A Treat For My Daddy!

My Mom has been in town since Tuesday of this week to take care of my nieces as my brother and sister-in-law went out of town. She spent most of Tuesday here with the bro and I, and we spent the day looking for a new washer and dryer-as ours went on the fritz. We spent several hours checking out different stores, and finally we went to look at a set that I had found on Monday night on Craigslist. That is the set that we finally decided on! It is only a few years old, and was WAY cheaper than buying a brand spanking new set...this one is new to us and that's good enough for me! Craigslist is a beautiful thing! :-) We owe a HUGE thanks to my Mom for shopping with us, to our friend S. for coming over last night to help the bro remove the old set and put it on the porch for pick-up today, and to one of the bro's old bosses B. for going with his truck to pick up the new set today and installing them here in the house. We couldn't have done it without all of you!!!!

Now on to today's special item! Since my Mom has been in town all week and Dad had to be at work I thought that it might be nice if his daughter made him a treat with one of his favorite things....APRICOT!!!!

APRICOT BARS

Here are some of the cast of characters:

I forgot to put the flour in for this picture!

INGREDIENTS:

1-½ C. Flour
1-½ C. Oats
1 C. Packed Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Salt
1-¾ Stick Butter, Cut Into Pieces (Make sure butter isn't ice cold and very soft)
1 Jar (10-12 Ounce) Apricot Preserves
***NOTE*** I doubled the recipe to fit into a 9x13 pan. Otherwise the above uses and 8 inch square pan. You may also use any other Fruit Preserves you would like.

Mix together all ingredients except apricot preserves. Press one half of the mixture into a buttered 8” square (or small rectangular) pan. Spread with a 10-12 ounce jar of apricot preserves. Sprinkle second half of mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until light brown. Let cool completely, then cut into squares.

Here it is before I put the top layer on:

YUM!

Here is the finished product:

I HAD to taste test a little piece that crumbled when I pulled them out of the pan....You know I needed to make sure they weren't going to poison him or anything...WINK, WINK!!!! They sure are tasty! I sent home most of the pan with my Mom, but kept a few for us to savor as well. After all, all of the oatmeal in there makes them healthy, right?!?!