Butterscotch Pecan Chews Recipe

Butterscotch Pecan Chews. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

A perfect excuse to bake (as if you need one): Here's an easy blondie recipe with a surprise ~ no butter. Four eggs hold the brown sugar and flour together and pecans add texture. These bars can be assembled and baked up in under an hour. If they're not gobbled up still warm from the oven, wrap them up tight, refrigerate and send in school lunches throughout the week. Guaranteed lunchtime friend-maker.

Butterscotch Pecan Chews

Non-stick baking spray

4 large eggs

1 pound dark brown sugar

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9 inch square pan with baking spray. 

2. In a bowl, stir together eggs, brown sugar, flour and vanilla until smooth and nearly lump-free. Stir in the pecans.

3. Pour batter into greased pan. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Remove to cooling rack, and cut into squares when barely warm.

Adapted from "Treasured Recipes of the Charleston Cake Lady" by Teresa Pregnall (Hearts Books, 1996)

Text and images copyright 2013, Lucy Mercer.

Christmas Alphabet Scrapbook Project

Christmas scrapbook. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 This is one of my Christmas treasures, created for us several years ago by my dear mother-in-law. It's a scrapbook using Christmas cards to illustrate a holiday alphabet. It can be a keepsake of memorable cards and pictures for your family through the years. Creating the Christmas alphabet scrapbook requires only a few items ~ a blank scrapbook, some glue, holiday photos and lots and lots of Christmas cards. (I can't bear to throw Christmas cards away, so each year I put them in a big plastic bag and then into a Rubbermaid container along with the Christmas ornaments.) Each year, I add to the scrapbook with pictures of the girls and memorable cards and holiday pictures from friends. I'm not a scrapbooker, so I can only imagine what someone with those skills and resources could bring to this project. I hope you give this project a try and make some memories for your friends and family.

Christmas alphabet. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

 

 Text and images copyright 2013, Lucy Mercer.

Create a bucket garden

Bucket garden. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

We caught the gardening bug late this year, but hit upon a great idea in the planning. Bucket gardens, decorated by my crafty girls and filled with bright annuals, ready to brighten up the porch or flower bed, depending on our whim (and the summer heat.)

Our starting point was with a video from The Home Depot ~ an informative five-minute presentation that outlined the materials required and how to put together the bucket. Instead of pails, we used the smallest garbage cans available, Behrens 6 gallon galvanized trash cans with a lid and handle. (I've learned the hard way with container plants that the bigger the pot, the more moisture they can hold, thus allowing the plants to survive any inconsistencies in watering.)

Wave petunias. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The girls decorated the buckets using paint pens from Michaels. We like a little poetry and a little whimsy in our garden. And Emily Dickinson always inspires...

Paint markers make the artist's job easy. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Hope is the thing with feathers. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

I used a heavy duty hammer and screwdriver to drive drainage holes in the bottom of the bucket and the girls filled the buckets with garden soil. I showed them how to gently pull the plants from the containers ~ Little Bit loves the phrase from the Home Depot video ~ "tickle the roots!" A little gardening lesson that she'll always remember.

The finished garden, getting its first drink. Laura Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The bucket gardens turned out beautifully and I'm looking forward to a summer full of color from the wave petunias, the lantana and daisies that we planted!

Check out the Home Depot for the bucket garden how-to and more ideas for easy gardening projects.

Magical nights of garden lights

Lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

A million lights and 30 acres of trees made the Atlanta Botanical Gardens the place to be on a warm December evening this week. This is the second year of the Garden Lights and it was a magical journey for my little one and me. A few pictures from the evening...

Entrance to Atlanta Botanical Garden. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

We began with a walk through the Storza woods along the Canopy Walk. From the soaring walkway, we could see the cars lining up to get into the garden.

Lights at Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Lights at Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Lights. Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Lights at Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


These lights reminded me of Dr. Seuss - it's the Cat in the Hat and Truffula trees all together.

Lights at Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books


Into the the Edible Garden where grasshoppers and flowers lit up alongside cabbages and herbs.

These groovy space shapes changed colors in sync with music - Michael Buble's "Feelin' Good" while we were there.

Lumina at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

Above, Lumina, the beautiful Snow Queen, stopped for pictures with the children.

Below, s'mores over the firepit.

A break for s'mores. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

The Chihuly fountain is lovely at all times, but especially radiant with lights.

Chihuly fountain. Atlanta Botanical Garden. Lucy Mercer/A Cook and Her Books

It's very hard for a seven year old to stay away from the fountain, even when a gentleman is popping the question to his girlfriend on this lovely evening. (and yes, that happened while we were here!)

The lights made the ordinary radiant.

And the bare, beautiful. 

 And the beautiful, extraordinary.

 

Wishing you a season full of light!

Merry Christmas!