The Daring Bakers do Nanaimo Bars

And lucky me…I grew up eating these!!! The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen . Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca . I almost missed making these.? Something about them having to be posted on the 27th of the month just messes me up bad but with bold determination and severely lacking eyesight I forged ahead and got these done!!! I knew I had to make the graham crackers first.? I had already decided that as interesting as it would be to do them gluten free I really didn’t have the time or the money to be hunting down ingredients I would only be using once so I cheated and made them with Whole Wheat Graham Flour and they really are delicious!!!? I made these this morning and it went off without a hitch.? Had them out of the oven and I was on my way to the eye doctor.? Well. by the time I got home I couldn’t see a thing.? He had tricked me a dilated my eyes.? I was virtually blind, but the DB Challenge must go on!!!? I cut the recipe and copied it and then made it REALLY, REALLY BIG so that I could at least make out the measures.? The whole time I am kicking myself for leaving it til the very last minute…:-( Anyway…these turned out beautifully despite all of my self inflicted challenges and it brought back a lot of great childhood memories for me!!! ? These were taken after my eyes were dilated by the stupid eye doctor.? I was lucky to find the camera!!! Graham Cracker Recipe (that I used) by Cupcake Project Ingredients: 4 T (1/2 stick) butter, softened 1 egg 6 T sugar 4 T honey (Some graham crackers use half honey and half molasses. You might consider trying that as a variation.) 1/2 t baking soda 2 t water 3/4 t salt 1 1/2 C graham flour (If you can’t get a hold of graham flour, there are plenty of graham cracker recipes that use regular whole wheat flour such as this graham cracker recipe from Baking Bites . You may also be able to directly substitute whole wheat flour in this recipe, but I haven’t tested it and I make no promises.) 3/4 C all-purpose flour Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Combine the butter, egg and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in the honey and blend. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture. Add the salt, graham flour, and all-purpose flour to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable. If it is too “tacky” add a little more graham flour. Liberally dust a surface with graham flour and roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. For convenience in handling, cut the rolled dough into three or four sections that will fit on your cookie sheet. (I am not good at rolling things out. It doesn’t come up too…

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The Daring Bakers do Nanaimo Bars

Pasta, Veggies and Lemon Sauce

Where has this week gone? It seemed to fly by for me. Not a bad thing though. Nothing wrong with the weekend coming sooner, right? My week in the kitchen this week has consisted of cooking up lots of leftovers. I took a trip to Costco last week and of course came home with large quantities of stuff…mostly produce. I can’t help myself. You get so much more for your money with Costco produce. I would love to say that I shop my farmer’s market every Saturday morning, but it just doesn’t always work out that way for me. Anyway, back to the leftovers. Looking in my fridge and trying to make some room, I knew it was time for a few things to go. I sent out a “tweet” and was answered by my reliable foodie friend Maria with this awesome idea for dinner . I love light lemon sauces so the minute I read her recipe I knew this was what I wanted to make. Pasta is a perfect way to use up items in your fridge, especially veggies. My husband, nephew and I ate this tonight while watching the Magic in the Playoffs…they were full of compliments. Thanks for the inspiration Maria! I needed this pasta. It was perfect. Pasta, Veggies and Lemon Sauce Recipe adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod 1 box Whole Wheat Angel Hair Pasta 2-3 TB Olive oil 1/2 onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut in thirds 1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper, thinly sliced thinly sliced prosciutto, roughly chopped (optional) 1 bunch of fresh spinach leaves, cleaned pinch Red pepper flakes Salt and Pepper to taste Zest and juice of one large lemon grated Asiago or Parmesan Cheese Bring a big pot of water to boil. Add salt and cook pasta until al dente. While the pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large saute pan. Add onions and cook until tender. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Add red peppers, asparagus and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add prosciutto and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Using a spaghetti spoon or tongs, transfer pasta along with some pasta water into saute pan. Add lemon zest and juice of one lemon and toss in saute pan. Top with fresh grated Asiago or Parmesan cheese.

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Pasta, Veggies and Lemon Sauce

What I Was Able to Learn Last Weekend…(or what I learnt or learned last weekend) and a recipe!

As most of you know last weekend I participated in a hunger challenge. Trust me when I say that I don’t go in for stuff like this lightly. I like food. I like food a whole awful lot. I guess that is one of the reasons I am a food blogger? So when I was approached to do a weekend long fast for NoFood4You , to raise awareness for childhood hunger, I was apprehensive to say the least. But because it was going to be in the company with some incredible people and for a cause that I wholeheartedly, 100% believe in I got on board. I can tell you now that I am honored and …

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What I Was Able to Learn Last Weekend…(or what I learnt or learned last weekend) and a recipe!

NoFood4You Childhood Hunger Awareness Event!

We all eat. We all like to eat or you wouldn’t be here on my food blog. Did you know though that there are children right here in my county (about 10,000 of them to be exact) that go hungry every single weekend? Don’t kid yourself…they are in your counties too! These are the children in the Lee County school system that are on our county’s Free & Reduced Lunch Program . It’s a great program that provides breakfast and lunch to these children during the week at school, but, what happens to some of these children come the weekend? Unfortunately they are going without food. CCMI (Community Cooperative Ministries Inc.) is trying to solve this problem. They have implemented a Backpack Program in which a child is given a backpack full of food to feed him or her over the weekend. 700 children take home enough food for the weekend each week! They want to do more though and this

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NoFood4You Childhood Hunger Awareness Event!