Experimental Cook Amaree

Well, as most people in my family know, I LOVE to cook. And, I'm getting pretty good at just "making things up" without using a cookbook, and having it taste pretty darn good. I also love to try new recipies, and am constantly scouring my gazillion cookbooks or the internet for an interesting recipe, especially when I'm low on ingredients (the other day I made some peanut-butter noodles with veggies for dinner... OH they were good! Whoddah thunk peanut butter and spaghetti noodles would go together? No me!). Tweaking recipes is a given... I am not one for following recipes all the time... but so far I have had few failures.

And then there are those days when I am PURELY experimental. I take recipes that I am familiar with and totally shake things up. Like today. I have a great recipe for lemon bars (Not Missys... but only because my microwave is HORRID!) and have a huge affinity for the chocolate/orange flavor combination... Yes... Chocolate Orange bars have been created. They are still in the oven, so I can't give you any feedback, but if they turn out good.... and they do smell good as they're baking... then I will share the recipe... And, if they're good, Aaron will get some in the mail. Yummy-licious!

BTW- I didn't use my cool Bakers-Edge pan, only because I wanted a huge 9x13 pan worth of orange bars. I hope I don't regret it...

Update

Well, they turned out pretty good. Interesting, but pretty good. I think I might modify the chocolate shortbread recipe I have... it called for too much salt (I should have known better!). My friend Quinn liked the orange bars... I will send some to Aaron and see what he thinks. I don't like my 9x13 pan, however. The more I use it, the less I like it. Shortbread is not supposed to stick. Chewy Granola bars aren't supposed to stick. And neither of them come off this glass pan! Frustrating!!! I guess I will just have to grease the pan every time... I will post the recipe later :)