Sesame Crunch Candy

Sesame Crunch Candy (I don't know if that is the official name) is one of my favorites. 

In times past, I have had to locate a good health foods store in order to enjoy this treat. Every once in a while, I have been delighted to discover it in a specialty candy shop. 

Then I stumbled on this recipe at Spoonful.com: 

• 1 cup sesame seeds (about 6 ounces)
• 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons honey
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• 1. Generously coat two large sheets of waxed paper with cooking spray. In a medium skillet, toast the sesame seeds over medium-low heat, stirring often, until they're fragrant and golden, 5 to 7 minutes.
     
     
  2. 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar and honey. Cook over low heat, stirring often, until the sugar is melted and the mixture is thick, about 5 minutes (because melted sugar can get quite hot, this is a step best left to parents). Add the sesame seeds to the sugar and stir well with a wooden spoon.
  3. Place one sheet of the waxed paper on a work surface, greased-side up. Scrape the mixture onto the paper and top it with the remaining sheet of waxed paper, greased-side down. Using a rolling pin, roll the mixture into a square about 1/4 inch thick (a great job for kids).
  4. Remove the top sheet of paper and cut the candy into 1-inch squares with a sharp knife. Let the candy cool completely. Break apart the pieces and store them in an airtight container at room temperature until you're ready to package them. Makes about twenty-four 1-inch squares.

How easy, right? 

So I tried it. I snuck in one packet of Flax seed, too. 

It was as easy as it seemed it would be and as tasty too. It didn't last very long. 

SEED BOMBS

There are various ways to make seed bombs. We chose the method that used materials we already had on hand. It was one of the cleaner options as well. 

Start by choosing seeds that grow well in your area. A quick glance at 'native' plants may be helpful. 

Put scrunch tissue in a large bowl - this scrunchy filler can often be found in the gift wrap section of your local Dollar Tree (and possibly lingering in the bottom of any recently received gift bags) If you have a paper shredder, you could recycle the collected shreds or make your own shreds using colored paper.   

(gotta make time for BigSib Photo breaks)

Toddler helper optional but highly encouraged. 

Pour water into the scrunchy paper. You may wish to add layers of color separately to prevent dyes from blending. 

Mush the paper together until it will hold shape, then drain excess water: 

Mix in seeds: 

Roll paper to form jawbreaker sized bombs (or larger if desired) Paper can also be pressed into cookie cutters to form other shapes. 

This part is not unlike the process for home made paper. Once a shape is formed, squeeze any remaining water and place on a cookie sheet to dry. This may take a day or longer. 

As you might be able to see, by the time we returned to this project, the 'bombs' had already begun sprouting. 

All that remained was to toss them into abandoned lots or areas that needed a touch of life. To me, it was the trickiest step. For all the positives associated with planting flowers and sprucing up unsightly plots, tossing the bombs from my car window into scrubby areas,  without the benefit of explaining, "We are not littering!" felt deviant. 

We Made A Cat

We made a cat! 

No, not THAT cat~ another cat. 

A paper mache cat. 

Look, if you ever want to work on control issues- do paper mache with a toddler. Whether you need to work on not having to be in control or operating from a place of more self control, getting creative with a tot is sure to help...at least confirm the issues are present.

What follows is a pictorial journey from two balloons, some newspaper and flour paste to a new paper friend that follows us around everywhere... except the pool... I had to put my foot down on that :)

Pasting strips of newspaper around balloons. 

DRYING

No one has to teach them these things... she just knew how to paint herself... and she enjoyed it. We were killing time with creativity while waiting for the paste to dry...she was SUPPOSED to be painting paper. 

A cat begins to take shape... 

...and a mess.

It's always a pink cat she wants... 

Staying busy with the 'squirt paints' while Mom works on the smaller details. 

It was late when I left the cat to dry. Rye had already turned in...

Rye meets her new friend first thing the next morning... and wants it to go swimming with her. She's got a thing or two to learn about cats.

She put her shoes on all by herself... can you tell?

A hair bow and collar of ribbon for holding a jingly bell, our project is complete. She wants to know:

"CAN WE MAKE A DOG, TOO?!"

Frozen Banana Whip

The first time we tried this, we only had a blender handy and the results did not resemble all the pins you see of this recipe on Pinterest and such places.

Since that time, I finally replaced my old food processor. So we gave the recipe another go.

Ingredients:

Bananas~ sliced into 'medallions'

>>For ease of use, we lined plates with the banana slices and covered them with wax paper. This allowed for stacking the plates due to limited space in the freezer. <<

Once bananas are frozen, pulse in a food processor until creamy. We neglected to make this recipe the day we intended, so the bananas were frozen pretty solid. It took a little extra scraping down the sides of the processor for everything to mesh together.

Serve immediately. Delaying too long will not lead to melting as with ice cream, but it will lead to more of a mashed banana treat than a frozen one.

Personally, I am a fan of banana ice cream. When I used to work at an ice cream scooping place, my favorite thing was to crush Reese Cups into a scoop of banana. As children, we used to get frozen, chocolate covered bananas a lot. So, we topped our 'sundae' with a mix of those flavors- peanut butter and chocolate.

Riley insisted on sprinkles of course.

If you are a banana split fan, this whip may be equally as tasty with strawberry or pineapple topping- or both!

Make-Shift Griddle (Featuring MacGyver Clips)

One challenge I often face  is serving everyone's meal at the same time; without having the first half served cold.  Especially meals cooked in batches, like burgers or pancakes. Often times, eating a 'batch style meal' works a lot like singing in rounds... as the first group reaches the mid-point of their meal, the second group begins to eat, as the first group reaches takes their last bite,  the third group is beginning and the second group has reached mid-point... everyone finishes on whatever course they find themselves whenever I run out of ingredients... technically, all together.  

By "group" I mean, quite simply, individual.

I have a griddle that makes cooking for many a little easier. Thanks to our most recent move (into a furnished place), it was banished to storage almost a year ago... for (what feels like) forever. 

When life puts your stuff in storage- Make Lemonade!
Yeah, I mixed my metaphors. So, what?

Ice that lemonade and sip it as you improvise. 

Then pat your MacGyver self on the back.  

The point of this post is to tell you that I used a cookie sheet as a make shift griddle for our pancakes one recent morning. I also learned that it is a popular improvisation in other countries.
And now you know, too!

We did not eat- or sing- in rounds. But we all enjoyed warm pancakes around the table together. 

I did hum the MacGyver theme a little... over lemonade and maple syrup. 

(that's a lie, we were out of maple syrup, so we "MacGyvered"that too- using frozen strawberries & sugar ) 

For my particular oven, the Baking-Sheet-As-Griddle method worked best with the burners turned to High. You may need to experiment with a smaller portion of batter until you get the heat right for your own preferences/cooking speed. 

* Bonus MacGyver Clip~ in which Mac goes to the supermarket, cooks up some tear gas in aisle 6 and teams up with Granny to defeat the 'bad guys'

Browned Butter Brownie Bullet Bites (B5 Shots)

As I was looking for a quick, easy recipe for Sweet Potato Bread using baby food sweet potatoes, I came across this recipe. Now, between trying several recipes on this one blog and the usual course of meals in the past week,  I am down to one last half stick of butter (down from 10), but it has definitely been worth it. 

The recipe I used:

BROWNED BUTTER TOFFEE BROWNIE BULLET BITES

Makes 36 bites 

•  1 2/3 cups sugar 
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter 
• 1/4 cup water 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
•  1 1/3 cups flour 
• 3/4 cups cocoa powder 
• 1 cup toffee bits 

I had no toffee bits, so we had brownie bites... decadent "you-only-need-one-every-once-in-a-while" brownie bites.

Again, I substituted half the sugar with brown. 

Photos of the steps: 

(Yes, I could have taken more photos, but I was too busy minding the butter- it is pure heaven when browned, not so much when burnt...in fact, burnt butter is quite sad...) 

That one missing brownie is the "hot-out-of-the-oven-quality-control" bite. 

Jiffy Chips

We had salsa, and I thought we had chips, so I had begun to anticipate the part they would play in our mid-day snack.  When I got to the pantry, I discovered what we really had was a bag of crumbs. Ever resourceful, my crew will hold on to a package until they have licked it clean...

The salsa sat forlornly in a bowl beside sour cream and our improvised "Hummus-ish"

What to do? What to do? 

Thankfully, I had purchased the family size pack of tortillas for our menu's "Taco Night" (which is where the remaining salsa and sour cream originated) 

If you ever run out of chips, but have tortillas... it couldn't be easier. 

(and if you don't have tortillas, but you do have flour... there's hope yet.)

JIFFY CHIPS

• Using a pizza cutter, slice tortillas into strips/triangles/abstract art shapes.
•  Spritz with oil... I keep olive oil in a mister, so I used that. 
• Sprinkle with salt & seasoning. (I used dill) 
• Bake appx 10 minutes @ 350 Degrees.
• Polish off that salsa or whip up some Hummus-ish or somethin'                                                                                     

Sweet Potato Bread

The Big Kids had a science project requiring 5 Baby Food Jars (for planting seeds in various conditions). I bought baby food that I knew I could incorporate into our meals and snacking (Bananas make a nice stir in for yogurt, etc) I chose sweet potatoes with a mind towards making bread. This is the recipe I grabbed quick-like off the internet to follow: 

SWEET POTATO BREAD 

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 cups sweet potato puree
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla

Bake @ 350 Degrees for 60-75 minutes or until "Clean Toothpick Prick" 

I made two substitutions. I halved the sugar between brown & white, using 1/2 c of each. And I used coconut oil in place of canola (because I didn't have canola, I did have coconut) 

Pictures of the process: 

Whatever I bake, I always try to pour/spread a little butter on top while warm.

I would normally share the first loaf and keep the second, but most of our neighbors were away when I made this, so we had two loaves to take us through the week. 

This afforded me the luxury of two toasted slices with my coffee every morning until we ran out. 

Sleepy Cat~ A Tiny Friend

Sleepy Cat (needs a nap)

 Start with a clean candy tin. We used a miniature one. 

 The pillow and blanket are made from ribbon. 

 Sleepy Cat is two pieces of felt, hand stitched together; wide awake wiggly eyes on one side, snoozy sleeping eyes on the other.

 Snoozer is Sleepy Cat's teddy-mouse. Smaller felt scraps stitched together, again with differing eyes to denote asleep/alertness.

 A small story book and a ball of yarn for playtime. 

All put together...

 ...and portable...