Recital Bars

Beatrice had her recital yesterday evening and I was to take a sweet treat to share afterwards. Not really in the mood for baking once I remembered my responsibilities yesterday afternoon I thought of this recipe only because of the appropriateness of the name Recital Bars. They are also very quick and simple to make making them a perfect treat for more than just when you are going to a recital.

I haven't shared a recipe here for awhile so I thought I would give this one to you. I got the recipe out of our church cookbook. It was submitted by someone who plays music for her profession so I suppose she had her share of recitals over the years.

Recital Bars

These are pretty sweet, it wouldn't hurt to cut the sugar down a bit. You can't too much or they won't stick correctly though.

Melt together:

1 cup butter

1cup sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

Stir in :

4 cups oatmeal

Pat in bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan that is greased, bake for 12 minutes at 350*. Allow to cool and set for a bit.

Melt together: 

6 ounces chocolate chips. (I used more than this, this time)

2/3 c. peanut butter (I never measure this, too messy :)

Spread over oatmeal base.

Allow to set for a bit and cut into small squares. Serve whenever you are ready for them. 

I also have a recipe for funeral bars so someday if I need them I might share that recipe with you, too. Fun names.

Luckily Bea performed yesterday evening because while she was brushing her teeth last night she rested her hand in the door jam of the boys room and got her fingers rather mushed. They are working fine today but we did have our worries about them for a bit.

Ta ta,

~Anna

Tea-Infused Lentil Soup

I am not really sure why I ever tried this recipe but this very well may be one of the most requested, by my children, meals I make. Certainly it is possible that my eldest daughter requests it the most.

It came in an email newsletter I used to receive called KIWIscoop. I don't have any idea where it came from but it was mostly healthy recipes and fun quick tips for family fun and stuff to do so I would browse through it when it came to my box. It is really a simple and quick meal. Enjoy!

Tea-infused Lentil Soup

2 tea bags Jasmine tea

1 cup lentils (any type will do, it calls for red and I use what ever color those are in the picture above)

1/4 cup rice

2 large yellow onions (cut into thin strips) {I almost always use white onions but red, green, or yellow are all tasty here} [I use just one unless they are small then I will use two]

1 Tablespoon oil -olive is nice

1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon, or more cumin

1 vegetable, chicken or beef bouillon cube

1/3 cup parsley

5-6 cups water- divided

Fresh bread of some sort to serve on the side.

Directions:

1. Steep tea in 1-2 cups boiling water

2. Boil 3 cups water in a deep soup pot, add lentils and rice. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. {or 2.} In a frying pan saute onions in oil until golden and tender. Add cumin and salt and quickly fry them. { I do this in the pan before I boil the water and leave them in to cook some more with the lentils and rice}

Stir in bouillon and 2 cups more of water. Make sure bouillon is stirred in and dissolved. Return to a boil.

4. Just before serving stir in parsley and tea. Add meatballs if desired (I never do).

They say preparation time is 45 minutes and it will serve 4.

Please try this. It is such a good simple meal to enjoy. And when you are done you can enjoy a good game of chess, maybe if you have a playmate.

~Anna

I am linking this post to Tasty Tuesday's at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Our Week, so far

This week we have had sweet, surprise visitors around our place. At three months this one is not afraid of strangers and is perfectly happy to give lots of sweet smiles.

Margaret can't take enough pictures of Jaten.

We got to take our first bike ride of the year on Wednesday to play at the park. It was down right hot out on March 31st! Such pleasant weather to be out and about! I made gluten/dairy free rumpledoodles for snacks this week. They turned out quite good although a bit dryer than they would normally be. I used rice and corn for the flour.

The lizard liked seeing the warm sunshine, just like us.

This morning I sent my eldest and Nic off on a ride with Travis at 3:30 am to sneak a ride. I expect them home in a couple hours. I hope they have made fun new memories. It ended up they needed to sit in the car quite awhile waiting for things to get organised in the office so I am hopeful they didn't have too much down time, but with their active imaginations it was probably just fine!

Talk to you later,

~Anna

Rice Pancakes from Kenya

If you are looking for a gluten free recipe this is a pretty good one. We weren't needing gluten free but when we study a country we try to find recipes from there and this one is from Kenya. I didn't follow the recipe perfectly but I am sure it was fairly authentic:) This recipe came from the book, Cooking the African Way. One thing I was surprised about as we found recipe's for this study they often used more than twice the amount of oil that I would for a similar dish. It wasn't just this book either, although we mainly just tried this books recipes. They turned out a very pretty pancake :) Here is the recipe: 1 Tablespoon yeast 1 cup warm water 1 cup sugar (decreased it by just over half and they were still quite sweet) 2 3/4 cups rice flour 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon 1/4 cup canned coconut milk (I used whole milk, since I didn't have this. I also increased this to make up for the decrease in oil ) 1/2 cup vegetable oil ( used 1/4 cup or less of canola) 1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, sugar, cardamon and a dash of salt. Add warm water, oil and coconut milk and mix well. It should be the consistency of pancake batter. If you need more water add just a little at a time, until batter runs slowly from the spoon. 2. Cover bowl with a towel and set in a warm place for about an hour or until mixture nearly doubles in size. 3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium high heat for 1 minute. 4. Pour 1/2 cup of batter into pan and spread with a spoon to form a pancake the size of a saucer. Cover pan and cook for about 1-2 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. Flip over with spatula and cook on the other side another minute or until golden brown. Repeat with remaining batter adding more oil to pan as necessary. 5. Serve hot with a bit of jam. This makes about 10 pancakes. Happy frying, ~Anna