Roseau Times-Region - Serving Roseau County for over 100 Years - The Official Roseau County Newspaper

It took a few days to get back to Roseau, but it was a nice sight. The weather still wasn’t the best, but I was ready for small town life again.

We made it back in time to have a birthday celebration for me. My family goes a bit overboard, but it was fun. They gave me a birthday party on my birthday and then another one on the weekend with those that couldn’t make it on my actual birthday. I also had one with Brandon, too!

Who says getting old is a bad thing. Three birthday parties equals spoiled.

Soraya and I had a bit of fun with the frosting. We started out feeding cake to each other and then it got a little bit messy! We had fun.

Brandon also got me a tattoo for my birthday. As you can see in the photo it is on my arm and it represents my heart attack that I survived.

It’s hard to believe it is almost two years since I had it.

Raspberry Crumble Bars

Ingredients

Raspberry Filling

2 - 12-ounce bags of frozen raspberries (see notes)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (more depending on tartness of your berries)

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

juice of one lemon

Crumble Layer

3 cups rolled oats

3 cups flour

2 cups brown sugar (loosely packed)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups melted butter (I prefer salted)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place raspberries in a large colander. Run warm water over them for a minute, and then let the liquid drain out for about an hour until softened and thoroughly drained (see notes). Mix raspberries with sugar, flour, cornstarch, and lemon juice.

Soft Delicious Crust: Mix the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, and salt together into a crumble-like mixture. Press two thirds of the crumble into the bottom of a 9×13 pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes.

Bake: Arrange the raspberry layer on top of the baked bottom layer. Sprinkle with remaining crumble. Bake for another 25-30 minutes.

Finish: Remove from oven. They will need a little time to set up into “bar” formation, so chill them for a few hours to get them really solid. Orrrr… cut into it right away and eat it like a soft fruit crisp! You should be able to remove them from the pan easily by pulling up on the edges of the parchment paper.

Notes: Thawing and draining the raspberries is important for getting the bars to firm up. When thawing the raspberries in the colander, you can gently squeeze them with your hands or press lightly with a spoon to get more liquid out. They will probably still be a little wet and mushy, which is fine. You just don’t want to have tons of excess water seeping out.

If you’d rather not mess with thawing, you can also use fresh raspberries! However, this is usually more expensive because it requires A LOT of fresh raspberries. And the fresh raspberry version tends to be very, very juicy. Like, kind of hard to eat.

The chill time is highly highly recommended! It helps them set up into bars that hold their shape really well.

Also, nothing against raspberries, but you could put anything in between two layers of the crumbly cookie-like crust and be very happy.

Using old fashioned rolled oats is recommended.

Joke of the Week

HOW ADAM

ENDED UP WITH EVE

Adam was hanging around the garden of Eden feeling very lonely, so his maker asked him,

'What's wrong with you?'

Adam said he didn't have anyone to talk to. His maker said that He was going to make Adam a companion and that it would be called a woman.

He said, 'This pretty lady will gather food for you, she will cook for you; and when you eventually discover clothing, she will wash it for you. She will always agree with every decision you make and she will not nag you. She will always be the first to admit she was wrong - and when you've had a disagreement, she will praise you! She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night to take care of them. She will NEVER have a headache and she will freely give you love and passion whenever you need it.'

Adam asked his maker,

'What will a woman like this cost?'

'An arm and a leg.'

Then Adam asked, 'What can I get for a rib?'

And the rest is history!