Apple Cider Bars

Here is what happens when your first photo attempts are blurry and you make a yummy new snack. All that ends up being left is an itty bitty little bite left for a photo op.

I love apple cider.Which is odd because I hate straight apple juice. Must be all those mulling spices. I am a spicy kind of gal.  The 100 percent stuff is my favorite. But in a pinch I will drink the powdered mix stuff. While you might be able to use the powdered apple cider mix for this recipe if you can have the real stuff go for it. However this is a food storage blog and this recipe would be a great addition to your food storage recipe arsenal.

So how could I resist trying the recipe found on the bakck of the Litehouse Apple Cider. Like I said these bars got gobbled -- for breakfast, for snack, for dessert. I was a little afraid of the Cheerios on the ingredient list but they add a really tasty crunch. I also substituted 1 chopped apple for the dried apple chips because I have a box full of apples waiting to be used. However, I love that I can pull apple chips out of my pantry to make this recipe even when apples are not in season.

The end result: These bars have a mildly spicy tang reminiscent of a warm cup of cider.

The Recipe
1 1/4 Cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup softened butter
4 Cups Cheerios (I used Honey Nut Cheerios)
1 Cup Apple Cider
1/2 cup chopped dried apples or 1 cup diced apple
1 egg
1 cup oats
1/2 tsp salt
1 Cup raisins
1 TB vanilla
1 1/2 Cups flour

Heat oven to 350 degrees farenheit. Boil 1 Cup cideer and apples in saucepan until liquid is reduced to 1/4 cup.

mix sugar, butter, peanut butter, cider, vanilla and egg in a large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients except for Cheerios.

Gently stir in cereal.

Pour into ungreased  9x13 pan and Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into bars.

Lessons from Kids

Sometimes I rock the house as a mom. I really put every effort to be there for my kids. Sometimes I also feel like the giving in this mom child relationship is a little one sided. But every once in  awhile I am reminded of what my kids give me. My children have taught me and given me gifts beyond price, beyond the value of a little extra help around the house.

During my postpartum depression they literally saved my life. They were the reason I woke up everyday. During a severe illness and surgery they saved my life again as they gave me the will to get better and be their mother again. Over the past year they have literally saved and strengthened my testimony in the gospel. As I faced (and frankly continue to face on some days) a spiritual 30 something crisis, my children's faith and spiritual needs have driven me to strengthen myself - to rediscover my faith and my testimony -- to search out a relationship with Christ.

Just this week and again today I was strongly reminded that 1. Sometimes I do not rock the house as a mom (my children have also taught me humility on more than one occasion.) Sometimes I blow out it at the moment they are at their best. And there is a strong lesson in this as well.

2. The holy ghost is a real and wonderful gift that must not be ignored.
Occurence #1 I dropped 12 year-old Isaac off at a 3 hour party at the SUU pool. He ran in and I took off. I never even thought to check and see if everything was still a go for the party. I headed off with my girls to Wal-Mart to buy 3 birthday presents for all the parties we had this weekend. I spent an hour in Wal-Mart (at least) As soon as I got in the car. I had this strong thought come to me. What if the party was not at the pool what if Isaac is stranded there. I had forgotten my cell phone and knew he could not call me.
I brushed (with some effort) this thought away and chalked it up to paranoia. If there was really a problem he had money he could go swim anyways or he could do some of the other fun stuff they have at the SUU gym. He could call his Dad. Everything was fine. I decided to finish my errands. 45 minutes later. I decided to check on Isaac anyway. I went into the gym and pool and soon discovered that no one was swimming that night. There was a giant swim meet. Isaac and the party were no where to be found. I started to panic. Where was Isaac. I walked around the corner and found Isaac playing raquetball by himself in one of the courts. His party had never shown up and they had been unable to contact us to tell us plans had changed.  He was pretty upset. He had tried to call me and then he informed that he had said a prayer asking that I would know he needed me to come get him.

Isaac's prayer was answered. The Holy Ghost clearly gave me an impression of the scenario that might be occuring. I flat out ignored it at least for a while. I was devastated. I promised my son never to ignore a prompting to come to his aid again.

Secondly, today in church we talked about the Holy Ghost. Suddenly it came to me that everytime my little 5 year old Lia begs us to remember scripture study each night (we always forget and sometimes we decide not to do it anyway) she is asking for the experience of having the Holy Ghost testify the truth to her. She doesn't have that constant companionship yet and she must feel the peace and truth of the gospel as we read scriptures to her. I realized that in not being more consistent as a parent with this simple family task that she so truly wants in her life I was denying her the opportunity to feel and learn to understand the presence of the holy ghost testifying to her. At that moment I again felt terrible. But I also felt as if now I will be more consistent in getting our family scripture study done.

Sometimes lessons are painful to our pride. But they are always good when they come from our children.

I love Fall

I really do love fall. Too bad it has to be followed up by that icky season Winter. There are so many fun family traditions for us this time of year.

I also love Halloween (well not the horror side of it). I come from a family that has very ambivalent feelings about Halloween. My mother hates it, my dad doesn't love it and my sisters go along with it but they don't get super excited about making costumes and jackolanterns and making tacky halloween themed treats. I don't care what they say they don't get giddy about putting bats and skeleton rings on their daughter's witch tutu. I am the Halloween freak in my family.

Tom and I went to our adult party this year dressed as Calvin and Hobbes

Rebecca was a witch. And I got all crafty and made that tutu myself. Excuse me while I give myself a pat on the back. Craftiness like that only happens once a year.

Lia decided to be a blue haired rapunzel. We are a little twisted around here.

Isaac's costume is my favorite because it was FREE. He made it himself. Here he is with the pack of kids he ran around with that night.

A shot of our jack-o-lanterns.

Yep Halloween is fun. But our playing in the leaf tradition is even more fun. It is an hour of sheer abondonment. Every year I take my kids to the park with all the giant trees and we cavort in the leaves.
This year for the first time even Tom decided to come and while he sat back and watched the fun he also couldn't resist getting in on the leaf fight.