New Recipe - Weetbix Slice

I found a new recipe and it is quite good. Just thought I would share.

Before you ask, Weetbix is a popular cereal here. It is whole wheat, flaked (rather thinly) and then pressed into a biscuit. (Sort of the idea behind shredded wheat but that is stringy and not small thin flakes. I am not sure if Shredded wheat would work but a thin light wheat flake would do).

5 Biscuits Weetbix, Crushed. (that is about 75g or looked like roughly 2 cups). The recipe I got, called for 4 biscuits but it was too much liquid and did not set properly.

1 cup of Oats

1 cup of Desiccated Coconut (take shredded coconut, toast it in a low oven for 5-10 min and crush it (or food processor it) finly)

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

250 Gms of Butter or Margarine, melted (That is just a bit more than two cubes or a whole cup)

1 tbls (or 2) of Honey or Golden Syrup

350 gms of Chocolate Chips

Mix first four ingredients until evenly combined. Toss in chocolate. Add syrup/honey to butter, and combine. It should be crumbly.

Press into a Jelly roll pan (1 in x 10in x 15 in) that is lined with baking paper (aids in containing mess and getting bars out of pan). Bake at 175 degrees C for 10 min (should be bubbly).

When it is fresh out of the oven, cut it into pieces but let cool in pan. It will be a combo of crunchy/chewy goodness.

You could also take the chocolate and melt it and spread it on top once it is cool or you could sub the chocolate for sultanas (rasins).

Really fab.

Black Flipflops

On Friday we went to Dinner at the RSL (returned Service members league Club) where they have this fabulous Chinese Malaysian Restaurant. Since I had missed my shower that day, I decided to shower before we went and I put on makeup. I took one look at me and finally understood why this one friend I see all the time, every time she see me, she says, you look exhausted. What a difference it made. Well I went to put on shoes and realize that I always put on my go to black flipflops. In the car ride over, I remembered life before kids where makeup was a regular occurance and how I would always reach for my go to pair of low black heels. Well now I have graduated to flipflops. How weird is that?

We got the new oven and I am baking up a storm. Meatloaf, dinner rolls, anything and everything I can, goes in the oven. And it works oh so well. Amazing how I have limped along for so long and how I missed it.

The boys are teething which is no fun for anyone but it really means something to me. I remember right after they were born and my in-laws left, and Erik's colic started and I thought in my lowly depressed state, how will I ever make it? Well we did. And teething just means that one day they will eat and drink at the table like the rest of us. A thought I could never imagine but soon shall see.

Cool Quote

 I saw a cool quote the other day.

 The Past is a big Stick.  Don't beat yourself with it.

 I saw that and thought, you know, that really just says it.   I have been thinking a lot of the past lately, just sentimental I guess, and whenever I think about it, I always come down to one thing. The past is just that, the past.  I can not change it, and chances are, no one wants to hear the excuses I make for the not so bright and shining moments.  So why hold on to all that.  Just move forward. I find that I have said that alot over the years.  Just move forward. 

The boys will be 7 mos soon and everyday, it seems like we are fitting together more as a family.  I am not sure if it was because we had Helen and then the boys came soon after but when we first brought the boys home, it felt like we were disjointed.  Like maybe we were doing our own thing just trying to make it through the first couple of months.  And now, it feels like everyone is starting to feel a place here.  I am sure some people feel that in their families straight away, but here, it just felt like...everything is starting to click. (Now that I have said that, I am sure everyone will throw me for a loop) but here it is.  Today felt like a pretty good day.  The morning was a little rough but like I said, move forward.  Forget the bad, keep the good, and look forward to tomorrow.  I wonder what adventure we will have tomorrow.

Yeast and other junk

Today I decided not to be afraid of the yeast and try again to make something with it.  I had some rolls that turned out horrible and I decided I was too afraid to try again but after a little pep talk from my cousins, I decded I could do it.  I decided to try homemade pizza dough.  So far so good. But we shall see (waiting for it to rise..)

Right now all the kids are in bed (but that will not last soon, the boys are due to wake up at any time) and it is really quiet in the house.  In fact all I can hear is the click clack of my keyboard and I love it.  I used to hate it when it was quiet.  Anytime it was, I would switch on the tv or some music, just so it was not quiet.  I guess that is the change when you have kids.  You always savor what you don't have a lot of. 

I made a  recipe for coconut kebab yesterday and it turned out really good.  I had the recipe for quite some time but that I why I like going through old cookbooks and finding things missed.
 Here is the recipe.

8 T Coconut
4 T Peanut butter
4 T of Soy Sauce
2.5 T Honey (or brown Sugar)
1 T lime or lemon juice
1/2 t of ginger (ground)
1 lb of Pork or chicken, uncooked cubed

Mix up the first 6 ingredients and then toss with Pork/chicken, put on skuwers and bbq until done.  I also think you could bake in a hot oven (like maybe 400 degrees F) until done as well. 

It was really good and tasted good with rice and steamed veggies.  Of I also decided to put chunks of onion, bell pepper, and pineapple, and alternate that with the meat on the skuwers to add a hawaiian flair.  All in all, a new recipe that took little time to make and pleased everyone (including Austin).  So that goes in the file. 

A good recipe

So I made risotto the other night.  I heard how wow it is and how it is a lot of work but bought the special type of rice and decided to do it.  And you know, it just was not magical for me.  Really.  It was okay but not something that I would jump for joy over.  Ok so I was entertaining three kiddos on the brink of WWIII waiting for Austin to come home but I swear that I never left it un-attended for longer than say a minute.  Maybe it was the stock.  I used the canned stock but if you say it makes the recipe to make your own stock, well poop that.  I will file that recipe to use when all the kids have moved out because I will never have time.

On a good note I wanted to post this recipe.  My friend from Carson city gave it to me and it never has failed me yet.  Always good.  It is a quick breadstick recipe and I love it. 

1 1/4c flour
2 t Sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2/3 c milk
3 T melted butter
2 t Sesame Seeds (optional)

Add Dry ingredients and mix well.  (Heck you could sift it if you like).

Slowly add milk and stir to make soft dough.  Keend on floured surface 3-4 times (Seriously the less you touch it, the better they are, who cares about ugly looking, mine are hidious but taste great).  Roll to 1/2 in and cut into 12 pcs.  Gently form Bread sticks. 

Roll in melted butter and put on a cookie sheet (lined with baking paper, makes clean up a breeze).  Sprinkle with Sesame Seeds, 

Bake at 450 degrees for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.

I have never used Sesame seeds (Never seem to have them on hand and always forget at the store) but it would be tasty if you did.  Or you could stir in the dry ingredients 1/4 t of herbs or whatever to make flavored breadsticks (like rosemary or oregano).  Or you could top them with Cinnamon and Sugar and go sweet.  The choice is yours.

When I get to the cutting up, I usually just hack it into skinny pcs and roll in butter. They look weird but taste wonderful.  If you make them thicker when you roll them out and cut them thicker, they are more like a biscuit.  And seriously I don't do biscuits well because I mess up the whole cut in butter thing.  Disaster chef should be my name.  I just made some of these today for a snack with Helen and it was great.  We just cut them open and spread some strawberry jam on them.  And nobody complained.  It was nice so I thought I should share with you.

Easter kicked my butt.

So my mom brought up really lovely Easter candy that we can not get here. Espeically Little Debbie Nutty bars. OH my that is a delight. To me, I am like 9 yrs old and on the family vacation we took to Alaska. We drove from Fernley to Washington and then caught the boat to Alaska to see my dad and camp for a few weeks. It was a lovely trip. It rained the whole first week we were there and finally when we could not take it any more and checked into a hotel, the rain stopped. We actually hitch-hiked a right from someone into town in a truck and Dad, Jemel and myself sat in the back of the truck where mom sat up front. Not sure why she sat up front...don't remember.
Anyways, back to what I was talking about, in the car trip up, that was the first time I ever tasted them and I found those to be my favorite.

Anyways, with as much Easter candy that we got here and all the goodies that follow the fesivities, i really need to start going back to walking more (since there is no more aquasize class) and not eating as much junk. If I am going to make my 1kg a month resolution, I need to get back to it. so now that it is over and the candy is mostly gone, back to healthy snacking.

Extreme Sheparding...

Austin found this video on Youtube.  It is pretty good.  Everyone likea the sheep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw