Some Beach. . .

My husband’s nickname for me is House Cat. You know, a lazy old cat that is perfectly content staying home all day long and not moving around a whole lot. Yup, that sounds about right. Ha. Well, except for the lazy part. I don’t consider myself a lazy person in general, but I do daydream about being lazy pretty much all the time. I WANT to be lazy, I would LOVE to be lazy….real life just gets in the way most of the time. Stupid real world…. I’m a wanna-be lazy bum. Heh…

Anyway, he gave me said nickname because I’m what you might consider an indoor girl. He LOVES to be outside, he makes up things to do outside just he can be out there, which to me is just downright nutty. I rarely ever get the urge to be outside. I don’t camp or hike or anything like that and I have no desire too. Two reasons: 1. Outside there are bugs. Lots of them. I don’t want them crawling on me or near me, end of story. 2. How many days a year do we get when it really and truly is comfortable to be outside? Here in the Midwest, not nearly enough as far as I’m concerned. There are some days, of course, and I do enjoy those days, but if it’s too hot or too cold (and it don’t take much for me to be too hot or too cold)….I’ll just stay inside, thank you very much.

Believe it or not, this not a big fan of the outdoors thing I have going on transfers right on over to being at the beach. GASP! You thought everyone loved the beach, right? Sun, sand, surf…all that stuff. Meh. I can take it or leave it. Laying out on the beach all day long is not my idea of a good time. It’s too hot, there’s no shade, and what’s worse than your everyday yard bugs?? Um, how about creepy, crawly, slinky sea creatures. Blah.

It could just be my lack of beach experience. I have been to the beach a grand total of…..wait for it….TWICE in my entire life. Ta-da! To clarify, I’m talking about the ocean here….not family trips to the lake in Northern Wisconsin or to Lake Michigan, salt water only. The first time I was a kid and we took a day trip on our Disney World vacation to go to the beach. It wasn’t a very nice day that day, so I didn’t get a good feel for what it was like. The second time was on our honeymoon. We stayed on Clearwater Beach for a few days. I wandered out into the Gulf up to my knees right when we got there and an hour later ended up covered in an itchy, red, nasty rash everywhere the water touched me. I realized at that moment I was allergic to nature. I spent the rest of our time there by the pool.

Last week my office held a Beach Day potluck to chase away those winter blues. I had NO CLUE what to bring as I was having trouble coming up with something beachy feeling. Had to be easy, had to be something that could sit out most of the day, and had to make enough to share. I decided something with pineapple would have a beachy feel but I couldn’t find anything that appealed to me in my usual recipe sources.

So then I thought…okay, if I’m going to buy a can of pineapple at the store, who makes it? Dole. Okay, awesome. What grocery store brand name doesn’t have an entire section of their website devoted to recipes that use their fabulous products? So I jumped on there and started surfing (surf…get it, get it??!!) around for something easy and yummy. Elaborate recipes with fancy ingredients have their place but the office potluck is not one of them, as far as I’m concerned. I stumbled across a recipe for Pineapple Butterscotch Bars. I was immediately intrigued. On first glance you might think that doesn’t sound like a great combo but the reviews of the recipe were positive, I knew it would take me literally 10 minutes to get a 13×9 inch pan of these in the oven, and frankly, I was tired of looking. I went for it.

Oh my goodness gracious, YUM!! Wow! Sweet, moist, buttery, fruity….mmmmmmm. I honestly could not believe how good these were. I was so pleasantly surprised. I love when I go in with mediocre expectations of recipe and it turns out being better than I expected. They were a huge hit. “Who made the pineapple things?” “These are so good.” That’s what I heard all day long. Oh, it sends my little heart a-flutter. HA!

A couple notes: The original recipe called for nuts, but I omitted them because I try to avoid bringing things that are common allergens into our office because it’s a public building and you never know who is going to wander in and out. I bet chopped nuts of any kind would be a delicious addition though! Macadamia nuts maybe. I’ll for sure add nuts next time, but they are good without them too.

Also, they are pretty cake-like. If you prefer them to be denser, you could probably decrease the amount of baking powder for a more blondie-like consistency. They are good fluffy though too! 🙂

PINEAPPLE BUTTERSCOTCH BARS (Recipe Source: Dole)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 can (20 oz.) DOLE® Crushed Pineapple, well drained
• 1 cup (6 oz.) butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, toasted (I omitted)
• Vegetable cooking spray
• Powdered sugar, garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; set aside.
2. Beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large bowl until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until blended.  Stir in crushed pineapple.  Stir in flour mixture, butterscotch chips and nuts until blended.
3. Pour into 13 x 9-inch baking pan sprayed with vegetable cooking spray.
4. Bake at 350°F., 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Dust cooled cake with powdered sugar, if desired.  Cut into squares.

ENJOY! 🙂