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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: Holiday Baking Edition

ms bears kitchen holiday baking editionAs you can tell by the title of the blog post, Ms. Bear’s Kitchen is coming out of hibernation today! After a hiatus, I talked my mom into bringing the delicious column back for a special Ms. Bear’s Kitchen holiday baking edition. And I think she enjoyed it too!! I’ll just let her take it away… xoxo


Every year when the holidays arrive, I have the highest hopes that this will be the year I will be getting my zest back for all things Christmas! This year was no different. After Thanksgiving, I started hoping against hope that this year I would be infused with the holiday spirit. Lo and behold, it was finally my year!!! I went to the store, bought lots of stuff, did some decorating, got two new small trees and put them up and even got a big penguin Merry Christmas banner for the door. I even enjoyed making out hand-written Christmas cards this year, which I haven’t even done since Brian died! Still, though, I felt like something was amiss. What could it have been, I wondered to myself? Well, leave it up to Melissa to know just what it was.

“Mom, why don’t you try to bake some things like Grandma used to do?” she asked me several times.

ms bears kitchen holiday baking edition ms bears kitchen holiday baking editionHmm, maybe that was it, I thought to myself. Well, as all her readers know, we have pretty much made the almond cookies so much until they have lost their luster for us. So, I started thinking about what holiday treats I remember my mom making. I decided on the date bars and the pumpkin bread. And with great gusto, I went out and got all the ingredients. My sister sent me the recipes (of course, I couldn’t find mine!) and it was neat because she sent them over a text. That was interesting in two ways…first, they were in my mom’s handwriting, which was really neat, but also, my mom died before the tech age dawned, and she would have been tickled pink to know that in the space of a few seconds the recipe came from California to my cell phone in Illinois!

ms bears kitchen holiday baking edition ms bears kitchen holiday baking editionSo, I started right in and made the pumpkin bread first. Four little bread loaves went into and came out of the oven. Oh, the house smelled just like home! The bread was delicious, but slightly underdone in the middle (my oven is quirky, for sure). But, we ate it anyway and have some left in the freezer that we’ve been chipping away at!

ms bears kitchen holiday baking edition ms bears kitchen holiday baking editionThen, it was time for the date bars. I don’t remember dates being so expensive! But, I bit the bullet and bought the required amount. The date bars were a little more complicated, as you had to boil the dates into a paste, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I even got the crumb crust and topping just right. They came out of the oven slightly overdone, but they were still good. I suspect my mom may have doubled the amount of dates that go in them because I remember hers being really thick.

I’ll remember this Christmas as the one where I returned to holiday happiness. And, my mom’s baked goods had a big part in that transformation! So, to combine two of my favorite Christmas songs into one lesson learned this year……I’ll be home for Christmas and there is no place like home for the holidays!!! I really felt like I was home too, due to the sights, sounds and smells of those baked goods!

ms bears kitchen holiday baking editionHappy New Year to all Melissa’s subscribers, and may this be a wonderful year, full of magic, for all of you. It’s already started that way for me!

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7 Comments Filed Under: family, food, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, recipes

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Family Photos: It’s almost summer salad season!

I just couldn’t resist sharing a snap of our home cooked meal last night, courtesy of Ms. Bear, of course. You know what this means, don’t you? Those light and tasty dinners are right around the corner! xoxo

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1 Comment Filed Under: family, family photos, food, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, Photographs, spring 2015, summer pleasures, Uncategorized

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: Make-your-own pizza

As the summer winds down, so are we! So, we decided to make a simple dinner the other night. We felt like pizza, but wanted something a little healthier than the store-bought or take-out kind. Melissa and I were talking about how when she was young, we would make a Chef Boyardee pizza kit. All four of us would make our own little pizza with our favorite toppings. Then we would all take our food into the living room, get comfy and watch ER, which we had taped (remember those old things called VHS tapes?!?!?) and saved for the weekend. Good times!

Here’s how we made the pizza this time. You need…

*Green pepper, onions, roma tomatoes…chop them all up
*Turkey pepperoni
*Mozzarella cheese, shredded
*Jiffy pizza crust mix
*Pizza sauce (I used the Chef Boyardee canned sauce, for old times sake!)
*Green salad ingredients and raspberries to round out the meal

All you have to do is follow the directions on the Jiffy box and assemble your pizza however you like! Enjoy! Watch an old TV show when you eat and talk about old times. You’ll be glad you did!

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen will be back around the holidays for more Blake family recipes! Thanks for reading all summer. It’s been fun!!!

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5 Comments Filed Under: comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, holidays, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, Photographs, recipes, recipes series, summer 2014, summer pleasures, Uncategorized

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: Summer’s final hurrah…

Summer is winding down, school has started again and believe it or not, Labor Day is right around the corner! So, in the spirit of one last hurrah for summer, we just had a fun meal today! It was easy, quick and delicious.
We heated up some turkey smoked sausage and put it in a warm bun.

We topped it with chopped onions and tomatoes. Add some fun summer sides like corn on the cob and potato salad and enjoy a final salute to summer!!!! Enjoy!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter this year’s BIC Back-To-School giveaway — lots of great office goodies await one lucky winner!

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1 Comment Filed Under: comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, holidays, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, Photographs, recipes, recipes series, summer 2014, summer pleasures, Uncategorized

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Ms. Bear’s Kitchen: DIY chopped salad

Hello to Melissa’s blog readers! We have a winning recipe today…we all liked it the best of anything so far! Of course, there is yet another funny story to go along with this one. Weird things are always happening to us!

I decided that I had enjoyed my NYC chopped salad so much that I would make something similar for this week’s Ms. Bear’s Kitchen. So, Janelle and I set out for our afternoon jaunt to the Y and it was a beautiful, sunny day. We came out and went to the grocery store. When we were in the store, I heard a funny sound that sounded like rain. I knew it was sunny when we went in, so, being such an optimist, I told myself that they must have turned on the fans or something. Not! I was soooo wet when I finally got in the car. After unloading all the groceries, I shook myself off and water sprayed off me into the radio. Now the radio doesn’t work!!! It was quite funny!

Anyway, here is the recipe for chopped salad!

*1 bag Romaine lettuce
*1 can corn — drained
*1 can black beans — drained
*Assorted chopped veggies…whatever you like. I used green pepper, cucumbers, onions and Roma tomatoes
*1 can rotel lime and cilantro tomatoes
*Chicken breast/cheese/olives/Parmesan

It was so easy. I just put the lettuce into a big bowl, chopped all the veggies, added the corn and beans (just add as many as you think you want) and anything else you want. I used the rotel tomatoes as my dressing…leaving the liquid on them. Spicy! Melissa just used regular dressing, as she is wimpy about spicy food (sorry, Melissa, but you know it’s true!).

Mix everything up and serve with some fruit and bread for a great dinner! And for dessert, I made a delicious lemon blueberry cake. Here’s what you’ll need…

*1/3 cup melted butter
*1 cup sugar
*3 tablespoons lemon juice
*2 eggs
*1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
*1 teaspoon baking powder
*1 teaspoon salt
*1/2 cup milk
*2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
*1/2 cup chopped walnuts optional
*1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

And to make the most delicious glaze EVER…

*2 tablespoons lemon juice
*1 tablespoon butter melted
*1 cup confectioners sugar

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, 1 cup sugar, juice and eggs. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; stir into egg mixture alternately with milk. Fold in lemon zest, nuts, and blueberries. Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 60 to 70 minutes. Combine all ingredients mix well. Drizzle over bread.

Until next time, readers…..go do some cooking!!!!!

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4 Comments Filed Under: comfort food, family, family photos, food, food series, motherhood, Ms. Bear's Kitchen, Ms. Bear's Kitchen series, New York City, NYC, recipes, recipes series, summer 2014, Uncategorized

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So About What I Said is a daily blog that covers relationships, disabilities, lifestyle and pop culture. I love to laugh and have been known to overshare. I also have an unabashed obsession with pop music, polo shirts, and PEZ dispensers. Read more...

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