Prize Winning Recipe and A Love of Travel

Last Monday was our Library's 18th Annual Chocolate Lovers Bake Off, and for all of you who know how much I love to bake, it will come as no surprise that I entered. This year I entered Neapolitan Cupcakes in the cake category and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting in the cookie and bars category. And I am happy to report I won first place in the cookie category. So if you love pumpkin and chocolate, feel free to try them out for yourselves.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bars

2 cups flour
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
1  cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Mix dry ingredients and set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, and then beat in pumpkin before adding dry ingredients. Finally, fold in chocolate chips. Spread in greased pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick come out of the center cleanly. Cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting
                        

 1 ½ cups softened salted butter

1 cup baking cocoa

5 cups powdered sugar

½ cup milk

1 TBS vanilla extract

In stand mixer, add five cups of powdered sugar and cocoa and beat on low until combined. Add butter, vanilla, and one TBS of milk and beat. Continue to add milk one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. If frosting is too thin, add additional powdered sugar. 

Besides baking, reading, writing, crafting, taking pictures, and geocaching, I also love to travel.  So as I sifted through my pile of borrowed library books, I decided on a book simply titled Somewhere Else. As I opened the cover and admired the end pages my interested was piqued. On those end pages were a myriad of old newspaper or catalog clippings of suit cases and travel bags. In case I haven't  mentioned before, I also have a love of all things old and full of history. It took me a while to tear myself away from the end papers, but when I did, I enjoyed the story of George the bird. George, much like myself, was a prize winning baker. But unlike me, George never went anywhere.

George's friends invited him to travel, but he always turned them down claiming he was just to busy to go anywhere. When winter arrived, George found himself all alone until a bear named Pascal stopped by looking for a warm place to spend the winter. Eventually, George revealed his secret to Pascal and Pascal helped him over it. And in the end, they set out on a grand adventure!

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter  @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Time to Come Home

This past week while Bobby was in Japan, Emily and I  kept busy to keep our mind off of it. We made a snow woman. We went to cookbook club. And I canned some apple pie filling from the apples a friend gave me. I even sanded the top of an old cedar chest my mother-in-law gave me in preparation of giving it a new coat of urethane. All in all, a good week.

 

 

And half way across the world, Bobby was working, eating out with co-workers, and took a tour of Tokyo.

 

With all of this busyness, I still had time to read a book for review. The book I chose was How High Is The Sky by Anna Milbourne. It is the story of a curious little penguin who is always asking questions. HIs biggest question is how high is the sky. As he attempts to find out, he gets farther and farther away from home and his Mama. He decides to go back home and he also decides that the sky just doesn't end. This made me think of how far away Bobby is and how I can't wait until it is time for him to come home!

There is supposed to be a poster at the end of the book that shows his journey, but my library copy had been removed. This book was really enjoyable and I would recommend it for children five to eight.

 

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequel, Return To Fern Valley, and the soon to be released Cooking In Fern Valley (fall 2015)! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Damaged Luggage and A Winter Wonderland

The saga of Bobby's trip to Japan continues. I heard from him for a few minutes when he called to let me know he had arrived safely. After he had time to sleep, he called me again before he left for work (Our morning is their night and so forth). Unfortunately, when he arrived at Tokyo, he found that the suitcase he had borrowed for the trip had been damaged.

I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to try and drag luggage about with an entire ripped side all while trying to keep belongings from spilling out. Hopefully he won't let this minor set back sap the joy out of this experience.

Meanwhile, here in Ohio we have that lovely deep blanket of winter snow that was missing during Christmas. With that in mind, along with Bobby's trip, I chose two books. One about snow, and one representing Asian twins and the beautiful way they share everything

The first book is actually called Snow and is by the wonderful Cynthia Rylant. Snow is an absolutely and astoundingly beautifully written and illustrated book. She describes snow in amazing ways like the snow that falls at night and the snow that causes school children to be sent home. The snow that helps make memories. I seriously recommend this book for children and adults alike.

 

The second book I read was Ling and Ting Share A Birthday by author/illustrator Grace Lin. Ling and Ting are identical twins and it's their birthday. They share birthday shoes, they share birthday cake, they share a birthday wish, they even share their birthday gifts. But when they share most is an appreciation of each other. this book is perfect for children between the ages of five and eight and shares a very positive message.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, the sequel, Return To Fern Valley, and the soon to be released Cooking In Fern Valley (fall 2015)! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.