Archives for January 2012

Orange Sweet Treats

I just love no-bake recipes. This is an easy to make treat that requires no allergy changes from the original recipe. It came from a neat book that Jesse’s grandma gave me called This For That. It’s full of ideas for substitutions when you find that you’re out of a necessary ingredient. Since the book has some creative recipes and substitutes, it comes in handy when I need to replace something I’m allergic to in a recipe.

This For ThatRecipe

Start by melting a stick of butter. You know a recipe is off to a good start when it requires an entire stick of butter!

Melt butter

Then add the brown sugar, orange rind, and orange juice and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

Sugar and juice

Stir in oats and nuts. Spread into an 8×8 pan and freeze or refrigerate until hardened.

In pan

Then cut into squares, shape into balls, and roll in coconut.

Coconut

Yum! Serve these chilled. Since they are largely butter, they become too soft if they sit out for too long.

Orange treats

I skipped the walnuts since I don’t care for them and I added a good amount of cinnamon because I love it. The orange juice and cinnamon was a great combination. Give these a try and tell me what you think.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2012! How did you ring in the new year? Our New Year’s Eve was pretty laid back, but we had a good time hanging out with the fam. One of the Christmas presents everyone got from my parents was tickets to a hockey game on New Year’s Eve.

Stadium

We enjoyed being together for what turned out to be a pretty exciting game with lots of scoring. Bonus… they gave away free calendars on our way out!

NIcdewMom and Dad

Then we played Wits and Wagers for most of the night while we waited for midnight. It’s pretty funny to play Wits and Wagers with my family since most of us aren’t too good at remembering our history classes. Let’s just say that we end up with some very interesting answers.

Our New Year’s Day celebration is pretty much centered around watching the Rose Parade. So, since the parade didn’t take place on the 1st because it was a Sunday, we postponed all of our holiday festivities for a day. It worked out kinda nice to have a day between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day since we were pretty sleepy anyhow. However, there were some challenges to pretending it was a holiday when we were the only ones who thought so. Jesse’s clients were trying to make him work thinking it was a normal work day. We enjoyed our delayed New Year’s Day with parade watching, game playing, and LOTS of eating!

Family games