Sunday, December 21, 2008

Luscious Lemon Bars

I love these lemon bars. They are a perfect addition to that tray of goodies for the neighbor.

Shortbread:
3/4 cup butter, @ room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Filling:
2 lemons
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1. Mix shortbread ingredients until it holds together. Place in an ungreased 9x13 inch pan and press. Bake 20 minutes or until edges are brown.
2. Make lemon filling. Wash and dry lemons, then grate the rinds using small holes on the grater for 2 tbs. of zest. Squeeze the juice until you get 1/3 cup.
3. Whisk together eggs and sugar. Whisk in the flour, stir in the lemon zest and juice. Pour filling over shortbread and bake for 20-25 minutes.
4. Cool and dust with powdered sugar.

* 350 Degrees
You can substitute lemon juice concentrate if you don't have a fresh lemon. Approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons equals the juice of one medium size fresh-squeezed lemon.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Winter Wonderland


This is what my backyard looks like today. Frothy, thick, whip cream like wonderland. This is how our family enjoyed the delicacy...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Sweets for the sweet!


Making our gingerbread houses is always a treat. This year I found a wonderful recipe for the icing. I have never before been able to get the icing to hold up the house. For a couple of years we hot glued the walls together, but that doesn't go over very well when you want to eat it. I went searching on-line for a good, "Glue", that would hold up under the weight of ten pounds of candy. I found that the trick to making a gingerbread house is to have a strong frosting. I found two recipes on-line, but didn't have all the ingredients for them both. Here is the recipe I concocted for the icing.

Stiff Icing:
2 egg whites
5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp water

Beat egg whites until frothy, add the sugar one cup at a time until thick, add water to get desired consistency.
Frost house and let set one hour before adding any deliciousness, this way the walls don't cave in.
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Sunday, December 7, 2008

We hit a....

Now, I know what you are thinking... "not a home run, it's not baseball season, and they do live in the mountains."
Yes, my friends it was Bambi's mother. I could tell by that look in her eyes. We were driving on
bluecreek road around 7pm when she darted toward our car. It was pitch black and had been that way since 4:30pm. The sun sets at an unreasonable hour when you live up north.
"Why is she coming toward our headlights? She should be running away from them." And then the impact of her torso and the side of our car.
Z wanted us to turn around and find her to see if she was o.k. But, we were waiting for our airbags to deploy and hoping they wouldn't. We saw two more deer after that, but since we had already had one impact, were driving cautiously and slow. Again the second deer ran across the road in front of us!
We didn't inspect our car until we reached the ferry. My dad had purchased a small flashlight to put in our glove box on one of his trips to town. (Thanks) We whipped it out and walked along the driver's side looking for blood, dents, deer hair. We saw nothing, and thankfully our airbags are still where they should be. So I guess you could say we hit a home run!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Old barn
















On our drive to Spokane we pass this old wooden barn. Recently a star has been lit in the loft.
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