Every week we’ll post a recipe that we both made. This week’s recipe was Baked Oatmeal, found over at I Am Baker. Printable recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

Robyn’s Take:

This week’s recipe was Nance’s choice. Apparently Nance has a thing for oatmeal. I kinda like it too, even though I hardly ever eat it. I don’t know why I hardly ever eat it – it just never occurs to me, I guess.

Anyway.

The ingredients:

Quick oats, brown sugar, white sugar, milk, melted butter, an egg, baking powder, peanut butter, salt, and a bottle of rum. Okay, that’s not rum – it’s homemade vanilla. I made it in bulk almost two years ago, and it is FABULOUS. I should make and market it. I could call it Fabunilla! I wonder if Teresa would sue me for jumping on the “Fabu” brand?

(Don’t get excited, I am NOT making and selling homemade vanilla, because there’s alcohol involved and all sorts of rules for the selling of such, and I’m sure I’d get tossed into the slammer and THEN who would scoop the litter boxes, I ask you?)

Also, the honey roasted peanut butter was the only kind I had on hand. That stuff is SO FREAKIN’ GOOD on a blueberry bagel.

The recipe mentioned that you can bake the oatmeal in an 8×8 pan or a 9×13 pan depending on your preferences, so I decided to try it both ways since it was such a simple recipe.

Throw everything in a bowl and mix it up. Wow, that’s difficult, huh?

Dump everything into a baking pan. The recipe didn’t say anything about greasing the pan, but I figured it was better to be safe, so I coated both pans with Baker’s Joy.

The 8×8 pan above, the 9×13 below.

Pop ’em in the oven, set the timer for 20 minutes, then start cleaning up the kitchen.

Inspector Magoo wandered into the picture a little late, but was willing to pitch in on cleanup duty.

It actually took about 25 minutes for my baked oatmeal(s) to turn brown around the edges.

Above, the 8×8. Below, the 9×13.

The bar from the 9×13 pan in the front, the 8×8 bar in the back. I took a bite of each. The verdict?

They were both good, but I slightly preferred the 9×13 bar. I ate it with a scoop of chunky caramel-apple jam.

Inspector Magoo was not impressed with the jam, but I gave him a few crumbs of the baked oatmeal, and he thought it was just fine.

Will I make this again? Yeah, probably. It’s super simple to make, and all the ingredients are standards in my pantry. Next time I’ll likely toss a handful of dried blueberries in, because I love those things. Chocolate chips might be good, too.

Fred, however, did not care for them at all. Something about the texture did not please his palate. I fed the 8×8 pan to the chickens, and kept about half the 9×13 pan for eating with breakfast throughout the week. The pigs got the other half of the 9×13 pan, but I’m wishing I’d kept those for myself, too!

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Nance’s Take:

Robyn already warned me that I had better up my game with this entry because she said that her recipe story was boring.  What the fuck with the pressure, Robyn?  Stress makes my head hurt and what she did is rude because now I’m going to have to break out a family secret regarding oatmeal.

My mother (Shirley) is well-known for two things…

1.  She’s an incredibly hard worker.  I come from a long line of bust-your-ass worker bees (which is why I can’t relax to save my life, thanks mom!).

2.  She is a very fun/nice person. She’s the  one that carries on at the parties (and funeral homes, OHMYGAWD) and is always joking around and laughing, blahblahblah.

Okay, three things, but I’m not going to get into that tube-top/sweatpant business here. Hee!

My mother had an aunt that was very, very poor and this very, very poor aunt always (ALWAYS) cooked oatmeal.  She had it for every single meal.  Baked, boiled and fried (no lie).  Apparently she wasn’t that much into house cleaning because they called this aunt Dirty Gert.  Are y’all horrified by this yet?  Because I certainly am. They called their aunt Dirty Gert!

Years ago, Shirley was at our family reunion carrying on like she is wont to do. She was having a good ol’ time getting in her yuk-yuks about Dirty Gert and wondering (OUT LOUD) if Dirty Gert’s covered dish would be something made with oatmeal.  Yeah, my mother is an ASSHOLE, people.  A little while later Dirty Gert arrived at the reunion with her family. She didn’t bring a covered dish…because she was on the receiving end of a horrible stroke that left her in very bad shape.  My mother felt like shit.  AS SHE SHOULD HAVE.  And that is why any time oatmeal is mentioned in this house we always think of my mother’s aunt, Dirty Gert, and we also remember the time my mother really, really stepped in dog shit.  The end.

So now you know what I was thinking about when I started to make this recipe.  Dirty Gert, for the win! I was also thinking that I couldn’t believe I was making baked oatmeal.  At 8 o’clock at night.  What?  I’m the procrastinating queen!  Thankfully, this was a one bowl kind of deal.

Am I the only one that scrapes their spatula off on the side of the bowl? I’m almost positive that no self-respecting food blogger would show this, but I never said I was one of those people.  Shout-out to the foodie/food snobs!  I bet this makes you nervous!  Also:  Polish Pottery!

I mixed it up (by hand, no mixer necessary) and threw it into a well greased 9 x 13 pan. It didn’t say to do it, but I wasn’t in the mood to be scrubbing cookware. I used the 9 x 13 pan because the recipe mentioned granola bars and I was all in. I might have made the granola bar part up in my head, but whatever.  I was hopeful.  And also…

My 8 x 8 dish was otherwise occupied.  Felina thinks she’s a super-star now and is obviously trying to force her way into the fame that comes with this site (ha!).  Go away, you googly-eyed ugly dog!  You can’t cook and you don’t clean.  What the hell good are you?

Man, I’m in trouble if Shirley reads this entry.  Not because of Dirty Gert, but because I said bad things about the baaaaaaaby.  Sigh.

Truth Game: I didn’t have much faith in this recipe so I also made a pan of brownies at the same time.

If you have a chance to buy this pan for brownies, DO IT. It gives you those great edges and OHMYHELL, I LOVE IT. Another Truth Game: Robyn got this for one of my birthdays because she knows I like this kind of stuff and won’t get it for myself. Robyn’s super cool that way.

Back to the Baked Oatmeal. This is what it came out like.

And this is after they were cooled and cut. They weren’t exactly a granola bar like I thought they would be. It was more like flat oatmeal cake, minus the flavor.

But…

My mother, the niece of Dirty Gert, LOVED IT. RAVED ABOUT IT. PLANS ON MAKING IT AND TAKING IT TO FAMILY GET TOGETHERS. I can’t even with this woman.

And this, in my humble opinion, is how I feel it should be served.