Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all our blog pals!

We had a beary busy Christmas this year. Karl and Bullwinkle arrived just before Christmas (and luckily we had enough snow around for Karl). It was great to have them with us to celebrate! Ben was busy baking up a storm of Christmas cookies, and Jerry gladly played the role of official taste tester. Jake (who is taking this photo), tried to keep everyone fit by leading us all through morning workouts (even though sometimes we slept in instead). Thanks for all the Christmas cards from our pals (we're a bit behind in blog posts.) We had a beary relaxing and wonderful Christmas celebration.

We hope you all have a great New Year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

2019

A beary happy new year to all our blog pals! We hope your 2019 is full of good things: honey, salmon, chocolate, adventures, friends and family!

Postcard!

Our pal Jake agreed to present the postcard we recently received from our pal Little Fox!

Little Fox was visiting Lake Tahoe (lucky fox!); aren't the mountains and lake beautiful! Little Fox mentioned something about some amazing ice cream, but sadly couldn't include any samples for one little bear in our house who would have been beary happy to help taste test it.

Postcard!

We received a postcard from Little Fox!

Little Fox visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and isn't any postcard with a cute bear on it just the best? Little Fox got to hike, take nice photos, and of course enjoy lots of after-hiking snacks. Thanks Little Fox!

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Sandy here, reporting from Jerry and Ben's place...and as you can see, it's raining. In fact, it's been raining mostly for 3 days...THREE DAYS! That makes little bears who want to go outside and play and work in the garden beary irritated. So, there is just one thing to do...

ask Ben to do a Cooking With Ben segment! Jake and Boo have agreed to help out too.

Ben says, "On a rainee day, the only solution is to make Chokolate Chip Kookies!"

Jake will measure the flour...

Sandy is going to measure the white and brown sugar...

Jerry will mix the butter, sugar and vanilla (and Boo will supervise)...

And Ben will add the delicious chocolate chips...

"Hey, wait a minute..." says Ben, "thiz is not a full pakage...someone has been tazting the chocolate chips!"

"Well" says Ben, "thatz ok I guess, there will just be a few lesz chips in each kookie."

Our seKretary will do the mixing (that is hard for little bears to do), and will also bake the kookies (again, best for little bears not to deal with the oven).

Here is the final product, looks good, huh?

"So Sandy" asks Ben, "did you have fun making cookies today?"

"I sure did" replied Sandy, "cooking is one of my favorite hobbies, along with gardening, hiking and travel of course."

"Those are great hobbies" adds Ben, "they are my favorite too!"

"You must have some great gardening and hiking possibilities in beautiful Canada" notes Ben. "We sure do" replies Sandy, "you and Jerry should come for a visit!"

"That is a beary great idea!" says Ben, "you and Jerry can help me to suggest that to our seKretaries!"

"Well Sandy" continues Ben, "thanks for your help in the kitchun today! Now, let's all sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy those kookies!"

Hey! Wait a minute...

The Great Bear Bake Off

Welcome to

The Great Bear Bake Off!

Three beary energetic young bear bakers square off in a holiday baking challenge.

Our contestants are all amateur bakers:

          

Ben                                   Jake                                   Jerry

We're beary pleased to welcome a special guest judge who will assess the work of our bakers and name a winner: famous English food writer and television presenter Mary BEARy (i.e. Mary Berry).

Welcome Mary, thank you for being our judge. "It's lovely to be with you today, and I'm looking forward to see what these young bakers can do" notes Mary. The baking challenge for today is to make and to decorate Christmas cut out cookies!

Our contestants gather the necessary ingredients and make the cookie dough:

THE RECIPE:

Mix together: 3 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt. Add 1.5 cups Crisco shortening into the mixture; work in like pie crust. Add in 2 beaten eggs, 3 tablespoons milk, 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 1 teaspoon cream of tarter. Mix well; it's easier to mix using your hands. The dough will be very sticky.

Chill dough overnight in the refridgerater. Next day, preheat oven to 350 . Working in batches, roll out some of the dough thinly on lightly floured board or between two pieces of parchment paper. Keep the rest of the dough chilled. If dough becomes too sticky, try not add additional flour (that makes for tough cookies), rather re-chill dough.

Bake for 8-10 minutes and watch carefully, cookies brown quickly. Frost with butter frosting and decorate. Keep finished cookies refridgerated in tins.

Because the dough must chill overnight, our bakers begin to roll out their cookies the next day. Let's see how they're doing. Jake has done a nice job rolling out his dough: "Yes, thay turnned ouT reelly well dude!"

Ben is carefully inspecting his cut outs before he puts them in the oven. He says, "They look good so faR, I hope they tazte great."

After baking all their cookies, our chefs spend quite a bit of time frosting and decorating them with sprinkles and colored sugars. They each then selected two cookies for Mary BEARy to judge.

Mary says "Well these do look like interesting cookies. Let's look at each contestant's cookies separately on the judge's table."

First up is Jake's cookies:

Mary notes, "What festive cookies. I like the use of the candy eyes, and the sugar sprinkles add sparkle and interest. The cookies taste very nice too. Overall, a very nice job Jake!"

Next is Jerry's cookies:

Mary comments, "Hmmm, well we seem to have a problem here; someone has nibbled on one of the cookies." Jerry replies, "That waz Me, I waz hungree!" Mary continues, "although the cookies have a nice flavor, I would have liked to see a bit more decoration, and we can't serve cookies to our holiday guests with bites out of them."

Finally, Ben's cookies:

Mary says, "Now this plate of cookies is what I was looking for. They are baked well, are scrumptious, and beautifully decorated. They would be a lovely addition to any holiday party."

Mary announces, "I think we have a winner of this first Great Bear Bake Off. For his delicious and creatively decorated Christmas cut outs: Ben!"

Congratulations Ben! Ben receives an autographed photo of Mary and basket of baking essentials: a new rolling pin, lots of cookie decorations and sprinkles, and new cookie cutters.

Are you baking any cookies for the holidays this year?

Jerry's Corner, episode 4

Hello stuffies everywhere! This is Jerry's Corner. I'm your host, Jerry. Welcome to the show!

Jerry's Corner is a talk and information show where stuffies of all kinds from around the world can get answers to their questions, receive great advice, and enjoy helpful tips, all from me, your host, Jerry! 

We have a full show for you today, so let's get right to our first question. It comes from a little bear named Ajdin "Furst, thank yoU Ajdin foR sending in your qweshton" says Jerry. Ajdin's qwestion is:

How many cookies can Jerry eat in one sitting?

That is a great qweshton Ajdin. Jerry does enjoy a few cookies from time to time (so does our Papa), but the most we have ever seen Jerry eat in one sitting is 8, and for a little bear, that is a beary lot of cookies. Jerry often gladly volunteers to be the cookie taste tester when Ben is baking, and part of the responsibilities of the taste tester is to taste lots of samples, or at least that is what Jerry claims...

So blog pals, Jerry wants you to remember one thing: it's ok to eat a few cookies from time to time, but also remember to eat your vegetables and fruit! (Oh, and Jerry says if you have any extra cookies, you can always send them to him!)

Before we get to our next qweshton, we have a special guest to introduce to our viewers today...

Our Pal Jake! He's visiting us for a few days and we thought he'd make a good guest on the show. Our next question for comes from our pal Sandy. "Furst, thank yoU Sandy sending in your qweshton" says Jerry. The qwestion is:

How do you tell if a stuffy is a boy or a girl stuffy? Some stuffies have beary distinctive names (like Alexander or Jerry or Ben or Adjin or Uncle Tibbs) but others... like Little Fox or Beanie or Hammie... are a bit less direct. Can you help with that? 

That is a great qweshton Sandy, but a delicate one too. Jake, what advice would you have for Sandy?

Jake offers "If yu're unshure if a stuffee is a boy stuffee or girl stuffee, juzt ask nicely and they will uzually tell you. Suffees are far less bothured by a qweshton like that than humans!" So blog pals, Jerry wants you to remember one thing: take our pal Jake's advice and always ask if you're unsure about a stuffy.

Oh, and look who just ran onto the set, but our dog Boo. Boo is beary excited to have Jake visiting, because there are more little bears around to play with him.

Our next question for comes from our pal Little Fox. "Furst, thank yoU Little Fox sending in your qweshton" says Jerry. The qwestion is:

My question is when travelling my roommates often drive by a certain coffee shop that I like to frequent. How do you suggest I encourage them to make more stops at Starbucks so I can fill up on Hot Chocolate for the long ride?

That is a great qweshton Little Fox. Ben suggests giving your human seKretaries the cute little stuffy eyes that no seKretary can resist. Jerry suggests saying that your tummy is rumbling and that you sure could use some hot chocolate. Finally, Jake has the ultimate suggestion: "Juzt say that yoU need an urgent rezt stop or thar may be an akcident in the car...workz every time!!"

So blog pals, Jerry wants you to remember one thing: use whatever technique works to get your humans to stop more frequently at a great coffee shop!

Our last qweshton for today's episode comes again from our good pal Sandy who asks:

How come some stuffies are style-istas, wearing all sorts of fetching outfits, and some are minimalist in their fashion (just a fetching scarf or hat) and some prefer to go au-natural without any clothing whatsoever?

That is a great qweshton Sandy. "Evree stuffee haz a uneek senz of fashzon" says Jerry. It really doesn't matter what you wear, or how many outfits you have, it's all about wearing it well and being a good pal. Jake adds "Yah, I uzually ware only one outfit all winter long, but I like it!"

So blog pals, Jerry wants you to remember one thing: it doesn't matter what you wear, because it's a stuffy's inside that is more important than the outside!

Well blog pals, that does it for this episode of Jerry's Corner.

Keep those questions coming to: jerryandben@yahoo.com

We hope you can join us next time on Jerry's Corner. "Thiz iz Jerry, our speshal gests Jake and Boo (and camera bear Ben) singeeng off!"

2014 Halloween Contest Results

The results of our 2014 Halloween Contest!

Thank you to everyone who entered! Jerry and Ben really enjoyed seeing all of your creativity. Deciding on the winners was, as always, beary difficult. This yeah, our pal Jake helped to judge entries and to cast the deciding vote if necessary. In the end, everyone is a winner!!! The official results are posted below. Congratulations to you all! Prizes and treats will be sent shortly.

CONTEST 1: HALLOWEEN COSTUME

 First Place  goes to Little Fox for his frightening Dracula costume, complete with black cape and menacing evil eyebrows! So scary!

 Second Place  goes to Ajdin and friends for their interpretation of that famous George Lucas space adventure film Salmon Wars, starring Ajdin Salmonfisher, Darth Tibbs, and Master Oooda. May the FISH be with you!

 Third Place  goes to Sandy for his adorable cat costume, which of course matches his amazing jack-o-lantern design (see below). He even has some treats in his trick-or-treating bag! Nice job Sandy!

CONTEST 2: PUMPKIN CARVING

 First Place  goes to Sandy for his amazing Scary Cat pumpkin. It looks amazing! Meow!

 Second Place  goes to Beanie and Tango for a beary scary evil jack-o-lantern! Great job!

A beary big congratulations to all our winners!!! You were all fantastic! Happy Halloween!

Road Trip & July Mail

We have been traveling for a few days to see some family members...not little bear family members (and we're sure that our pal Sandy must be a Canadian cousin of ours...we're sure you've all noticed the family resemblance), but rather some family members of our Papa.

Our pal Jake is along for the trip too! During the long drive we listened to the radio, looked at the beautiful landscape, and munched on a few cookies. We also stopped briefly at this great resort to take an obvious photo...

It sure looked like a beary nice resort! Our roadtrip was beary fun.

We've also recently received some great mail. First, we received a homemade postcard and instant camera (with surprise photos to develop) from our pal Beanie! We haven't yet had time to have the pictures developed, so we'll blog about it soon when we do. Thanks Beanie!

We also received two other postcards. One card of the spiral train route and tunnel at Yoho National Park from Little Fox (we love trains!), and the second card of cool BEARS at Shenandoah National Park from Ajdin. Thanks Little Fox and Ajdin!