Easy Peppermint Bark

This time of year I seem to head into the kitchen to make some family holiday favorites that tend to disappear as fast as I make them. One of those is Peppermint Bark. It’s really easy to make, and makes a great gift. I’ll describe a single batch, but it’s easily increased to make enough to give away.

You’ll need:

4 oz high quality milk or dark chocolate-broken into squares
4 oz high quality white chocolate-broken into squares
package of candy canes or peppermint star candy-broken into small pieces
Line a small baking sheet (7×10) with waxed paper.

Break apart and melt the milk or dark chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. (Hint: heat until almost melted, stir until all remaining pieces are melted and chocolate is creamy)

Spread over the waxed paper until even.

Peppermint Bark

Place pan in freezer for at least 30 minutes.
When ready, melt white chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. (Hint: heat until almost melted, stir until all remaining pieces are melted and chocolate is creamy)
Once melted, remove baking sheet from freezer, spread the melted white chocolate on top of the frozen milk or dark chocolate. (Be careful not to work quickly so the 2 chocolates don’t start to mix.).
Sprinkle crushed candy over the top, pressing in the bigger polices to secure them.

Place in freezer for 30 minutes to overnight.
When firmly solid, peel off waxed paper and break apart into pieces by hand.

Some helpful hints:

* Some recipes use chocolate chips, but I’ve found they melt too easily when serving.

*I like to melt the chocolate in the microwave. Just break into pieces, put in a microwave safe bowl and heat as directed. I usually cook in 20-30 second intervals, stirring in between. Stop before it’s fully melted. Stir to finish melting the few remaining pieces. You’ll have smooth, creamy melted chocolate in less than 2 minutes.

* Easiest way to crush the candy is to place in a plastic baggie, seal and pound gently with the smooth side of a meat mallet.

Enjoy!!

Peppermint Bark

Recipe type: Candy/Sweets

Author: Stephi from StephiGardens.com

Serves: 6

Delicious peppermint-chocolate treat

Ingredients

4 oz high quality milk or dark chocolate-broken into squares
4 oz high quality white chocolate-broken into squares
package of candy canes or peppermint star candy-broken into small pieces*

Instructions

Line a small baking sheet (7x10) with waxed paper.
Break apart and melt the milk or dark chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. (Hint: heat until almost melted, stir until all remaining pieces are melted and chocolate is creamy)
Spread over the waxed paper until smooth.
Place in freezer for at least 30 minutes.
When ready, melt white chocolate in the microwave according to package directions. (Hint: heat until almost melted, stir until all remaining pieces are melted and chocolate is creamy)
Once melted, remove baking sheet from freezer, spread the melted white chocolate on top of the frozen milk or dark chocolate. (Be careful not to work quickly so the 2 chocolates don't start to mix.).
Sprinkle crushed candy over the top, pressing in the bigger polices to secure them.
Place in freezer for 30 minutes to overnight.
When firmly solid, peel off waxed paper and break apart into pieces by hand.

Notes

* Easiest way to crush the candy is to place in a plastic baggie, seal and pound gently with the smooth side of a meat mallet.
* Some recipes use chocolate chips, but they will melt too easily when serving.

Birdfeeder Cams

From my computer, I can’t really see much outside. Even if I did, my feeder (yes, only one right now) doesn’t usually attract a wide variety of birds. I do enjoy watching the Goldfinches, Chickadees and Juncoes, but they are often overrun by the usual suburban fare. So, I’ve taken to watching the bird cams that have popped up the last few years. Many watch nests, but those are pretty quiet or off-line right now. Instead, in the winter I mainly watch the bird feedercams run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds. They have 2 feeders that have cameras on them. One in Ontario, Canada, and the other at the Cornell Labs in Ithaca, New York. The Ontario site is in a large, diverse, residential backyard in northern Ontario and is only on during the day. (update: this feeder is no longer art of their live feed, but there’s many others to choose from). The Cornell Labs site is located on the edge of Sapsucker Woods, right near a pond. It’s supported generously by Wild Birds Unlimited and runs 24 hours a day. Both are great locations for attracting birds and they get a variety of visitors. If you have some time to watch , it’s a nice diversion, especially when your own yard isn’t all that interesting. It’s also nice sometimes to just have it open in the background. You can hear all the visitors and it makes you feel like you are there.

Here’s what I saw today:

Ontario was a little quiet today, probably due to snow and wind. The Chickadees did venture out, though. I love the holiday theme!

The Cornell labs location was quite busy today. Lots of Chickadees, the Tufted Titmouse visited for a while, and ducks swam in the pond. There were also some sparrows that were a little tricky to identify, but the consensus from watchers was that they were American Tree Sparrows. I have to admit I am not very good at identifying LBJ’s (little brown jobs).

I visited quickly this morning before my post was scheduled to go out and the Ontario feeder was a having a gathering of Grosbeaks!

Do you watch any Feedercams?

Sunday Feature: Golf Course Gardens

One of the most interesting places I’ve found to admire gardens is out on the golf course. Most try very hard to create a very natural, beautiful setting to enhance the experience, which I definitely appreciate. The gardens and landscaping also work to integrate the courses into their surroundings, which make them a perfect haven for wildlife (see previous post: Wildlife on the Golf Course ). It seems as though the course gardeners often put as much energy into the gardens as they do into the actual course. I’ve found that the gardens can be very calming, the blooms and scents can cheer up a dismal game, or in some cases, they can make you laugh when you come across a random pumpkin patch. Enjoy some of the photos from the courses I’ve been on this year.

South Carolina

Illinois

And then there’s the pumpkins. We watched these grow all summer, not quite sure what we were looking at. Perfect conditions, the pumpkins were huge!

(I do have to give a shout out to all my golfing partners who tolerate my running off to take a quick picture. Can’t always do it, but try to when it doesn’t interfere with the “pace of play”. When I think it might, those pretty scenes just have to be tucked away in my memory 🙂 )

Winter Beauty

Look closely, beauty is all around you in the winter.

Photos by Peggy

How Much Rain Did We Get?

I am forever trying to figure out how much rain we got during a storm. I don’t know why, it’s just one of those things I want to know. And not in general, like somewhere in the greater Chicago area, or at one of the airports, but in my backyard. have discovered Weatherbug and Weather Underground, but it’s still not “my backyard”. So, I put a ridiculously over engineered Stratus rain gauge on my wish list and one day it showed up as a birthday gift (thanks Steve!).

It sat in the box for a while, until I figured out where and how I was going to put it up. There’s lots of instructions as to how far away from houses, structures and trees it should be, and in a suburban backyard, that can be tricky. So I picked the best spot I could that was not too obtrusive, easy to get to, and sort of fulfilled all the location requirements. Then, I was supposed to attached it to a 4×4 post solidly planted in the ground, but until I was sure it was a good spot, I needed a different way to put it up. I decided trying one of those metal 36″ green fence posts and attached it using zip-ties. Not official, but so far it’s working beautifully.

The first weekend I put it in, it was really put to the test. It turned out to be the really bad weather weekend that led to tornadoes south of here (see previous post, “Ominous Weather“). We got 1.07 inches of rain that day.

When my mom saw a picture of my new rain gauge, she reminded me that my dad had the same one, and had been a weather watcher for CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. This is a volunteer group that is a “unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow)”. There’s all kinds of great information on their website; well worth checking out. I don’t think I’m quite ready to sign up yet, but we’ll see in the spring. But, now I know where I got the “need to know” from.

Once I got everything set up, I needed somewhere to log it. Of course, there is an app for that, Rain Log. I decided to record my 24 hr rainfall at 7:30 am, like CoCoRaHS suggests. So, every morning, Daisy and I traipse into the backyard to see how much rain is in the rain gauge. Here’s what my reports look like so far.

I need to figure out what to do for the winter. There are ways to measure snow, but you need to be careful not to crack the inner measuring tube in freezing temperatures. I may need to just take it inside. Do you measure rainfall in your yard?

It’s a Great Day to be Red: Part 2

After my last RED post, my son’s cross country team went on to win the IL State Championship for the first time in team history. And when it comes to sports, I am one of those weirdly superstitious people who think that, somehow, something I’ve done makes a difference in the results. So, I figured I had better do another post in support of their trip to Portland for the Nike Cross National (NXN) Championship Race. They made it to the Championship Race as an at-large team, so there was a lot of nervous waiting the last two weeks until the committee decided who those teams would be. We couldn’t be more excited for them. This is such an honor and hopefully not a “once in a lifetime event” for the team. So, to offer my support again, here’s some more fabulous RED pictures.

And even snowmen and Starbucks are in the act!
Cheers to you, boys!

Credit for first five photos are to Photos by Peggy

Grocery Store Cheer

Who knew a trip to Meijer’s could cheer up such a dreary day?

Photos by Peggy

Time to be Thankful

I’ve been away for a bit, enjoying time with my family. I was lucky enough to host everyone here for a Thanksgiving gathering, that included my daughter that lives on her own now, my mom and my sister. Thanksgiving is definitely a wonderful time to spend with family, and to remember those who can’t be with us. For many years, Thanksgiving was just the five of us since my husband rarely had time off, so traveling was out of the question. But we still made it special and developed our own wonderful family traditions, mostly centering around food.

We get up to a yummy brunch…

…and in the last couple of years, one or more of the kids are off to a turkey trot first.

After brunch, the turkey gets stuffed with my delicious Leek, Apricot and Chestnut Stuffing and put in to cook, making the house just smell delicious.

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Then there’s time for a bit of relaxation to catch the end of the parade or maybe kick-off, before the midday appetizers and drinks come out. On the menu this year was Sage and Prosciutto Stuffed Mushrooms, Prosciutto, Gruyere and Sage Palmiers, Zucchini Casino, Spinach Dip with Vegetables and assorted olives.

We celebrated the holidays this year with delicious, sparkling glasses of Pomegranate Prosecco .

After mid-day appetizers, there’s plenty of time for football and maybe even a walk before the pre-dinner panic sets in. Glad I had so many helpful and willing hands in the kitchen this year. This year’s dinner consisted of fresh turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans wrapped with prosciutto, jellied cranberry sauce (from a can, what can I say it’s what everyone wants), celery, carrots, black olives and rolls. Finished off with apple and pumpkin pies. What a wonderful day!

Then of course there’s Daisy who just wants so badly to be part of this all.

I hope your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Many of the recipes can be found on my Pinterest site

(Many thanks go to Emily, Peggy, Sherry and Steve for helping with the pictures)

Fresh Bread on a Saturday Morning

Over the summer at the Farmer’s Market there was a booth, Katic Breads, that sold the best bread you could imagine. Everything was delivered warm, fresh and perfect. It also didn’t hurt that the women running the stand were so cheerful week in and week out. As the market wound down for the winter, customers were asking what to do for the winter months?? We had become used to our focaccia, ciabatta, french breads, harvest breads and, of course, the delicious fresh croissants. To satisfy their loyal customers, they set up a way to have a standing order delivered to a fabulous local coffee shop, Cafe la Fortuna every other Saturday. Dusan Katic, the baker, assured us that all their items could be frozen with no problems. Well, they were right. Even the croissants that came out of the freezer and reheated just a little, were perfect.

I just picked up my second order this morning. Once home, I wrapped everything for freezing, and then enjoyed a fresh croissant with Mammoth Cave Black Cherry Preserves, a specialty of the Mammoth Cave National Park Lodge, and a steaming hot cup of Cafe la Fortuna coffee. That’s a great way to start a Saturday morning.

Here’s Dusan Katic’s instructions for storing their fresh breads:

FREEZING

If you bought a loaf and are planning on freezing it for later use, place it in a closed plastic bag, in the freezer, as soon as you can. The fresher you freeze it, the fresher it thaws. When you are ready to serve your bread, let it sit out to thaw while the oven is warming up to 350F. To get a crispy crust, wet the surface of the bread with a spray or with your hand. Then, place the thawed/sprayed loaf in the oven for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the loaf). If you don’t care to crisp the crust, then wrap the loaf in aluminum foil and place it in the oven (especially for rolls).

STORAGE

Never store bread in the fridge. This actually accelerates staling. Remember that the loaves you receive are pulled out of the oven at 7AM. If you cannot finish the loaf near this peak time, then freezing portions is a much better plan compared to storing in the fridge. Avoid leaving the bread in sunlight. Store bread in a paper bag or wrapped in a kitchen towel in between use.

If you have a chance to find them at a farmer’s market or specialty store in the Chicago and Northern IL area, pick some up. You won’t be sorry.

New Bird Feeder

I was lucky enough to recently attend a program, “Amazing Birds“, by some local, passionate birders. Among learning quite a few “amazing” bird facts, they briefly mentioned their favorite thistle (nyjer) feeder to attract goldfinches–a sock feeder. I forgot about this little tidbit, until I was doing some other bird shopping and I came across this Nyjer Finch Sock and it was quickly added to my cart.

As soon as it came, I rounded up one my many shepherd’s crooks in the yard and found a spot for it closer to the house. Ideally, it’d be near some brush or shrubs to offer protection for the birds I was attracting. I found just the spot and almost immediately had goldfinches. Not the pretty yellow males, but the motley looking fall males that are molting into their winter colors and the always drab, but still charming, females. Despite their winter colors, I find these to be cheerful little birds flitting about the yard.

As a bonus, the juncos are enjoying the dropped seeds. All seem happy and I look forward to visitors all winter. I’ll definitely be buying more.

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