Today I was sitting in church, near the front, feeling quite smug. We finally got to the point where all four kids were sitting up and behaving through mass… not wiggling, crying, begging for snacks, having to go to the bathroom, etc. It was one of those Sunday morning’s where in my head, I thought… “This is finally easy. People are probably sitting behind us with their wiggly, crying kids being envious of us, like I used to when my kids were small. We’re finally at the point where even church is easy!”

Well, smugness in church is probably not a good thing, because on the way home, all hell broke loose…. meltdown city in the car, fist fights, palms from Palm Sunday were being shredded. There was yelling, crying and more. We used up all of our good behavior in church and completely lost it on the drive home. …

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I can’t hold myself back… it’s well into September now, which I think is quite the safe time to go full throttle pumpkin. Goodbye white pants and shoes, hello pumpkin!

I love summer, there’s no doubt about that, but I love fall just as much. Our family always takes a trip out to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch for a full day of fall activities. It is one of my most favorite days each year! Plus, as a photographer, I can’t help but love the photo opportunities at the pumpkin patch. The light is always the most wonderful, golden hue and the natural props all around are just too hard to pass up. By the time the sun sets, my kids are pictured out but my heart is always full and happy!…

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I have no red, white and blue masterpiece for you today. No berry topped dessert or patriotic themed beverage has been made. You’ll have to go elsewhere for gorgeous flag cakes, star spangled drinks and patriotic Popsicles.

Oh, we’ll be celebrating, don’t worry about that. There will be time for reflection on the true meaning of “Independence”, talking about the sacrifices that have been made through the years for our freedom. We’ll watch fireworks and I can guarantee that I’ll shed some tears as the voice of Lee Greenwood pierces the night sky and the lyrics of “Proud to Be An American” get caught in my throat.

I love the 4th of July, and although I feel a little bit bad that I don’t have a spectacular Red White and Blue creation to share with my friends and neighbors, I’ll remind myself that the true meaning of the 4th of July is not about the fireworks, the music or even the spectacular food. It’s about having a heart full of thanks for the people who make this great country we live in what it is. People living their dream, fighting for our freedom and doing what they can each and every day to make this land of ours one of equality and respect.

As the Star Spangled Banner plays… as the fireworks explode in the sky… and even as you take one last bite of holiday themed dessert, I hope you too will take a few moments to reflect on what it means to you to be an American. We have a lot of work to do and we aren’t a flawless entity, but I, for one, am most proud to live in the U.S.A.

(For those of you outside of the USA, happy day to you as well!)

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Pink Lemonade Dessert Bars

If you love lemonade, you'll really enjoy these lemonade bars. Your favorite summertime beverage in the form of a handheld dessert bar!

Ingredients

• 2 cups butter softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons lemonade powder like Country Time
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• Red food coloring
• Powdered Sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F degrees and line a 12x18 sheet cake pan with parchment paper.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and 1 cup granulated sugar. Slowly add salt and flour, mixing until a soft dough forms.
• Press dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly brown on top. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
• Reduce oven temperature 325 degrees.
• In a separate large mixing bowl, blend eggs and remaining sugar until fluffy and smooth. Add lemon juice, lemonade powder and food coloring until desired color. Add flour slowly, and continue stirring until well blended. Mixture will be thin.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until firm.
• Cool completely and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

More pink lemonade treats from around the web:

• Pink Lemonade Cupcakes from Real Mom Kitchen
• Pink Lemonade Pie from The Girl Who Ate Everything
• Pink Lemonade Cookies from Nothing But Country
• Pink Lemonade Cocktail from Somewhere Splendid

The post Indivisible {Recipe: Pink Lemonade Dessert Bars} appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Leah Meets Paula Deen BlogHer 2009 from Kristen Doyle on Vimeo.

The video above is of Paula Deen chatting with Leah during her appearance at BlogHer. Paula was hilarious, genuine and really an overall neat person! Seeing her was definitely one of the many highlights of BlogHer.

I returned from the BlogHer conference in Chicago yesterday and since that return, so many thoughts and ideas have been swimming around in my head. For those of you who are thinking about attending a BlogHer conference sometime in the future (next year is in NYC!) I highly recommend that you do so. Here are some of my random thoughts about the BlogHer 2009 conference.

• My friend Sandie (from Inn Cuisine) and I were roomies. Sandie and I met through our blogs a couple of years ago and have been fast friends since. It was so nice to get to hang out with her and get to know her better. It has been a very long time since I have laughed as hard as I did (so hard that at one point I spewed water all over our bathroom mirror because she said something hilarious when I was trying to brush my teeth!) Thank you, Sandie, for being such a great friend!
• As you know, I was so nervous about taking Leah with me to BlogHer. It ended up being great having her there. Granted, I was tired because of lugging her around for four days and we didn’t really go to any of the parties (and there are a LOT of parties happening at BlogHer) but she was one extremely popular little chick! She had to have had her picture taken at least 100 times. I met a lot of really nice people simply because they came up and started talking to me about Leah. If you are thinking about bringing your baby to BlogHer in the future, I personally think it is fine to do. There is a crazy amount of controversy surrounding the topic, but I say to go with your gut… overall, BlogHer is very welcoming to babies. As Paula Deen says above, it is wonderful that BlogHer doesn’t make moms of young babies make a choice.
• I have to say, in all honesty, I didn’t learn a ton from the sessions I attended, but I did pick up a few very valuable nuggets of info. By and far the best part about attending BlogHer was getting to connect with so many people with like minded interests (you know…those people who don’t look at you like an alien when you say you blog) and meeting people who I have greatly admired for the past few years. I am now happy to say that some very good friends who I first met online are now friends “in real life”. I also met some wonderful ladies who I did not know before the conference. I would pay for that experience time and time again.
• BlogHer ladies like to party and BlogHer’s love swag. BlogHer had some very generous sponsors this year and we came home with an enormous amount of quality swag. Thank you to all of the sponsors and individuals who provided all the loot. My kids were in heaven going through everything when I got home!

I could go on and on about how great BlogHer was and about how inspirational it was to chat and share ideas with such smart people, but I’m sure you get the drift. As much as I enjoyed my trip to BlogHer, I’m even kind of tired of hearing about it everywhere.  I hope that any of you who haven’t attended a BlogHer conference in the past get to do so in the future!

Now, for those of you who want a great recipe, my Mother-in-Law made these yummy banana bars for the kids while I was gone. I love that this recipe uses only 2 ripe bananas because that seems to be the most common amount of bananas I have when they ripen. Either we gobble them all up, or I’m stuck with two that no one wants to eat.

Love bananas? Dine & Dish has these other recipes you might love!

The post Babies, BlogHer and Banana Bars (Recipe: Frosted Banana Bars) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

As you already know, we leave for our Spring Break vacation tomorrow morning. This morning a friend of mine graciously offered to watch my girls so I could pack and get things ready to go. I had two hours… two hours to sort through clothes, get car ride activities together, figure out what food to take, wrap up any loose ends before we leave. What do you think I did with those two hours? Well, I did pack the road snacks (which is essential when you are going to be in the car for 16 hours!) After that, I didn’t do a darn thing to get ready for vacation. Nope, instead I baked some more bars! As if we did not have enough to eat on the way there, I decided my free time would best be used by baking.

I don’t know what it is about me and that last minute pressure to get things done, but I thrive under it. With my deadlines for work, I cannot seem to really hammer out a great story until I have that deadline looming over my head. With housecleaning… I can get more done in the hour before my husband comes home than I do all day long.

If you are a last minute person like me, these Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars are the perfect thing for you. They take no more than 5 minutes to mix up and baking time is around 15. They are quick, so if you are into the thrill of the pressure that comes from procrastinating and realize you need to whip something up for your Bunko group tonight or for a bake sale at church this afternoon, skip running to the store to buy something from the bakery and trying to dress it up like it was your own creation. Instead, give these Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars a try… they are the procrastinators friend!

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Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars

Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars (from Something Sweet)

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• 1½ cups flour
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup butter softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease either a 9x9. (Depending on how thick you want them to be)
• Whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg. Gradually add flour mixture. Spread into pan.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; sprinkle over dough.
• Bake at 350F for 14-18 minutes, or until golden brown (or a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean). Let cool in pan. Cut into bars.

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I am fairly proud of the fact that I have been such a trooper through it all. My three kids are well behaved, for the most part, and are not too difficult to take care of. We have honestly gotten to the point that he is gone so much that when he comes back home on the weekends it is more disruptive than when he is here.

I have tried very hard to be the supportive wife… listening about his hectic schedule in New York, understanding on Saturday’s when he is so tired from traveling the day before, even grimacing through the “my steak at dinner had too much pepper on it” complaints, etc. But, you know what? I don’t know if it is pregnancy hormones, this dreaded winter weather, or what… but this week I am 100% fed up with it all.

I’m tired of being the sole person during the week to be responsible for getting the kids where they need to be. I’m tired of doing bath time by myself. I’m tired of every time I need to run to the store for just a gallon of milk, I have to pack all three kids in the car to go with me. I’m tired of not having a minute to get things done, like my freelance work that I need to do, until the kids are tucked in bed. I’m tired of not having a husband home in the evening to share the tasks and to just be here to spend the evening with. We miss him a lot when he’s gone and it is really starting to get on my nerves!

I didn’t mean for this to be this much of a gripe session. I admire those of you who have been doing this far longer than I have been. Those of you who are single moms, who have husband’s gone in Iraq, who are alone for other reasons… I truly do not know how you do it day in and day out.

With all that I have going on with him gone, do you know the one thing that I am up to here with? I am so tired of our dinner menu plan looking like something off of the school lunch menu. Hotdogs, mac and cheese, taquitos, breakfast for dinner, etc. I want my husband home so I can cook real meals for us and so we can all sit around the table again at night as a family.

This is where I am going to implore you to help me out. I need some new family friendly meals to put on the table. I need recipes that make me feel like I am cooking, but that my kids (who aren’t that picky) will eat. I want your favorite “the whole family will love it” dinner time recipe that is not super complicated (our evenings our tight lately) and that I feel would be worth spending time on for just the kids and I. I’d love for you to include your favorite family friendly recipe link in the comments section of this post. Have them in by midnight CST on Wednesday, February 4th. I will then sit down on Thursday to make my menu plan for the following week. If your recipe gets chosen to be included in that weeks worth of dinner menus, I will send you a $10 Amazon gift certificate. I will be giving out 5 Amazon.com gift certificates in all… one for each day my husband is out of town during the week. All comments must be accompianied by a valid email address.

I am still managing to bake during the day, which my kids appreciate! I chose to make these Black Raspberry Meringue Bars because my mom brought us a jar of homemade Black Raspberry jelly when she was here over the holidays. These bars are delicious… far too delicious to waste on my kiddos. Perfect for an afternoon tea or a brunch with your girlfriends!

Black Raspberry Meringue Bars (adapted from Mary Engelbreit’s Cookies Cookbook)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Generous 1/3 cup raspberry jam (we used black raspberry jelly)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

In a medium bowl, beat butter, confectioners’ sugar and salt with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. On low speed, gradually add the flour, beating just until incorporated; the mixture should still be somewhat crumbly. Press the mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges. Set pan on a wire rack.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until whites begin to form soft peaks. Add the sugar about 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue beating until the whites form stiff, glossy peaks. Spread the jam evenly over the warm crust. Using a large metal spoon, drop the meringue in large dollops on the jam, and using the back of the spoon, carefully spread the meringue over the crust, making sure to seal the edges. Bake for 25 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown. (The meringue will puff up as it bakes and sink as it cools.) Set the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

Using a large sharp knife, cut into 24 squares. Dust the tops of the bars with confectioners’ sugar. Store the bars, well covered, in the refrigerator.

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