Fresh Strawberries with Toffee Sauce

May 22, 2012
In this simple Strawberries with Toffee Sauce recipe, fresh strawberries are drizzled with a quick and easy toffee sauce, chock full with toffee bits.  It's such a simple and delicious dessert perfect for enjoying those juicy spring berries!
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Bowl of Strawberries with Toffee Sauce Topped with Whipped Cream Image
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Surprise Rocks {& a Dinosaur Dig}

May 19, 2012
Whip up these super-fun Surprise Rocks with a simple mixture of sand, coffee grounds, and flour. Tuck whatever surprise inside you'd like, so long as it can go in the oven at a low temperature. -- With mini plastic dinosaurs, they're just perfect for a dinosaur dig! 


This project always makes me smile. 

Each year with my little first graders, I do a dinosaur dig ... featuring these nifty little surprise rocks hiding dinosaurs inside.  And they love it!  They think it's so cool to pretend to be paleontologists digging for fossils or dinosaur bones, never sure what they're going to find.

And these surprise rocks are truly so easy to make, the little bit of time invested in them is so, so worth the joy and fun they bring my students.  I would make these for them even if they took 100 times the effort!  Now, these are not edible ... it's the first non-edible recipe I'm posting, but they're so fun I hoped you wouldn't mind.

With just a little bit of sand, a bit of flour and water, some leftover coffee grounds, and a package or two of plastic dinosaurs (or other surprise!) from the dollar store, you can have yourself a batch of surprise rocks.  And here's how.

Start by combining some sand, flour, coffee grounds, and water in a big bowl.  It will be hard to mix, but just get it started a little bit with a spoon.



Then, knead the mixture with your hands, just like you would if you were making bread dough. 

I recommend taking off any rings you're wearing for this step... unless you want someone to get a real surprise in their rock!



The mixture will come together nicely, and look like this after your kneading is done.


I use plastic dinosaurs that fit in the palm of my hand as the surprise.  You could use any other little trinket that wouldn't be harmed by a low temperature oven ... or, you could use something bigger than this but would need to adjust up the baking time of the rocks.


To make a rock,  grab a hunk of dough.  To cover the dinosaur in my hand in the photo above, I took a hunk about this big:


Flatten the dough out into a pancake ...


... that's about this thick:


Lay your surprise on the flattened dough pancake and fold half of the pancake over it.


Then continue to fold the dough pancake up over your surprise ...


... until it's all covered.  Gently press the seams together to seal your surprise in.


Place the rocks on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.


Finally, pop them in the oven for a while ... and they come out looking like this.  Surprise rocks!


For our dinosaur dig, I bury the surprise rocks in a little bit of sand in a plastic tub.  Each student then gets to pretend to be a paleontologist.  So cute!  They first look over the 'land,' scanning for an area that looks like it's a little different than the surrounding 'land.'  Once they've found potential dig spots, they use paint brushes to gently excavate their finds.


After they've got their finds excavated enough to be able to grab them with their fingers, they pick up a rock and clean it off with their brushes, inspecting it to predict what they may have found.  Their excitement builds ...


... until they're finally at a point where they can break their rocks open!  They give the rocks a big ol' squeeze ...


... and SURPRISE! ...  reveal what they've found.  T-Rexes and pterodactyls always get the most squeals. 

And, I can't say for sure ... I mean, I wouldn't really know ... but I think the adults usually have just as much fun breaking open the leftovers.




Surprise Rocks
(Printable recipe)
Ingredients
  • 2 c. sand
  • 2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 c. coffee grounds (leftover from brewing coffee in a coffee maker)
  • 3/4 c. water + possibly 1/4 c. more
Directions
  1. Combine the sand, flour, coffee grounds, and 3/4 cup water in a large bowl. Knead, as you would bread dough, until the mixture comes together into a workable dough. Add the remaining 1/4 cup water, a little at at time, if needed.
  2. Take a small amount of dough (about the size of a golf ball), flatten it, and form it around your object.*
  3. Bake at 250 degrees for about 30 minutes, turning over after the first 10 minutes. Store uncovered.
This recipe covers about 12 small dinosaurs.

*Note:  It's best if the dough is just thick enough to be workable in covering your surprise object, but not too thick.  If you make it thick, it'll take the rocks a long time to bake in the oven or the dough may not dry out enough at all.  For larger objects, you will need a larger amount of dough.  Large surprise rocks may require additional baking time.


Have fun and enjoy!



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Honey-Vanilla Granola ... & Robbing Our Bees!

May 14, 2012
Homemade Honey-Vanilla Granola is a healthy and delicious snack that highlights the beautiful flavor of honey. Loaded with sunflower seeds, walnuts, golden raisins, vanilla extract, and pure honey, it's also loaded with fabulous flavor. (And we share our bee-robbing photos to boot!)

Small Bowl of Honey-Vanilla Granola Image
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Toffee Bars & Honoring My Mom

May 12, 2012
A brown sugar cookie crust topped with chocolate, toffee bits, and pecans makes for rich-and-delicious Toffee Bars.  They're my Mom's absolute favorite, so they've got  to be good!

Toffee Bars Image ~ A brown sugar cookie crust topped with chocolate, toffee bits, and pecans makes for rich-and-delicious Toffee Bars.

In honor of my Mom for Mother's Day tomorrow, I decided to post a recipe that is right up her alley ... these rich-and-delicious Toffee Bars.  My Mom loves Heath Bars (which you sprinkle on the top of these little beauties).  And pecans.  And ooey-gooey buttery sweet cookie crusts.  And chocolate ... Oh, yes - she loves chocolate, almost as much as I do.  Which is a lot.

So don't these chocolate, pecan, and Heath Bar-topped, brown sugar cookie crusted Toffee Bars sound just perfect for her?

Also in honor of my Mom for Mother's Day, I decided to share two of my favorite memories of Mom from growing up.

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Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese

May 7, 2012
Not your average grilled cheese sandwich.  Roasted fresh jalapenos kick up the heat in this delicious Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese.  It's a perfect creamy, cheesy sandwich for any jalapeno popper lover!
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Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Image
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Strawberry Chicken Salad & Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing

May 5, 2012

As I mentioned in my last post (No-Bake Strawberry Ice Box Cake), it's strawberry season where I live.  It's one of my absolute favorite food-times of the year!  I just adore fresh strawberries picked from the field that very day.  They're so sweet, juicy, and delicious.  I could pop them in my mouth just as they are ... oh, and I do ... with more than my fair share.

But I like to whip up tasty concoctions with them, too.

So, when I found this Strawberry Chicken Salad in the latest edition of Cooking Light magazine, it didn't take me long to give it a whirl.  And. It. Is. Tasty. - winning the approval of both me and my hubby.

The original recipe calls for using bottled poppy seed dressing.  I wanted to see if I could pull together a homemade dressing, instead of using the bottled.  Not that there's anything wrong with bottled dressings ... I just wanted to also have a homemade alternative.  I loved, loved, loved the homemade dressing!!  I'll definitely be making it again, even when I'm not making this Strawberry Chicken Salad.

For the dressing, combine some cider vinegar, canola oil, a bit of sugar, poppy seeds, and a bunch of chopped onion.  Give it a whirl in a food processor or blender ... and you have homemade Poppy Seed Dressing.  Pretty easy, huh?



Mix this dressing into a combination of chicken, fresh basil, minced green onions, fresh diced strawberries, and chopped pecans ... and you've got one tasty and refreshing chicken salad.  It's great just on its own, but I could also see this in phyllo cups as a wonderful hors d'ouvre ... or, on croissants for a beautiful sandwich ... or, in a tea sandwich, or ... or ... or

I'll just have to give these other ideas a try, won't I?!?



Strawberry Chicken Salad
Source:  Chicken salad adapted from Cooking Light magazine; Homemade poppy seed dressing adapted from Happier than a Pig in Mud
(Printable recipe)
Ingredients
Chicken Salad:
3/4 c. bottled or homemade poppy seed dressing (see below)
1/4 c. minced green onions
3 T. chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
4 c. chopped cooked chicken
2 c. diced fresh strawberries
1 c. chopped pecans
Salt, to taste

Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing:
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 c. white, yellow, or Vidalia onion, finely chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds


Directions
Prepare the Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing (if using):
1.  Combine all dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender.  Process until well combined.

Prepare the Chicken Salad:
2.  Stir together the poppy seed dressing, green onions, basil, and black pepper in a large bowl.  Fold in the chicken, strawberries, and pecans.  Add salt to taste.

3.  Cover and chill for about 2 hours.

Note:  This salad is best eaten the day it is made.  Though it was still tasty the next day, be aware that on the second day the strawberries will have gotten a bit limp and some of their color will have 'bled' onto the chicken.


Enjoy!


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