Beat-the-heat treats

The temperatures in the desert during my visit to see Bubby and Mac were, as I expected, ridiculously high. Spending time in the pool or at the water park was a great way to stay cool, but because we're not fish, other ways to chill out had to be devised.

Yesterday, the last day of my visit, Megan offered a frozen treat to the boys that I thought was quite clever — and yummy, too. The night before, she dropped gummy bears into the bottom of plastic cups, filled the cups halfway with 7 Up, then added a popsicle stick and froze the cups.

Bubby and Mac (and Megan and I, too) enjoyed licking the icy pops to free the candy bears from their frozen confines. So cool!

I'm not sure what Megan's treats are officially called — I think she found the idea on Pinterest — but the way the boys enjoyed them reminded me of snow cones of summers past. Frozen fun on a hot summer day made all the difference in surviving the heat with a smile. It still does.

With that in mind, I found the following feature — used with permission from Family Features — for a similarly syrupy sweet and frozen treat that grandparents still have time to make for the grandkids this summer.

Frozen Summer Treat is Frosty Blast from the Pastcourtesy Family Features

Cool down this summer with a rainbow of color and flavor. Just like skipping through the sprinkler when the sun is shining bright, homemade shaved ice offers sweet relief on a hot afternoon. Plus, making this frozen favorite is a fun family activity.

"Celebrate the flavors of summer with Easy Fruity Shaved Ice," said Mary Beth Harrington of the McCormick Kitchens. "The secret is in the flavorful syrups, which come together in just a few minutes with less than five ingredients, including fruit extracts and food colors."

Add raspberry, orange or strawberry extract to a simple syrup and mix in a few drops of vibrant food color to create this classic frozen treat. But don’t stop there. Bring the family together and let their imaginations run wild as they create their own personalized color and flavor combinations. Here are a few tips from the McCormick Kitchens to get you started:

Make it snow at home: If you don’t have a shaved ice maker, crush ice to a snowy texture in your blender or by wrapping a plastic bag of ice in a kitchen towel and smashing it with a rolling pin or mallet. This can be a fun project for kids so long as they have adult supervision.

Mix and match: Store syrups in small squeeze bottles and mix and match flavors in each shaved ice. Create layers of color and flavor in the ice, and then gobble them up before the creation melts. You’ll have a different summer treat every time!

Easy Fruity Shaved Ice

Prep time: 5 minutes

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

desired flavoring/color (options below)

Blue Raspberry Syrup:

2 teaspoons McCormick® Raspberry Extract

10 drops Blue McCormick® Assorted Food Colors & Egg Dye

Strawberry Cotton Candy Syrup:

2 teaspoons McCormick® Imitation Strawberry Extract

10 drops McCormick® Red Food Color

Crushed Orange Syrup:

1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Orange Extract

8 drops McCormick® Yellow Food Color

2 drops McCormick® Red Food Color

Lemon Blast Syrup:

1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract

10 drops McCormick® Yellow Food Color

Bring sugar and water to boil in small saucepan on medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. For desired flavor syrup, stir in extract and food color. Cool to room temperature. Pour into squeeze bottle for easier serving. Pour syrup over shaved ice. Makes 2 cups syrup.

For more cool summer ideas, visit www.McCormick.com, www.Facebook.com/McCormickSpice or www.Pinterest.com/mccormickspices.

Note: This is not a sponsored post.

Today's question:

What is your favorite beat-the-heat treat?

Springtime fun: Bird nest cookies

The forecast at my place calls for snow tomorrow — despite being in the 70s today. Such is springtime in the Rockies.

Despite the snow, it is indeed spring, which is the perfect time for making Bird Nest Cookies. They're simple to make, and kids get a kick out of eating the eggs (M&Ms) out of the nest of sticks (chow mein noodles). There are several versions of such cookies on Pinterest, but I couldn't find any just like these that I've made for years and years.

I knew around Easter time I'd later make these with my grandsons, so I picked up pastel-colored M&Ms when the holiday ones were on sale. There's no rule saying the bird eggs in imaginary nests can't be primary colors, though, so use whatever color —and flavor — of M&Ms you desire.

What you need:

• 12-ounce package chow mein noodles

• 12 ounces vanilla candy coating, broken into the pre-cut squares

• 12-ounce package M&Ms (you likely won't use entire package, but that allows for nibbling)

What you do:

Line decorating space with wax paper. Provide each child a dish of eggs (M&Ms) for decorating.

In large bowl, empty bag of chow mein noodles. In small bowl, microwave the squares of candy coating 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between and until smooth. Do not overcook! It takes only about a total of one minute or two, depending on the wattage of your microwave.

When coating is melted, pour over noodles, then stir to even coat the noodles. Using a spoon, plop little piles of "nests" onto the wax paper, flattening slightly for a spot for the eggs. You can spend a lot of time perfecting the nests, or you can just let the kids have at it. I prefer the "have at it" method.

The have at it part: Have the little ones quickly lay several eggs in each nest (har-har), pressing ever so slightly into the nest so they stick to the candy coating when it hardens.

Allow nests to cool completely until candy coating has hardened.

Makes about 30 nests, depending on size of each nest.

Today's question:

What is your favorite springtime food?

What I learned this week: How to eat angry birds

One of my favorite lessons this past week was unwittingly provided by Mac, on how to eat angry birds... of the graham cracker variety (hold your cursor over each photo for instruction):

Not really a lesson I needed to learn, but a valuable one just the same.

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?

What I learned this week: I'm bad and Toyota is awesome

I've been bad. Very, very bad. And I'm feeling pretty guilty about it.

What I'm feeling guilty about is the thing that I learned this week. And that thing is this: I can eat a batch of lemon bars. All by myself.

Okay, it wasn't an entire batch, but close enough to be an utterly disgusting deed for me to complete on my own.

But I did. And that's something I have never, ever done before.

See, I made lemon bars for eating after Easter dinner. Just something small, considering that I, er, the Easter Bunny had given loads of chocolate, jelly beans and other sweets to Jim, my daughters and their boyfriends.

A few of the bars were eaten on Easter. Then I forgot to give each of the girls some to take home.

Jim doesn't care too much for lemon bars. I, on the other hand, care far too much for them. Which meant that I simply could not just let them go to waste.

So nearly every day since Easter, I've nibbled on a lemon bar or two, pulled from the dish in the fridge. In all justification fairness, I usually chose to eat them for breakfast — as my breakfast, not in addition to it, in order to swap out at least some of the extra calories.

I couldn't waste them. I couldn't resist them. And as of yesterday, this is what was left:

 

Which I promptly ate. For breakfast... instead of breakfast.

So very, very bad. And so not what I wish I had learned this week.

(But they were pretty darn good. If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here. Just learn from my mistake — share them!)

So what do lemon bar sins have to do with Toyota? Well, absolutely nothing.

Toyota is part of this post because I wanted to tell you today where I'll be going and what I'll be doing for the next few days, starting tomorrow and courtesy of Toyota. (Though you will find new daily posts here; can't ruin my record.)

Toyota contacted me not long ago to be one of their guests at the annual Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities. With all expenses to be paid by Toyota for me to attend the Saturday through Tuesday event. Transportation, hotel, meals. Yes, I feel so very privileged.

Lifesavers, according to the conference website, "is the premier national highway safety meeting in the United States dedicated to reducing the tragic toll of deaths and injuries on our nation’s roadways." Which means I should have some pretty great info to share with you all afterward on keeping those we love — little ones, big ones, and older ones (including ourselves) — safe on the roads.

One of the highlights for me will be the stay at the fabulous Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. It's the spot where Jim and I celebrated our 20th anniversary more than 10 years ago, and this return trip will surely be quite a treat... even though Jim won't be along.

One particularly amusing note about my trip: The conference is in Denver. I live in Colorado Springs. Toyota is flying me there instead of providing a rental car, as I suggested. Flight duration? Forty-two minutes.

It's not often — at least not yet — that baby boomer bloggers are honored with such invitations. The fact Toyota has put their money on baby boomer bloggers in general and this baby boomer blogger in particular makes them, in my opinion, totally and completely awesome.

Now if only a brand would invest in this baby boomer blogger and foot the bill for me to attend BlogHer13 coming up in July. That, I must say, would be equally totally and completely awesome.

Perhaps offering lemon bars to brand representatives might do the trick. Ya never know — those lemon bars make folks do things they have never, ever done before.

Or so I unfortunately learned this past week.

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?

What I learned this week: Apple slicers cut perfect home fries

We're never too old to learn something new, be it tangible or intangible. This week I learned something super handy of a super tangible sort.

My lesson? I learned that apple slicers are great for cutting home fries! Especially if you don't have one of those nifty kitchen gadgets made specifically for slicing up fries.

French fries, according to myriad medical and nutritional experts, are oh-so bad for you. But they're oh-so good to the taste buds. Making (and baking) fries at home cuts down a smidgen on the awfulness of the tater treats, but cutting the potatoes for home fries is a pain in the patootie, whether using regular potatoes or the healthier sweet ones.

That is, until I realized this past week that an apple slicer creates perfect home fries. Here's how:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Figuring one potato per person plus an extra, scrub them clean or peel them — though it's the peels that make them "home" fries, if you ask me.

Next, pull out your handy dandy apple slicer, then carefully cut through the potato just as you might an apple.

Viola! French fries!

Slice the center piece, the one where an apple core would be, in half length-wise to make all your home fries about the same size.

To complete the home fries process, sparingly slather (oxymoron?) the potato slices with light mayo, sprinkle with pepper and seasoned salt, then place on a baking sheet coated with non-stick spray.

Bake for 30 minutes or until tender, flipping the potatoes halfway through.

Pull them out of the oven, and there you have it — home fries. Perfectly cut. With an apple corer.

See? You're never too old to learn something new.

This post linked to Grandparents Say It Saturday.

Today's question:

What did you learn this past week?