Cooking Thursday: Homemade Twix Bars

 

Hello lovely Friends☀️💛

Thank you so much for all of the lovely comments of support and prayers for my Mom. It will be a long haul, but she is remaining positive and doing all the right things to take care of herself. She has been feeling less sore, thankfully, and I think it will just take a little healing everyday to get her back on track. And the extra prayers sure help too! So again, thank you so very much. 🙏🏻

The weekend is right around the corner - yay! My Dad and step Mom are back from AZ for the summer. So we are looking forward to spending some time with them this weekend. 

I'm guessing you are a lot like me in that summer feels too short and we're always trying to pack in all the fun activities, time with family, outdoor fun etc. And a lot of the fun and gatherings involves food...especially yummy treats! So today I thought I'd share one of our family favorite treat bars that I'm not sure I've shared before? 

They are bars that are twix-like because they have a caramel in the middle of crunchy salty crackers (that act like the cookie in a twix) and are then covered in chocolate. No matter what you want to call them, what's not to like, right? 😋 I made them recently when Aaron and Jill were up per Annie's request that weekend. It's a recipe I found a long time ago at the site jamiecooksitup.net

They have always been a hit when I've brought them for potlucks and my kids request them almost yearly at some point. 

They involve lining club crackers in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Making an easy homemade caramel on the stove and pouring it over the crackers. Then adding another layer of crackers on top. Chilling for a brief time. 

And then melting chocolate chips in the microwave and spreading all over the top like frosting. Chill a little more and then cut into bars. 

HOMEMADE TWIX BARS

48 club crackers

1 c. crushed graham crackers (I buy already crushed in the box)

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/3 c. white sugar

1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. butter

3 c. chocolate chips (milk, semi sweet or combo of chips you like)

Directions: Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Lay 24 crackers over the bottom of the pan. In a saucepan on the stove pour in the graham cracker crumbs. Add the brown and white sugar, milk, and butter. Melt all over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes stirring constantly (don't let it burn). Then carefully pour the melted caramel over the crackers. Grab another 24 crackers and gently place over the top of the caramel and bottom crackers...pushing into it a little. Put the pan in the fridge and chill for about 30 minutes to set the caramel. Then melt the chocolate chips in a big bowl - stirring and checking every 30 seconds until melted and smooth when you stir. Pour over the top of the cracker caramel mixture and spread out with offset spatula. Place back in the fridge and chill for another 20 to 30 minutes and take out to cut into bars (don't leave in the fridge too long or the caramel will get hard). I store them out on the counter in a covered pan....well at least for the short time they last! Lol

If you try I hope you enjoy! 

Wishing you a great weekend. 

xoxo

Happy Homemaker Monday (on a Tuesday)

Hello my Lovelies!

I'm getting to the HHM post late this week due to the holiday weekend. To those in the states that celebrated Memorial Weekend - I hope you had a nice long relaxing one. May God bless all of our service men and women and their families for all the freedoms they help provide our country. 🇺🇸

We spent part of the weekend here with all the kiddos (Aaron and Jill were up). And then we spent part of it at the lake with Matt's folks. We went out for pizza with the kids one night and played cards/games over the time hanging with them - as well as great visiting. 

And at the lake we went out on a pontoon ride, helped Matt's Mom get all of her flowers, played cards, watched movies and just relaxed. Matt and his Dad got their fishing licenses but Matt's Dad didn't feel good the morning they were going to go out - so they didn't fish. But Matt brought the bait home and plans to fish off our dock a bit this week. :) 

On big bummer note - my Mom had a fall over the weekend. She fractured a vertebrae in her back and tore some ligaments. She is okay...thank the Lord! But she will be in a heavy duty brace for 3 months. Not fun. We are getting her and my step Dad set up with meals on wheels, and we got her a commode in case it's needed. I'm also getting her a walker. I will be checking in regularly, running errands for them as needed, and stocking their freezer with more meals. Scary stuff and I pray in such gratitude she is ultimately okay.  

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

iced protein coffee and a little cereal with banana on it

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, check on Mom, lunch with a girlfriend, dinner with my Bro & SIL, start getting my flowers, home projects, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

how it's starting to acutally look like summer - the dandelions are out everywhere and everything is getting so green and full💚

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

slow relaxing pontoon rides 

CURRENTLY READING

magazines right now

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office, Castle Impossible (HGTV)

Matt and I need to go back and finish The Last Kingdom series

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - lemon pasta, meatballs, salad or roasted broccoli

TUESDAY - tacos

WEDNESDAY -  

THURSDAY - 

FRIDAY - 

* not sure about the rest of the week - didn't make those meals last week so froze the meat and doing to start the week. But going to check in with my Mom to see what might be good to make for them and work my meal plan and groceries around that.

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

hopefully get back to reading my book!

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Scenes from a lovely weekend:

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. For healing healing for my Mom and for a relative's family member that had heart surgery. 

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I hope you have a very blessed rest of the week my Friends ☀️💛

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Cooking Thursday: Grill Time

 

Hello and happy Thursday lovely Friends!

It's a cool, but nice and sunny day in the northwoods. 

While I was doing my workout on the treadmill, I saw this adorable baby bunny eating dandelions out the window. I love how when he was finishing the dandelion stalk it would look like he was blowing a yellow bubble. Lol 

And I need to share my pretty Ruby all done at the groomers. And I picked the wild daffs in the woods by the house because they were starting to fade and I wanted to enjoy them a bit more. 💛

But for today I wanted to share that I dug out this grilling cookbook and was looking through it for some future inspiration. It has a lot of yummy recipes for the grill and is divided by different meats (hamburger, steak, chicken etc) and even has a section of desserts. Here are a few examples of what's in the cookbook:

It's one of my favorite things about summer - is to grill out on the deck and have a meal out in the sunshine. 

Do you like to grill? Do you have any favorites you make in the summer?

I think we're actually going to go to our local meat market soon...to pick up some things to grill for the holiday weekend. 😋 (Memorial weekend in the U.S.)

I hope you have a blessed weekend ahead Friends! 

💗💗💗

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello my Friends!

Blessings to you on this new week. ☀️

First of all, I wanted to say thank you so much for all of the lovely comments you sent my way on my last post. The sweet love and support meant so much to me! Hospice is definitely a calling beyond me and all the glory really goes to the Lord. But I still thank you so very much!💗

Did you have a nice weekend? We had a nice long one because Matt's folks flew in on Thursday from AZ. They were coming home to the lake property for the summer. We picked them up and headed straight for the lake and stayed there with them until Sunday. We helped them get groceries and do jobs around the property to get them all settled back in. 

We also enjoyed some time playing cards, visiting, taking walks, watching movies, grilling, going out to dinner one night... and all the nice relaxing lake life things. The dock and boats are in but it was too windy and chilly to go out on the water. I just love my in-laws and enjoy time with them so much! 💗

After the nice relaxing weekend I'm ready to get back to busy life for the week ahead...

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

iced protein coffee and a piece of lemon blueberry toast, some banana

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, we need groceries, some hospice paperwork to catch up on, meet up with one of the companies that's giving us a quote on our bathroom reno, Annie dentist, hang with my Mom, some cleaning/organize projects, hospice work at the facility

THINKING ABOUT: 

that it's gray and rainy here today but it's making me feel cozy and productive

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

long walks down country roads :) 

CURRENTLY READING

I still need to dive into a new book I got for Mother's Day but I'm currently having some fun browsing Katie Daisy books that give me drawing inspiration 

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office,  Survivor, Outlander (need to watch the last 2 episodes I have taped - I hate it's all over for good 😢),  Love on the Spectrum (still need to finish it)

Matt and I need to go back and finish The Last Kingdom series

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - 

TUESDAY - 

WEDNESDAY -  

THURSDAY - 

FRIDAY - 

*not sure what I'm doing this week as I still need to gather a list and go to the grocery store - will check in and see if Matt or Annie have any preferences. I'm thinking a taco/nacho night, maybe go to the meat market to get something to grill and do sides Annie likes (she's not a meat eater), lemon pasta (meatballs on the side) with roasted broccoli, maybe greek chicken sweet potato bowls I've wanted to try to make?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

work on organizing and scrapbook projects

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

I love ambiance action videos like this Ghibli one (perfect today as it's about rain and feeling cozy) 

or like this one:

This one is like right out of the Bramble hedge books. 

They are nice cozy backdrops for reading, cleaning or just doing things around home. 

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

The beauty that is Ten Mile Lake - but it was either too chilly or too choppy to get out on the water over the weekend. And the pic below this is out of one of the windows at the cottage. On the back of the property there is a pond that it so pretty too. 

Matt's Mom has really been trying to work on her walking and balance and wanted to get out to walk with us. Go Sue! It was so fun to see leaves popping out on the trees and little dandelions and flowers popping up in the grass along the road. We ran into another walker this day that said his pups were at the vet because they had a run-in with a porcupine that morning. Yikes! He praised our smarts keeping Ruby on a leash. 

love him 💗💗💗

Out for a nice dinner and saying cheers in honor of Jerry and Sue's return to the lake! Fun to have a reason to get dressed up a bit. I didn't get a pic of my dinner but I did of my drink 😂 which was a salted caramel martini - yum! I had the crab crusted mahi mahi in a lemon cream sauce with green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. Holy moly was it fabulous!

At the lake cottage, there are planked pathways Matt's grandpa had put in when they built the property. They are so pretty and go right to the walkway that heads to a little deck and then down to the dock. Matt's grandparents put in the rocks all over as Matt's grandma was an avid gardener and used to plant wildflowers in these rock gardens all along the way. And she used to hang lots of flowering baskets in the trees. Matt's folks do hanging baskets in some of the trees each summer, but that's about as much as they want to tend to. 

Someday when it's the retirement property for Matt and I we plan to renovate inside the cottage, and also to do more gardening around it too. Although we may talk to his folks about planting some dwarf shrubs in some of the rock garden areas in the near future. They wouldn't really be any maintenance, but it would add to improving the look around the cottage. 

I love the fireplace and the stone Matt's grandparents had put in the cottage and they are things we would definitely keep in the renovation! 😍

So nice that back at home we have leaves finally coming out on the trees and my wild daffodils in the woods are blooming too. 

pretty even on a rainy day

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace. For healing for Matt's knee. For wildfires to be contained in our area (it was so dry and windy over the weekend and outlying areas still having issues)

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Wishing you all an amazing week ahead. 🌸

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.