cheese sticks or cheese straws

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup plain flour
• 3/4 cup soften margarine
• 2 cups grated italian cheese (stink cheese, the super cheap stuff you feel kind of bad putting on top of your spaghetti)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

combine the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. rub in the margarine. your mix should look kind of like bread crumbs. add the water a little bit at a time while you mix. you know- add a little, mix. add some more mix some more. i was able to mix everything with a fork. it's really super easy and makes a nice lump of dough. i divided the dough into two lumps and rolled them out on a lightly floured surface. i then cut the dough into strips

and laid them  out on a baking sheet i lined with parchment paper. i also used a cookie sheet, unlined to see which cooked better.(baking sheet with parchment liner won)

 i baked in a preheated oven at 205degrees C, so that's like 400something in F. cook like 5-8min, they want to be golden brown but not burnt.

this recipe makes a ton of sticks. good for if you have a party or something. if it's just going to be you and a little kid eating them it might be a good idea to make half a batch. let totally cool and then store in an airtight container. they should be good for 5 days or so before going stale.
they aren't super cheesy tasting. i'm going to make a batch of garlic mayo for dipping.

garlic mayo
chop 1 or 2 clove of garlic and mix into 3/4 cup of mayo. i also add a little dried parsley. let sit in the fridge for a few hours for the flavor to develop.

it would seem my toddler is going through a growth spurt or something. the past few days he's been constantly begging for food. normally he just has breakfast, lunch and dinner. i used to set snacks out for him so he could have something if he wanted them but i ended up throwing them away after they got dumped on the carpet and stomped on. lately he's been begging for cheese sticks and crackers or sandwiches. i thought i would track down a granola bar recipe and make something like that for him. i found a recipe on allrecipes.com that had a load of good reviews. i wrote down the basic ingredients and then set about editing it to better suit my needs. below is my experimental granola bar recipe

granola bars

• 2 1/4 cup oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup of butter- melted
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 1/4 cup of dried apricots chopped up
• 1 small apple
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

i peeled and cut up the apple. put it in a sauce pot with a little water and let it simmer until it was soft. i then used my potato masher to squash it up. i put in the vanilla, honey and butter then stirred it all together. since the apple sauce was still warm the butter quickly melted

in a large bowl i mixed together the other ingredients. i just used a fork to stir everything around. i then added the apple and melted butter mixture to the large bowl. i mixed everything together- still with a fork. i dumped it out into a 9x13inch tray which i had lined with baking paper. with a spatula i firmly pressed the mix out until it was very thinly spread across the tray, it didn't quite cover the whole area but pretty close. i put the thing in the oven at 325 degrees for about 20min. i wasn't really paying attention to how long it cooked. i did the dishes. when the top was starting to get brown i turned the oven off. i took the tray out and cut the bars. i then let the bars completely cool in the tray. i gave one to my son to try and he declared them- delicious.

note the americans: since americans are used to way more sugar in their food these will seems rather bland and tasteless. try adding 1/3 cup of brown sugar and a little salt. i made these for my son and stuff for him i try to cut out all added refined sugar and salt.