Honey Breakfast Bars

This is an old recipe my mom got from Sue Bee Honey. Of course I tweaked it a bit to make it my own. This is an easy and versatile recipe. You can use any kind of cereal and dried fruit, chunky or creamy peanut butter, even flavored honey would be good. This time I used three kinds of cereal: Special K Fruit and Yogurt, Kix, and Cheerios. It's a great breakfast, snack, or dessert.

6 cups cereal tossed with 6 ounces of dried fruit. I used a trail mix with cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds and peanuts. In a saucepan combine 1 cup honey, 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, a tablespoon of butter and 3/4 cup of dark brown sugar, stirring constantly til just boiling. Quickly mix with cereal mix and press firmly into buttered (not spray, good old salted butter) pan. Cut after completely cooled with a sharp knife. I pressed a few yogurt raisins into the top to dress it up.

Orange Bow Knot Rolls

This recipe has been a family favorite for years. I used to help my mom make these as a child and recently tried my hand at it solo. Somehow I got into my thirties and still had not ventured into yeast doughs, intimidated by the process. It couldn't have been easier. Well, except for the elbow grease it took to knead for ten whole minutes, this is an easy recipe.
The recipe calls for two tablespoons of grated orange zest. My mom had always used the smallest grate for a fine, unnoticeable texture, but when I went to grate my oranges the skin proved too thin and the fruit too soft so I just used the large grate. The result was lovely flecks of orange throughout the dough which, after baking, were soft and added random bursts of flavor.

To finish the recipe calls for the still hot rolls to be brushed with butter. I had some orange juice left over so I combined melted butter, orange juice and a bit of honey to make a sweet glaze. I also did not strain the orange juice so there were little bits of pulp atop the rolls which I thought went nicely with the "rough cut" of the orange zest.