I know I usually post a photo to entice you….but I am going to leave you in suspense (or you can scroll down–but you shouldn’t -it will ruin it for you!!)

Lemon Berry Bars

Preheat 350    Grease a 9 inch square pan

For crust

Beat 1 cup softened butter with 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, 1 T ice water, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Beat until mixture forms a ball. Put in fridge for 10 minutes

Bake crust until golden and firm about 15 mins  Let cool completely  Reduce the oven temp to 325

Spread 3/4 cup of jam evenly over crust

In a bowl whisk together 6 lg eggs, 2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup lemon juice, 3/4 teaspoon baking powder  Pour over crust. Bake 20-25 mins   Let cool completely

First let me say I a a genius! I was out of powdered sugar so I googled and made my own!! sugar and cornstarch in the mixer = powder sugar!!

And now for the photo…………………………..

I am also a genius because I left it on the stove and my dogs ate it. I bet it was good.

But this is what we are having for dinner AGAIN tonight–too hot to cook and no time for dinner prep once again!!

Hummus and Tabouli  Pita Sandwiches

I usually make my own hummus and tabouli but sometimes I buy it!

I cut up tomatoes, onions and pickles (yes lots of pickles make this soooo tasty!!) and put out sprouts and lettuce. These are usually big and messy and really drippy by the end so we have started wrapping them in foil (and running out the door to eat them in the yard) so it’s almost like we have take out from The Pita Hut!

I would love to hear others no cook, low cook, easy summertime dinner ideas!!

April 26 is National Pretzel Day—who knew there was such a holiday?!

So in honor of National Pretzel Day here is a blast from the past (May 2008!)

Homemade Soft Pretzels

We followed a recipe that promised Aunt Annie’s Pretzels-like from the mall.  They weren’t exactly Aunt Annie’s but not too bad either.  I used white whole wheat flour for ours-white flour definitely would have been better.  Ours were really heavy.  And as far s the amount this recipe makes-unless you are feeding an army cut this recipe in half as this makes at least a dozen pretzels and they don’t save well.

Aunt Annie’s Soft Pretzel Recipe

In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 tsp live active yeast with 1 1/2 cups 110 degree water, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar and dash of salt.  Let sit 5 minutes

Add 4 cups flour mix well and knead for 5 minutes

Put in greased bowl and cover with damp towel and let sit 1 hour in a warm place.

Divide into 8 to 12 pieces -we divided into 16 pieces-and they were still pretty thick.

Roll into rope and shape , dip into 1/4 cup warm water that has 1 tablespoon baking soda mixed in.

Bake at 500 degrees for 8 minutes

Brush liberally with melted butter and sprinkle with kosher salt or 2 tablespoons mixed with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or parmesan cheese and garlic salt and serve with marinara sauce.

Mmmmmmmm!

Molly wanted a Hamburger Cake for her birthday. We trolled around the Internet and looked at lots of photos and ideas. This is what we came up with. It might look like something difficult but let me be the first to tell you-I am not much of a baker and if I can put this together anyone can! I don’t have any photos of the cake in progress.

I bought 2 cake mixes-1 yellow and one chocolate. I made the chocolate in a 8×8 brownie pan-square patty like Wendy’s burgers!

I made 2— 8 inch rounds out of the yellow cake but filled one with more of the batter (bottom bun smaller-top bun larger.)

After they cooled I trimmed the patty to make it nice and flat as well as trimming the bottom bun. Then I took the extra chocolate cake and added it to the top of the top yellow cake bun to make it more dome like. Make sense?

I bought 3 cans of frosting 1 chocolate and 2 white

We took some frosting out  and divided it into 3 bowls for condiments and added food coloring –red for ketchup, green for lettuce and yellow for mustard. You don’t need much. After you reach the desired color put each into a plastic bag and squeeze down to one bottom corner. set aside.

Take more white frosting into a bowl and add color to look like American cheese—use this to frost graham crackers to look like cheese slices on the burger.

Take the other can of white frosting and make it bun colored-we added a bit of the chocolate frosting for some color plus some food coloring.

Now to put it together

bottom bun cake first with burger patty (chocolate cake) next. Frost the chocolate cake with the chocolate frosting-making the edges look burgery!

 To that we put the graham crackers already frosted on the edges of the burger cake-hanging over a bit. We didn’t go all the way into the middle of the burger with these I wanted it to stay stable and thought this might make it tippy and too sweet. We did use more of the cheese frosting between the graham crackers and on the edges to look like melting cheese.

Then top with top bun. Use the bun frosting to glue the dome shape together. Try to smooth the frosting out as much as possible. Now get your condiment frosting’s and cut a tiny bit off the corner (a little larger for lettuce) and pipe lettuce around the bottom edge and squeeze squiggly ketchup and mustard on the cheese frosting.

We added a few slivered almonds on the top for seseme seeds.

This really wasn’t too hard. And it was surprisingly good. I thought it was going to be way too sweet-but it wasn’t. It was a little hard to cut but no one seemed to mind!

OOps I see it’s been a week since I last posted. We have been busy skiing, cooking and eating and trying out some new homeschool classes. I have been spending way too much time in front of the computer changing email addresses and joining a new blog group (more on that soon).  I hope to post more projects in the coming weeks.

We have been eating this for breakfast and dessert this week. It tastes like a home baked treat but really it is healthy enough to enjoy any time of the day. Or even multiple times!

Apple Crumble

You will need a 9×13 pan and about 10 apples

In a food processor puree 1/2 cup of raisins (I used 1/2 dates and 1/2 raisins), 2 lbs apples (about 10 small apples) with skin on, 1 tsp cinnamon

Line the pan with this mixture

For the crumble process 4 oz almonds, 5 oz pecans, 4oz oat groats soaked 8 to 12 hrs and 2-3 oz honey or agave. Add more dry oats if this is too wet.

Crumble over top of apples.

For the banana ice cream break up 4 frozen bananas into the food processor and blend until they reach a creamy consistency. This will take a while so be patient.

We added 1/2 a scraped pod of vanilla beans and a few squares of dark chocolate for chocoalte chip ice cream. Even my picky, junk food loving, husband like this ice cream!

I have seen many different additions to this ice cream–chia seeds, nuts, fruit–frozen or dried, carob powder or almond butter. I think next time I will add some mint leaves to make a mint chocolate chip.

This ice cream is really smooth and creamy and the banana flavor is not overwhelming at all.

Looking for a healthy breakfast cereal? Looking for a handmade gift? Homemade granola fits both bills! Store bought granola can be expensive and often unhealthy, but making a large batch at home can save you some money as well as allowing you to customize the ingredients.

We made two different granola recipes in the past few weeks. Both are really good and when put in a pretty jar make a great holiday gift.

The first recipe is taken from a new favorite cook book of mine, FEEDING THE WHOLE FAMILY

MAPLE BUTTER NUT GRANOLA

Makes 8 cups

Pre-heat 325

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup chopped almonds

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup maple syrup

1 Tablespoon nut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients

In a small pan melt buter, add maple syrup, and nut butter and stir to blend. Remove from heat and add extracts

Slowly pour wet over dry ingredients.  Fold and evenly coat dry ingredients

Spread on cookie sheet or shallow pan and bake until dry and golden-45 to 60 minutes, turning every 15 to 20 minutes so that it toasts evenly.

I added some of this to a bowl of pomegranate seeds and literally thought I had died and gone to heaven!!! No milk necessary.

The next day I added dry coconut and a banana to my bowl of granola/pomegranate. Equally delicious!

The kids had theirs parfait style. (In a tall glass, layered with frozen fruit and almond or coconut milk)

The second recipe is from the files of Abby, who swears she doesn’t know where she got this recipe.

MIX AND MATCH APPLESAUCE GRANOLA

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

2 cups puffed rice cereal

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

pinch ground cardamom (don’t skip this!!)

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup plain applesauce

1/4 cup maple syrup or honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

up to 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds…..)

up to 1 cup chopped dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, apricots, cherries, blueberries, raspberries…….)

Pre-heat 325 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper (or two smaller ones)

In a large bowl combine oats, cereal and spices. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, applesauce, maple syrup, and vanilla.

Pour wet over dry, adding nuts and stir to combine.

Spread on baking sheet in an even layer

Bake 30 minutes, turning over and baking 15 more minutes or until golden brown

This recipe was great for snacking. It was more clumpy than the first recipe. The cardamom really gives this one a warm taste.

You can find some cute glass containers at the grocery or the thrift store. Add a pretty label with the recipe and you have a wonderful handmade inexpensive gift that anyone would love to receive!

Alert–if you are looking for a healthy or raw recipe-look somewhere else this week!

If you are looking for a special occasion cake or need something impressive( or just want to go into a diabetic coma)…look no further!!

I recently found out about Apartment Therapy. What??? How did I not know about this site??!! It is awesome and could keep me glued to  my computer screen ALL day! What else is out there you are not telling me about???

Anyways, it was while going through each and every back post of Apartment Therapy that  I found this Epic Rainbow Cake. As soon as I saw it I knew we had to attempt it! So I borrowed 6 cake pans from my Mom and my neighbor Abby

and set to work.  I followed Whisk Kid’s cake recipe but could have bought boxed cake-it’s not like we were baking for health here! Note-these cakes are very thin so don’t be intimidated by a 4 foot high cake-it wasn’t that big. My family likened the taste of the cake to sugar cookies, which was really good I might add.  It was really 1 or 2 cake batter recipes divided between six pans.

The cake recipe I used is as follows

2 sticks butter, room temp
2 1/3 c sugar
5 egg whites, room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 c flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 1/2 c milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line how ever many 9” cake pans you have.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls—I used a large soup ladle, It was about 2 and a half scoops per bowl. Then add the food coloring and mix WELL.

Pour into cake pans and bake 15 minutes-or more or less according to your oven.

I tripled a buttercream frosting recipe. It made a ton of frosting but we ended up using every bit of it. This cake was super sweet and ends up being like a slab on a plate because it is so heavy with frosting. You could cut down on the amount of frosting if you choose-it is super sweet. Also-I might add this cake tastes better chilled.

This recipe frosts two 9 inch cakes–I tripled–my mixer was full of frosting(I was in heaven)!

1/2 cup of butter

3 1/2 cups powder sugar

4 to 5 Tablespoons of liquid—milk, creamer, water   I used Snowville Creamery 1/2 and 1/2

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Molly did a bit of decorating

And we all did some eating!!!

Note-my cake looks much less professional than Whisk Kids-but sure did taste good!!!

This was a fun and fairly simple recipe to make and because it uses rapid rise yeast, they don’t take hours to prepare. And the results were delicious!!!

I suppose these aren’t “real” bagels because we didn’ t boil them-but the recipe (on tattered piece of paper from unknown origin) calls these bagels. So……….

Pumpkin Bagels

4 1/4 to 4 3/8 cups all purpose flour, divided

1 package quick rise all natural active dry yeast

1 cup warm water (120-130 degrees)

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Combine 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. Add the warm water, pumpkin, sugar and salt.

Beat with a mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Using a spoon stir in as of the remaining flour as you can.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic-about 5 minutes.

Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Grease a cookie sheet and set aside ( or use parchment paper)

Divide the dough into 10 portions.

Real life math!

Shape each portion into a smooth ball.

Poke a hole into the center of each ball and pull to make a 2 inch hole.

Place on prepared cookie sheet. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. Pre heat oven to 375

Bake for 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

While you are waiting for your bagels to cook you can make your maple butter and honey butter.

For the maple butter just combine maple syrup to taste with softened butter in your mixer using whisk attachment. Whip it up  and store in the fridge so that it doesn’t separate-if it does just stir it up again. (maybe 3/4 stick of butter to 1/4 to 1/2 cup maple syrup) again more or less to taste.

For the honey butter we mixed about 3/4 stick of butter with 1/4 to 1/2 cup honey, a few drops of vanilla, and a shake of cinnamon in the mixer. More or less to taste.

When your bagels are finished baking-smear lots of these sweet, creamy butters on your warm bagels and enjoy!!!

The recipe made 10 bagels…enough for us to have homemade pumpkin bagels and maple and honey butter again this morning!!