Bunny Bark

Here is the link where you can see how to make this incredible bark:

http://www.bloomingonbainbridge.com/2013/03/easter-bunny-bark.html

'Nuff said :).

A Recipe to Share

I made this dip/dressing last night. It is deeeelicious. The recipe came from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Cannot locate a publication date, but my guess is late 50's or early 60's.

Confetti Dairy Dressing

1 cup dairy sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1/4 cup minced green onions
1/4 cup radishes
1/4 cup minced cucumber
1/4 cup minced green pepper*
1 clove garlic, minced**

Blend sour cream, mayo, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir in minced vegetables. Serve as a dressing for coleslaw, or as a dip for fresh veggies.

*I left out the green pepper because it's gross.
** I used minced garlic from a jar and it worked just fine.

Since this was a new recipe for me, I made a half batch. As I said, it's really good, especially after sitting overnight. I will be using it on slaw for tomorrow's dinner.

We had some snow today. Maybe two inches. Funny I know. And hardly worth mentioning. It didn't stay around long.

Tomorrow I see a new doctor about my shoulder. Me and my MRI images and narrative, hitting the road again. The sucky part is it's a 45 minute drive just to get to his office. My wonderful hubby is taking me.

Donkey Day and 7 Layer Bar Recipe

I will start with the recipe. That way you won't have to read about the Donkey Day if you don't want to. Here are the ingredients:

1 stick (4 oz.) butter (you can use salted or unsalted. I don't do margarine, so have no idea how it would work in this recipe.)

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (rather than buy the crumbs, I take whole graham crackers and put them in my handy dandy mini food processor. I think it's much cheaper that way.)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1-1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put your stick of butter in a 13"x9" (or close to it) dish. If your butter is cold, slice it up into several sections (it will melt quicker that way). Doesn't take the butter long to melt (or burn) so keep an eye on it. Pour the graham cracker crumbs into the dish and spread them out evenly. Then you just layer the rest of the ingredients in the order listed above. Recipe says bake at 350 for 25 minutes. But check 'em at 20 minutes, okay?

A donkey day is a day spent just wandering around, zoned out on muscle relaxers and/or pain medication. Coherent enough to know there are many things I need to do, but not coherent enough to actually sit down and do them.

So, at some point in the early morning I moved wrong and woke up in extreme pain. Managed to go back to sleep for a bit, and when I opened my eyes there was a snow dog's face not even a foot from my face. I'm sure anyone who has raised a child can relate to waking up to a face just staring at you. A human face is different though. Snow dogs bear an eerie resemblance to wolves. Then I think about the woman in France who was the recipient of the world's first face transplant. Her dog bit her face off. It makes me pause.

Whatever I did in my sleep carried over into the day, and I got nothing done. Oh, almost forgot to say....I fell down! Weebles wobble but they don't fall down, but I fell down. Tried to put both legs into one pant leg and down I went. I did manage to spread the impact out over both arms, which is a good thing.

I am already behind on orders. These days eBay buyers expect next day shipping. But my items are hand made after purchase, and the process takes 2-3 days (assuming there are no DD's in between). I am rated in four categories: communication, item as described, shipping time and shipping charges. In a three month period I am allowed 2 low marks (low being 1 star or 2 stars) in each category. Shipping time is always where I get marked down by buyers. If 3 people, out of about 500 people/sales, in a 90 day period say I was slow to ship, I lose my top rated seller status. That seems a bit excessive, but perhaps I'm over-reacting.

Time to go email some people, and apologize for shipping late....

Seven (Perfect) Layer Bars

I'm sure everyone is familiar with this recipe. My family loves these bars. But I only seem to make them at holiday time. I make mine with pecans. Probably just as well I don't make them more often, as I can still fit in an airplane seat and would like to keep it that way. Not that I fit comfortably, but I do fit.

We polished off a batch of these yummy bars over the weekend, and the oven is heating up for the next batch as I type. It's of great importance to me that my son have memories of his mother baking. Not sure why, but it is :).

Meatloaf

As I said yesterday, this is some good meatloaf. If you try it, please let me know what you think.

The Loaf

1-1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup cracker crumbs (or bread crumbs - any kinda crumbs)
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup milk (not that gross soy milk - hi Beth)

The Sauce

4 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. white vinegar
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup catsup
1/4 cup finely chopped onion

The Directions

Mix meat, onion, eggs, salt, pepper, crumbs and milk. Shape into loaf pan. This recipe originally calls for pouring all the sauce over the meat and then baking it. Personally I am not a fan of grease or fat, especially if I can see it. Even if you use super lean beef you will still have that gooey congealed stuff around the sides and top of the loaf (insert gag here). So I put about two teaspoons of the sauce on top and call it good. That way the sauce can season the loaf a bit. When it's done cooking, I drain the you know what off as best I can, and I've even been known to blot the meat on paper towels. I save most of the sauce to serve on the side. This is particularly important for those leftover meatloaf sandwiches.

So....once you have made your sauce decision, place Mr. Loaf in a 350 degree oven and cover with foil. Bake for about one hour. I check it at 45 minutes and remove the foil so the top can brown a bit.