As if any of us need extra disasters, challenges or roadblocks right now, here they come anyway.

At our house, it was the oven.

My husband, cradling a raw chicken in his hands, hit the pre-heat button and heard something go POP! And the oven died.

He is the handyman type, also the web-savvy type. If things break, he tracks down the hoses and dials we need, orders them, and they soon appear on our doorstep in a FedEx box.

You remember that week, I’ll bet. Restaurants were iffy, grocery shelves bare. And the hoses and dials we needed wouldn’t show up for weeks.

Meanwhile, he still had a chicken to cook.

Myself, I had set my heart on making cookie bars. My treat cupboard was nearly bare. If I could not have my cookie bars, I might soon sound like a cat on a ride to the vet.

But wait — What about other appliances in our house? Can you cook a chicken in a crockpot?

Yes, you can, and quite nicely.

And is it possible to make cookie bars on, say, an indoor grill? Without ruining the baking sheet, or the grill?

Yes, it is possible. It took twice as along, and then some. I stuck close by, performing lots of toothpick tests.

The cookie bars made us happy for a week. And we have a new oven. All is well at our house.

Hopefully, you’re oven works just fine and you can enjoy a predictable baking time.

OATMEAL CARAMEL BARS:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 3 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
  • 6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
  • 24 caramels (7 oz.)
  • 2 TB milk
  1. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium-to-high speed for 30 seconds. Add about 1 cups of the flour, the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and baking soda. Beat mixture until combined. Beat or stir in the remaining flour. Stir in the oats.
  2. Press 2/3 (about 3 1/3 cups) of the dough into an ungreased 15×10-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
  3. In a medium saucepan, combine caramels and milk. Cook over low heat until caramels are melted. Drizzle caramel mixture over chocolate. Drop remaining one-third of the dough by teaspoon over the top.
  4. Bake in a 350′ oven about 25 minutes or until top is light brown. Cook in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Note: To freeze, wrap bars in moisture- and vaporproof warp and freeze for up to 6 months. To serve, remove wrap and thaw at room temperature about 2 hours.

Recipe source long-forgotten.