Baking Squares

Had my mom, dad and grandpa in town for lunch today so I wanted to do something special..I yanked the Joy of Vegan Baking off the shelves and went for recipes that would use up ingredients I had in the house since braving Whole Foods on a Sunday morning is not something I'd recommend in my town (parking lot rage? No thanks!). Somehow I collected over ten lemons in the fridge (maybe that bag of organic lemons on sale was the reason?!) and I have a ton of jam from my jamming last summer so the lemon bar and raspberry oat bars caught my attention. I'm always a little nervous making stuff for the first time for company (it has blown up on me before but I still take my chances) but these did not disappoint. Wow wow wow! Excuse the fuzzy photos..I had to snap these before they were yanked off the plate.

The "raspberry" oat bars that are actually plum 'cause I used plum jam. Crumbly yum!


The lemon squares..only my mom knew the secret ingredient was tofu. Grandpa liked them a lot and compared them to his glow-in-the-dark store bought artificial ones that he always buys. I suppose that was a compliment? =)


Rumor has it from my friend Sarah that the oatmeal raisin cookies in TJOVB are the best, non-vegan included so I'll be trying those next!

In other news, this past week, I noticed that my three goos were starting to get along a little better. Monday, an hour would pass before they'd squabble. Tuesday, 1.5 hours, and so on. By Friday, they were getting along just fine for over three hours! I left H alone with the goos on Friday night and part of Saturday to visit Sarah in Portland, Maine (more on that in another post). H was brave enough to let them spend the night together (oh, that sounds sexy! except we're talking goos and it's just not..he he he!). Unfortunately, our upstairs neighbors were also away and left their Mac Mini running a TV program that blasted classical music all night long. Between that and the goos' minor squabbly noises (nothing serious) from the living room, H didn't get to sleep until 5am. A good deed never goes unpunished ya know? But it was worth it because now Cubbie, Keebler and Trolli are living in the same space together and loving it. Whew! And, um, we adopted three more..yes, we are a little crazy..more on that later! For now here are some shots of domestic goos bliss here at Gemusings:

Cubbie and Keebler saying good morning to each other:

A fuzzy nap pile!

I hope to start blogging more in June now that the goos are demanding *slightly* less attention. Of course, there were several belly rub requests and one toilet paper tube stuck on Keebler's head mid-post for this one so it's hard to promise anything nowadays!

And before I forget yet again, it's almost jam making time again! Strawberry season will be hitting the northeast in just a few weeks. If you're interested in food preservation but not sure how to get started, strawberry jam is super easy. And check out this free food preservation course at the University of Georgia..it's completely free and all WebCT..I learned a lot!