A TWIST ON A CLASSIC – NANAIMO BARS

Tonight I decided I would attempt to make a dessert that many of my friends – mostly from CANADA – have been talking about for a long time…and for good reason too. They are NANAIMO bars. They are named for a city in British Columbia where – in the 1950s – Mabel Jenkins, a housewife created and submitted the recipe for a local cookbook. And it was ultimately a hit.

I’m sure there are many recipes for nanaimo bars, but I kept it simple in my search for one…and chose the first one that popped up on google.com. However, the recipe I had called for things I did not have in my pantry or didn’t want to use, so as always I improvised. (I mean, what is cooking without a little improvisation, right?

So here is my take on NANAIMO bars.

BOTTOM LAYER                     SECOND LAYER                             THIRD LAYER

½ C unsalted butter              ½ C unsalted butter                      4 oz semi sweet chocolate
¼ C sugar                                   2 T & 2 t cream                                2 T unsalted butter
5 T dark cocoa                         2 T vanilla custard powder
1 egg, beaten                            2 C icing sugar
1 ¾ C Ritz Crackers
1 C coconut

Line 8X8 pan with wax paper

BOTTOM LAYER: Melt butter, sugar, and cocoa in double boiler. When melted, add egg. Remove from heat. Add ritz crackers (crumbled) and coconut. Press into 8X8 pan.

SECOND LAYER. Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Spread over BOTTOM LAYER.

THIRD LAYER. Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler – until shiny and smooth. Pour over SECOND LAYER.

Use microplane to dust top of chocolate with nutmeg. Refrigerate as needed to get allow the chocolate to set. Enjoy!

Having never had any other nanaimo bar before, I can’t say these are the best ever, but my husband enjoyed them and that is what matters, right? Would love to hear how you make nanaimo bars!!! What’s your secret ingredient???

Another day in Maryland?

Saw something interesting the other day – which I have never seen before – ever in any other city I’ve visited or lived in. People were standing on the median – in the middle of the street – not even near a light…with stacks and stacks of newspapers there. And people were stopping either buying them or just grabbing them. Very interesting I will say. Normally, I wouldn’t say anything about this type of behavior, but it was seriously messing up traffic – even more so than traffic normally is…and that is saying something significant about Baltimore.

Will have to take a picture next time.

My Life as a (Stuck at Home)…Stuck at Home

 

Having spent a lot of time indoors with two kids under 5 for the past week and a day (but who’s counting), I understand how changing one’s scenery is good for the mind, emotions and soul. It takes you away – if just for a bit – and allows you to focus on the positive aspects of your experiences rather than the difficulties.

Yesterday was a crazy day for me in terms of watching the kids. I mean, everything, everything one of them did would get on my nerves.

I have an almost 18 month old son…and he is in full exploration mode… In my mind, he is looking for the next best thing to conquer, destroy, take apart, or just play with. And while he sees it all as fun play, I see many of these activities as potential opportunitues for him to get hurt.

For example, when he found the knitting needle – which has still not been put in a safe, proper place, as we just moved into our new home less than two weeks ago – I got nervous and immediately the thoughts that rush into my mind are of every possibility of how such an object can result in serious body injury…especially while sliding down the stairs with it in hand.

From all of this, I guess I can say, that I’m a glass half empty kind of girl, where look at all of the “bad” aspects of a situation, rather than the good. And while I’m not always this way, this is the way lean most of the time.

I think that getting out of the house is a distraction for me to not only forget about all of the trouble my child could get into at home, but also an opportunity for me to control the settings we will be in in an attempt to keep him safe and secure.

I guess I’m a control freak who needs to pray about the need to control my child (and others) in an attempt to make myself feel good about my life and the situations surrounding it.

Driving in Baltimore

People here are fearless – or at least they appear to be that way – especially when it comes to driving.

DRIVING…

Baltimore MUST have rules and laws, as there are signs everywhere that say how fast one should be driving, where one should or should not be driving and where one needs to stop while driving. But here in Baltimore, you really wouldn’t think these rules are in place. Drivers here are a lot like drivers in CA. While there are posted rules and signs, it’s as if no one sees them.

Tailgating is a natural way of life for people in Baltimore, as is speeding. A sign can say 30 MPH and people are driving at speeds up to 50 – through neighborhoods – never the less. It’s really scary not only as another driver on the road, but also for pedestrians.

Last evening, while returning home from a late dinner and fun day with our friends – the Malmins – we were driving home…and noticed two persons attempting to cross the street in a crosswalk. We stopped at the cross walk to allow them to pass, but there had to be at least 4 other cars that went right through the cross walk, again, at excessive speeds, right it front of a sign which says, it’s the law, stop for pedestrians.

Perhaps people here do not care about the law, or maybe it is just that they are so consumed by the busyness of their own lives that they don’t have time to pay attention to the rules and other persons around them.

West to East: How it’s different

I’ve lived my entire life on the west coast of the United States…and enjoyed every minute of it. But when my husband was laid off from his job three months ago, it sent seeking work in other places. While he had many job offers, we had made a commitment to some friends (and to God) that we would be a part of a church plant team – growing together in our faith and seeking God wholeheartedly. So, Baltimore was really the only option for us.

[Let me say that I had only been to the east coast two times prior in my life – once to VA/DC to visit Greg before we were married while he was setting up and running an office for a job he had back then and in March 2010 on a scouting trip to see if we liked the area.]

So my initial impression of the area was favorable. Baltimore has been given a bad “rap” for being a thug infested, gang banging city. From what I heard of others, I was expecting to see thugs and gang bangers on every street corner reaching out their hands to give me something I didn’t want or chasing me down the street trying to “steal” something I had. This perception – based on what I have seen – couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Now maybe there are acts of gang banging and drug smuggling going on in Baltimore, but I haven’t seen any of that yet. And I’m sure I don’t really want to either. I really want to savor the image of Baltimore I now have in my head.

While I think Baltimore is a great city with many opportunities for kids, families and people to grow as quality citizens, I do have some other initial perceptions based on my own history living on the West Coast.

So over the next couple of weeks, I am going to attempt to log my initial perceptions of the city and – in some cases – the east coast. I will attempt to compare and contrast the stores, culture, restaurants, and daily life of a newbie east coaster.