Spring Photos

It rained all day today. At times it was thundering and at other times there was just a quiet drizzle. There were even a few bursts of sunshine in-between. It was a perfectly lazy Sunday. I spent some time between the showers taking a few photos. Everything looks very green and lush, including the lawn that will be overdue to be mowed once this system passes.

One of the many dandy lions in our yard.

Our baby evergreen has all sorts of new growth!

My mom came into town this weekend and part of what she brought was a bag full of cut lilacs. The house smells amazing!

Our demure little dogwood hides in the towering white pine beside it.

We have no idea what this plant is; I went to get a closer look and saw what perhaps are flowers about to bloom??? We'll see.

Deliciously Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

After making the granola recipe last week, I got to thinking about my plan to create a version of it that would mimic a local restaurant's peanut butter cookie. With a bin full of granola bars, I thought I'd just tackle it as a cookie. I had no idea how easy it would be! I googled the cookies over at All Recipes and found one with great reviews and only THREE ingredients. I decided something that easy was worth a try. The reviewers did not lead me astray - these cookies are really good. They will become a staple. I can already see a lovely little Hershey kiss sitting upon them when I make holiday cookies. If only Daffin's made kisses. I've been shaving bits of my chocolate bunny off onto these cookies! Delicious. Enjoy!

Below is the recipe, as found here on All Recipes.

1-cup peanut butter
1-cup white sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients.
Drop by teaspoon onto a baking sheet.
Bake 8 minutes.


The recipe mentions it does not make many so I doubled it. I also baked the cookies on parchment paper as the recipe did not indicate whether the sheets should be greased or ungreased. Lastly, I did make a change to the recipe by adding a 4th ingredient (vanilla) as well as a 5th for half the batter (salted peanuts). That local restaurant I mentioned, North Star, has salted peanuts covering every inch of the top of their very large cookies. I decided to go that route with half. The mix of sweet and salty is wonderful. I'm not a huge peanut fan so I think I will add a pinch of salt to the batter next time to achieve more depth. They'll still be super easy.

My KIND of Granola Bars

I have a particular MO when it comes to baking. I get in the mood for something, usually some healthier (and magically lower calorie) version of an old favorite. Once I've searched and found a couple good recipes I bookmark them and make plans to bake. Inevitably next I realize I don't need baked goods and neither does anyone else here. I have plenty of opportunity to bake for others but somehow I think of this just after an opportunity and then forget by the time the next chance arrives. In the end I'm left with quite a few bookmarked recipes and nothing more.

This time I decided to act. I wasn't looking for a baked good as much as a protein packed snack for J. He loves cookies, ah don't we all, and I'm looking to sneak things like flax and protein into something cookie-like. I've been calling these "granola cookies" for him and hope that means granola gets added to his list of yummy things.

I was inspired by the Kind bars. I wanted something very plain but with smaller nut pieces for J. I googled "kitchen sink" muffins, cookies and granola and looked through a surprisingly large number of recipes before coming upon the one I ended up using. My version below is adapted from this recipe over at The Lunchbox Bunch.

Below is my version of the recipe. I anticipate these will be making an appearance at many parks and playgrounds this spring and summer. They were our snack at the zoo today. All J could say last night and again today was "nom, nom, yummy." It's all the feedback I need, and I completely agree with him!



My KIND of Granola Bars

2 C. oats

1/3 C. Maple Syrup
1/3 C. Honey
1/4 C. brown sugar
5 Tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 C. Flax seed meal
1/4 C. wheat germ

1 1/2 C. Dried fruit assortment

1 C. Unsweetened shredded coconut (or more fruit/grains)

1 1/2 C. Chopped nuts (assorted)

1/2 C. Seeds (sunflower, sesame, poppy, etc.)

1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp spices (cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and pumpkin pie spice)
1 1/2 C. chocolate chips
1/2 tsp salt
*adjust salt based on how many of your nuts are pre-salted

spray canola or olive oil




Directions:



1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.



2. Layer parchment paper or foil in a casserole dish (or grease the insides with canola or olive oil).



3. Over low heat, toast your flax seed meal, wheat germ and coconut in a dry pan for about 1 minute. Transfer toasted meal to large mixing bowl.

4. Add oats to dry pan and toast for about 2 minutes; then transfer to bowl with other toasted ingredients.

5. Measure fruit and seed ingredients and place in large mixing bowl. Toss well.

6. Place pan (used to toast ingredients) over medium heat. Add the butter/margarine, liquid and dry sweeteners, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon. Heat until it has melted together and becomes bubbly. Pour the hot liquid into the mixing bowl. Stir well until the mixture is thick, firm and well combined.



7. Pour the entire mixture into your lined casserole dish. Add any toppings (chocolate/crushed nuts/other).

8. Bake at 300 degrees for 35 minutes.


9. Allow to cool for one hour before slicing into bars. Allow to fully cool in fridge for storage. Bars will become chewy and firm in a cold fridge.

Makes one casserole (9x12) sized pan of bars.


I altered the ingredient list to what I had on-hand, and to my general preferences. These bars are nearly vegan and if you replace the honey with agave nectar and use margarine they will be completely vegan. I also changed the prep a bit. I can say one thing from both the original recipe and my version is that cooling in the refrigerator until the bars are completely cool (about 1 hour) is crucial. If you don't cool them you will have granola, very yummy granola but it won't retain the bar shape.

One thing I changed in this recipe that I will not do again, was that I added chocolate chips to the mixing bowl of ingredients and that created a sort of no-baked cookie taste because the chocolate melted. Next time I will add them as a topping so the chips maintain their form. The only other negative was that these bars are significantly crumblier than the Kind bars. I'll have to work on that in future batches.

Speaking of future batches, I plan to try different versions of these. Next up will be a tropical version with more coconut, tropical fruit, tropical nuts (definitely some macadamias), and maybe even some citrus zest. After that I'm going to try to create a nice sweet but salty peanut butter version. I'm thinking of North Star's peanut butter cookies as my goal. Adjust these however you like, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination! ENJOY!

Raw

Tonight was the last night of adoption class. The first four weeks were general and the last four weeks were for those interested in domestic adoption. That's us.
I didn't have high expectations for tonight based on the syllabus. And I realize now that the speaker tonight was the same woman that spoke on a similar topic 3 years ago when I took the core track. The topic was specific to public adoption through the county system. Most, if not all children coming through the county are considered special needs regardless of what issues they may have. She implied that termination of parental rights was enough to qualify them as such.
Termination of parental rights. It was an underlying current all evening. She had professional anecdotes here and there and sometimes they were very unpleasant. I will spare you.
Once she was done we had a panel of adoptive parents and adult adoptees speak to us and answer our questions. Their experiences were pretty varied. I feel like I was able to take something away from each of their stories. I really appreciated each of them spending time with us when they could have been relaxing at home. Our third speaker nearly brought me to tears, or I should say did bring me to tears but not until I was driving home. Her third daughter has had some very difficult experiences. And while I'm not certain that she was ever abused, she was around it.
I'm sure I'm not going to be very "pc" here and I know that's unlike me. Before becoming a parent I would have still wondered this but now that I am a parent I'm really dumbfounded with people. As someone who feels guilty for a killing a spider and does not eat meat because I cannot take a life, I find it unfathomable how someone can harm a child let alone their very own child. I am really confused and heartbroken for the children who don't make it out of abuse situations including those who have died. Our third speaker's daughter had both a biological brother and adoptive brother die due to abuse and neglect at the hands of separate sets of parents before arriving in her family. Again, I will spare you the details. Normally I would say I wish I'd been spared them and maybe that's the case still. I'm not sure.
I know in my heart going forward with private adoption is right for us now. I've also had a nagging suspicion even before tonight that public adoption may also be in our future down the road. It's frightening and worrisome to me to have a child I am responsible to help move past issues and baggage they may carry. I worry I won't be able to be what they need. At the same time I really feel like we'll go that route anyway because I'm not one to let fear win.
I titled this post "raw" because our last speaker used the term repeatedly in describing her emotions. She apologetically broke down while talking to us but it was clearly a sort of cathartic thing for her. The term is extremely fitting for how I'm feeling and I'm not sure how to feel better about it.

Freshman

I'm beginning to suspect the application process is like that freshman class in college used as the first step in weeding out anyone without the necessary requirements. In this case that would be organizational skill and patience. I know we're on a path that will take months (and months). I wonder if anyone does drop out during this first phase. We left our first attorney appointment with a 2-inch stack of papers to fill out or have various professionals fill out for us. Upon paying our retainer fee, we received more paperwork. I thought I was being an over-achiever in getting my 3-ring binder ahead of time. Nope; I got one that is far too small.
We're diligently working through our stack of papers. I get really excited each time we can move papers out of the binder or into a finished pile, probably because it takes awhile with each piece needing a separate approach. We have our reference letters out being written and our child abuse and neglect clearances out as well. I was supposed to get my medical records and physical done this week but my doctor cancelled. Doesn't she know I'm in a weed-out class?

Yesterday I embarked on BCI and FBI clearances (the former is for our state and of course the latter is federal/nationwide). We didn't need to do the FBI unless we were going across state lines. We figured it was better to get it done just in case. I made D do his fingerprints first since we had to visit the sheriff's office and that seemed potentially confusing. I'm not that familiar with downtown streets let alone the labyrinth of buildings in that area (plus all the construction). This was a very good decision. While it was a very simple process, I would never have thought to follow the signs for concealed carry permits. Makes sense that they need clearances and that that's likely more popular than getting them for adoption. I'm thinking 'BCI/FBI Clearances' would have made a nice sign though too. Can I not assume the concealed carry people know they are there for clearances as well? There wasn't even anyone to ask for directions so I'm glad I had D's guidance. Of course even with all that I managed to show up without my ID. I knew I needed it but I had taken it out of my wallet and forgot to put it back. Brilliant. On top of that they were closing in 1-hour and my gas light was on, which normally would not be an issue, but as stated I'm not very familiar with downtown.
I made it home, got my ID, got gas, and got back to the sheriff's office before they closed. I was told I have very light fingerprints. Interesting. I wonder if that means they'd be easy to alter or remove if I'm ever on the lamb. Not to worry, it's not in my 5 or 10-year plan.
It seems to take about 4 weeks to get any sort of paperwork back. That's the estimate for BCI, FBI and the child abuse/neglect clearances. The latter of those three were to be returned to us so we're hoping the BCI and FBI were to come here too since that's what we did. I just plan to leave everything sealed in it's envelope and hand it over to the attorney. Even after reading through both stacks of paperwork I still feel a little confused on some of these details.

Based on my reading, I believe I'm gathering all of this information to be included in our application for permission to adopt, which we will receive from our county. Once they get the application they do a homestudy. Then they grant us permission to adopt. Once that occurs (which it will because frankly we're awesome) we can give our profile to our lawyer. It will go in his waiting list and then eventually the active list. All the while we can be marketing ourselves (within the confines of the law in Ohio). Have I mentioned that it's illegal for anyone to advertise for adoption unless you are an agency? We've also been told over and over that that law is not enforced. Still I'm such a goody-goody that I can't see myself purposefully or blatantly breaking that law (don't roll your eyes - I'm compelled to be this way; I'm the oldest child & I didn't know they were bluffing). I'd much rather be in the dark about the law's finer points so I can break it accidentally.

All in all the wheels are in motion; there's all kinds of paperwork out and about for us. Our 'to do' stack is getting smaller than the done stack. Everyone has been really helpful when we ask for a letter or anything really. With all that, I'm still failing the patience part of the weed-out course. I just want my homestudy already. I've convinced myself that once the homestudy is complete and my profile is at the attorney's office I'll be able to relax and be patient. I will not listen to that little voice in my head laughing away at that. Nope [insert fingers in ears]; I don't hear you.

New Look, New Title, same blog

Clearly I've changed the title and look of this blog. I loved the previous background/template, but I felt like it's always had readability issues. I'd also out-grown the sentiment so it was simply time for a change. I'd outgrown the title too. 'Somewhere In-Between' aptly described me earlier but I don't feel that way anymore. I'm much more solidly in the present.

I didn't get any name suggestions, but regardless I have a new name and I think it's very appropriate. I'm very aware that I tend to think out loud. Add that to my having a blog and it really becomes living out loud. I wanted a new look to go with the name and I think I found it. Hope you enjoy it.

With the new look, and the new name will come new content also. I'll of course still be writing utterly useless things about my pet peeves, obsessions, and of course myself. I'll also be including recipes every now and then. I've had requests for vegetarian recipes and so I'll be sharing them here in case others want them too. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I'll also be documenting our journey to add to our family via adoption. We're really excited about this so I suspect this could take over a bit. Bear with me. Lastly, I plan to include quite a few photos. Spring has sprung and my camera and I are busting out. I'm not a trained photographer but I'm a very visual person and love to be creative.

I'm also signing up for Networked Blogs, an application on Facebook, so that all my posts will be shown over there. We'll see how (or if) this changes the blog's dynamic.


The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind. - Maya Angelou

When you're finished changing, you're finished. - Benjamin Franklin

new name

Okay, this isn't really a roll call but it is a request for something so I would appreciate any (ANY) suggestions you have. I don't feel like this blog's title is appropriate any longer. "Somewhere in between" doesn't really describe me currently and I need a new name. I don't want to change my basenjiowned url though or move the blog. So . . . . any ideas? I'm thinking an reader might have a great idea since you all probably see more of the forest than just the trees here.

Thanks!