Honey Ginger Bars

Those who have gone on hiking or birding day-trips with me are familiar with these cookies...  they are soft and chewy bars with a bit of a spicy kick from all the ginger. And because of the honey, they retain their moist deliciousness for a good week while being sturdy enough to be tossed into a pack. 

Honey Ginger Bars

1 cup oil
1 cup honey

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt

4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (measured by scoop & level method)

1 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup chopped blanched almonds (optional)

1 half-sheet pan, 12x16-inches inner dimensions (you could also halve the recipe and use a 9x13-inch pan)
parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cut a piece of paper to fit in the bottom of the half-sheet pan.

In the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat, heat together the oil and honey until the honey just starts to boil.  Pour into a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer and add the one cup of sugar.  Mix together (it will still remain somewhat separated in appearance).  Add the eggs and mix well.  Then mix in the vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, cardamom and ground ginger.

Add the 4 cups of flour to mixture. Stir until just blended, then add the crystallized ginger and the almonds and mix well.  Spread the batter in the parchment-lined sheet pan as evenly as possible (you can wet your fingers and use them to spread it, if that is easier).

Bake for 15-25 minutes (rotating the cooking sheet 180 degrees at around 12 minutes) until medium brown and the top springs back when gently touched.  Let cool completely in pan, then cut around the edge with a knife to loosen it.  Flip upside down onto a cutting board, peel off the parchment paper and cut into bars.

Makes ~4 dozen 1x2-inch bars 

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And for DS who loves these so much he's going to try making them himself, here are the illustrated instructions:

I get the crystallized ginger from MOM's and the blanched almonds at Trader Joe's, but both carry both.  Also, you don't have to use King Arthur Flour (which you can also buy at MOM's), but do make sure it is unbleached, all-purpose flour.  

I use my mixer when making these, but there is no reason why you can't use a large bowl, mixing spoon and some elbow grease.

Here is the half-sheet pan that has been lined with parchment paper.  You can also use two 9x13-inch pans, or just one 9x13-inch pan and halve the ingredients.  Whatever you use, it must have at least 1-inch high sides.

 

Not to state the obvious, but it is important to use a liquid measuring cup to measure the liquids.  And I just heat them in the microwave in the same measuring cup since, as you can read on it, it is pyrex.

I buy the "regular" crystallized ginger at MOM's since the organic version is so expensive and it always seems to have a bit of a funny flavor.

 

It just takes a minute to chop up the ginger and the pieces do not have to be totally uniform in size, but there is no reason not to buy smaller pieces if you can find them.  

I like to use blanched (without the skins) almonds because I think the skins add too much of a bitter taste.  And the ones from Trader Joe's come already chopped into a perfect size.

When you add the hot honey/oil mixture to the sugar, it will not really mix together until you add the eggs, then it will homogenize.

All of my recipes use the scoop-and-level method of measuring dry ingredients.  If you pour or spoon the flour into your measuring cup, you'll end up with a significantly different volume.

 Scooped.

 

Leveling the top with the back of a butter knife.

Leveled.

 Into the mixer...

 and mixed until it just starts to come together.  It is okay if there are still some spots of flour or liquid.

 Add the crystallized ginger and nuts...

 And mix until everything is incorporated.

 It makes a pretty thick and sticky batter.

 Pour and scrape the batter onto the parchment-lined pan.

 And spread to the edges.  Note that I'm holding the parchment in place with my thumb while I spread the batter to the opposite edge of the pan.  Once the batter is touching that edge, it will hold everything in place while it's spread to the other edge.

 All spread out.

 Then I wet my hands and use my finger tips to even everything out as well as possible.

 Not quite done.

 Done!

 It will be somewhat puffed up when you take it from the oven.

 And will fall a bit as it cools.

 Cut around the edges with a knife and then invert onto a cutting board.

 Remove the pan.

Peel off the parchment paper.

 And if you are feeling brave, flip it over (it also does not hurt anything to just cut it upside down).

 I like to trim off the crispy edges first.

 And give them to RWT to snack on.

 

 Cut into bars.

Keep covered for up to a week or so, or freeze for longer storage.

Wild & Wonderful

RWT and I just returned from a trip to West Virginia.  Since our main goal was rest and relaxation, we planned things a little backwards and first found a B&B that looked nice and quiet and then found things to do in that area.  And that turned out to be a good plan.

We ended up at Chestnut Ridge Country Inn B&B in Dunmore, Pocahontas County.  Nearby is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory that puts a damper on all electromagnetic interference in a rather wide area (the Quiet Zone) and that means no cell phone reception.  None.  But we did want peace and quiet.

The B&B was great with the owners hitting the perfect blend of friendliness without being overly hovering.  And they served us very nice breakfasts -- which ended up being our best meal of the day on this trip.  Dunmore is a tiny little town although central to pretty much everything we ended up doing. 

On our way there on Thursday, we stopped by Seneca Rocks and did what turned out to be a hot and humid trek to the top.   

Not sure the view from on top was worth it, but this sign along the trail was worth seeing.  And the visitor center was very nice with a good selection of guides including the newly published second edition of "Birding Guide to West Virginia" that I ended up purchasing because it contained the exact sort of information I had been looking for (although the Pocahontas County website was also pretty good in that regard).  It was quite birdy near the visitor center and that was where I saw my first warbler of the trip -- a redstart.  Also, many chipping sparrows, cedar waxwings, red-eyed vireos and scarlet tanagers.  I might have heard a yellow-throated warbler along the river, but I did not figure out the song until we were in the car and headed down the road.

We checked into the B&B late in the afternoon and then went in search of dinner.  That was the biggest downside to the trip -- the lack of good restaurants.  The first night we ate at Dorie's Home Cooking Restaurant and Lounge in Marlinton mainly because we'd heard they had sweet potato fries.  It was clean and the food was fine, but I enjoyed my BLT more than RWT did his pre-formed hamburger.  The next night we had dinner at the Foxfire Grille at the Village at Snowshoe Mountain which was slightly tastier food, but with an overall Disneyfied feeling to the whole experience.  And, on our last night, we ate at the Greenbrier Grille.  Wow.  They now have the (dis)honor of serving me the worst meal of my life.  The menu was nearly the exact same Sysco food as at Dorie's, but they could not even manage to cook the french fries until they were done.  Ugh.  The only things going for them were the view and the wi-fi access (after three days of no internet/cellular service, I was feeling more than a little cut-off from the world).  I think if we go next time, we will take our grilling tools, a bag of charcoal, pick up some supplies at a local grocery store and make our own dinner on one of the grills at the many state/national park picnic sites.

After dinner on Thursday, we took what turned out to be the first of three walks along the Greenbrier River Trail, an 80-mile long rail-to-trail path.  We parked at the burned-out railroad depot in Marlinton and headed north for about a mile and a half.  Unfortunately, that way goes through what appears to be the "bad" part of Marlinton and we ran into a lady who confirmed that south on the trail was the prettier direction.  However, we did find this cute little snapper along the trail.

On Friday morning, we headed to the huge Monongahela National Forest, specifically the Gaudineer Scenic Area.  It is 140-acres of red spruce forest that was never logged because of a surveying error.  On the way to the the picnic area at Gaudineer Knob, we heard lots of birdsong including black-throated green warbler, magnolia warbler, redstart, scarlet tanager, golden-crowned kinglet, hermit thrush, junco and one that it took me far too long to figure out -- winter wren.  In fact, the whole area was crawling with winter wrens, with one about every 300 yards along the trails.

Many of the wildflowers were in full bloom, including huge patches of red monarda (bee balm) that were each guarded by a hummingbird.  

The forest near the picnic area is nearly all red spruce and very mossy.  It looked quite a bit like the area of the Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge where Cheep took us (me, EES and the Norwegians) last summer.

 The little spruces are so cute, I just want to hug them!

I felt like I needed a little red riding hood to go wandering through this forest.

 Cool moss and lichen (which reminded me of that mind-controlling game from ST:TNG).

And don't even get me started on all the neato rocks that I wanted to bring home for our yard.  

After walking around the picnic area and seeing the first warbler for the day (a maggie), we drove a mile down to the Virgin Spruce Interpretive trail.  Sadly, the original-growth red spruce are all just about at the end of their lifespans and the majority have fallen.  However, it is still a thriving mixed conifer/hardwood forest (more than around the picnic area which was nearly all-spruce) with gorgeous scenery such as this little stream.

From the interpretive loop, we walked for about an hour down the Allegheny trail until we somehow lost the trail and then we headed back up to the road to walk back to the car.

 Here is a lovely mushroom screaming "don't touch me!"

We also found this adorable slimy salamander along the trail. 

Coincidentally (?), this rock cairn (the only one we saw along the trail) was right where we found the salamander (you can see the piece bark where the salamander was hiding out to the left of the rocks).  A salamander marker?

But that was not our last salamander of the day. We saw this little guy cruising along the gravel road when we were walking back to the car.

red eft

Once we got back to the car, we decided to take the back roads to get to our next destination:  Cass.  On the gravel forest service road on the way out from Gaudineer Knob we saw a family of wild turkeys.  Four adults and at least a dozen youngsters running around with them. Once back at the main road (250), we took Back Mountain Road (county road 1, from 250 to 66) and, boy, did that turn out to be a good decision.

2.1 miles north of the church at Wanless, is a small boggy area.  Approaching it, a brown thrasher flew right in front of the car and RWT wanted to know what it was, so he stopped the car.  At that point, we could hear common yellowthroats singing and I commented that there must be a pond or a body of water nearby.  We drove to the bottom of the hill and pulled over near some trees.  

While trying to figure out what turned out to be yet another indigo bunting (female), a bunch of birds flew into the trees.  They were some of the seemingly ever-present cedar waxwings, goldfinches, a couple of gnatcatchers and a bunch of chestnut-sided warblers.  I was trying to sort through them all when I realized the one yellow-capped bird was not just another chestnut-sided...  it had a black throat!  Yup, it was a golden-winged warbler.  I'd been hoping to spy a blue-winged, but never did I think I'd find a golden-winged. 

Eventually, all the birds flew over to the woods on the other side of the road and we continued on our way.  Although we did stop to say "hi" to this toad (I'm assuming an American toad since it had one bump per spot) and shoo it off the road.

On next stop was Cass Scenic Railroad State Park with rides on the gear-driven trains and an old-timey historic town.  It is one of the main tourist draws in the area and most of the people staying at the B&B were in there to ride the train.  We arrived in Cass too late in the day take a ride (or, what RWT really wanted to do, tour the shop), but we did time it perfectly to see a train come into the station.

We then, as I wrote earlier, drove up to Snowshoe Mountain for dinner.  The most interesting thing about Snowshoe is that all of the resort is at the top of the mountain, unlike most California ski resorts.  While up there, we saw a number of well-padded mountain bikers who were using the trams to get back up to the top of the slopes.  And lots of ravens soaring around.

After dinner, we parked at the northern terminus of the Greenbrier River Trail in Cass and walked a couple of miles south on the trail.  This netted me even more warblers for the day...  black & white, redstart, blackburnian, hooded (that one popped up when I was trying to spish in an indigo bunting with a very odd song) and a first-year nashville (another bird I did not expect to see).

 Cool rocks along the Greenbrier Trail.  

Can you spot the nest?

Here it is!  A phoebe nest perhaps?

Lots of milkweed blooming along the path and also this purple fringed orchid.  I've also never seen so many butterflies as I did on this trip.

The next morning (Saturday) we headed to the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area.  We had an early thunderstorm that day and it was raining buckets when we got to the visitor center.  Red crossbills have been reported to hang out in the trees around there, but the weather was not cooperating.  However, they had a very nice collection of snakes inside including:  copperhead; timber rattler; watersnake; ring-necked, red-bellied and smooth green (all together in a tank); milksnake; black rat; black racer; and eastern garters.  With multiples of most of them. And a ranger who obviously likes snakes.

 

After the rain started to let up, we did the boardwalk loop and then set off from there to do the ~7-mile (by the time you walk back to the car) Cow Pasture hike.  The plants were gorgeous with the rhododendrons and turks cap lily still in bloom.

But all of the water that lead to beautiful plants, also lead to a lot of insects.  After a mile or so being totally bombarded by various flies and gnats, we were dreaming of net-shrouded hats.  However, we kept going with the interesting plants and animals enticing us forward.

Birdwise, I'd been hearing mourning warblers singing since the boardwalk.  However, RWT had pretty much exhausted his supply of birding tolerance on the previous day and standing around being attacked by insects while trying to spot a lurking mourning warbler was not on his agenda.  So, sadly, I heard at least a dozen mournings, but did not see a single one.  Surprisingly, I also heard a prairie warbler near the edge of one of the open areas.  Other birds for that hike were both (!) kinglets, an insistently calling red-shouldered hawk near the boardwalk, common yellowthroats, swamp sparrows and yet more, frustratingly silent, empidonax flycathers.

This hike was also full of salamanders and a few frogs that I could never manage to catch up with.  More red efts on the move...

And there was a tiny (1.5" long) dark olive, with blotches on its back, salamander at one of the streams that I could not hold on to long enough get a picture of.   It was hanging out at the edge of the stream and jumped into the stream to avoid capture, but always pretty much stayed on the tops of rocks rather than hide under them.  Any guesses?

Because I was looking down at the ground for crawly things, I missed the most exciting part of this hike when there was a black bear on the path ahead.  By the time RWT called my attention to it, it had fled, so no bear for me and I had to be satisfied with the scenery.

Due to the long hike and previously-mentioned disappointing dinner, we went back to the B&B to lounge around in the hammock for the rest of the evening and watch the meadowlarks poke around in the field behind the B&B.

And, before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and time to think about heading home.  We took one more stroll along the Greenbrier River Trail (from just a bit south of mile-marker 67 to mile-marker 65) and it turned out to be the most picturesque section we walked.  Some time recently (the disturbed plants were newly-wilted), a large section of rocks had fallen onto the trail.

It was a nice way to finish up our trip and we came across an area full of chipping birds, so while RWT walked ahead, I managed to spot a family of common yellowthroats, red-eyed vireos, carolina wrens, indigo buntings (as smug as ever) and a worm-eating warbler.

Then it really was time to head home.  Fittingly, we returned to Alexandria in DC-style -- with an hour delay due to the closing of I-66E because of an accident. A sign that we should have stayed in West Virginia longer?

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Birders:

If you are looking for warblers in July, the mountains of West Virginia are a place to consider. I saw/heard 14 species and that was with only one day of anything that resembled serious birding. 

Missed birds I'd hoped to see:  black-throated blue, blue-winged and canada warblers; red crossbills; purple finches; pine siskins; any vireos other than red-eyed; red-breasted nuthatches; and brown creepers (probably because I didn't have EES around to "call" one for me).

Other notable birds of the trip:  kildeer and eastern meadowlarks in the fields around the B&B; many ravens; bank and barn swallows; numerous, yet silent, empidonax flycatchers; lots of Carolina, house and winter wrens (there always seemed to be one of them calling wherever we went); phoebes, peewees and great-crested flycatchers; groups of crows on the ground out in the fields; veery, hermit and wood thrushes; red-shouldered hawks up close and personal (twice within 15'); juncos, juncos and more juncos; and towhees galore!

Birds of the Monongehela National Forest Checklist