Date Bars, Redux and Reworked

When we moved to the Middle East twenty-seven years ago, we discovered that dates were the thing. I'm not sure I'd eaten a date before moving to Jordan. Not only were dried dates plentiful and inexpensive, I could purchase a 2 lb block of date paste for a couple dollars. Looking for ways to capitalize on local products, I began making date bars. Below is the recipe given to me in 1988 by a fellow language student. As you can see, it has been well-used...and/or I'm a messy baker!

And now dates are the thing in the US as well, with many new recipes calling for dried dates to replace refined sugars as a sweetener. I hadn't made date bars for awhile, but an email from a friend prompted me to re-visit this recipe. And, she informed me that 5 lbs chunks of date paste can be purchased in the the US as well. 

Remembering how much I liked date bars prompted me to re-work this recipe, making it a no-sugar, no-wheat flour recipe. It wasn't hard to do and the results, delicious.

A Better Date Bar

3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups almond flour or almond meal
1 cup unsweetened coconut
2 3/4 cup rolled oats (I use quick oats as that is what is available here--works fine)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 lb of seedless dates (you can use pitted dates, but if you can get ahold of some date paste, your work will be easier.)
1 cup water

Cream butter and honey. Mix in the almond flour/meal and then stir in the rest of the dried ingredients to make the crumb bottom and top.

Heat dates and water in a saucepan for a few minutes to make a spreadable paste.

Press half the crumb mixture in a baking pan. Spread the date paste on top, and then top with the remaining crumb mixture. Bake for 1/2 hour at 350 F/175 C. Let cool before cutting.

Notate Bene:

--Once cooled, I like to store these in the refrigerator. The dates firm up and they hold together very nicely.

--I will try substituting date syrup for honey next time I make these. I imagine you could try other sugar substitutes besides.

--I used a mid-sized baking dish, approximately 8"x 10", but you could use a slightly larger one as well as the bars turned out plenty thick.

These date bars are very rich and you should probably eat just one at a time (yes, mom), but one looked lonely on the plate, so I added another for the picture. I'm working to build up a repertoire of no-sugar, no-wheat flour (or, gluten free) recipes for healthier Christmas treats, and this one will be the first on the list. 

Touring Day: Madaba and Mount Nebo

One of our favorite things to do over the Christmas/New Years vacation is take day trips together around our beloved Jordan. Due to a flurry of pre-Christmas social activity and work, we celebrated Tayta's Christmas Eve birthday on December 26th this year. We were up early to enjoy the traditional cinnamon rolls, grapefruit, and egg breakfast, and then, encouraged by beautiful weather, we hit the road.

Though we usually head north on such day trips, today we headed south to Madaba and Mount Nebo. Dear Husband and I so enjoyed our visit this summer, we decided to take the kids, who had not visited there for many years. Tayta informed us that she had never been to Mount Nebo. Well, at least that she could remember. Gulp. None of the kids had visited The Church of the Virgin Mary and the adjacent historical park (mosaics), so we started there. It was a quiet day, tourist-wise, so the gatekeeper/ticket taker accompanied us around the site, discussing the finer points of the archaeology. Me, I like to appreciate the beautiful mosaics.

The Tree of Life 

(pomegranates and grapes)

This Roman road is located just outside of the church. The stones are laid  diagonally to prevent wheels from getting caught in the cracks between the stone.

Below is the oldest mosaic found in Jordan. It is from the baths of the fortress of Machaerus which was built by Herod the Great, and dates back to the first century B.C.

The peeling turquoise paint and the rusty frame of this closed shop-front door caught my eye and I asked the kids to pose for a picture. Better than a studio back-drop, I think.

And then I found another door...

Next we visited the church (shrine) of Saint John the Baptist. Somehow, we had missed visiting this interesting site during previous trips to Madaba.

Another door. This one led to the ancient tunnels...

Down into the tunnels...

A memorial to John the Baptist, who was imprisoned and then killed at Herod' winter palace at Machaerus (mentioned above),  his head offered on a plate to Herod's step-daughter, Salome.

I didn't get a picture of the beautiful sanctuary, with perfect acoustics, but I did get a picture of the extensive nativity scene which was set up at the front of the church, in front of the altar.

Meanwhile, the guys discovered the passageway which led to the bell tower.

Surprisingly it was open to the public, so up the steep stairs we went...

Tayta enjoying this view from nearly-the-top

Active Son and Artist Son went all the way to the top, but the climb was a too rigorous and risky for the rest of us. If only my pictures were enhanced with audio, you could hear Dear Husband and me sternly commanding the guys not to climb out the window onto the ledge.

Though they have never had the opportunity to pose with Mickey or Donald, my kids have now posed with John the Baptist.

More doors

Heading back toward the city center, we passed the Madaba Christmas tree. Tayta was charmed by the city of Madaba, proclaiming it the Paris of Jordan. That seemed like a stretch to me, but I think that because Madaba was once a Christian town, there remain enough cultural vestiges which make it yet seem familiar.

The weathered wall of this "modern" but abandoned home reminded me of the subtle colors found on an old fresco:

As the shadows lengthened, we made our way up to Mount Nebo, the traditional resting place of Moses. The location of Moses's remains is unknown, but Mount Nebo is mentioned in the last chapter of Deuteronomy as the place where Moses ascended to view the Promised Land.

On a clear day, one can see Jericho and Jerusalem, but many days are hazy as this one was.

The Brazen Serpent, Mount Nebo

This map at the lookout point shows the distances to notable cities.

The church at Mount Nebo is being restored so we were unable to enter, but a number of shelters had been set up to house some of the mosaics and items of historical interest--a sort of make-shift museum. I liked the picture above: the first archaeological crew to work at Mount Nebo. Note that the priest and the sheikh are holding hands.

Another picture of the crew in the field. 

More mosaics, more color, more designs to enjoy

The color and lines of this aloe plant caught my eye.

From Mount Nebo we headed back to Madaba where we visited the famous Church of St. George and the Madaba Map. Our final and much anticipated destination was a favorite Arab restaurant, Haret Jdoudna, where we planned to eat dinner together, thanks to a thoughtful and generous Christmas gift from far-away-and-much-missed Oldest Daughter.

We were as happy as we look in this group selfie. It was a perfect day. Really perfect.

Holiday Cheer

We were blessed to have all of our children home over the Christmas holiday season, with airport runs  to receive them beginning December 10 (Oldest Daughter) and continuing right up until Christmas Eve (Active Son, who has Resident Advisor duties). I'm trying not to borrow trouble from the future by thinking that our Christmas holidays all together are numbered, but such are a mother's thoughts. I now understand more fully my mother and mother-in-law's desire for all their children to come together for family gatherings.

I'll use some of Tayta's photos to remember highlights of our time together. She received a new camera lens for her 16th birthday (December 24th, celebrated this year, for the first time on December 26 to accommodate Active Son's late arrival.) but even without it, she's become the family photographer.

We enjoyed mostly sunny skies throughout December, so were able to get out and enjoy the countryside together. We took the kids to the Dibeen Nature Reserve to share with them the beautiful sights which Dear Husband and I had enjoyed just a month earlier. Dibeen marks the spot for this year's family picture.

My favorite people

(disclosure: Artist Son is standing on a low rock. He is now the tallest in our family. Who'd have thought?)

After the hike, we drove to a lookout point in search of just the right spot for our picnic lunch.This was no ordinary picnic: A few days earlier Tayta confessed that she dreamed of making a two layer chocolate cake for a picnic, and pulling that cake out of a picnic basket. In addition, the knife to cut the cake would be taped to the bottom of the cake plate with paper tape. This dream was inspired by multiple readings in childhood of a Little Golden childrens' book given to our family before Tayta was born.

The boys, playing the part of Mickey, carrying the picnic basket to the picnicking spot.

Minnie, I mean Tayta, living the dream. She did forget to tape the knife to the bottom of the cake plate, but thankfully, she didn't forget to bring it. The cake was delicious, especially the frosting which was whipped coconut milk with just a little powdered sugar and cocoa. I'm glad this poetic daughter convinced this pragmatic mom to let her bring a frosted chocolate layer cake on our picnic.

It wouldn't be a complete holiday in Jordan if we didn't get out to visit some ruins. Since Um Al Jimaal    (Mother of Camels), once a Byzantine and early Islamic town, is just 15 miles from our home, we decided to go there.

Some things never change.

If I remember correctly, I'm someplace outside the frame of this picture yelling to the boys, "Don't even think of trying that." 

A family photo...

and the backstory: Here are the boys convincing me that it is safe and easy to walk along these arches, and it's the perfect place for us to stand for a family photo. My trepidation revealed my aging sensibilities.

The favorite holiday food in our house was not the homemade oreo cookies with mint frosting, or even the traditional chocolate covered peanut butter balls. It was Dear Husband's olives.

Indeed, we polished off a gallon jar by the first week of January.

We learned a new game together: Wise and Otherwise. I gather it is played something like the game Balderdash, which I've not played, but in this game you are given the beginning of wise sayings from around the world. Bananagrams, Settlers of Catan, and Boggle were also enjoyed.

We saw the Hobbit together--not 3D, for which I was thankful. The womenfolk found it too action-packed, making us feel at times that we were experiencing a giant video game. The special effects were a little too special for us. More than once, while watching the film, I thought how nice it would be to be curled on the couch, reading the book.

One afternoon we went to the balad (downtown) in Amman to do some shopping. Each of the kids picked out a Bedouin rug from our favorite rug vendor's shop to take back to the US with them.

Next we went on a search for a thobe (long, traditional dress) for Tayta.

A post-successful-transaction shot in the shop where Tatya found a lovely Syrian-made thobe.

Our fine weather came to an end this past week, and we endured a cold air mass, winds, rain, rain, rain, and finally, an unusual amount of snowfall. This, in its own way is considered fine winter weather as Jordan received 65% of it's annual rainfall in just one long storm, however to the unprepared and inadequately sheltered (think Syrian refugees in tents) such weather is very distressing. Heat management is an ongoing task for nearly everyone in Jordan and our family is no exception. Props to Dear Husband for keeping us warm (mostly) and with hot water on demand (mostly).

Oldest Daughter returned to Chicago last week (missing her!) and we have just three more days with Active Son and Artist Son. Just enough time for a couple more special meals, stimulating discussions, and a few more hugs.