The Legally Raw Bar

If you don't read anything else on this blog just READ AND MAKE the following recipe. I promise you won't be disappointed. The legally raw bar is better than a candy bar AND is actually healthy AND it requires NO baking - just blending and freezing. This is definitely a keeper - an indulgent in the middle of the afternoon when you have a craving that can't be satisfied. Make them and keep them all to yourself and you won't even have the guilt of eating something unhealthy! Go ahead try it and then please let me know what you think. YOU WILL THANK ME...

The Legally Raw Bar

You will NOT regret making this bar. You will be amazed at how GOOD it tastes and how low fat it is. Definitely better than a prepackaged candy bar!

NOUGAT FILLING
1 cup almonds, unsoaked
1 cup cashews, unsoaked
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon water, or more if needed

CARAMEL
1 cup dates (I buy my dates already chopped)
1/4 cup maple syrup* (I use real maple syrup from Costco)
juice of one half lemon
1 tablespoon coconut oil (normally purchased at a health food store or section of the supermarket)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup water

MILK CHOCOLATE
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup maple syrup* (real maple syrup from Costco)
½ cup coconut oil
¼ cup water

1 Soak dates in the water and lemon juice for an hour. Reserve soaking water. Meanwhile, make nougats.

2 In a coffee grinder (I use an attachment to my food processor for nuts), grind cashews into a fine powder. Remove. Process the almonds into a fine powder.

3 Place nut powders in a large bowl. Add honey and water. Stir until mixture is a thick paste-like consistency. (I could just eat this part alone. It is so good, but keep going.)

4 Form nougat into miniature candy pieces. Place nougat pieces on a plate and put in the freezer for an hour.

5 To make the caramel, process soaked dates, coconut oil and sea salt in a blender (I use the food processor; it works better for this step).
Using soaking water one tablespoon at time, blend until you achieve a thick creamy mixture.

6 Spread caramel on top of nougat pieces and return the candy to the freezer while you make the chocolate.

7 In a large bowl, whisk cocoa powder, maple syrup, coconut butter and water together until smooth and creamy. (This chocolate sauce is to die for!)

8 Pour chocolate over candy pieces and freeze an additional hour or until chocolate sets hard.

Yield: 15-20 candy pieces

*not a raw product

**You could easily skip the caramel step if you want and just do the nougat and chocolate sauce for the recipe and you will still be blown away and satisfied. The caramel is a definite bonus though. 

***I am now a fan of raw food and am combing the raw food blogs for more incredibly, delicious secrets!  I have already found more...

Snow Comparison

One year ago, (at the beginning of February 2011) Chicago got a ton of snow. The biggest snow storm we had seen since we had moved there. The biggest snow storm most of the locals had ever seen. It took Charles hours to shovel our driveway.

School was shut down for a day and everyone had fun playing in the snow. The snow drifts were incredible. We opened the garage door and this was how high the snow was. When I opened the front door it was the same - almost up to my waist!

But within a day, our road was plowed out and life was back to normal.

Now let's compare England one year later. At the beginning of February (the first Sunday of the month to be exact), England got snow. We got a good 2-3 inches of snow which doesn't seem like a lot if you have previously lived in Chicago or anywhere it snows frequently but in England that is enough to make everything come to a standstill.

Nothing gets plowed here. They do not have snow plows, no one has snow blowers or even snow shovels (including us - how pathetic). No one shovels or clears their walks or driveway. In some ways it is a beautiful thing since in Chicago our neighbors were all such over-achievers they were out shoveling their walks before the snow finished falling. But in other ways, it is a nightmare.

We are the ones from Chicago, we know how to drive in the snow and we don't freak out about a little bit of snow but of course, we were the ones who got stuck right outside of our driveway. Pretty embarrassing...

The amazing thing to me was taking the girls to school the next day. Now remember, it snowed on Sunday morning, by Monday morning shouldn't things be cleared and everyone up and running? No. Not here. I took the girls to school and the school parking lot and sidewalks had not seen a shovel or plow whatsoever! No one had even bothered to do ANYTHING! Mothers could not push their strollers (prams, pushchairs, buggies if you want to know the UK terms) through the snow. It was insane. What was even more insane was that the next day everything was worse - ice! I kept thinking there would be law suits left and right if this happened in Chicago. But not here. Our driveway was no exception as well as ALL our neighbors - covered with snow one day, an ice rink the next. A friend of mine who is British told me that you could be sewed if you shoveled your walk and someone fell because it would be your fault for not clearing it and salting properly. Whereas, if you do not clear your walk and someone falls, you can blame nature and natural causes, so that is why no one bothers to shovel. Amazing! 

Here is a view of the backyard.

After all this, I hear that Chicago has had a very mild winter this year with very little snow and temperatures of 60 degrees! Why oh why must I suffer so much and always have to live where the snow falls?

Joined-Up Writing

Look at the tattoos on the face of the young man (in the mug shot) above. The largest tattoo on his forehead is the most controversial not because it is a tattoo on his face but because of the script. 
A reporter for the Daily Mail interpreted this as a misspelling of Genius, with a J instead of a G. The man countered by saying that the letter was “a nicely formed cursive capital” G. Commenters in the U.K. were generally baffled by this claim.
Important points: the Daily Mail is British; the young man is American, from Cincinnati. There are many different styles of so-called “cursive” handwriting, and these have changed over the years; for roughly a century, American and British schools have diverged significantly in the sort of cursive, or joined-up (as they call it in the UK) handwriting they teach. The result is that the initial letter above looks like an ordinary cursive G to many Americans (me included) but can be interpreted by most Britons only as some sort of weird ornamented J.  

Why do I bring this up you ask? Well, this is the reason Abby walked out of school this past week sobbing uncontrollably. Her teacher says she cannot read most of Abby's joined-up writing. Therefore Abby is not allowed to use a fountain pen on her schoolwork like the rest of her classmates. This is the privilege you get when you have mastered joined-up writing. Abby has been diligently practicing her cursive handwriting for months from a workbook I bought her in Chicago. I am now realizing that that is our problem. They do not do the fancy G, S, F, Q or Z here. The joined-up writing here is different. Not so loopy. Children here have also been doing the joined-up writing since they began school whereas Abby came from the US and they hadn't started it yet. (She would have started learning it most likely in 2nd grade, I assume.)  
Since I have been researching this online, I have found that many states in the U.S. have dropped cursive writing as a mandatory skill that is taught all together. They choose to focus on typing and computer skills instead saying that cursive handwriting is obsolete. Am I just old fashioned because I find that a bit sad, anyone else?

Update on the Girls

Since the holidays, we have all gotten back to life as normal. The girls are really settling into school now and seem to really feel happy. Abby has gotten over her fear of swimming lessons with her class and is making huge progress. The girls take swimming lessons together on Mondays. Abby has swimming with her class (during school) on Tuesdays and cross-stitching after school. That's when Sammy, Alex and I go to the library while waiting for Abby.  I also am teaching the girls piano and our lessons are on Tuesdays as well. Wednesdays, Abby has recorder lessons during lunch period in school but after school its a free day where the girls can have play dates with friends. Thursdays, Sammy has choir, Abby has Kumon (a math tutoring program) and afterward she has Brownies. Fridays, Sammy has street dance and then it is home for an easy dinner and a movie party. Our worst day is definitely Thursday. I feel so exhausted after taking the girls from one thing to the next. It is so hard not to over-schedule them. They both have interests and want to do things. I can only imagine how I will feel when Alexandra gets older and starts after school activities as well. I am truly a "soccer mom" now running my children from one activity to another. I don't even think I have them in that many activities. Abby complains that she doesn't have dance lessons. Well sweetheart, something else will have to go if you want to do that....

The above pictures are of Sammy sweeping our driveway. What a great helper. 

Yes, that is our car in the driveway in the background. I am sooo glad I did not get a mini-van or anything bigger. It is not practical in this country. The parking spaces are tiny, the roads are narrow and you are constantly parallel parking. No thanks! I love my little car. My friends who have bigger cars are constantly complaining. I think they are nuts! Our car also gets incredible gas mileage where they are constantly filling up their tank for about $8 a gallon.

Here is Abby trying on her new Brownie uniform. She loves all the activities. They are even going down to London in March to see the Broadway show of Shrek in the West End. 

A fun past time for the girls is singing in their little karaoke machine.  I will post some videos of them singing as soon as I get a chance to download them. 

This was a lazy Saturday morning reading stories to the girls. Alex fell asleep right under me. 

Charles and I celebrated our ten year anniversary this month. We got a babysitter and drove into London for dinner and a night at the opera. We saw Der RosenKavalier at the London Coliseum. We parked in China town which worked out well when we arrived but when we tried to leave at 11pm it took forever to get out because of all the traffic of China town. I heard there was a parade the next day for the Chinese New Year. We are not sure we will drive into London again. We may just drive part way in and then take the tube. We didn't get home until almost 1am! The four-hour opera was great. It was fun to dress up and feel like we were going out on a real date!  

The girls got this Barbie dream house for Christmas. Alex loves it. She always wants to go up and play. It is quite disturbing though that every time she plays with Ken she insists on stripping off all his clothes. She says he is stinky. She also insists on sleeping with some of the Barbies for nap time.

Silly girl!