Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Summer stuff and Coyotes

Family and friends have been requesting these desert bars, so I made up a batch and shared them around the neighborhood. They have been a family favorite for years, and they taste a lot like a "Payday" candybar.

Salty Peanut Chews
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla
2 egg yolks
1/2 C. butter
3 C. mini- marshmellows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks into butter. Add egg mixture into flour until crumbly. Press into ungreased 9x13 pan. Bake for 13 minutes. Top with marshmallow and put back in oven until marshmallows puff, not brown. Cool while preparing topping.
Topping: 2/3 C. white Karo Syrup, 1/4 C. butter, 12 oz. bag peanut butter chips, 2 C. Rice Krispies Cereal, 2 C. salted peanuts.
Heat the Karo syrup, butter and peanut butter chips until smooth; stirring constantly. Remove and stir in cereal and salted peanuts. Immediately spread over marshmallows. Cut into bars.

A BIG thank you to Huenu Smith for helping me create my header for my blog. I hope you like these bars, Huenu. You can find originally designed children's clothing on Huenu's site (see my side bar). A multi-talented lady who is brilliant with a camera, and has 2 beautiful children who serve as her models.



Yesterday when Ricci and I were at "Cloves" I found this cute pop-up birthday card. It's not my birthday, and I didn't buy it for anyone in particular, I just liked it! I may even keep it up year round in my laundry room. Notice the wash on the line is missing two letters. The "A" and the "Y" are spinning around in the washer. How cute is that?


Last night I asked my 16 year old son to take the garbage out to the curb. OK- he's 16 years old, so I wasn't too surprized he waited until about 11:30 pm to get it done. I'm in my pajama's by then and he came running back in the house and said "Mom, you've got to come outside!" In his hand he is carrying this huge lantern we keep in our garage. It has a 15 million candlepower and can bring light to items at a very long distance. Out I trapsed, hoping nobody could see me in my nighty and bare feet.



I have been raised in cities all my life. This is my first experience to live in a desert. Our home is in a neighborhood, but behind our backyard is the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, where 62,000 acres have been dedicated to the protection of the Mojave Desert Tortoise. Since we have lived here, I have yet to see a tortoise, but I sure have been exposed to many other desert critters. For some reason they like to think of our pool as a water source. Last night was no exception. As my son and I headed out back, I heard this wild, deep throat type barking. I may be a city kid, but I knew this wasn't a stray dog. My son shone the lantern up on the mountain and there we saw at crest's edge a coyote. This is the same mountain we hike all the time. My son even likes to go out at night. The only thing that made me feel better was the explaination that coyotes do not attack people. They do like to feed off of chipmunks, lizards and other small desert life. OK, maybe I'm going to try and be a little more tolerant if the coyotes want to hang around the perimeters of my house.
After all, I have gotten used to the 2 bats that show up every night at sunset and dive bomb our swimming pool. My son has named them "Bruce and Wayne", and they do keep the bugs down.


The other day one of my next door neighbors informed me we had a Gila Monster walk through our yard, and on through to her yard. I didn't see it, but she took a picture. Maybe there are some things it's just better not to know about!

5 comments:

Nanette Merrill said...

Funny you should mention Bonnie. I just ran into her at the store. I'm from Reading Pennsylvania which is very close to Lancaster, its the neighboring county. My mom used to have an Amish man service her Bernina. He would take convert the top of the line Bernina's to treddle for women in his community. So that country is my old back yard. I love it there.

Peanut bars, coyotes, gilla monsters and cute birthday cards! This post has it all. You've got a lovely blog and I hope my readers make it over to you.

Huenu said...

Nedra! I got the bars and loved them, thanks so much. I'm glad you posted the recipe because I was going to ask you for them anyway. And thanks for the plug for website. You're already sounding like an experienced blogger!

Amy Dayton said...

Hi mom, I've really enjoyed reading your blog. It makes me feel closer to home, and I've been wanting that recipe, definetly a childhood favorite!

Browndirtcottage said...

Hi Nedra....Thanks for sharing the recipe. I bet my hubby wishes I had had it earlier in the evening! I too am a new blogger. Just in the last couple of days. I'm ahead of you though, I've known about blogging a whole month, and I must say I haven't been very productive this month because of it. I found you through Freda's. I just love her blog and read it often..so, good luck with your posting and stop by mine and say hello.

Belinda

Anonymous said...

Hi I'm on the Summer Stash Challenge too.

I couldn't help but laugh at you swimming pool bat's names.

When we lived out in the Welsh Mountains we'd get some weird noises and critters popping in. One Winter we befriended a buzzard. Hubby's raw mince planned for dinner went into the garden as I saw the poor bird trying to eat the bread we'd put out for the birds.

Here the weird to me creatures are seals jellyfish and dolphins now we live near the sea. I hope you manage to get some photos of your wild neighbours.

ooo that "Cloves" wow what a wonderful place. I think I'd have to set up a sleeping bag there as I'd never be able to decide what to buy.