Chocolate Bark

Chocolate Bark with
Cranberries, Almonds, and Pecans

In this book, South Beach Wake-Up Call,
there are recipes at the back of the book.

One of the recipes is for chocolate bark, and since it's
almost Christmas, I decided to make it.

The doctor who wrote this book said "Just a
small bite of this delicious chocolate treat
provides important health benefits:

antioxidants in the cranberries and chocolate

and good unsaturated fats in the almonds and pecans."

You mix together 6 T chopped almonds,
6 T chopped pecans, and 6 T chopped
dried cranberries.

You then melt 9 oz of 60% bittersweet chocolate chips
(easy to find at Publix in the chocolate chip section).

Stir the nut mixture into the melted chocolate and then
smooth it all onto a foil lined baking pan.

Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Then break into about 30 pieces.
Store in an airtight container.
Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

This bark was delicious!
Just what the doctor ordered!

Festival of the Nativity

Last Sunday night we attended the annual
Festival of the Nativity
which is held at the Orlando Stake Center
across the street from the temple.

Inside, in the cultural hall, there are hundreds
of nativity scenes displayed.

There are musical performances
in the chapel.

There is a room just for families
with young children
to make Christmas decorations and crafts.

There is also a room just for posing
for your own live nativity scene with your family
which you'll see at the end of this blog.

Following are some photos
of a few of the nativity scenes.

I took more photos that turned out
to be too blurry to include here. With the low
lighting, it was tricky to get a good photo.

Below is the tiniest nativity scene.
You may think it is a white thimble,
but there is a nativity scene carved on it.
It is from Peru.

The nativity scenes were made of wood, china, glass,
metal, wire, cloth, paintings, and potatoes. Potatoes?
Yes, potatoes, as you shall see.

Here's Huddy by one of the larger nativities.

Here's the potato nativity.
Sorry it's not clearer.

Katie took this clearer close-up.

This one below is made from wooden boards.

And here's the live nativity scene portrayed
by the cousins, minus Nola.

Cousin Capers

Two of our grandchildren,

Carson and Hudson, three-year-old cousins,

are spending the week with us.

They enjoy playing together and share the toys.

Below are some photos that I took while they were playing.

Below, they are talking to each other on the play phones.

Carson making music while in the background,

Huddy just came down the slide.

The weather has been perfect and they like playing outside.

Below, they are digging for buried treasure.

Can You Do This?

Can you balance a full water bottle on your head?

Six-year-old Megan can!

Mummy Candy Bars

Halloween is almost here!

Katie told me about some mummy candy bars
that she made for the women on her visiting teaching list.


I looked up the directions online and made some today.

Start with a delicious candy bar.

Then glue some googly eyes onto
black paper.


Next glue the paper square onto the candy bar.

Then wrap white crepe paper around and around the candy bar,
anchoring it with a touch of glue at the beginning
of the wrapping and at the end.

Then share with your spooky friends.

Owls, Owls, and More Owls!

On Pinterest, I saw a cute craft to make owls out

of toilet paper or paper towel tubes.

I gathered all the necessary supplies
(tubes, paint, brushes, googly eyes, fabric for wings)
so my grandchildren could make them.

Below are Carson, Megan, and Justine
at the craft table.

Here are the owls at one home.


And below are the owls that now live at the other
grandchildren's home.

Autumn in Bloom!

The other day I was wondering if anything

was blooming in my yard.

So I did a walk-around and below is what I found:

On my deck, the Impatiens are still blooming!

And the Vincas below have a few blooms.

I think the butterfly is heading for the pink bloom.


In the backyard, the Red Pine Cone Ginger Lillies are all blooming!
.

In the front yard, the American Beautyberry has lots of color.


And the Melampodium, too.

I've never seen this Lantana in my yard before,

but I'm glad it's there!

Fettucine with Zucchini & Pecans

I saw this recipe for Fettucine with Zucchini and Pecans in the
October 2011 Southern Living magazine
and it looked good!

No meat and I could use some of my pecans.

Below, the fettucine noodles are cooking on the back burner.
The pecans are toasting in front.

The large skillet on the right has the butter, olive oil & garlic simmering.

I shredded two zucchini.

Then sauteed the shredded zucchini till tender.

Asiago cheese and basil are then added to the zucchini.

The recipe called for fresh basil, but whenever I get fresh herbs,
it seems that I only use part of them and
the rest go bad.

Here's the meal, ready to eat.
The first night, the asiago cheese flavor was very strong.
The second night, it was weaker, thank goodness.

I read that parmesan cheese could be substituted
for asiago cheese,
which I may try next time I make this.