These bars are fantastic. They’re as good as they look. I love them.
They are the perfect summer treat, with some limey tang, smooth sink-your-teeth-into-it cool creaminess, and just the right balance of sweetness. If you like tart stuff, this is the recipe for you! The original recipe says animal crackers > graham crackers for the crust, but I’ve only ever made it with graham cracker crumbs and I liked it that way. I would probably like animal crackers, too, but I just haven’t tried it. Graham crackers just felt right. Plus, you can buy a box of graham cracker crumbs nowadays, where you actually get more graham cracker per ounce than you do when buying them whole (at Target)!
I should really make these bars more often. I made them last year for July 4, and they were a hit. I’m a little sad I’ve waited almost another year to make them again. Why the wait? I don’t know. I was too busy having a baby and making chocolate things or something. But I definitely regret it now.
If you’re here for the parenting and education stuff, don’t worry! I am still working on those posts. They just take me a really long time to think through, write up, and revise, so I like to scatter the easier food posts in between :).
I had a request to post more “dinner recipes” from a friend who has been following my food posts very closely. I am flattered to know she purchased several pieces of cookware on my recommendation, specifically to make the recipes listed on my blog! Since I know I will be making a ton of desserts in the next few weeks (baby and bridal showers galore!), I figured I’d squeeze in some savory recipes before shower season hits and y’all are inundated with pictures of cupcakes and bars and puddings.
Today’s recipe is Pork and Mushroom Wonton! Wonton always seemed so novel to me that it never really occurred to me to make it myself. It’s actually really easy! I was inspired to try making them when a friend told me how grinding your own pork is way better than using store-bought pork. She said that dumplings tasted so much better with freshly-ground pork, so of course I had to try it out with my new food processor. Never mind the toasty weather. Like I said before, warm weather is no deterrent for me when it comes to good eats!
Oh look! They put up my post on A Better Way to Say Sorry over at www.blogher.com! I guess my stick figures didn’t make the cut (hah!), but the content is the same. If you don’t see it on the homepage, you can also find it HERE.
I even got some blog bling! It’s over there >>
😀
COOL.
While we’re here, can I just say THANKS to all of you who have stopped by to read and even subscribe to my blog?? I take that as such a HUGE compliment, and am so honored that you continue to read! I hope you continue to find it helpful and beneficial!
Oh happy day, my new food processor arrived this weekend! I was SUPER eager to test out the blades, and I couldn’t think of a better way to do that than to slice and dice a few bell peppers, onions, and zucchini for my husband’s favorite chili!
Yes, yes, it’s summer… and at 85ºF, it’s not exactly chili weather. It’s allllll good. A little sunshine never stopped us from enjoying foods we like, no matter how warm or unconventional! I love this recipe because it’s like a whole meal in one dish– meat, veggies, dairy, and carbs (errr do tortilla chips count as carbs? =P). I appreciate that this chili is packed full of healthy veggies but tastes so comfortingly delicious! Be sure to use the taco seasoning with the turkey. You won’t even miss the beef.
This post is part of my series on How to Shape Children’s Behavior.
Over the course of the last eight years, I’ve learned a lot about teaching. One thing I know for sure is that if you don’t have students’ behavior in check, you cannot teach as effectively. Children thrive in an environment where they know where the boundaries are and are able to respect them. Some kids need more help developing this ability than others. That’s where we come in.
Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read some of my other posts on setting clear expectations and laying out a graduated system of consequences. Now it’s time to follow through with these new behavioral structures. The beginning is probably the most formative time as your child feels out just how serious you are about holding them to your stated expectations and following through with the stated consequences.
It’s likely that you will soon experience the first few pokes and pushes as they subconsciously explore the new system(s) you’ve set up. This beginning period is definitely one of the most important times to consistently reinforce the boundaries with the consequences you have set forth. However, all your work will be for naught if you don’t continually show that the boundaries are still where you said they were—day after day, week after week, month after month. I know this all too well, because I watched all of my behavioral structures collapse again and again when I first started teaching.
The list of foods to avoid for a pregnant lady seems to keep growing. It’s hard enough keeping track of what you can and cannot eat as it is. Add “pregnancy brain” to that, and it becomes even harder! When I was pregnant, I was constantly looking up which cheeses were okay, which fishes were more mercury-laden, and how many mg of caffeine were in the average cup of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee/latte or black/green tea, depending on what I was eyeing at the moment.
That got old, fast.
I didn’t have a smart phone during my first pregnancy, so that made it extra annoying when I was new to this foods-to-avoid business. I created this handy “cheat sheet” that was sized to print double-sided, fold up, and fit into my wallet. Anytime I needed to quickly check if something was acceptable, I pulled it out for reference. I think any first-time expecting mom would appreciate something like this!
Lately, I’ve been toting this guy around everywhere:
It contains three of my new favorite things:
an excellent water bottle, super refreshing iced tea, and chia seeds.
The bottle
First, the water bottle. I have gone through a lot of water bottles in my time, from the free squeezable sport bottles from basketball camp to the once-trendy Nalgene bottles to the hipster stainless steel bottles to cups (and bottles) with straws. They all had their pros and cons. The Nalgenes had a nice, wide mouth opening so I could gulp down water quickly… but this was also the bottle’s downfall. I know I’m not the only student who tried to sneak in a gulp while trekking across campus only to spill water all over my shirt.
I loved the look of the stainless steel bottles, but those got banged up very quickly when I threw my backpack around. Any “cool” factor they had disappeared when my bottle lolled about like an indecisive top, having been dropped multiple times. Plus, the stainless steel bottles were kind of annoying to clean. You can’t really fit a sponge in those small mouth openings, and I dunno about you, but vinegar is not part of my usual dishwashing routine, so it was annoying to have to bust that out to clean this one item. Then again, I didn’t use a dishwasher back then, so maybe I’d feel differently about this now. But still, the dents.
Yes, this title deserves an exclamation point! Here in the Bay Area today, it is a sweltering 93º… and it’s supposed to get even hotter tomorrow! Nothing says delicious, freshly churned, refreshing, homemade ICE CREAM!!!! better than this recipe! David has come through for me again!
First of all, strawberry season is HERE. Chances are, you’ve been lured in by the intoxicating fragrance of those bright red berries more than once at the market. And, when their ruby-red hues are this lovely, one pint simply will not do:
You know what I’m talking about. You know you’ve come home with a flat of 3 or 6 pints before. You rinse them off and devour the first juicy basket, and then sit there wondering, Howwwww am I gonna finish the rest of these strawberries before they go bad?
Am I right?
Sure, freezing them and using them for smoothies is a good backup plan, but that kind of defeats the joy of fresh-from-the-market strawberries. No, when Rachel brought three baskets of ripe and juicy strawberries to our home last week, I knew they were destined for bigger things. I was actually secretly hoping we wouldn’t finish the strawberries, tempting as they were, because I was already plotting to transform them into something glorious and new: strawberry sour cream ice cream.
Every time I serve this, my friends exclaim, “WOW! It tastes like real strawberries!!” Even Rachel said it, and she’s the one who brought the strawberries over. I’m not sure why they’re so surprised, because I’ve already told them it’s strawberry ice cream. Maybe it’s because they are used to the store-bought version with artificial flavors and too much sugar. Or maybe it’s because, with this perfect balance of sour cream and sugar, strawberries somehow taste more strawberry-like, with their summer-ripe sweetness bursting from the spoon onto your palate.
Whatever it is, this recipe is a serious winner. Not only does it taste like summer in your mouth, but it is also one of the easiest ice cream recipes ever: no eggs, no cooking! Just blend and churn! If that doesn’t make you throw that ice cream canister straight into the freezer, I don’t know what will.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker, this pre-summer season might just be the time to pick one up
At the end of each churning, I normally try to scrape most of my ice cream off the paddle and into my ice cream tubs for freezing… but not with this one. Instead, I find myself leaving copious amounts hanging off the paddle for the pleasure of immediate licking! It’s one of those ice creams that tastes great frozen, but possibly even better fresh off the churn, so have your (chilled) bowls and spoons ready!
If I could only choose 10 items to serve in my future bakery, these honey almond bars would definitely make the cut. They’re simple, they’re classy, and they’re a perfect buttery complement to a cup of coffee or tea!
I have recently been trying lots of recipes from Eleanor’s kitchen over at www.petite-kitchen.com. I used to be really turned off by tags like “gluten-free” or “dairy free,” and especially the dreaded “sugar-free,” but she has steadily changed my mind about all that. Her recipes are simple, nourishing, and yummy. I couldn’t ask for more from a food blog!
Last week, I tried one of her chocolate recipes. I was more than a little skeptical about substituting honey for sugar, but I was so pleased with how her banana muffin recipe had worked out for me last week that I decided to give it a shot. I was so doubtful that I’d like it that I actually halved the recipe… which is too bad. Because turns out I loved it. The chocolates were gone by the next day. I noshed on piece after piece after piece of chocolate, feeling… not guilty at all! I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, but when you look at the ingredient list, I think you’ll agree with me that it’s not such a bad thing. Better than my usual cookie or brownie binges, anyway!
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