Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween to all of you!! We love Halloween in our house. I think because we all love Fall so much. I am following the Brenda Photo Challenge and this weeks theme is "Halloween". http://brendaphotochallenge.blogspot.com/2009/10/next-challenge-and-theme-10-31-09.html

I like to bake cookies for the neighbors and for the adults to enjoy while the kids are trick or treating. We get between 100-200 kids every year. It is a fun night, I hope the weather holds up this year. It has been raining and cold the past few days. My husband bought me a wonderful present just for fun. It is a baking pan that has dividers for brownies or bars. When you are done baking and it has cooled slightly, you just lift out the divider and you have 18 perfectly cut pieces of whatever you baked. I have seen it on TV and mentioned it, so he surprised me with it.

I have used it for brownies and bars and it works wonderfully for both. It didn't do so well with a regular cake mix, it came up too much and baked over the divider and was hard to get out. I was just experimenting with it. The bars I have here are apricot bars and the recipe follows. You can use a regular 13x9 pan, I just wanted to show you my new pan.

Apricot Bars

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1 and1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 cups quick cooking oats

1 and 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter(1 and 1/2 sticks)
1 and 1/2 cups apricot jam(or any flavor you like)

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Preheat oven to 350

Grease a 9x13 inch pan

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In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, oats and brown sugar. Cut in butter until very crumbly.

Pat 2/3 crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and then spread the jam over that. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top. Bake for 35 minutes and cool before enjoying.
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Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night. ~Steve Almond

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Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,Voices whisper in the trees, "Tonight is Halloween!"~Dexter Kozen

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I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween. ~Author Unknown

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A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. ~Erma Bombeck

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Be safe and have a wonderful weekend

Anne