Hello all! I haven’t written in this newsletter in far too long, I’ve missed you all! I was traveling a bunch on my By the Book tour (thank you to everyone who came out; I got to meet so many of you!), and since then I have been trying to organize all of the things in my life that have fallen apart during a two and a half year and counting pandemic and writing three books during that time, etc. But I’m back with all sorts of fun news and giveaways!
First, there’s a GoodReads giveaway right now for an advance copy of Drunk On Love, my next book! It comes out September 20th, but you can enter it here to win an early copy! Second, my publisher is giving away copies of all eight of my books, including Drunk On Love! Enter here! And third, next week in this very newsletter, I will be giving away advance copies of Drunk On Love, so forward this to any book buddies who you think will be into that, and look out for my newsletter next Friday, July 29th!
I have read a bundle of great books in the past few months! If you missed it, I was on The Today Show twice in May, with a whole bunch of book recommendations! If you need books for your beach bag or your carry on or to take to the park to pretend you’re on vacation, I recommend all of these: The Marvellers, Love Radio, Scoundrel, Bomb Shelter, A Caribbean Heiress in Paris, The Lifestyle, Portrait of a Thief, Neruda on the Park, and Sex and the Single Woman! (Sometime I will tell the story of how wild it was to be on morning TV two days in a row; it was a real adventure).
If you live in the Bay Area, I’ll be doing a few local events in the next two months with other authors for their upcoming books! In person! On August 11, I’ll be at Books Inc. in San Francisco with the incredible Julia Whelan for her book, Thanks for Listening! On September 9, I’ll be in Oakland with the brilliant Margaret Wilkerson Sexton to discuss her book, On the Rooftop! And on September 14, I’ll be in Oakland with the delightful Taylor Jenkins Reid to talk about Carrie Soto is Back! Please mask up and come! And don’t worry, I’ll have lots of news about events for Drunk On Love soon, stay tuned!
Okay so I need to tell you all the story of these granola bars. Some friends had twins, and I was going to bake some snacks to bring them, and posted on my Instagram story about it. My buddy Libby Nelson suggested these granola bars from Smitten Kitchen — she said she’d brought them to a friend who had a baby, and was about to bake them for her again because she’d requested them for her second. I’m not a huge granola bar person (they’re usually too sweet for me, and also too hard), but I had all of the ingredients for them, so I was like sure, I’ll make them. I threw the recipe together (it’s a super quick recipe; it takes longer to preheat the oven than to get the bars ready to go into it) baked them, and when they were cool I cut them up to pack them. I tasted some of the scraps left on the parchment paper, and was stunned by how delicious they were — so much so that I made another batch for myself two days later. I brought them over to my mom’s, and her best friend was like “Granola bars? I don’t really like granola bars.” And I said “Yeah, me neither. Taste these.” She tasted them and sat there for a moment, and then said “Those granola bars are incredible.” I’m going to make more next week, as soon as I go back to the store.
A few notes about about the recipe:
She calls for 1 2/3 cup quick rolled oats in it and also either 1/3 cup oat flour, or 1/3 cup oats finely ground up in a food processor or blender. I only had old fashioned oats, which (I realized from the comments on the recipe after making it the first time) makes it a little harder for them to stick together in bar form. So the second time I made them, I used 1 1/3 cup oats, and 2/3 cups of the oats ground up in the food processor, and they worked better. I put that instruction below. It also called for optional nut butter, which I didn’t use because I didn’t have any, so if you use that, they might stick together better even with old fashioned oats. I used brown sugar instead of granulated, and tinkered with the salt. Oh, and it also called for optional vanilla, that she said was optional because she wasn’t convinced the flavor came through — I didn’t use vanilla the first time, and did the second, and I think she’s right; I’m a huge fan of vanilla but I won’t use it again for these because I think it’s wasted here.
You can use really any dried fruits, nuts, seeds, etc. that you like here. I used mixed nuts and a bunch of mixed dried fruits (dried cranberries, dried apples, dried apricots, raisins, etc); if you have nut allergies, you can use lots of pepitas; if you like coconut in your granola, that would work great here, etc.
(Those are more words about granola bars I’ve ever written in my life; please just know that it took way longer for me to write all of that than it will for you to make these).
Thick and Chewy Granola Bars
1 2/3 cups quick rolled oats or 1 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oat flour or 1/3 cup oats, processed until ground in a food processor OR 2/3 cup of the oat flour/processed oats, if using old fashioned oats
1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 to 3 cups (10 to 15 ounces) dried fruit and nuts
1/3 cup peanut butter or another nut butter (optional — I didn’t use this either time but I will the next time to try it)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup, or corn syrup (I used honey both times)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup (yes, corn syrup is listed twice, it’s on purpose)
1 tablespoon water
Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8 x 8 pan with a parchment paper sling, and grease it lightly.
Stir together all of the dried ingredients in a large bowl, and in a smaller bowl (or the measuring cup that you melted the butter in, which is what I did) whisk together the melted butter, liquid sweeteners, and water. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry (add the nut butter here if you’re using it), and mix together until it’s evenly damp and crumbly (it won’t look like there’s enough liquid at first, just keep mixing). Spread it into the prepared pan, pressing down firmly to make sure it’s all stuck together. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until there’s some browning around the edges and they’re golden on top (I checked after 30 minutes, and both times let them go for a few more minutes).
Let cool all the way before cutting them into squares. Enjoy!
Have a great weekend!
Jasmine