Crunchy

Update: I forgot to mention this when I first posted this post. Mrs. JP asked if the bars turned out chewy or crunchy. Well, the bars are crunchewy.

We have been on a granola bars kick lately. We love the Nature Valley bars, both chewy and crunchy ones. The flavors that I love are Cinnamon, Pecan Crunch and Brown Sugar. Last week while I was enjoying a granola bar, I thought I should look up some recipes and try making some myself. Here's the recipe I found. I did make a few changes, noted in (Italic). Sorry I didn't take any pictures.

Crunchy Granola Bars
Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats (I didn't have rolled oats so I used old-fashioned oats)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I increased to 1 1/2 tsp because I love cinnamon)
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup raisins (optional) (I didn't add raisins)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey (I used dark corn syrup because I was out of honey)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. (Note: My 9x13 pan was unavailable at the time, so I used a smaller pan about 8x11, not a good idea. The bars are thinker and because they are suppose to be crunchy, it's kinda hard to bite into it. With the right pan, the bars are thinner and it should be easier to eat. I do like the flavor, it is very tasty)
2) In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands.
3) Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan. (I sprayed my hands with some PAM and that made it so much easier when patting the mixture in the pan)
4) Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be to hard to cut.

Nutrition Information:
Servings Per Recipe: 24
Amount Per Serving Calories: 161
Total Fat: 5.5g
Cholesterol: 9mg
Sodium: 80mg
Total Carbs: 26.5g
Dietary Fiber: 1.4gProtein: 2.6g
Nutrition InfoPowered by: ESHA Nutrient Database

p/s: Samantha & June here, we love mommy's granola bars. They are paws-lickin' good!

Golden Friday

The girls demanded equal time on this blog. Guess I gave in to them, yet again...

Samantha barking at June for taking her Kong

June just has this smug look on her

My girl is getting gray

June: "You talkin' to me?"

Peek-a-boo, I see you

I started all my seeds last Saturday. About 3 weeks ago, I started the jalapenos, Italian pepperoncini and eggplants but unfortunately I had to "re-do" all of these. Reason being? A certain Golden/Husky mix(AKA June) decided to check out what I did and perhaps thought it was something new that's edible...

It was partly my fault, I know my girls don't get in trouble like that(they used to when they were younger), they don't jump on the counter or steal food, nor do they chew things up. So I put the egg carton(I used eggshells instead of peat pots and left the eggshells in the carton) on the floor in the guest room next to the baseboard heater for some heat. Well, that was a mistake. June went in there to check it out and sniff at it one night and decided that she wanted to check out the whole thing, so she took the whole egg carton in her mouth and when I went to check on what she was doing, she dropped the carton and everything fell out. Bad baby, bad baby...

The photos below are my seed-starting operation. The first picture shows the Organic Jiffy Seed Starting mix, my seeds(in the ziploc bag), my notebook, watering bottle(I poked a few small holes on the cap for easy watering), egg carton with sunflower seeds inside, and on the top left corner is the veggie tray. I saved the tray from last year, it was a seed starting set with starter pellets inside. I kept the tray after the pellets were used.

The second picture shows the filled peat pots, properly labeled. I will do a different post about what I am planting this year.

In other news, I couldn't resist the temptation of peeking in the garlic bed to see if there is any "action" going on there. Yes there is! I only uncovered a small section to check things out. And there they are, peeking out from the ground!(Please click on the picture for a bigger view, I circled them in red for easy viewing)

I'm so happy, oh so happy...

Gardening with Pooch

I have recently read an article from Hobby Farm Home, a magazine I subscribe to, about gardening with dogs. As you know I'm a dog lover and I love my vegetable garden. I know many of you are too. Sometimes gardening = No dogs allow. But why not find a way that will let your dog(s) and your garden coexist peacefully?


Below are a few tips I've learned from this article:

• If your dog(s) love to dig, why not install a digging pit? My dogs just love digging and laying in the cool dirt holes. Yes, holes, they have dug many holes in my back yard. Every time I filled in a hole, they dug 2 more. So this year we are going to give them a digging pit so that they can dig their hearts and paws out. You can "dedicate" a spot in your garden for the digging pit and plant some shrubs around it. Or place it under your deck. The space under your deck is normally unused anyways, a digging pit there will be perfect. Your dogs can relax in the shade and/or dig.
• Don't dig any new holes for plants with your dog present. This may encourage him/her to join in. I know this for a fact because Samantha had done it numerous times to me.
• If your dog(s) love water, try putting in a kiddie pool. It is shalow, therefore it's safe for the dogs to go in and cool off.
• If you are ok with your dogs roaming in your garden around your plants, be sure to pick plants that are not poisonous to dogs. For more info on poisonous plants, please check out Poisonous Plants affecting dogs, www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control.

Happy Gardening!

Dog Town

Woof! Sam & June blogging today.
We would like to let all doggies and their humans know about the season premiere of Dog Town. Mom said it's on the National Geographic channel,
it's premiering at 10pm E.T, Friday March 20th.
You can paw on over here to read/sniff about it.
Mom really likes this show and daddy likes it too.
We hope you'll have your paws on the remote and
turn to that channel Friday night to watch this show.

Have a pawsome weekend!

p/s: YD here, please excuse the socks on the floor. Samantha likes to take our socks out of the laundry basket or if we left it on the floor in the bedroom, she'll bring it out but she doesn't chew on the socks. Maybe she has a "sock fetish". :)

Ice Fishing Part 2

This post is my responses to your comments from my previous post.

Khyra the Siberian Husky said...
That looks tasty to my mom!I'd like the fish plain!Hugz&Khysses,Khyra
Khyra: Please let your mom know that it is very tasty. However, I do not know if it's doggie approved because I didn't give any to Samantha & June.

JP said...
Sounds yummy, especially with some rice or pasta for filler... ;oP
JP: I didn't serve it with rice or pasta because I only wanted a light meal but you are right, it would be really tasty with some rice for filler.

Joey said...
Four fish is a good catch! We see fishermen at Hollywood Beach all the time who don't catch anything - but it still looks like fun.See ya!Joey and Zeke
Joey & Zeke: Fishing is fun! I bet Samantha & June would enjoy it too but we didn't bring them. It was a little icy for them to walk on.

WVfarmgirlsaid...
I've never been ice fishing before. I'll have to try it since you caught more fish than I ever do fishing in warm weather
WVfarmgirl: We were there for 5hrs and all we caught was 4 Perch. It wasn't a good day. When hubby went a week before, they caught at least 25 Perch by noon time!

Country Girl said...
That sounds like a real good recipe. I'll have to bookmark it so I can refer back to

CountryGirl: Please do try it. I hope you like it.

Warren said...
Glad you had fun! 15 inches is impressive...We used to cross country ski on a nearby frozen lake...it still always freaked me out a little...

Warren: We measured the ice but hubby had previously measured it when he went the week before. It gets very cold up here so it's safer. The place to avoid is near any docks. Home owners install pumps or bubblers(I think that's what it's called) to prevent the water from freezing(that way it doesn't ruin the docks), so the ice get pretty thin near the dock areas. The scariest thing I've done was to ride a snowmobile across a frozen lake. It wasn't planned, the people we went with decided that they wanted to cross the lake to get to a restaurant. I didn't like the idea.

Mrs. JP said...
Wow---ice fishing huh? So how's that done? I'm sooooo southern :O) I can't even wrap my head around the whole sitting on ice thing. I've fished plenty but how is the whole ice fishing thing done? Can you tell this is probably the first time I've even thought of it - and now I know someone who's actually done it and caught something! so cool

Mrs. JP: Basically you just go to a frozen lake, find your spot(i don't really know if there is any particular way of finding the best spot, I just followed), drill a hole in the ice using an auger. There are 2 ice fishing methods: using tip-ups or "jigging". You can read more about it here. I actually got to try both methods.

Simona, Paco e Milo said...
Mmmmmmmmmmm....we're drooling!!!thanks for sharing with s this great recipe!!!!!mom will try to do it asap!!!!sounds sooooooooooo yummy!!!!!!can't wait to see your pictures making ice-fisching!!!!!!!!have a great week!!!!kisses and licks!!!!SMACKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!Paco & Milo: I hope your mom tries that recipe. I hope she gives some to you guys to try as well. :)

In my previous post about ice fishing, I promised that I would have pictures for you and here they are...

The beautiful Lake George

Here's me, those orange things behind me are Tip-ups. The wooden thing in front of me is the stand for the jigging rod. The bucket is the bait bucket and the auger next to it. And of course the chair to sit in.

Hubby(left) and his friend setting up the Tip-ups

Here's hubby, setting up more Tip-ups

Here's me again, definitely dressed for the occassion.

Ice Fishing

Last Saturday I had a chance to go ice fishing(for my first time) with hubby and his friend Dean! We couldn't have picked a better day! It was almost 50 degrees out(don't worry, it had been cold at night for weeks and the ice on the lake was still at least 15" thick!). We had a great time enjoying the scenery and fishing even though we didn't catch many fish at all(only 4). I will have some pictures for you very soon, I promise.

I had some uncooked Perch fillets(these were from hubby's ice fishing trip a week before) leftover from the Fish n' Chips dinner previous night. Not wanting to eat fried food again, I decided to make up a simple dish with what I had in the fridge. This recipe is for 1 serving only, please feel free to increase the quantities for more servings.

Perch in Wine Sauce

Ingredients:
6 small to medium size Perch fillets
flour for dredging
1- 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small onion or 1/2 of a medium size onion, sliced
1/2 of a red pepper, sliced
3-4 med. size white mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup wine (red or white, whatever suits your fancy)
1/4 cup water or more if you like it more brothy. Start with just 1/4 cup first and add more as you go.
dash of dried parsley & basil (You could use fresh herbs if you have some)
salt & pepper to taste


Instructions:
1) Season both sides of fillets. Dredge the fillets in flour, shake off excess.
2) In a small skillet, heat olive oil on med-high heat. Cook the perch fillets on one side for 1-2 minutes(longer if the fillets are bigger). Turn the fillets over and cook until the fish is cooked through. Remove fish and set aside.
3) In the same skillet, add a little bit more olive oil and add in the onion and garlic. Saute onion until it's translucent. Add in mushroom and red pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the mushroom is soft. Add the water, wine, herbs and salt & pepper. Bring to a boil and taste. Remove cooked veggie to a bowl.
4) Place the cooked fillets back in the skillet and pour the veggie and sauce back in the skillet. Let it come to a boil. Do not stir(because you don't want to break up the fillets). Remove from heat and serve. You can serve the fish as is or you can serve it over rice or pasta.