Cooking Faster

Time goes faster when you get old.  It really does.  I remember how long a week-end or a summer vacation seemed when I was young.  Loving school probably had something to do with my attitude, but I think the clock starts speeding up noticeably after you marry and have children. One day you can’t wait for them to walk and talk and the next moment they are walking down an aisle for graduation or a wedding. Have you experienced this?

In my senior years I’ve begun to distill activities to their essence.  I rarely spend 1 ½ hours making a coconut meringue pie from scratch anymore, unless Bob requests one for his birthday.  Gone are the days of baking 4 loaves of bread and 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies on the same days I taught piano or voice in my home studio.

I flip right past recipes from Martha Stewart or Julia Child that include 20 ingredients and 2 hour prep times these days.  People who still make their own corned beef or sauerkraut or angel food cakes from scratch amaze me.  I’ll buy mine from the deli, thank you! Putting up three day lime sweet pickles once a year is about the most time consuming culinary commitment I make anymore.

Maybe this is just because I’ve gotten slower, but I prefer to think I simply have other things I like to do better and there’s not enough hours left to do them all. Jeremiah 15 talks about extracting the precious from the worthless and I’m all for that.

I still love to cook and bake, but quicker recipes appeal to me these days. The granddaughters and I especially like making ice cream pies and cakes. Any dessert that starts with ice cream, candy bars, cereals, or other store bought ingredients to speed up the end result (the eating!) will usually get a try around here.

Like this one for Graham Cracker Toffee Bars that a friend often makes for our bridge club.  The few ingredients are usually available in my fridge and pantry, the prep is a snap, the results are a cross between a cookie and a candy bar, they keep well in fridge or freezer, and are yummy.

Enjoy!
DeAnna

Ingredients:  graham crackers, 2 sticks of butter, ½ cup white sugar, and nuts.

(Yep, that’s right…2 sticks of butter!  The best toffee is almost all butter.)

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.



Line a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

Spread whole graham crackers over the foil and

sprinkle nuts over all.  I used almonds & pecans here,

but any kind will do.



Melt 2 sticks of butter with ½ cup white sugar

and boil 2 minutes on stove top over med high heat.

Pour the hot toffee mixture over the grahams and spread it

out with a wooden spoon.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool in pan. 

When cool, peel the foil from the back of the cookies and break

them into thirds.

I like to store mine in plastic ware in the fridge or freezer, but

you can eat them immediately too!