The Fabertids Come To Town!

A pictorial summary of a wonderful visit from the Fabertids (and the Faber-adults, too)!

Care Package #41: M&M Cookies

Knowing that the care packaging is winding down, I decided to make something super yummy and only passingly healthy. I used my trusty Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but substituted M&Ms for chocolate chips (mainly because they would survive the heat better and because I didn't have any chocolate chips in the house).

Basic Cookie Recipe
1.3 C butter, softened
.75 C white sugar
.75 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 C wheat flour
2 - 2.5 C white flour
2 C M&Ms

In a large bowl, blend together the butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla and baking soda. Slowly stir in the flours until well blended. Add M&Ms and, if you have the time, refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 and drop teaspoon size balls of dough onto a low-rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes and allow to cool before storing in an air tight container.

Ok, fine, it wasn't really healthy at all. But I did cut back on the amount of sugar, cut out the margarine completely and add whole wheat flour, so there were some minor improvements. I had intended to take a picture of the leftovers that I brought to work. However, they were eaten too quickly!

The Autumnal Equinox (belated)

Last week was the Autumnal Equinox, the point where the number of daylight and nighttime hours are exactly equal. It just so happened that the Harvest Moon also occurred on the same day (a fairly rare thing). If I were still living in Connecticut I would have gone for a walk out at Bluff Point or Barn Island. But since I live in Savannah, I decided to take a leisurely stroll around Forsyth Park and see what autumn looked like. As I walked, this little haiku bounced around in my head:

Today the daylight

is just as long as the dark

A change of season

I loved the soft, feathery look of this dune grass bloom against the linear blades.

Prep work was in progress for the weekend's 29th Annual Savannah Jazz Festival.


I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but the lantern-like seed pods were so pretty.


The setting sun cast this lovely pink glow in the Spanish Moss.

And, of course, there was the moon. The full, swollen, glorious, bright and full moon. I know the photo doesn't show the same clarity I had when I was viewing it, but you still get the idea. The smaller, bright dot just below the moon was Jupiter, the second brightest heavenly body that night.

Care Package #40: More Oasis Bars!

I really just can't get enough of these Oasis fruit bars! The nuts provide a good crunch, the batter is simple and yummy, and the fruit makes it sweet without being sugary. And I've yet to find a bad combination of fruits and nuts. You just can't go wrong with these!

*photo enlarged to show yummy.

This time I used slivered almonds and crushed walnuts with just cranberries and chopped dried apricots. So. Good.

I only have 3, maybe 4, more care packages to send. I'd like to say that they will be spectacularly outstandingly creative. But the next month is fairly hectic, so I doubt that will be the case. But don't count me out yet, I just may surprise myself!

A little mental candy for a Monday morning...

If you're having a tough time this morning, take a moment to flash back to the good ole Pac-Man days!

Students create amazing 'Pac-Man' stop motion video

Care Packages #38 & 39: The best laid plans...

Apologies for falling a bit behind on posting about the care packages, but the past two haven't really been much to write home about.

For care package #38, I was visiting Dad to clean out his garage. I knew that whatever goody I baked at his house he would end up nibbling on, so it had to be low or no-sugar. In the interest of protecting Dad's sugar count and not making something with lots of sugar substitute for Brian, I whipped up a batch of my go-to granola! See, nothing too exciting there.

Last week I was feeling rather adventurous after all my house guests headed home. I decided to try to create a brand new granola bar recipe. It smelled good as I was mixing it up, and even better as I was baking it. Unfortunately, I must have left out some key type of bonding ingredient because it tasted delicious but was mushy and totally unable to hold itself together. So Brian got a box of Nature Valley granola bars and I'll stick to a real tried-and-true recipe for this week.

Enough about disappointing boxes. The real highlight of the past week came in the form of an estimated departure date for Brian! Ever since he told me that his unit was getting extended, I was bracing to expect him home in early to mid November. But this week I found out that he should be back sometime in mid to late October! Sure, it's only a few weeks difference... But still, it's a few weeks EARLIER! Which means that in just a little over a month he will be back home. I still break out in a huge, goofy grin every time I think about it. I'm also a bit amazed at how fast this year has gone by. I mean, tomorrow I will be mailing out the 40th care package. That's a lot of baking...

Labor Day: my new favorite holiday

In the line-up of widely celebrated and much anticipated holidays, Labor Day usually is not at the top of the list. The biggies like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Groundhog Day are really the heavy hitters. Okay, I'm kidding about Groundhog Day, but you get the point.

However, I really have to say that my last two Labor Days have been, well, outstanding! Last year Joy and Dad and I had a great time exploring the area and catching up. I was visited by my dear friend Eric and his beautiful family and, though I wasn't really at the point of writing about it at the time, it was also the first week that Brian and I started dating.

This year, Dad came up for the long weekend again and, as already mentioned, we had fun visiting with the folks at his church, playing on the rail trail and making yummy frozen yogurt treats. We were planning a lazy Sunday evening of watching movies and lounging around when I got a surprise phone call from another very dear friend from my college days.

Fairlight's husband, Jonathon, had ridden his bike from Toccoa to Tybee while Fairlight and the kids followed him down in the car. Their planned accommodations hadn't panned out and they were wondering if I had room for them to spend the night. Anyone who has seen my apartment knows that space is one thing I have plenty of, so I was excited to have them all over!

The kids enjoyed my library, craft supplies and the dogs. The adults enjoyed a chance to chat and catch up. And the dogs enjoyed cleaning the floors after meals. So a great time was had by all!!

Skye and Dad's Weekend of Fun!

What a wonderful weekend Dad and I have been enjoying! Friday night we went out to dinner with Jessie and had some great Indian food at Pakwan in the Oglethorpe Mall.

Saturday was a very busy day, but in a good way. Last week my dryer decided to break and being an avid do-it-yourself-er I decided to take the dryer apart and fix it. Luckily the Sears parts store was open so I was able to pick up a new belt for $20. Dad helped and we were able to get the dryer up and running in just about an hour.


Several months back Dad and I had some very yummy gelato at Mr. Koolz. He was really excited because they had sugar-free gelato, so he didn't even have to cheat. The vanilla tasted a bit like marshmallow, and that got him craving Rocky Road. So this weekend we picked up some sugar-free chocolate (which, surprisingly, actually does taste like chocolate!), mini-marshmallows and walnuts.

I whipped out the Cuisinart Ice Cream machine and blended up a batch of sugar-free Rocky Road frozen yogurt. It was delicious!

I even used a little of the extra frozen yogurt to blend with some mixed berries for a fruity frozen yogurt treat. What a way to celebrate the end of summer!

This morning the weather was so nice, fairly cool (for Georgia) and lowish humidity (again, for Georgia). So we laced up our walking shoes, slathered on some sunscreen, pulled on our hats and headed out to the McQueen's Island Historic rail trail! It was beautiful! Friends have been telling me about this place since I moved here, but I've never made the time to go until now. Altogether it is six miles from one end to the other. Dad and I parked at the mid-point and walked a mile and a half down the trail.

Along the way we saw a few really neat sights: herons, pelicans, butterflies, dragonflies, marshes and mudflats full of baby crabs. These cheerful morning glory-like flowers were teeming with yellow butterflies having brunch.

All this, and we still have the rest of today and tomorrow morning! Dad's been talking about getting a new car soon, so we may go out for a few test drives after lunch. All in all, it's been a pretty great weekend.

Care Package #37: Cowgirl Bars

I'm not really sure how these bars got their name. But rest assured, I have not purchased leather boots, a hat that is measured by gallons, or a horse. However, I did make a pretty mean batch of super crunchy snack bars! I found this recipe in the Savannah Morning News under a section about up scaling your road trip fare. Not too shabby, but they could possibly remove fillings if bitten the wrong way... consider yourself warned!

Cowgirl Granola Bars

.3 C sunflower seeds
.3 C flax seeds
2 C old fashioned oats
.5 C chopped figs
4 TBS vegetable oil
.5 C honey
.5 C brown sugar
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
.25 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 and line a 13.5" x 10" baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toast the flax and sunflower seeds, for no more than 10 minutes. In a large bowl mix together the oats, seeds and dried figs.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the vegetable oil, honey, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook this only until the brown sugar melts and the ingredients come together (about 2-3 minutes).

Pour the spice-sugar mix over the oats and stir with a wooden spoon until evenly coated. Press the mix into the cookie sheet using a spatula to apply pressure and get an even thickness. Bake for about 30 minutes or until it begins to brown. Let cool slightly, then cut with a very sharp knife.

Care Package #36: First Date

On August 29, 2009 I was lucky enough to go on an outstanding first date (with Brian, in case you didn't make the connection). We met for dinner at Carrabas and ended up sitting there talking for over 2 hours. After the waitress cleared the table and wiped it down we got the hint that she was encouraging us to move along. But I didn't want the date to end yet, so I broke one of my cardinal rules of dating: no movies on a first date. If you're trying to get to know someone and see if you click, what good is it to sit in the dark and not talk for 2 hours? Not to mention that you never know what kind of awkward or charged issue could come up in a movie storyline. Still, I wasn't ready to say goodnight just yet, so I suggested catching a movie. We both agreed on "Funny People" and, awkward sexual humor aside, it was pretty funny.

Fast forward one year, and I was racking my brain to come up with a "First Date" themed care package. Since we ate at an Italian restaurant, I decided to bake an Italian snack: chocolate almond biscotti (recipe below). Biscotti is one of my favorite snacks and it took every ounce of will power not to eat the whole batch by myself!


But just sending biscotti was not enough. I decided to recreate as best I could our actual first date. Of course, real Italian food would never survive the trip to Iraq. But Chef Boyardee could! I also picked up a copy of "Funny People" and some movie candy to round out the package. Everything seemed to arrive in good condition, except the Milk Duds melted into one big Dud.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

1.75 C flour

.3 C unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

.5 tsp salt

6 TBS butter, room temperature

1 C sugar

3 large eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla

1 C chocolate chips

1 C slivered almonds

Line two cookie sheets with heavy duty tin foil.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add eggs one at a time then add vanilla. Add flour mixture just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips and almonds.

Put half the dough on each cookie sheet and, with wet fingertips, shape into logs about 3" by 12". Refrigerate for half hour.

Heat oven to 350. Bake logs for 25 to 35 minutes or until top begins to crack and toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes then cut into 1" thick slices and place flat on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven and turn slices over. Return to oven and bake for another 8 minutes. Let them cool completely then store in an airtight container.