Coconut Pecan Frosting Recipe

We're headed to a family reunion today, and I decided to make some cookie bars to take with us, along with some layered bean dip and tortilla chips.  The cookie bars are awesome - a buttery firm bottom crust, semisweet chocolate chips sprinkled over it, a rich coconut pecan frosting layer (the kind of frosting you use in German chocolate cake) and a top crust of the same mixture as the bottom, thinned with a little milk.  I've blogged about them here.  The problem with the bars, though, is that all of the canned coconut pecan frostings I've seen have red dye 40 in them for some reason, and Rachel can't have red dye 40, so she didn't get to eat them whenever I made them.

I thought I'd try my hand at a homemade coconut pecan frosting instead, since I knew I could make it dye-free.  I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, my favorite go-to website when I'm looking to try something new.  I made it yesterday, and BOY, did it turn out yummy!  I probably won't buy the canned kind again.  It's convenient, but there's also a weird tang or aftertaste, and I'm guessing that's due to the preservatives.  I'd much rather just make it myself know that I know it's not difficult and tastes so great.

Doesn't that make your mouth water?

Two notes:  I toasted the coconut and pecans before adding them to the frosting, and I stirred the frosting on the stove at a low boil for about 11 or 12 minutes.  I didn't stir constantly, but very regularly, since it can get lumpy if you don't keep it well stirred.

I encourage you to give it a try, and if you do, let me know what you think of your results!

Hi, and Stuff

So I was on a real streak there at the beginning of this month, but then I got busy and forgot to post and/or to write some posts ahead of time.  Then I just kind of drew a blank when I thought about what to write.

Summer continues, as does Rachel's dramatic tendencies.  And she's not dramatic in a good way.  She's in Vacation Bible School this week, and I thought having something to do in the mornings would keep her busy and entertained enough so that the rest of the day would go more smoothly.  Instead, she's been dragging her feet about getting ready in the morning, which leads to me nagging and getting all stressed out.  Then she's been moody and easily upset in the afternoons and evenings.  Mostly we've done alright, but she's had to go into time out a few times, and it's been a battle to get her there.

We had an appointment with the neurobehavioral pediatrician on Monday.  Based upon how she's currently doing and the last report he received from her teacher at school, the doctor decided to put Rachel on a very low dosage of medication to help with her attention issues.  He believes that she has a significant enough problem with attention span that it's causing the other problems with time management, defiance, oppositionality, emotional maturity, etc.  And he feels that finding the right dosage of medication will help her brain to function like those of other 7-year-olds so that she has the chance to choose more appropriate behavior as a general rule.

It was odd to have him prescribe medication now because we weren't expecting it.  I think he wanted to deal with the worst of her defiance and behavior problems with a method of parenting that works well for children like Rachel, and he probably also wanted us to retrain ourselves to be able to respond more calmly.  And now that we're doing those things and she's still having problems, it's more evident that there is indeed a neurobehavioral issue with her brain chemistry.  He likened it to a child with diabetes who needs insulin to regulate their blood sugar and help it to function correctly.

I know that there are some who believe it's wrong to medicate children with attention-span issues.  I'm thinking those people have never had to deal with the type of extreme behavior we've seen.  And they probably also don't think of the chemistry of the brain as a physical issue that sometimes needs physical treatment.  And yet if a child *did* have insulin-dependent diabetes, most people wouldn't dream of telling the parents that they needed to just be stronger and more consistent in their parenting, or just wait it out and the child would outgrow it.

I'm not interested in a debate over how we're proceeding with Rachel, but wanted to share what's going on for those of you who may have been following along with us.  We're watching Rachel carefully and will be talking with the doctor regularly so that he can monitor her progress.  He'll be seeing her again in August and at the beginning of October.  He's a very caring, concerned doctor who wants what is best for his young patients, and it's been good for us to see that so that we can trust his care of her.  We're keeping this in prayer and trusting in God and in our parental instincts to make sure that Rachel is getting all that she needs to be successful and to feel more joy and less frustration.  And if we as parents are able to feel the same as she makes progress, all the better!

Tenderizing Your Steak

As part of my pledge to widen my repertoire of grilling options, I decided to make steak and chicken for the 4th of July.  I was looking for ways to prepare both, and I came across a method for tenderizing steak that works even on cheaper, sometimes tougher, cuts of beef.  I found it at the food blog Steamy Kitchen, on this page.  You can go there to read her full description of what to do, including diagrams, and why it works.  In a nutshell, here it is:

• Your cut of steak should be 1" thick or more.
• Liberally salt your steak 1 hour before cooking for every inch of thickness.  For a 1" thick steak, you'll leave the salt on for an hour.  For a 1.25" steak, you'll leave it on for 1 1/4 hours, and so on.
• Once the time is up, rinse all of the salt off and pat the steak dry.
• Prepare as planned - grill, broil, etc.

Why does it work?  Salting the meat just before you grill brings out the moisture and causes it to basically be steamed.  It also doesn't allow the salt to really penetrate to give you good flavor.

If you salt ahead of time, it draws out excess moisture, but this doesn't leave your steak dry.  The salt is drawn into the meat and breaks down the protein cells, causing them to become more tender and mix in with the fat cells.

Apparently this can also work wonders with chicken and roasts, although I haven't yet tried that.  But I did try it for the 4th of July with my steaks, and they came out tender and flavorful.  Jaden at Steamy Kitchen also notes that you can add other items during the salting process to pull some of that flavor into the meat.  I used garlic powder, and there is definitely a mild garlic taste to the meat.  Kinda wishing I had added more!

Busy, Busy, Dreadfully Busy

It's amazing how busy I can be sometimes now that I stay at home full-time.  I used to think I would have long boring stretches of the day where I didn't have enough to do.  Not everything I do is all that exciting, but it is frequently productive (decluttering, cleaning), useful (putting away laundry, keeping up with the dishes) and/or valuable in the long run (doing my best to teach our children to be well-behaved and respectful, to uphold their part of things in the household and to love Jesus).  And my to-do list always has things that need to be done, so it's not like I just sit around thinking "Boy, if I just had more to do."  Much better than the job I had in my mid-twenties where I was the only person in the office 95% of the time and only had enough work to fill up maybe 15% of the day, and that was on a good day.

One might think "That sounds awesome!", but this was before the internet was in common usage.  I spent my days  playing minesweeper and hearts, working on a huge cross-stitch picture with different kinds of wild cats, reading books and even occasionally locking the door, curling up in the easy chair and taking a nap.  No one came into the office except a delivery person from FedEx, every once in a blue moon.  I was a temp and it was a long-term assignment, and I was preparing to move out of state.  Otherwise, there's no way I could have stayed in that job even for the six months I was there.  I'd much rather be really busy than have hardly anything to do and a bunch of time to fill.

Baking Tips - Cakes & Cupcakes

In my desire to become a better baker, I've been searching out tips for cakes and cupcakes.  Here are some of the things I found:

• Ingredients should all be measured properly.  Use a glass measuring cup on a level surface for wet ingredients, and use a flat-topped measuring nesting type of measuring cup for dry ingredients, using the flat edge of a knife to level it before you add it to the recipe.
• Sifting flour and sugar can help prevent lumps in your batter.
• Bring cold ingredients (such as butter or eggs) to room temperature before mixing, leaving them out for about an hour before you need to use them.  Butter will incorporate into a batter or dough easier if it's softened, and the whites of warm eggs can actually take on more volume than cold eggs.  Plus, cold eggs could potentially cause the softened butter in dough to become clumpy during the mixing process.  To bring eggs and butter to room temperature quickly, you can put eggs in a container of warm water for about 10 minutes.  Cutting up the butter into small pieces will speed the softening process, especially if you put it on a plate over the container with the eggs.  The warmth from the water will help things move along faster.
• Add ingredients a little at a time, mixing in between each addition.  If you are adding both wet ingredients and dry ingredients, begin and end with the dry, alternating with wet.  You'll achieve a better consistency that way.
• If you're making cupcakes, add batter evenly to all of your cups, filling them 1/2 to 1/3 full, depending upon how much rise you typically get out of that type of batter.  To make sure, you can bake a test cupcake and either add more or less to the remainder of the batch as needed.  A cupcake/cookie scoop or an ice cream scoop can help to achieve even batter in each cup, which will ensure more even baking from one cupcake to the next.
• Most standard-size cupcakes take anywhere from 18 to 25 minutes to bake.  Start checking for doneness at the low end of the suggested baking time.  As a general rule, a toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the center of a cupcake.  You can also press gently on the top of a cupcake.  If it's done, it should bounce back.
• Cool cupcakes for 10 to 15 minutes in the pan, then turn them out onto a baking rack to finish cooling.  Make sure that they are completely cool before they're frosted, or you'll have soft, sometimes even melted frosting as a result.
• You can freeze unfrosted cupcakes for up to 3 months or so.  Thaw them in the refrigerator or out on the counter, then frost them once they're completely thawed.