Granola Bars

Granola bars remind me camp and camp reminds me of summer and summer reminds me of sunscreen and Slurpees. Wow, I am really digressing. But, for some reason eating a granola bar brings me back to being a little one, playing outside until the street lights come on, and just having fun!

    So, I thought I would mix up a quick batch (little fingers approved) fun and easy granola bars.

I had a ton of dried fruit and added some almonds, toasted oats and coconut.

Bound together with some honey and vanilla. Toasted in the oven until golden!

Here comes the fun, sun and some crumbs! 

Plum Rugelach

Life lessons via Rugelach...first off... how the heck to you say or spell this damn thing. Really how do you?

Second, and more technical question, use a food processor or kitchen aid to make the darn "flaky crust."

I choose the food processor as it was already on my counter top.

Third, next time make sure you follow the directions (dummy) and mix the darn dough to the descriptions that you should...."shaggy and flaky."I bilked and thought that I did this, but not really.

Then make sure you don't over do it with the filling. This is a lesson that should be carried into life. Like don't over fill your dessert plate, or your belly or your wine glass....guilty on all fronts. 

But most importantly enjoy...enjoy and have fun. My little one enjoyed these treats (as imperfect as they were) and so did I.  Lessons learned from the Rugelach from my life you to yours. Happy 2011!

Jingle Berries!!

The holidays came and went and alas I did do some baking but no blogging.... well maybe next year.  Oh  holly heck 2011 is here and all I want to do is stay away from anything that says, "first cream the butter and sugar together." So here are two photos of a lovely fruit salad that we enjoyed on New Years morning. With the help of Blog O Food we had a lovely brunch filled with good friends, bubbly and of course popovers! 

My addition was a simple fruit salad with berries and pears and of course some mint. You can't ring in the New Year without mint.... and great friends to share it with. Hope you all have a happy and healthy new year. Lots of love (and mint) to all!

Do try the popovers they were lovely. Butter and flour posts to follow... you can bet on that!