Mail!

Hullo, we got mail!! There's a package here from... can you guess??
Little Fox!

Oooh... it's my prize for the recipes... some Honey Roasted Peanuts...

Jerry - "mmm.... honey...."

And a postcard from a place called Fontainebleau. That's in France we think. Hmmm... that's weird... I don't know anyone in France. Well... that's cause the postcard is for Ben!!

Ben - "Oooh!!! I wonder if it's from Achille... he lives in France..."

Ben - "... but it's in English... and... it's from...."

Ben - "MY sekretaries!!!!"
(Uh-oh... this doesn't look good...)

Ben - "but... but... but... my sekretaries went to France... without me???? "

Ben - "I don't know what to say... Mon Dieu..."
Well... Ben... you do know that if you had gone with them, you wouldn't have been able to come and visit me... right? Right??

Ben - "Mais oui... that is true... but still... I feel like a strike might be in order... or at least a strike on cookie baking when I get home!"

Uh... OK, Ben... but... HEY... where'd the honey-roasted peanuts go???"

 Oh... and before we forget... we all sent a postcard to Jerry & Ben's sekretaries... and it arrived in this condition! Have of it was ripped off and there was only their Papa's name and the street address on the card. But... it arrived! 5 stars to the USPS!

Smores - Part 2

Hello again... back from our unplanned commercial intermission. Sandy escorted Mama to the store...

And Ben has taken on official cook supervision duties... "Me is an expert s'more maker!"

Let's see... marshmallows... check!

Graham wafers... check!

Hershey's milk chocolate... check!

"I think we are ready to begin" said Ben.

"Now... who wants to go... hmmm... where's Jerry?"

It didn't take much to figure that out!

"Mmmm... marshmallows..."

"Heh-heh... me just checking the freshness of the ingredients," giggled Jerry.
Uh-huh... Someone might need to count marshmallows before we begin!

We left the cooking of the marshmallows to the humans... with Ben supervising of course... You want the marshmallow to begin smoking but not burning... tricky.

We all decided to let Jerry have the first one... first you put it on the chocolate and then clamp a graham wafer on top....

Then you pull out the roasting stick...

Is it raining?? Nope... just the sound of Jerry salivating! The s'more went down beary quickly... "Mrrph... munfff.... is beary... mrpph... good", moaned Jerry.

Then it was Ben's turn...

Uh... no... you're not Ben...

And Sylvester got one too!

Finally it was my turn... Hey!!!

Oy... I now see what Ben has had to deal with over the years!

But then... Mama let Jerry have a nibble off of hers. "Not a good idea," said Ben, "you're encouraging him!"

Ahhhhhh.... smokies and s'mores... great evening!

Smores - Part 1

Hullo! Sylvester is back and we are beary excited because that means... garden tour soon! But first... to celebrate his reappearance... can you guess?

Here's a hint...

We are having a campfire!!

Heh-heh... and that means s'mores!

But first we have some smokies to cook. Let's see... 5 smokies... 4 little bears and 1 human. That works out about right.

But we have to wait until the flames die down a bit before we can put the smokies on the fire pit grill.

In the meantime... we could talk about Sylvester's plans... hey... wait a minute...

Where's Jerry??

Uh-huh... "Me just supervising the hot dogs," mumbled Jerry...

Guess it's time to put them on the grill!

We also have some hummus and crackers...

Mmmm... good to the last morsel! Now we're ready for dessert! Bring on the s'mores!

But then Mama looked a bit dodgy...

"Wouldn't you guys like to look at flowers for a bit?"

Nope! We want s'mores!

"Are you sure??? Jerry... look at the cute violas!"

"Me... want... s'mores!" It was then that Mama admitted we were missing some key ingredients for s'mores... like graham crackers and chocolate... uh-oh.

That's what we think of poorly prepared sekrebearies!! Do we need to hold another strike vote?

***We now take a commercial break...***

Chef Ben makes Shish kabobs

Hullo! We are back at my place after an uneventful (i.e. boring) ferry ride from Vancouver. No whales. No s'mores. Sigh... but... well, this evening, I am handing the mike over to Chef Ben because he has a special treat in store for us!

***

Ah-hem... Ben here... yes, we do have a special treat tonight. I am going to break-in Sandy's new BBQ! It's called Master Chef which makes it beary appropriate as I am Chef Ben... chef extrordinaire!! (Cheers from Sandy and Jerry!)

Before we begin, I would like to assure our viewers that we are going to get a tour of Sandy's amazing garden soon. Sylvester, cub reporter for Bears Lairs Magazine, is on another assignment but should be back in a day or two. We did... however... notice one addition to the garden. You see the rhodo bush off on the left - with the big pink blossoms?

There's a robin's nest in there!! And the mama robin is sitting on there very intently...

Jerry would also like to point out Sandy's potted plants on the deck. Those are beary healthy looking pansies!

Anyhow... on to our special treat. Today we are cooking chicken shish kabobs...

They aren't all that hard to make... just marinate the cut up chicken breasts for 24 hours (or longer) (soy sauce, olive oil, mustard, seasoning), as well as some cut up veggies (peppers, onions and cherry tomatoes). Put them all on skewers and...

Voila... chicken shish kabobs!

The trick with them is to keep the heat at medium and make sure you turn them every minute or two and then put the lid down on them again.

Simple... yes?

"They smell deeeelicious!!" said Jerry!

We have two eager tasters for tonight's dinner...

 Hmmm... let's see....

I think they are ready!!

That's it... take them off the BBQ, everyone gets a skewer's worth on their plate and...

Usually there are leftovers but... not sure we'll have any tonight. **** drool... munch....****

Chef Ben signing off!