Month: March 2018

Little Red Bear’s Special Easter Recipes & Ideas To Please Everybunny!

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When Little Red Bear and I are not trying to scrub Easter Egg dye from our hands (paws), we like to discover interesting and fun new recipes and treats to make for family and friends.

It has been a few months since Little Red Bear shared some of his special recipe finds with the holiday season so busy and everyone having their own family favorites, but with the Easter Bunny working overtime and the holiday drawing near he thought it a good time to get going again and share some Easter treats and information. Let’s get hopping!

Starting off with a healthier treat for the little ones because being about Easter treats and goodies it’s likely to become more sugary sweet as we go along.

As usual, simply tap on the link to view the original recipe and provider’s page.

Peep Fruit Kabobs

An alternative to sugary sweets, little ones should ‘Peep!’ with delight over these.

Peep Fruit Kabobs Recipe

Krispie Treat Goodies

Krispie Treats are among Little Red Bear and my favorites for Easter and any time of year!  Here are three different Krispie Treat ideas to make up for Easter.

Fruity Pebble Krispie Treats — My personal favorite kind of marshmallow cereal treat, made with Fruity Pebbles cereal for a different and fun take on the original.

Rice Krispies Treat Easter Eggs — Fun for the whole family!  Simply use plastic eggs to form the fun egg shapes for these.

Easter Rice Krispie Cake — Neither Little Red Bear nor I had ever seen a cake made from Rice Krispie Treats before and couldn’t imagine why we hadn’t thought of it sooner ourselves!

Easter White Chocolate Crockpot Candy Clusters

Creamy, crunchy, peanutty, and beautiful for a brunch buffet or candy dish. Three ingredients plus your choice of sprinkles, prepared in the crock pot while you do other things. What could be better?

Easter White Chocolate Crockpot Candy Clusters Recipe

Easter No Bake Birds’ Nest Cookies

Made with oats, corn flakes, mini candy eggs, chocolate and butterscotch chips, and peanut butter, kids (and adults!) will love this Easter treat.

Easter No Bake Bird’s Nest Cookies Recipe

Easter Sugar Cookies

Everybody likes sugar cookies! Wouldn’t the kids love to find a fun-shaped and brightly-decorated Easter Cookie in their basket? Little Red Bear wants one. Or, a dozen.

Easter Sugar Cookies Recipe

Easter Egg Cookie Dough Truffles

Another delightful and beautiful Easter treat to make up ahead of time for family and guests. And who doesn’t love cookie dough?

Easter Egg Cookie Dough Truffles Recipe

Easter Surprise Confetti Cookie Bars

Cookie Bars are always a perfect treat for buffets and treat dishes for holiday gatherings, a perfect “hand food” as they say, and able to be made ahead of time. These Easter Surprise Confetti Cookie Bars come with a sugar advisory — they are loaded!  Packed to the max with oatmeal, peanut butter, chocolate chips, M&Ms, springtime confetti sprinkles, and five (5!) different kinds of candy bars, this treat will not disappoint. You may want to put these delights up out of the reach of little ones if planning to get any sleep the next week. Little Red Bear is already busy whipping up a batch of these! I see some late night writing sessions on the horizon.

Easter Surprise Confetti Cookie Bars Recipe

Easter Trifles

Do you have a trifle bowl tucked safely away after the Christmas holidays? You may want to bring it back out for one of these delicious Easter Trifles!

Cotton Candy Easter Trifle — One white cake mix as the cake filling baked in separate smaller cake pans and dyed with food coloring, with cream cheese, whipped cream, and candy bits of your choice make for a colorful buffet presentation.

Rainbow Peeps Trifle — This vivid trifle features swirled cake pieces, Cool Whip, lemon pie filling for a touch of spring freshness, and colorful Easter Peeps for decoration.

Chocolate Easter Eggs With Cheesecake Filling

I love traditional Cadbury Eggs and these remind me of those — with a creamy, lemony cheesecake filling and yummy apricot sauce for the ‘yolk’.  If the kids turn up their noses at these and opt for the sweet treats, that simply means more of these amazing creations for the adults!

Chocolate Easter Eggs With Cheesecake Filling Recipe

Easter Cathedral Candy

Another amazing no-bake recipe to prepare ahead of time, these beautiful candies require only three ingredients — vanilla flavored melting wafers or almond bark, colored mini marshmallows, and sweetened coconut.  Mix, chill, slice, and serve!

Easter Cathedral Candy Recipe

Easter Eggs and Creative Hunt & Craft ideas!

For anyone who may be new to hard-boiling (or struggling with it as we seemed to somehow always do each year) and coloring Easter Eggs, or who may be looking for some exciting and different new decorating ideas, check out the helpful links below.

How To Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

A Handy Food Coloring Custom Mixing Chart

Making Tie Dye Easter Eggs

How To Dye Easter Eggs with Kool-Aid

Decorating Natural Brown Easter Eggs

How To Make Marbelized Easter Eggs

How To Host The Best Easter Egg Hunt Ever

Fun New Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

18 Simple Easter Crafts for Kids

Find over 600 more Easter Holiday features on my Easter Treats, Fun Crafts, and Activities Board on Pinterest. To find today’s features and all of the recipes we have shared so far, visit our Little Red Bear’s Hand-picked Blog Recipes Board. Visit and Like my Writer’s Facebook Page to see daily recipes and features we share.

Thanks as always for spending part of your day with us! We would be honored if you recommended our site and pages to friends and family.  Little Red Bear and I look forward to your visits here, and hope that in our own way we help to make your day special, too! And if you are not familiar with Little Red Bear yet, I invite you to tap on the links below to find out more about Red and his family-friendly adventure stories.

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy, and Happy Easter! — Jim  (and Red!)

“Easter is meant to be a symbol of hope, renewal, and new life.” — Janine di Giovanni

“Easter combines the best of the present with the traditions of the past – like Cadbury Cream Eggs with hunting and gathering.” — Melanie White 

“The Adventures of Little Red Bear” Short Stories on Amazon.
Old-fashioned, Family-friendly, Multi-generational Stories and Fun for All Ages!
~ About an Uncommonly Special Bear and His Friends ~
Tap Here For A Free Preview!

“Easter is so disappointing. You suffer all the way through Lent, and what do you get for it? A ham.” — Garrison Keillor   

This is a purposefully non-monetized, ad-free site to be able to offer the most enjoyable reading and viewing experience for everyone, with all content freely shared, and generates no income to offset the costs of maintaining and operating. If you enjoy your visits and time with us, Join our new Patron Community today. Patrons help my friend Little Red Bear and me to continue this as an ad-free site,  dedicated solely to entertainment and educational purposes. Because together we can do so much!

             “Behind every young child who believes in himself is a parent who believed first.”        – Matthew Jacobson

 

 

 

 

Happy National Oreo Cookie Day!

/ jrmilson / 2 Comments

Did you wake up feeling a little happier and bouncier than usual this morning and perhaps wondering why?  Chances are it’s not your birthday.  Or Christmas.  Or anniversary. So, what is it then?

It’s March 6th —  National Oreo Cookie Day, of course!

Oreos — That little creme-filled bundle of crispy, chocolaty goodness we have come to love over the years. Since its introduction years ago, the Oreo Cookie has become the best-selling cookie in the United States. No surprise there. A mere glance at my cupboard would confirm that fact.

Nabisco (originally The National Biscuit Company) first developed and produced the “Oreo Biscuit” in 1912 at its Chelsea factory in New York City. The block on which the factory was originally located is now known as “Oreo Way”.  Wouldn’t you like to go to work each morning to a place called “Oreo Way?”

Here are some other fun facts about Oreos from the National Day Calendar folks —

  • The name “Oreo” was first trademarked on March 14, 1912.
  • The first Oreo cookies in the United States sold for 25 cents a pound in clear, glass-topped novelty cans.
  • In 1912, the Oreo Biscuit was renamed to “Oreo Sandwich”.
  • In 1948, the Oreo Sandwich was renamed to “Oreo Creme Sandwich”.
  • William A. Turnier developed the modern-day Oreo design in 1952 to include the Nabisco logo.
  • Nabisco’s principal food scientist, Sam Procello, developed the modern Oreo cookie filling.

Oreos now come in a wide variety of flavors, including Banana Split, Berry Burst Ice Cream, Birthday Cake, Candy Cane, Candy Corn, Cool Mint, Creamsicle, Pumpkin Spice, and many others. And of course, not to leave out Golden Oreos, and maybe my personal favorite, the Double Stuf Oreos!

What is your favorite way to enjoy an Oreo Cookie?  Do you dunk it?  Bite into and crunch it?  Or are you a twister, like me?  My favorite way is to carefully twist the two cookie halves apart, crunch and enjoy the plain half first, and then slowly savor the creamy goodness of the other half.  Mmmm — creamy goodness.

Thanks for visiting and spending part of your day with us.  Now, go treat yourself — it’s National Oreo Cookie Day! — Jim  (and Red!)

“Happiness is a tall glass of milk and Oreo Cookie in each paw.” — Little Red Bear

         “Health food may be good for the conscience, but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better.”          — Robert Redford

This is a purposefully non-monetized, ad-free site to be able to offer the most enjoyable reading and viewing experience for everyone, with all content freely shared, and generates no income to offset the costs of maintaining and operating. If you enjoy your visits and time with us, Join our new Patron Community today. Patrons help my friend Little Red Bear and me to continue this as an ad-free site,  dedicated solely to entertainment and educational purposes.

 

Walking A Mile In Another’s Moccasins — What Tracks Will We Leave Behind?

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The name of this heartfelt poem by Mary T. Lathrap (1838-1895) was originally titled “Judge Softly” when written in 1895, and has later come to be known by its most famous and quoted line — “Walk a Mile in His Moccasins.”

This line was quoted by my Mother to me over and over growing up, and has been attributed to various Native American tribes, but comes from this poem by Mary Lathrap. Whether she was inspired by a direct Native American contact or not I have yet to find, but it reads as heavily influenced by the conditions of Native Americans both on and off the reservations at the time.

Regardless,  it is not the title which is significant in the end,  but rather the meaning and true message of the words of Compassion, Kindness, Empathy, Tolerance, Acceptance, and Understanding still so relevant and needed in our world today, over a hundred years after it was written. Have you walked in another’s moccasins?

“Judge Softly”

“Pray, don’t find fault with the man that limps,
Or stumbles along the road.
Unless you have worn the moccasins he wears,
Or stumbled beneath the same load.

There may be tears in his soles that hurt
Though hidden away from view.
The burden he bears placed on your back
May cause you to stumble and fall, too.

Don’t sneer at the man who is down today
Unless you have felt the same blow
That caused his fall or felt the shame
That only the fallen know.

You may be strong, but still the blows
That were his, unknown to you in the same way,
May cause you to stagger and fall, too.

Don’t be too harsh with the man that sins.
Or pelt him with words, or stone, or disdain.
Unless you are sure you have no sins of your own,
And it’s only wisdom and love that your heart contains.

For you know if the tempter’s voice
Should whisper as soft to you,
As it did to him when he went astray,
It might cause you to falter, too.

Just walk a mile in his moccasins
Before you abuse, criticize and accuse.
If just for one hour, you could find a way
To see through his eyes, instead of your own muse.

I believe you’d be surprised to see
That you’ve been blind and narrow-minded, even unkind.
There are people on reservations and in the ghettos
Who have so little hope, and too much worry on their minds.

Brother, there but for the grace of God go you and I.
Just for a moment, slip into his mind and traditions
And see the world through his spirit and eyes
Before you cast a stone or falsely judge his conditions.

Remember to walk a mile in his moccasins
And remember the lessons of humanity taught to you by your elders.
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave
In other people’s lives, our kindnesses and generosity.

Take the time to walk a mile in his moccasins.”

~ by Mary T. Lathrap, 1895

“We will be known forever by the tracks we leave,” is a Lakota Native American proverb. Words of wisdom to be kept foremost in mind when choosing our actions and reactions, and the individual impacts each make upon the world around us today. And the far-reaching effects on the world we will be leaving for our children and posterity. What tracks do we each choose to leave when confronted with choices of kindness and peace, or exclusion and violence?

Thanks for visiting and spending part of your day with us. When we find ourselves rushing to judge others, we reveal more about ourselves as being someone who feels the need to judge, than about the other person. We never know what storms others may have been called to walk thru in their lives, and each of us is carrying a burden, whether seen or unseen.

Choose to brighten someone’s journey and share your smile, a kind word, or gesture today, and truly be the change you wish to see in the world.  — Jim (and Red!)

“Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.” – Alfred Adler

“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”  — Harper Lee (‘To Kill a Mockingbird’)             

“The Adventures of Little Red Bear” Short Stories on Amazon.
Old-fashioned, Family-friendly, Multi-generational Stories and Fun for All Ages!
~ About an Uncommonly Special Bear and His Friends ~
Tap Here For A Free Preview!

“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.” – Jesse Jackson

This is a purposefully non-monetized, ad-free site to be able to offer the most enjoyable reading and viewing experience for everyone, with all content freely shared, and generates no income to offset the costs of maintaining and operating. If you enjoy your visits and time with us, Join our new Patron Community today. Patrons help my friend Little Red Bear and me to continue this as an ad-free site,  dedicated solely to entertainment and educational purposes.

“Open your mind to the world and the many different ways that can be found in it, before making hasty judgments of others. After all, the very same thing that you judge from where you are— may very well be something totally different in meaning on the other side of the world. The problem with making hasty judgments is that it will emphasize your ignorance at the end of the day.”  — C. JoyBell C.