Potato, Bacon, & Onion Foil Packet Potatoes

2 to 3 sheets of heavy-duty foil
1 packet onion soup powder
10-12 baby red potatoes, thinly sliced
12 slices of cooked and crumbled bacon
1 small onion thinly sliced and diced
1 cup cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons butter
Sour cream for serving (optional)

Spray each sheet of foil with cooking spray. Top each piece with equal portions of potatoes, bacon, 1 packet onion soup powder and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to each serving. Wrap securely.

Grill for 20 to 30 minutes. Or you can bake it in the oven, at 350° for about 35 minutes or until done. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve in foil, topped with sour cream if desired

Creamy Avocado Citrus Salad Dressing

CREAMY AVOCADO CITRUS SALAD DRESSING

This salad dressing is easy to make, healthy and delicious! 

INGREDIENTS:
- 1 ripe avocado
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼. cup honey
- 3 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ cup cilantro
- ½ small jalapeno (or your preference)
- ¼ cup water or more, to thin to preference
Salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD:
Add all to food processor or blender and whiz up about a minute or until smooth and creamy. Add a drizzle of water if you’d like it thinner.

(credit to Fit For Life)

Easy Crusty Bread Recipe

A trend that has really taken off lately on facebook is the posting of craft instructions and recipes - sort of like pinterest for facebook. In order to "save" the instructions for whatever it is that catches your eye, you have to "like" the post - hence your newsfeed becomes cluttered with lots of unnecessary posts. Needless to say, it is not a trend that pleases me. So...what is the solution when I DO see something that I want to remember? I usually  try to search for the source material, if it can be found. Oftentimes it cannot. Another solution I have tried is just copying the instructions into a word document and saving it on my computer - but I find that I forget where to look for these - or even forget TO look for them (out of sight, out of mind). So today I am totally plagiarizing this recipe from my facebook feed. If you really want to find the origins of this post, look for the facebook page/group: Sherry Kirkpatrick Patterson or Sherry's Skinny Friends.

Easy Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon Instant or Rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours. Overnight works great. Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating. Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. 

If you don't have a cast iron pot, any heavy regular pot can be used. (I have a stoneware one I plan to try). One comment on facebook suggested this: "Use a regular pan. Shape your way. Also try braiding it. You can let it rise again too. Twist cheese, oregano or basil into before it is complete."

Kyle and Lindsey's Wedding Story

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By Request Rhubarb Bars

I call this recipe "By Request" because I made these bars yesterday for an event at church, and got so many requests for the recipe that I knew I had to write about it.  I've been spending a fair amount of time on Pinterest lately, and recently I searched for a rhubarb bar recipe without finding one I liked, so I decided to  adapt a recipe that I got from my sister which called for a can of fruit cocktail. Since I have a great fondness for all things rhubarb, and access to a very healthy rhubarb patch, I decided to try this substitution, and by all accounts, it was quite successful!

 Step 1: pick yourself about 15-20 stalks of fresh, tender rhubarb and chop into small pieces. Add about 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (more or less to taste) and set aside in the refrigerator (I left mine overnight) until a nice sugary syrup develops.













Since I was getting up early (6:00 AM) to make these before a morning event at church, I found a hot cup of coffee an essential part of the process. Drink the coffee (or whatever your beverage of choice is) - don't add it to the bars!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 1/2 C. chopped rhubarb (include some of the sugar syrup - enough to "fill in the gaps" of your measuring cup)
2 1/2 C. flour (I used unbleached all-purpose, I think whole wheat or a combination of flours would be good too)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Beat eggs and sugar together until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Batter will be thick.

Spread into a prepared (greased and floured) baking pan. If you use a 9x13 the bars will be thicker and more cake-like. My baking pan is slightly larger than that. (10 x 15?)

Bake at 350 degrees until surface is lightly browned. A 9x13 pan will take approximately 25 -30 minutes. For my larger pan, I baked the bars for 16-19 minutes. If going for a brownie-like consistency, it is preferable to slightly undercook these. If going for a cake-like consistency, cooking a little longer is preferred.

While the bars are baking, prepare a glaze using:

3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. (1 stick) butter
1/4 C. evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla











Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Note: I didn't have evaporated milk so I used fresh whole milk and it worked just fine.

Here are the bars after baking. I allowed them to cool a little bit as well before pouring on the glaze. When glaze and bars are both sufficiently cooled (they can both still be warm - just not hot off of or out of the stove/oven), pour the glaze onto the bars and spread until evenly covered.

Cut bars, serve and enjoy!  They are very moist and yummy. Another variation I would like to try would be to use a lemon-butter sauce poured over the bars (similar to bread pudding).  I would probably make the bars in the 9x13 pan (more dessert-like) and pour the sauce on the individual pieces just before serving.  Here is a recipe for lemon butter sauce.  Another variation I want to try it to substitute this for the sugar.  I think many fruits could be used in place of the fruit cocktail or rhubarb - I can see trying this with raspberries and blueberries, possibly apples (with the addition of some cinnamon), even peaches. For sweet fruits I might add a little lemon juice for added tartness.





All experimenting aside, the original recipe, using the can of fruit cocktail, is also quite delish, and the beauty of it is you almost always have all of the ingredients needed for this tasty treat on hand in your pantry!

Stained Glass

A study in stained glass.

Optimism is relevant in any century.

Last night was opening night of our local High School fall musical. This year they are doing "Annie", which I find particularly pertinent (in a funny sort of way) in light of the current economic and political climate. The play is set in 1933 -- in the midst of an economic depression so pervasive that it came to be known as "The Great Depression". Franklin Delano Roosevelt was fairly new to the office of President -- a democrat -- following on the heels of republican Herbert Hoover. Sort of like Barack Obama's succession of George W. Bush. The theme of the play, in my opinion, is OPTIMISM. I think it is a lesson we can all take to heart today. I'm not sure that when the directors chose this play last spring, they realized how relevant a play set in the 1930's would be. I am particularly proud of my two sons, Mark and Grant, for the roles they portray in the play. The scene I have posted is one that vividly depicts how an optimistic attitude can change everything. Naturally, I am exceptionally proud of this scene because Grant plays the part of FDR (my lifelong republican Grandmother would turn over in her grave if she saw her great-grandson portraying a DEMOCRAT!) She did credit Roosevelt for "one good thing", however -- he gave our country social security, which provided comfortably for her in her later years. (She lived to be 105 years, 11 months old!)

You don't see Mark in this scene, but he plays the head butler in Warbuck's household. It could have been a ho-hum role, but he brought it to life in a novel way, and gave the character a memorable personality. Following are some pictures I took during rehearsals and the final dress rehearsal (presented as a public performance for families of the cast and school volunteers). If you happen to live in or near Cambridge, try to get a ticket to see this excellent production! (Okay -- I don't know why, but the icon that I usually click on to let me upload pictures isn't working right now -- maybe there will be pictures later...sorry).

In lieu of posting the photos in this blog, here is a link to another site where they are posted. Click on the first photo in the album and you should be able to see them all by selecting "next" in the upper righthand corner.)

(You can also cut and paste this address -- it should take you to the same address as the above link -- I still haven't mastered all of the blogger protocols.)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=180146&l=7c683&id=706845173