas on what to do if you choose to vacation here.

Today was a long day of driving. Granted, it was only supposed to be a 4 hour drive, but it turned into an extra hour because I tried to avoid Baltimore and the NASCAR traffic. I drove through Delaware instead. The good news though is that I did successfully avoid the traffic and I had absolutely no problem coming in to town.

So, what was my first impression upon getting here? Clearly, it is a party destination. There appears to be a lot of activities, shopping, and night life. Also, where's the beach? Typically I can smell or get some clue of where the beach is, but I find this town peculiar in that it doesn't have the typical environmental beach indicators. I am very impressed with the amount of young people here. I am also very impressed as to how many bicyclists there are. Hopefully I can find a good place to rent one.

I kicked off my vacation by going to Phillip's Seafood Buffet and Restaurant. I was quite impressed. The selection is vast from crab cakes to Maryland blue crabs (I tried one of these but felt extremely guilty after realizing that I had to literally dissect the poor thing) to fried chicken and soup. The food was also quite good. The crab cakes weren't too overdone and it was clear that the crab legs, blue crabs, and the crab imperial were all customer favorites. They also had an array of desserts from ice cream to cookies to fruit. I was quite impressed.

The downside was that it was a little pricey (although I felt it was worth it) and I didn't feel as though the service was all that great. I felt the staff was kind of rude. Also, I was disappointed in the salad bar. It was really small and there was hardly any variety. Finally, although minor, my drink was very watered down. I just ordered a Pepsi, but it tasted like a bunch of ice had melted in it before it was brought out.

Over all I would definitely recommend Phillip's.

I hope that I will be able to get in a lot of activities this week. I already am planning to do a kayak Eco- tour and visiting the boardwalk is a clear must. I will definitely keep everyone updated as the week goes on.

In the meantime, signing off...stay classy!

Lunch Hour Pick-Me-Up

Well, today is Friday! Exciting!!! I thought I’d call attention to today’s Livingsocial deal, which is a deal for Linglestown Paintball. I’ve never tried it, so I figured, why not?! I’m sure I’ll post about my first experience at a later date. If any of you folks have any paintballing tips, they would be greatly appreciated.

Last night was the first preseason game for the Philadelphia Eagles. I am, naturally, sporting my Brent Celek jersey today in the office to celebrate the anticipation of what (hopefully) will be a magnificent season. I was of course impressed last night with Michael Vick’s brief performance, but was disappointed that I didn’t get to see more of the new talent on the team. I realize that preseason isn’t really the time to view said talent, but rather is a brief preview of what is to come, but nonetheless, the hype has been so high that I was expecting a little more. Oh well…Next week the Eagles move on to play the Steelers, which means there will be tension in my house as my dad is a Steelers fan.

Today is my dining out for lunch day. I’m not sure which venue I will end up choosing. Perhaps Neato Burrito? Or maybe I’ll go all fancy, and venture out to Café Fresco. Ok, that sounds like a good choice. Cajun chicken Caesar wrap, here I come!

Speaking of food and diet, I was disappointed this week when I gained .6 lbs (yes, that’s right 6/10 of a pound). Oh well, just one obstacle on this journey of this diet overhaul. Tonight I’m going swimming with my little, which means I’ll get an opportunity to burn it off anyway.

I’ll leave you folks for now with today’s beat:

Around Harrisburg: Skatin’ through the Summer

This summer I had the opportunity to go both ice skating and roller skating with my little sister. After visiting both Twin Ponds East and Olympic Skating Center, I was really shocked at the differences between the two as far as atmosphere and experience.

I remember when I was younger, I frequented Olympic for parties (school, birthdays, etc.) and loved it. Twin Ponds I rarely went to, and frankly, wasn’t all that impressed with. I have to say, though, now my opinion is completely opposite. I was not impressed with Olympic in the slightest when I went in June. To me, the venue was reminiscent of another time, and came off extremely outdated. Typically I would find this to be very charming, and it is in its own right, but the poor attitude of the staff made it simply seem out-of-date and nothing more. I was not impressed by the way they treated their customers, especially when I got an unnecessary attitude at the door after I parked in a place that, granted, I shouldn’t have (that’s an entirely different discussion, though, that’s probably not proper here). Even when we went inside the venue, I felt extremely uncomfortable the entire time, as if I was being watched. For example, if you are thinking about going here and you are either rusty at roller-skating (like I was) or a beginner, DO NOT go here. They seem to have little to absolutely no tolerance for it, and you will be watched like a hawk the entire time in a rather condescending way. In the end the atmosphere of the place came off extremely unwelcoming. I was very disappointed. Would I go there again? I won’t say no, but I will give it a “I hope not.”

Twin Ponds, on the other hand, I love. There aren’t too many people that go there and the staff is [almost] always very friendly and encouraging. They don’t patronize you if you are a beginner at skating and the rink gives you plenty of room to get acquainted with the ice. I rarely, if ever, feel uncomfortable skating there, which allows me to get into what I’m doing. I thoroughly enjoy the experience there.

So, there you have it- ice skating 1, roller skating 0.

Nutty for Nut Chips (and more)!

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this post, I figured I would start off with a little catch-up. Back in June I was challenged to join WeightWatchers in an effort to get my eating habits on track and lose a couple of pounds while I’m at it. Well, I have to say that I love it! I’ve lost a couple of pounds (3 to be exact) and have come a long way in redeveloping my food regimen.

When I first started the Points Plus program, it was SO hard to keep inside my budgeted points. I have 29 daily points to spend and 49 that I can use over the span of a week. Trust me, when you are a fast-food junkie and a lover of everything deep fried and smothered in delicious chocolate, 29, and even 49 points, is NOT a lot. Example? One McDonald’s Quarter Pounder (no cheese) is 11 points. Large serving of fries? 13. That’s 26 points (not including the drink) in one meal. Yea, I think you get the point.

However, I’ll admit that I’ve come a long way since then. I can’t deny that McDonald’s fries are still my weakness, and I still go for the occasional donut from my favorite place in America, Dunkin’ Donuts, but not doing it every day has been key. Also, I’ve been staying away from a lot of processed foods and consuming a lot more salads and fruit, a [healthy] change so shocking that the first time I did it, my boss told me, “Yea, I saw that. That was weird.”

I have to say to anyone considering changing their eating habits or losing weight, try this! WeightWatchers isn’t a one-time diet. It’s a lifestyle change, and you won’t want to go back to junk food [often] after you’ve tried it.

Ok, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, allow me to circle back to the topic of this post. I have realized that there isn’t a whole lot of common knowledge on what organic snack foods are good, and frankly, these products are a little pricey to experiment with, so I thought I’d “chip” in and give my thoughts on some of the stuff that I have tried thus far. Here’s this week’s snack review:

Blue Diamond’s Nut Chips with Sea Salt- These are made from almonds and brown rice. They are your (gluten free!) equivalent to corn chips. I loved them! I thought they were great with salsa (0 points). I do have to say, though, that the serving size is about all you can take. Also, you don’t get a whole lot in the bag. I do recommend them, though. 3 points per serving (15 chips)

Nature’s Promise Kettle Corn- This is my favorite of the week. This product is just, well, delicious! It has the perfect combination of salt and sweet. The best part?? Two cups is only three points! This snack is going to be in my lunch bag for awhile. 3 points per serving (2 cups)

Donut peaches- You may have seen them already. They are peaches but smaller and flatter, and in the shape of donuts. They are SUPER sweet, and are great if you don’t want to eat a huge peach, but just have the nibbles. Highly recommend these. 0 points per serving

Watermelon- In my humble opinion, watermelon is the second best fruit this season (other than donut peaches). It’s not the sweetest that it’s been in the past, but out of the pickings this year, it has to be one of the best options. It is also great for a fruit salad. 0 points per serving

Black Hair Product: L'Oreal Nature's Therapy Scalp Relief

More hair products!

The last time I got my hair relaxed, my scalp had an awful time recovering. I was flaking, itching, burning more than I ever had before. I tried some products that contained sulfur, but not only would my hair smell horrible, the problem didn’t go away completely, it just eased it.

Then I got this product. It works amazing. It smells great, so you don’t have to worry about any lingering medicinal or sulfur smells. It is easy to apply because of the applicator tip, and the best part? It actually works. When you apply it, it tingles your scalp in the places that your scalp is irritated, giving you a very refreshing cooling sensation. You won’t have flaking and barely any itching after using it. Furthermore, it gets rid of it, not just eases your suffering (and believe me, I was suffering) for a couple of days.

After using it, I was in a good place to be able to get other petroleum based products to start maintaining my scalp so it wouldn’t be so damaged after my next relaxer. I HIGHLY recommend this product if you are having dry scalp issues.

The downside to it? It isn’t a large bottle, so you use it quickly. It’s not the cheapest thing in the world (but then again, you are paying more for other products that don’t really work), and unfortunately, it’s not all that accessible anymore. For some reason, my local Sally’s stopped carrying it and I had to order it off of Amazon.com. Also, like some other reviews of this product, I have to agree –you can’t use this product by itself. I got Neutragena’s T-Gel shampoo and a couple of other anti-itch/scalp repair shampoos (NOT HEAD AND SHOULDERS!!!), and between that and this product, my scalp was cured in less than a week.

I highly recommend having this product around if you chemically treat your hair often, and don’t maintain your scalp on a regular basis.

Recipe: Streusel Raspberry Muffins

This was the breakfast that I made my mom for Mother’s Day. I tried to stick to a cheesy alliteration (Muffins with Mom, har har har). I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by these and they were a huge hit with my family.

First of all, they are a heavy muffin. They are also a little bit on the dry side, so I would definitely have the milk or coffee by your side when you eat these. That’s the only downside, though. They are really catchy and the raspberries in the middle keep the taste refreshing and help to break up the sweetness. I really enjoyed these and would definitely eat/make them again.

Baking them wasn’t difficult at all. I would suggest though, that the more raspberries you put in the middle, the merrier. I only put 3 or 4 in the middle and felt as though I could’ve put 5 or 6 in the middle of each and would’ve been better off. Also, I couldn’t get the batter to stretch to a full dozen. I got 11 muffins, so just keep that in mind when you pour the batter in the pan.

Here’s the recipe:

“Streusel Raspberry Muffins” (from 25 Years of Favorite Brand Name Baking)

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ cup milk

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

1 egg, beaten

1 cup fresh or individually frozen unsweetened raspberries

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 12 standard muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. Prepare Pecan Streusel Topping (recipe below); set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in large bowl. Combine milk, butter and egg in small bowl until blended; stir into flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon half of batter into muffin cups. Divide raspberries among cups, then top with remaining batter. Sprinkle Pecan Streusel Topping over tops. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 5 minutes.

Pecan Streusel Topping

Combine ¼ cup each: chopped pecans, packed brown sugar, and all purpose flour in a small bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons melted butter until mixture resembles moist crumbs.

Rating: A

Recipe: Fudge Dream Bars

This was something that I made my mom for Mother’s Day. I chose to do an easy dessert partnered with the Iced Oranges, so I decided to make brownies!

I was a little skeptical when I first started to make these. I thought they were going to turn out really cake-y and dry, but trust me, I was in for a shock. The finished product was extremely fudge-y. In fact, at first I wasn’t completely sure that they were done.

Aside from their extreme fudginess, I have to say that they were also really, really sweet, which means that I wasn’t as crazy about them as I thought I would be. I love fudge-like brownies, but the sugar content in these was astronomical, even for me. I definitely think that was the biggest down side to these, and in fact we didn’t finish all of them because of that. My guess is that the icing may have put these over the top.

They were pretty easy to make. They were pretty much like your standard brownie except you didn’t use unsweetened baking bars, but rather unsweetened cocoa.

That being said, don’t take my word for it. Try them yourself! Below is the recipe.

“Fudge Dream Bars” (from Chocolate Treats)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 eggs

2 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

For bars, preheat oven to 350. Grease 13x9 inch pan. In medium saucepan, blend 1 cup butter and 1/3 cup cocoa. Cook over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In large bowl, beat eggs with mixer on medium speed until blended. Add granulated sugar, flour and cocoa mixture; beat until well blended. Beat in vanilla and salt.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool completely.

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 cups powdered sugar, divided

2 to 4 tablespoons milk

For frosting, in medium saucepan, combine ¼ cup butter and 1/3 cup cocoa. Cook over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl.

With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually beat in 2 cups powdered sugar until blended. Beat in 2 tablespoons milk. Gradually beat in remaining 2 cups powdered sugar and enough remaining milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until frosting is smooth and spreadable.

Spread frosting over bars in pan. Cut into 32 bars.

Rating: C

Recipe: Iced Oranges

This has to be my favorite summer recipe. This is by far not the first time I’ve made this, but I figured it would be nice to share anyway.

The taste of this is so refreshing. The orange juice and the lemon always mix just right to produce a refreshingly sweet and sour taste. The consistency always turns out, for me, like shaved ice, but I think it’s supposed to be more like a sherbert. It is great during the summer when it’s hot and you just don’t want ice cream, but you want something cold. I personally think it is a great compliment to a dessert, particularly a chocolate one such as brownies.

Making it is a snap. The recipe suggests that you squeeze your own oranges and then use the oranges as the “bowls” for the ice. My recommendation is if you’re not in it for the long haul, which I am most often not, you should just use 100% orange juice (I prefer Simply Orange or Tropicana) and just freeze it in a freezer-friendly plastic container. Squeezing the juice from the oranges and using the oranges as bowls, while cute and can be very flashy, is EXTREMELY time consuming (a lot longer than it has to be) and frankly, the time that I put into it wasn’t worth the end product. However, if you have time to kill and really just want to impress, have at it.

One final tip when making this recipe –I find that the more lemon juice I add (without turning the whole thing into a lemon flavor) the better it tastes. I would definitely taste it before you put it in the freezer for the first time and adjust it to how you like it.

Ok, here’s the recipe:

“Iced Oranges” (from Mediterranean: A Taste of the Sun in Over 150 Recipes)

2/3 cup sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

14 medium oranges* (substitute for 3 cups of orange juice)

8 fresh bay leaves, to decorate

Put the sugar in a heavy pan. Add half the lemon juice and ½ cup of water. Cook over low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely. Bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes, until the syrup is clear. Let cool.

Slice the tops off eight of the oranges to make “hats”. Scoop out the flesh of the oranges and reserve. Put the empty orange shells and “hats” on a tray and place in the freezer until needed. *SKIP THIS STEP IF YOU ARE ONLY USING ORANGE JUICE

Grate the zest of the remaining oranges and add to the syrup. Squeeze the juice from the oranges and from the reserved flesh. There should be 3 cups. Squeeze another orange or add bought orange juice, if necessary. *ADD THE 3 CUPS OF ORANGE JUICE HERE INSTEAD OF DOING THIS STEP.

Stir the orange juice and remaining lemon juice, with 6 tablespoons water, into the syrup. Taste, adding more lemon juice or sugar, as desired. Pour the mixture into a shallow freezer container and freeze for 3 hours.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl and whisk to break down the ice crystals. Freeze for 4 more hours until firm but not solid.

Pack the mixture into the orange shells, piling it up, and set the “hats” on top. Freeze until ready to serve. Just before serving, push a skewer into the tops of the “hats” and push a bay leaf into each one.

Rating: A

Black Hair Product: BB Castor Oil with Aloe

Another product review for my “black hair product” section…Here it goes!

I have been using this particular product for several months now, and I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed with it. I really think it is a must have for my regularly-used-product collection. It definitely rescued my hair when it was dry and severely damaged.

I have used this mostly in two ways. First, I use it after I’ve shampooed and conditioned my hair and I don’t want to straighten it. I apply it while my hair is wet by parting it in sections and applying just enough to coat my hair, particularly the ends. When I’m done, I put some mousse through it, and voila! My hair looks shiny, dark, and healthy. Moreover, it is soft and it doesn’t break off easily. I love it.

The second way I apply it is when my hair is dry, dried out, frizzy, and just needs to be revitalized. Once again, I part my hair and apply liberally. It softens my hair and moisturizes it, and doesn’t leave it too greasy. I also will apply it to my hair when it is straight, particularly the ends, in order to keep the frizzies at bay. It works great!

I would not recommend putting this product on your hair before you straighten your hair because I’ve found that it leaves my hair greasy and gross in the end and then I have to wash it out, over all damaging my do.

The thing I dislike most about this product is the smell. It’s not strong, but it has a plain smell that almost smells like vasoline. I don’t hate, but I’m not in love with it either. I’ll put it this way, if the product didn’t work as great as it does, I’d probably not buy this again simply because of the smell.

Over all, I highly recommend this product simply because it works. I will definitely be buying this again.

Avril Lavigne-Goodbye Lullaby

I don’t typically review music albums because while I enjoy them I’m not typically so inspired to tell the world about it. This time I’ll make an exception.

I will confess that I am a sucker for cheesy-bad music. I love music that panders to my inner teenage drama-queen. Usually this means I’ll listen to the likes of the Spice Girls, Kelly Clarkson, and the topic of this post, Avril Lavigne.

Up until this point, I’ve loved Avril for being such a high school brat. She produces cheesy music that has no real feeling but tells it like it is when you’re feeling immature and just want to let loose. After hearing the hit “What the Hell” off of her recent album, Goodbye Lullaby, I was sure I was in for another album to add to my collection of guilty pleasures.

After somewhat eagerly downloading her album off of Itunes (which, by the way, I was impressed that Apple didn’t charge me for “What the Hell” since I already purchased it and just downloaded all of the other songs that I didn’t have on a separate album list—which is important), I started it up. My jaw dropped. For the next hour or so, I was speechless, sometimes tearful. I was amazed.

Avril emits a talent in this album that I’ve never heard before coming from her. She demonstrates an incredible amount of growth and maturity. Her sound is different, and in a large sense a lot more pure than it ever was before. Her lyrics are heartfelt. Most importantly, though, she exudes and articulates perfectly her emotions into the songs she sings making the listener feel what she is feeling. In other words, she has finally stepped into the realm of music for the adult.

I’m particularly in love with 3 of the songs on this album- “Push”, “Wishing you were Here”, and “It’s not Enough”. I love each of them because of how I can tell that she experienced every ounce of feeling that her ballads talk about. She’s also so upfront in a mature way. She tosses aside the teenage spitefulness, and hangs onto her inner independence.

I do have to say that in some of her songs she comes off as screaming, but in my opinion I think it adds, positively, to her music because it enhances the point she is making. Additionally there is a lot of repetition in her songs, but again, I think it adds to the quality of the message she is trying to get across.

When I think about her hit “What the Hell” I have to seriously ask “What the hell?!”. The song is such a horrible misrepresentation of the album and her sound. I’m actually really happy that the song is not on the album list when I downloaded it because I would probably be just skipping over it.

In the end I highly recommend this album. I can honestly say that I was more than pleasantly surprised and am more than happy to say that this exciting find will not be going into my collection of high school drama music.

Recipe: Quick Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Bars

I’ve been trying to find recipes lately that would start utilizing some of the left over ingredients that I had purchased before for other recipes. When I saw this recipe I thought this would be great since it seemed that it would turn out to be delicious, easy, and as I panned through the contents, I noticed I had most of what it called for.

On a separate note, I will warn you that this isn’t a recipe that is for people who are dieting or are conscious about corn syrups and sugars since it does call for dark corn syrup and a lot of other sweet things (sugar, sweetened flaked coconut, chocolate, etc.).

Now that the background story and the precautions are out of the way, here’s what I thought.

Baking

The preparation for this dessert was extremely easy. Because it uses Bisquick, which is practically instant cookie dough, putting everything together was a snap. It took about 10-15 minutes. The “most difficult” part was melting the butter (or, in this case, margarine) with the dark corn syrup on the stovetop.

There was little clean-up (a saucepan, a bowl, a measuring cup, and 2 spoons).

It took 40 minutes in the oven. I set the timer to 35 and I probably could’ve taken them out then, but I left them in for a couple more minutes for extra measure.

Finally, I liked that the bars didn’t have to be removed from the pan that I used. I simply cut the bars, left them in the glass dish, and put a cover on it.

I definitely give this an A+.

Taste

I was very eager to try these seeing as how I love the combination of oats and chocolate. I wasn’t disappointed. They were very chewy, and a little on the tough side. I attribute this to leaving it in the oven a couple of minutes longer than it should have. I also felt the taste was really oat-y, which I enjoy, but I probably could’ve cut back just a little. The coconut flavor wasn’t overpowering. In fact, it added a nice background flavor to it. The peanuts were the strangest dynamic to this. In retrospect I probably should have chopped the peanuts a little bit since it was weird and a little bit much on my palette when I encountered a cluster of peanuts in my bar.

Over all, I give the taste an A. I loved how chewy they were and I loved how all of the tastes blended together.

Recipe

Quick Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Bars (taken from Creative Recipes with Bisquick vol. II, 1986)

1/3 cup margarine or butter

¼ cup dark corn syrup

1 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix

1 ½ cups quick-cooking oats

½ cup sugar

½ cup flaked coconut

½ cup salted peanuts

1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1 egg

Heat oven to 300.

Mix margarine and corn syrup in 1 quart saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until margarine is melted; reserve. Mix remaining ingredients except egg in large bowl; stir in corn syrup mixture and egg until moistened. Pat in ungreased rectangular pan, 13x9x2 inches.

Bake until light golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Immediately cut into bars, about 3 x 1 ½ inches; cool in pan 20 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.

Makes 40 bars.