Month: June 2011

by

Crisp Toffee Chocolate Bars? Cookies? – The Jury Is Out On What To Call Them

This is the fastest dessert recipe we know.  It’s perfect when you find out at the last minute that you need to bring a dessert to dinner.  How about when your kid needs something for school the next morning and it’s 9 o’clock at night?  This will do the trick.  The recipe calls it a bar, but we think of it more as a shortbread cookie.  Because it is like shortbread, the dough is not the same consistency as a regular drop cookie.  The success of this dough is all in your hands.  This dough needs to be pressed into the pan with your hands.  It is also best to start mixing it with your hands when you start to add the flour.  Another tip–start with super softened butter.  If you do, you can mix all the ingredients together in one bowl and a wooden spoon.  What you get at the end is a toffee-like cookie/bar thanks to the butter and brown sugar with the gooey goodness of the chocolate chips.  There is no one in the room that can resist this dessert.  It’s salty and sweet goodness is a hit with everyone.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus more for the pan
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  •  1 teaspoon coarse salt
  •  1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  •  2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  •  1/3 cup pecans, chopped
  •  1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Add the flour and mix well to combine.  Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the prepared pan.

Bake until golden and set, about 20 minutes.  Cut into even squares while still warm.

Fast and fabulous.  We made this over Memorial Day weekend for a party that we went to and they were an absolute hit.  Give these a try the next time you want something delicious and don’t have a lot of time.  Let us know too if you think they are a cookie or a bar.  We can’t ever seem to decide.  What are your favorite quick desserts? 

by

More Flower Power – Our Virtual Garden Tour

This is an update on what’s blooming on Glen Road.  The big news this week is that it is peonies and roses that have opened their buds for all to see.  While there are a few other bloomers out in the garden, it is easy to lose track of them due to the utter beauty of the peonies and roses.  This year there are more peonies open than ever before and the roses that we have are full and lush in their blooms.  So sit back and take a virtual garden tour with us and take a look at what’s blooming in the gardens here on Glen Road.

Hope you enjoyed our little virtual garden tour.  The weather is very hot here in Connecticut now so it is time to start watering during the early morning and later evening hours.  Even then it is hard to keep everything looking so fresh and lush.  Let’s hope we can squeeze a few more days or weeks of beauty out of these gorgeous peonies and roses.  It will be a shame if we can’t.  What’s blooming in your neck of the woods?

by

Tulips In A Tree

This is one of our favorite trees on Glen Road.  No picture can really do it justice in showing its height and how majestic it stands.  The tree is a Tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera.  It is also called a yellow poplar, tulip poplar, tulip magnolia or a white wood.  The Tulip tree is native to the eastern U.S. and is the state tree of Indiana and Tennessee.  Here on Glen Road, our Tulip tree stands very straight and very, very tall, until you get to the top.  At the top of the tree, there is a spot where the main trunk has a bend in it before it starts to grow straight again.  We have been told this is most likely where the tree was struck by lightning.

The Tulip tree is one of the tallest trees in the forest.  It may live 200 years.  The tree is deciduous, meaning it loses its leaves on a seasonal basis.  The Tulip tree is usually 70-90 feet tall.  However, it has been known to reach more than 180 feet tall.  The large, cup-shaped flowers don’t appear until the tree is between 15 and 25 years old.  The flowers are hard to see when in the tree because they grow high above the ground.  It is only when the wind blows them down that we are able to get a close-up view.

The Tulip tree leaf is simple and is shaped something like the outline of a Dutch tulip.  It is bright green on the top and paler green underneath.  In the Fall, it turns pale yellow.  The flower is perfect.  This means that it has both male and female parts.  It has green petals with orange splotches at the bottom.  The flowers appear in late May or early June.  In the Fall, the tree will drop its fruit.  The cone-shaped fruit is made up of clusters of samaras.  Each samara holds two seeds.  When the fruit dries and opens, the samaras scatter, carrying the seeds on the wind.

Tulip trees are very weak-wooded.  This means the limbs often break during ice and wind storms.  It is a good thing that our Tulip tree is near the end of the driveway and not near the house.  The wood is light yellow and very easy to carve.  That is why the wood is used today for crates, musical instruments, toys and roof shingles.

As we’ve said before, we love to grow unique plants here on Glen Road.  While we didn’t plant our Tulip tree, we are so glad that it is here.  Do you have any interesting trees or plants growing on your property that you can share with us here on Acorns On Glen?

by

Funky Italian Stuffed Peppers

This is a cubanelle pepper.  I’ve seen them in the supermarket many times and always wondered what you used them for in cooking.  Well, I know now!  The Brooklyn Italian Grandmother is back, fully jeweled, and is making her version of Italian stuffed peppers using cubanelle peppers.  She tells us that this is her own creation that she has come up with over the years through trial and error.  What is unique about this dish is that you actually start by mixing and frying the stuffing.  Once cooled, the fried stuffing is then placed in the peppers and baked until the peppers are tender.  These are one of those dishes that seem to taste better the next day after all the flavors have settled and melded together.  So let’s join our Brooklyn Italian Grandmother and make some funky Italian stuffed peppers…the cubanelle way.

Ingredients:

  • 5 cloves of garlic, chopped into small pieces
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
  • 3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
  • 4 thin slices of Italian sopressata, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
  • 6 cubanelle peppers, cut in half and cleaned

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix garlic, eggs, bread crumbs, cheese, sopressata, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine well.

  Bling and stuffing!

Heat the olive oil in a skillet until hot.  Put the mixture into the oil and fry it until it becomes golden brown.

  Hot stuff and I’m not talking about what’s in the skillet.

Take fried stuffing out of the skillet and place it into a bowl.  Let it cool until it can be handled.

Stuff each pepper half with the fried stuffing and place stuffed pepper halves into a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.

  Always wear a ring that matches your baking dish.

Sprinkle each stuffed pepper with paprika.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes.  When pepper begins to get tender, remove foil and continue cooking until pepper feels tender when pierced with a fork (about 10 more minutes).  Remove from oven and drizzle balsamic vinegar over each pepper.

You can be the judge here on how you want to serve these wonderful peppers.  They are great as a side dish and they can stand alone on their own and be a wonderful lunch.  In fact, make enough so that they can serve both–side dish and lunch.  I love the savory aspects of the stuffing along with the little flavor punch that the pepper and balsamic vinegar give this dish.  If you are a stuffed pepper lover, this is the dish for you.  What great Italian side dish recipes do you make and serve at your house?

by

Friday Dance Party – Streisand With Duck Sauce

This is another edition of Friday Dance Party on Acorns On Glen.  It’s the time where we give thanks for another week of living.  We give thanks for making it through and for being able to celebrate this fact.  How do we celebrate another week of living?  We dance.  So take a moment and be proud of the fact that you’re here and you’ve made it to another Friday.  Not only you, but your family and friends as well.    So, to that end, are you alive this Friday?  Have you given thanks for this?

Good, now let’s dance.

I’ve decided that life has no real rhyme or reason anymore.  You can work so hard to create and plan something for yourself and then it can be over in just a few freak seconds.  Think of the people who have been victim to the tornadoes of this Spring.  They can devise intricate plans to accomplish things like having a large family, saving lots of money or working their way up the corporate ladder into their dream job and then go home one night and have disaster strike out of the blue that ends it all.  There seems to not really be a sure-fire way to plan your entire life.  There just seems to be too many variables.  Is living a long and prosperous life just luck?  I don’t think so.  I’ve decided the one thing that you should decide to build is happiness.  Happiness is the one true thing that can create a life that is fulfilling and rich.  A life without regrets.  I believe that if you are true to yourself and work to be happy, then you are destined to attract the same type of energy from the universe.  This melding of happy energy flow manifests itself by giving you things like a great family and friends, a job that you wake up excited to go to every day and a just a sense of gratitude for being in this world.  Happiness is the key to unlock all doors to success.  I need to work to be more happy….then the rest will come.    No rhyme or reason…just happiness.  So that’s why this week’s song is ‘Barbra Streisand’ by Duck Sauce.  Duck Sauce is an American-Canadian DJ duo consisting of Armand Van Helden and A-Trak.  The pair aim to produce disco house tracks that will appeal to club DJs.  In a recent interview, a member of the duo said there was no rhyme or reason behind their new hit.  “There really is no relation or rational reason behind the lyric in the title, Barbra Streisand,” said A-Trak.  “It’s just something that we thought would make people laugh….We just came up with this idea that it would be funny to say someone’s name.”  Be careful.  This song is habit forming.  After you listen and dance to it a few times you’ll be walking around humming the melody or walking up to people and saying ‘Barbra Streisand’.  People will think you are a little bit weird, but you’ll be happy and that’s what is important these days.  So reward yourself for another week of living and shake it to a little Duck Sauce.  You deserve it…and get happy.  Are you a little disgusted with what’s going on in the world these days and what do you do to get over it?

by

Flower Power

This is an update on what’s blooming here in the garden on Glen Road.  It seems the early Spring bloomers are already spent and so now it is time to move on to our early Summer/late Spring group.  This group is led by the beautiful peonies that are just starting to pop open after some warm weather and plenty of rain early in their growth.  There are also some plants that are blooming that we can’t name.  They have been here at Glen Road longer than we have, so if you know what they are, let us know.  So sit back and enjoy our gallery of late Spring bloomers.

We hope you liked our little garden tour.  Seeing these beautiful blooms makes all the effort seem worth it.  Again, we wish someone could invent something that makes these flowers last year round.  Seems like such a waste for them to be around for such a short amount of time.  What’s blooming in your neck of the woods?

by

A Snake Sighting And Then A House For Sale

This was my surprise waiting for me in the garden.  Every time I screamed, it would slither off into the woods.  I would then run into the house, gather my courage and slowly go back outdoors.  There it would be–back in the same place in the garden.  We completed the same screaming, running, returning cycle about three times.  Remember, I don’t really like critters.  Remember the beaver, the chipmunks, the birds?  Why is God doing this to me?

I finally decided to be a man and go out and garden and pretend it wasn’t there.  I would even take pictures of the garter snake (see, I knew what kind of snake it was).  I would name it.  Lenny, that’s a good name.  I’ve read that if something has a name and a face, it is less threatening.  I decided I would even do some research to find out more about my reptile friend.  Here is some of my research:

The Garter snake is a Colubrid snake genus (Thamnophis) common across North America, ranging from Alaska and Canada to Central America.  It is the single most widely distributed genus of reptile in North America.  The garter snake is also the Massachusetts state reptile (I no longer like Boston).  Garter snakes are widespread throughout North America.  The common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) is the only species of snake to be found in Alaska and is believed to be one of the northernmost species of snake in the world.  The genus is so far ranging due to its unparticular diet and adaptability to different biomes and landforms, with varying proximity to water.  Garter snakes, like all snakes, are carnivorous. Their diet consists of almost any creature that they are capable of overpowering:  slugs, earthworms, leeches, lizards, amphibians, birds, fish, toads and rodents (thank God that Yorkies weren’t on the list!). When living near the water, they will eat other aquatic animals.  Food is swallowed whole (similar to how several of my friends eat).  Garter snakes often adapt to eat whatever they can find, and whenever, because food can be scarce or abundant.

By the end of the day, Lenny had slithered off and I didn’t see him again.  I know he is out there, but I haven’t seen him.  As long as he is out there eating mice and bad bugs, I’ll get used to knowing that a garter snake slithers among us here at Glen Road.  I don’t like it, but I’ll get used to it.  I mean, it’s not like Mother Nature issues restraining orders.  I’m calm now.  I’m going outside to pull the ‘For Sale’ sign out of the front lawn.  Do you have any ideas on how to keep snakes as far away as possible from you, your house and your garden?