Fall Fig Bars with Irish Oats

Wine and harvest festival. “Irish girls have all the fun!”

Morning Walk

Fall in Cedarburg is so beautiful. Each time I look out my window and the wind blows the trees a bit, a whole bunch of rust-colored leaves literally FALL off the trees. I can’t help but think, over and over again, “This is what Fall is supposed to look like.” Fall is also brisk early-morning walks and sunny warm-not-hot days. The only problem is what comes after, but I’m trying to embrace and enjoy each season as much as I can and it’s hard not to when you live here.  We love it here and have met so many incredible people and feel lucky to have found this community that has been so welcoming to our business and family.

My parents live in sunny southern California - I may be jealous in a few months when the beauty of having “seasons” loses its luster. They have a bunch of fruit trees - Passion fruit, oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, Asian pears, persimmons and figs. Recently, when my Mom went to visit a friend for a week, Dad turned his attention to harvesting figs. They have SO many. It’s just crazy. It reminds me of one year when I had way too many cherry tomatoes for one family to ever consume.  I was totally overwhelmed and decided that I would never again let my garden stress me out like that.  I’ve achieved that goal, but the downside is very little homegrown produce. Anyway, if you know my father, you know that when he sets his mind to something, it gets DONE. Unlike me, cowed by cherry tomatoes, he’s never met a challenge he cannot conquer. His natural tenacity, paired with his inability to tolerate waste of any kind ended up on my doorstep about a week ago.  In a box. A box filled with several jars of homemade fig preserves and bags of dried figs. My youngest and I immediately ate a whole bunch of the dried figs with a big chunk of brie. They were delicious, soft and sweet. Then we tried the preserves, which Dad makes with lemon and not too much sugar. Divine.

Serendipity stepped in a few days later when I got a recipe in my inbox for Vegan Walnut Fig Bars. They looked amazing and I knew I could simplify the recipe by using fig preserves instead of the proposed bar filling. The recipe called for oats, one ingredient I always have on hand, if not in my cupboard, then just down the road.  Another bonus. My bars were not vegan. I used eggs, mostly out of laziness because I have no idea where my stash of chia seeds are or if I even have one anymore. However, these could easily be made vegan by subbing 1 1/2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 1/4 cup of water for the eggs. Using oats instead of wheat flour means that they are also gluten free - though some oats contain small amounts of gluten so if you are allergic to gluten, make sure to use gluten-free oats.

These bars were easy to make.  Filling, not too sweet and perfect for a breakfast, snack on the go, or lunch between conference calls. They can be made sweeter, more like a bar-style cookie but knowing that I would probably end up eating most of them, I made them less sweet and even added an additional sprinkle of sea salt to the top before baking.  I questioned whether I should increase the sweetener in hopes of appealing more to the kids but I’m glad I decided against it. My two older kids wouldn’t even try one because “new things, ick” (the main reason I didn’t alter them for their little taste buds, fool me once...) and my younger two LOVED them just as they are -salty and mildly sweet. #winning

Walnut Fig Bars

Adapted from Sarah Britton’s recipe in My New Roots

 INGREDIENTS

For the Crust

2 large eggs

3 cups raw walnuts chopped

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/3  cup fig preserves or applesauce

4 tablespoons honey*

3 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

*The preserves I used were not overly sweet so this was the perfect amount of additional sweetness for me, but it’s not much for the quantity of the recipe. You may want to add more, or add less if the filling you use is quite sweet. 

For Filling

~2 cups fig preserves*

*these would be great with any kind of preserves or a quick mix of dried fruit and applesauce which is what was used in the original recipe

DIRECTIONS 

Make the crust

1. Put 2 cups of walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet, place in the oven, and set the oven to 350°F (180°C). Toast walnuts while the oven is warming up (depending on how fast your oven heats up, this could take 5 to 15 minutes—they will start to smell good when they are getting toasted, watch closely after that so that they don’t burn). Take the walnuts out to cool and leave the oven on. 

2. In a food processor, or blender, blend or process 1 1/2 cup of oats on the highest setting until it becomes a coarse flour, about 30 seconds. Add toasted walnuts and process until the mixture is the texture of sand. Add eggs, fig preserves, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla. Pulse until moistened.

3. In a medium bowl, combine the rest of the rolled oats, salt, and baking powder. Add oat mixture and fold until thoroughly combined.

4. Take about 2/3 of the crust mixture and press it firmly into the baking sheet. I used a quarter sheet pan.  You can spray your hands with oil or wet them so that the dough doesn’t stick while you are pressing it into the pan.

5. Spread fig preserves over crust.

6. Roughly chop 1 cup walnuts and sprinkle over top; firmly press nuts into filling. 

7. Spread the remaining crust mixture over the walnuts and try to cover evenly.  Sprinkle with sea salt, optional.

8. Bake until slightly golden on top, about 30 minutes.

9. Let cool completely before cutting into 16 bars. Store in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days.

Process and fold together crust mixture.

Spread crust mixture into bottom of baking sheet.

Spread filling on top.

Add chopped walnuts - untoasted, they will toast in the oven.

Top with remaining crust mixture.

Milwaukee Irish Fest and Late Summer Disappearing Roasted Tomato Tart

The kids love these hats and gloves. I actually want one of these hats for myself!

This weekend is Milwaukee Irish Fest! I have a love-hate relationship with Milwaukee Irish Fest due to Paul’s OBSESSION with it. He made us schedule our wedding and shorten our honeymoon so that we could be back in time for the fest. As we speak, my brother-in-law has a moving truck in the driveway full of all of the stuff they need for their booth. My sister-in-law is staying in Milwaukee so she can work with her brothers all weekend. It truly is a family affair.  Despite all of the hard work, long nights, and, in previous years, long drives back-and-forth from Chicago to Milwaukee, it’s Paul’s favorite weekend of the year. He will be in the store this weekend but at the fest each evening after he closes so be on the lookout for him if you go! I’m happy that we are so much closer now and I’m glad the festival is back. 

This one’s definitely my child.

Unlike my relationship with the fest, I unequivocally LOVE this time of year.  As a sun worshipper, late August is probably the best time of year for me, weather wise. But it’s also bittersweet because the school-year is approaching and everything is about to become more scheduled, the days will be shorter, the cold will come. I try to set these things aside and just soak in the last of the summer. As part of that, I usually go crazy with summer produce, canning and freezing and trying to preserve a tiny bit of summer that can be pulled out of the pantry in the dead of winter. I also try to make my favorite summer foods before it’s too late. 

And do I love any food more than a savory tart? I love that you can make them ahead. I love that they always taste best at room temperature. I love that they transcend seasons and  “meal times” and are good any time. I love that they travel well.   I love that they aren’t fussy, you can cut off a wedge and eat them out of hand. I love that they are easy to make. I love that they don’t need meat to be delicious. I could go on and on. In late summer, I also love tomatoes. People say they get sick of them, and I guess I get it, when you have a garden and they all come at once or all come for a long time (I’m looking at you, people with longer growing seasons) you can get inundated with them.  How much caprese salad can a person eat? Well, I can eat a lot actually. But, I also love to take some of that bounty and roast it.  I slow-roast cherry and grape tomatoes this time of year and freeze them to toss with pasta or throw into soup once it starts getting cold outside. 

The other day, I married two of my favorite things, roasted tomatoes and savory tarts. As expected, I was in heaven.  Admittedly, the recipe is sort of involved, the kind of recipe I usually don’t like, too many components, sub-recipes (ugh), too time consuming. I get it. But, none of the elements require a lot of hands-on time, and when you make most of them ahead, it only takes a few minutes to throw together and bake. I had the pastry dough and caramelized onions in the freezer, so that part was done. And I roasted the tomatoes a few days before so I was able to roll out the dough, top it, chill it and pop it in the oven, get on a conference call and pull it out to cool before my next meeting.  

All I could think about during that second meeting was lunch. The smell of this tart cooling in my kitchen was highly distracting. By the time the meeting was over all I wanted to do was eat. It's no wonder I didn’t take a photo of my masterpiece, eh hem, the tart. It was SO good. The next day, I had another slice for lunch. An hour later, it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken a photo of the tart since it came out of the oven. But when I went back to the kitchen, the rest of the tart was gone. The kids had eaten lunch already and left with the babysitter. No one was even home! I searched high and low, wondering if I accidentally put it in the freezer or the pantry or somewhere it didn’t belong. Nope. It had literally vanished into thin air. I was less worried about the fact that this could mean someone was in my house unbeknownst to me, than the fact that the rest of the tart was gone. If I had criminal leanings, I would definitely steal a tomato tart over the tv so I knew this thief  and I would get along just fine. 

When Paul got home from the store, he brought the remaining piece of the tart with him. I was so happy to see him it.  As it turned out, when Emmett was “working” at the store that morning, Paul asked him to bring him some lunch after he got home. So Emmett brought him the tart when the kids left the house with the babysitter.  Mystery solved. But the fact that two people can almost finish this tart in just two days is evidence that it does, in fact, disappear. I know it’s asking a lot, all of the steps, the roasting, the dough etc. but you should really give it a go. The roasted tomatoes are good on their own so if you have a lot, I highly suggest doubling or tripling the amount. They freeze well. I throw a few over a bed of arugula and eat them with creamy burrata and a drizzle of olive oil for a fancy yet super-quick working-from-home lunch. They taste like the last, most special part of summer. 

The tart definitely doesn’t need the ham. Next time I will leave well enough alone!

I will also add even more basil. I added caramelized onions that I had in the freezer . In the instructions, I streamline this process by adding the onion/shallots to the roasted tomato mixture.

This is what the roasted tomatoes should look like, still soft, not too shriveled or dry but not juicy like raw ones either.

It’s a galette, I don’t think it’s supposed to look perfect. Personally, I never try to make it look uniform which starts with the fact that I don’t worry much about the edges when I roll it out, but if you are more of a perfectionist, you can roll it into an actual circle and crimp it all over in a more symmetric way.

Don’t forget the egg wash! It gives your crust color.

Crust 

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold

• 1/2 cup sour cream, cold

• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Tomatoes

• 2 lbs fresh tomatoes

• 1 small onion/2-3 shallots (optional) 

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 1 tbsp combination of fresh thyme and rosemary

• Salt to taste

Filling

• 1-2 cups roasted tomatoes

• 1 cup shredded cheese (white cheddar, gouda, whatever you like)

• ⅓ cup sour cream or creme fraiche

• ¼ cup caramelized onion or shallot

• 2 tbsp or more chopped fresh basil

• 2-3 slices of ham (optional)

Roast the tomatoes (and onions/shallots)

Preheat oven to 250 F

Cut tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slides or halves if you are using cherry or grape tomatoes. 

Cut shallots, if using in thin slices

Toss tomatoes and onions/shallots (if using) in salt, olive oil and fresh thyme and rosemary

Spread tomato mixture on a large baking sheet and roast for 2-3 hours until there is no longer liquid pooling on the baking sheet but tomatoes are still soft to the touch.

Make the crust

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the butter, working it in to make a coarse/crumbly mixture. Leave most of the butter in large, pea-sized pieces.

Add the sour cream, and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to come together. 

Dump it out on a floured work surface and knead until you can form it into a ball. 

Shape the ball into more of a square and roll it out until it’s about half an inch thick. Then fold it in three, like a letter. 

Flip the dough over, turn it 90 degrees and roll it out again into a large rectangle.  Fold it in three again.  

Fold your letter of dough in half once more so it is basically a rectangle and chill for at least 30 minutes before using. 

Assemble and bake

Heat oven to 375 F and put oven rack on lower middle half of the oven

Roll out dough into a rough circle

Sprinkle with cheese (and pieces of ham if using) leaving a 1 inch border all around where you will fold over the edges later

Add basil to sour cream and spread over cheese

Top with tomato mixture

Sprinkle with more cheese

Fold up edges of dough to form a border of crust

Whisk egg in a bowl and brush onto crust

Put tart in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to resolidify the butter in the crust. This prevents it from melting, which would allow the water in the butter to interact with the gluten in the flour, resulting in a less-flaky, more bread-like dough

Bake for 35-45 minutes until crust is brown and cooked through - use a spatula to lift galette and take a peek at the bottom of your crust to make sure it’s golden before removing from the oven. 

Be warned. This will literally disappear.

The Cedarburg Store is Open!

The Store! Isn’t it cute?

The store is open! Actually, it has been open.  For a month. It’s hard to believe. I’m late to the game here but it’s been a busy few weeks. We’re finally feeling settled in our new home, our new town and getting used to the changes that come with owning a small business.  Paul is working 7 days a week which is a lot, but he loves it! I’m trying to keep the kids occupied all weekend long, which is a lot too - thank goodness I love them. A lot has changed in our lives but as kids do, mine are demonstrating flexibility and resilience and have not skipped a beat. They started playground camp a few days after we moved and have made so many friends.  They are already regulars at the local pool, have favorite restaurants and love the outdoor concerts that are held every Friday night here in Cedarburg. This community has been so warm and welcoming to our family. We’re finding that Cedarburg has all of the charms of a small midwestern town AND there is so much going on here all of the time. It’s pretty amazing. I feel so lucky to be here and to be able to raise our family in a place like this.  

Ozaukee County Fair.

Summer Sounds.

Finally, after months of our lives being in flux and the contents of my kitchen being mostly in boxes, I’ve started cooking “for real” again. Paul and I decided that moving is not good for your health. Between having nothing in our kitchen cabinets for months after refinishing them to get the house ready to sell, being kicked out of our house for showings and all the trips back and forth between Cedarburg and Chicago, we’ve never eaten out more, or eaten as much junk. It feels so good to have my little hydroponic deck garden going full force and a fully stocked kitchen. I’ve also set it all up to promote efficiency.  When we started packing, I noticed that I had about a million glasses jammed in my cupboards when we only ever used the same two. The kids were always scaling my counters to get to their bowls and plates, which drove me bananas. We also had the weird “desk in kitchen” area that always ends up full of random junk - ours had drawers full of tools and hardware intermingled with tiny plastic toys, pens and pencils and old small electronics, cords, etc.. Ugh. Once we bought the new house, I vowed to be mindful about how I set up the kitchen, what I allowed in and where I put things. Now I’ve got boxes upon boxes of glassware in the basement that I will probably unload on the kids when they grow up and get their first apartments. I’m just glad they aren’t crowding my cupboards.  

Notice all my kids plates, bowls, cups and silverware on the second to the bottom shelf? And FINALLY a home for my appliances (other than my counter). If you told me 20-years ago that THIS would be improving my quality of life immensely, I would have been shocked and horrified. #momlife

Despite my rekindled interest in cooking, summer is not the season for it in my mind. In summer we like to grill, eat all of the tomatoes and peaches we can get our hands on, and eat outside as much as possible. But I have made a few things in the new kitchen.  For the fourth of July, I endeavored to make these amazing looking blueberry hand pies, but quickly figured out it was way too hot to make individual pies. What was I thinking? I ended up making a berry filling and an apple filling and turning the pies into galettes. Funny how sometimes failing is lucky.  If I hadn’t attempted the hand pies, I probably would have used a different pie crust recipe and never would have discovered how delicious the sour cream crust was. Maybe I’ll try to make hand pies again in the winter.

Half and half galette and one lonely hand pie.

I also made garlic scape pesto with local scapes, arugula, salted almonds and lemon. It’s good on everything. I like to thin it with a little pasta water and use it as pasta sauce or add a little more lemon juice and olive oil and use it as a sauce for grilled meats, fish or veggies.  It keeps well and makes the most simple meal into something a little bit special. Here’s how you make it. 

My dad told me not to buy this. He’s an avid gardener and thinks this is just a total waste of money. I don’t exactly think he’s wrong, but I disregarded his advice and got it anyway. I LOVE it. It probably does cost just as much as say, always buying your produce at Whole Foods (so, too much), but I having all of my herbs and so much produce growing on my deck is such a luxury. It’s hydroponic so I don’t have to water or anything. Amazing!!!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch garlic scapes (~10 garlic scapes)

• 1 cup arugula

• ⅓ cup roasted salted almonds

• Juice and zest of 2 small lemons or 1 large

• ½  cup olive oil

• ⅓ cup parmesan cheese

• Salt to taste

• Red pepper flakes (optional)

Don’t worry if you process and process and the pesto still looks a little fibrous. You’ll notice when you chop them how tough garlic scapes can be, even after blanching. But I promise these little fibers are soft, you don’t notice when you are eating.

Directions

• Cut scapes into 3-inch pieces. 

• Blanch garlic scapes in salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes and immediately plunge into ice water. Drain scapes.

• Add scapes, almonds, Parmesan and lemon zest to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. 

• Turn food processor on and slowly pour oil, followed by lemon juice and salt while continuing to process. 

• Taste and add salt as needed.

This photo makes me sad. I wish I had more!