From Our Kitchen: It's a Date!

I'm going to take this opportunity to introduce you to a friend of mine. Ok, well, I don't really know her, but I feel like I do! Her name is Ree - but most people know her as Pioneer Woman. She has an amazing blog that I follow (stumbled upon the link on a friend of a friend's blog and got hooked!) and a recently launched cookbook that I'm dying to get my hands on (it was on my Christmas list, so fingers crossed!).

Anyway - she had this recipe for "The Bar" on her blog earlier this week and I salivated looking at the pictures. All that butter! And dates! I love dates!! Remember the date milkshakes from our stop in Dateland last year? mmmmmmmm

::sidenote::

I think dates are underappreciated. When is the last time you sought them out at the grocery store? Or saw a recipe that included dates and was like, "OH! I must make that!"? You probably think you don't like them. Or that they look funny (they do - kinda like really big raisins). All I can say is try them. They might as well be in the candy aisle they are so freaking sweet.

Ok, now back to my story.

So, I saw the recipe on Monday and actually emailed a link to myself that day so I could keep the recipe handy. You will not believe what happened next! Just a few days later at work I noticed that this HUGE gift basket in the kitchen was getting pretty sparse. Among the jars of high-end condiments, fancy flatbread crackers, and the handful of Harry & David chocolate covered cherries, there was this lonely package of dates quietly waiting for me to stumble upon it.

I wish I had a picture of it in there. It practically blended in with the dark colored wicker and black shredded paper stuffed inside. I bet if I hadn't noticed it, it would have just sat there until someone eventually threw it away because people don't appreciate them enough. And you know what? If I hadn't seen that recipe just a couple days before, I probably wouldn't have looked at them twice either. Those dates are so glad that I'm friends with Ree.

You start by coarsely chopping them up. I found this a little difficult since they were so moist. Look at all the gooey goodness stuck to the knife.

Then you mix flour, baking powder and salt.
And then melt three, yes, 3 sticks of butter.
The microwave works great for this.
Then in a separate bowl, mix the sugar. White & brown.
Add the butter & mix well.
Then the eggs. My friend likes pictures of eggs and you know what? So do I. They make me think of my drawing classes growing up. Learning things like shading, shadows, depth...makes me want to get out my pencils... Anyway, you add them one at a time to the butter & sugar mixture.

Now, back to the stars of the show. Take some of that flour mixture and toss the dates in it. About 1/4 cup or so. I used more than that though because my dates were so sticky! I bet they were so fresh & maybe they were local AZ dates from Dateland!

This is an important step because otherwise the dates will just sink to the bottom of the pan when you go to bake it.

Now you mix (by hand) the flour mixture into the butter & sugar mixture. Don't over mix it though.
Then fold in the dates.
And pour into a greased pan. Save that yummy batter on the spatula to share with someone you love.
Then put it in the oven and wait. I used this time to play around with different settings on my camera. Fascinating, eh?
I might have sat in front of the oven for a little bit too.
It's done when it's a golden brown color and a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. For me it was about 34 minutes. And since it is winter, leave that oven door open so you get to enjoy every last drop of that sweet warmth...
Then they are ready to enjoy! Jay and I went to the gym (=guilt free dessert? I think so), and ate dinner before tasting them. They are delicious! The only regret I have is not eating them fresh out of the oven. When I have them for breakfast tomorrow morning Next time I have them, I'm going to heat them up in the microwave for just a few seconds first.
A few final notes:

a. My pictures aren't nearly as pretty as those on Ree's blog. For some reason mine all turned out much more yellow and I just didn't have the patience tonight to edit every single picture. (I am learning though!)

b. The original recipe calls for nuts, but being the nut-free gal that I am, I omitted them. Jay said he probably would prefer them with nuts but still gave my version good reviews :)