Star-Spangled Cocktail

I decided to experiment with Blue Curacao today.

Saturday is the 4th of July, and I thought I'd come up with a blue cocktail.

Success!  (I spy Clyde behind the chair!)

Cooking Show--Trying Out New Recipes!!

Warning!  Long, rambling post right here!  But if you work your way through to the end, there will be recipes for Lemon Drop Martinis, Caesar Salad Dressing, Lobster Macaroni & Cheese, and Churros Poppers!

I promise that all of these recipes will eventually be posted with the usual step-by-step photos!  However, I have been receiving a lot of emails from viewers of the cooking show who would like to have the recipes that I prepared on the last show.  Please be warned that I'm still developing some of these recipes, and my notes will reflect some tweaks that I'm planning for the next time I prepare them!

We filmed another cooking show a couple of weeks ago.

The best way I can describe the theme would be "Attempting to prepare or develop recipes that I've never made before."

We happened upon this theme in a roundabout way.  I went out to dinner with my friend, Trish.  She ordered the house donuts for dessert, and our conversation went something like this:

Trish: Can you cook donuts?

Me: I never have, but I guess I could.  I don't deep-fry anything...it's one thing to eat them when you go somewhere and they're already prepared, but to pour all that oil into a deep-fryer...yikes.  I may as well just get a syringe and inject it directly into my thighs.

Trish: Do you have a deep fryer?

Me: Yes, I've never used it, it's sitting in my basement, unopened.

Trish: You should do a deep-frying cooking show!

Me: Only if you'll cook with me!

During the past year, I've asked her a couple of times if she would cook with me on the show, and she always said no.  I'm guessing that on this particular night, her defenses were lowered by the lemon-drop martinis that we had with dinner.  Lower defenses + joy at the thought of more deep-fried donuts in her future = YES!  If only I had figured out sooner that plying her with donuts was the key to getting her on camera.

Fall Cooking Show! Beef Stew, Pumpkin Dip, Apple Cider Cocktails, Apple-Pumpkin Dog Treats

We filmed another episode of the cooking show last week!

Our theme was Fall, so I prepared a few recipes heavy on apples & pumpkin.

And I made Beef Stew, which always reminds me of fall because that's when I add it back into my cooking rotation!

Printable Recipe

A nice, warm bowl of stew is perfect for those chilly fall days.

Apple Cider Cocktails with Caramel Vodka

Printable Recipe

Serve them chilled or warm.

Dan the Awesome Camera Man chose the warm cider and declared (in his lovely Irish brogue), "It warms the cockles of my heart!"  

Pumpkin Dip

Printable Recipe

Serve it with graham crackers, gingersnaps, cinnamon pita chips or apple slices for dipping.

And last but not least, Apple-Pumpkin Dog Treats, because dogs also like fall-themed food!

Printable Recipe

Happy Halloween!

Cooking Show #3

We filmed another episode of the cooking show over the weekend.

Still climbing my way up that steep learning curve, but having fun along the way!  I didn't forget any ingredients this time around, but I did forget to take pictures when we were through.  

We were already eating French onion soup and enjoying rum punch when I remembered about the pictures.

So I made the rounds, checking out all of the half-eaten bowls to see if there was perhaps ONE bowl that I could get a decent picture of.  Mr. Terrific's bowl was the most photogenic, a fact which I found really puzzling, because he loves French onion soup more than anyone I know and I would have expected him to have been a bit further along than the rest of us.

And it was then that I realized that he was on his second bowl.  I made six bowls, there were only five of us there taping, and he hated to see that last bowl of soup go to waste.

Click on the titles under the pictures to be taken to the recipes!

French Onion Soup

Chicken Piccata and Roasted Tomato Salad with Pine Nuts and Blue Cheese

Fortunately, I was able to take a picture of the chicken and the salad before we dug in.  If you're wondering what the large round thing on the right is, it's a caperberry, which is what capers turn into when they are full grown.  Capers being the immature buds of the caper bush.

Little bit of an agricultural lesson there for you!

And last but not least....

Rum Punch

Mmmmm.  The rum punch was also half-gone by the time I took pictures, but that's because we started drinking it as soon as it was made.

A great big thanks to my friend, Gayle, for graciously assisting me, and whose love of capers and rum punch inspired our menu for this show.  

Apple Cider Sangria

Caitie came home last Friday for her fall break.  We haven't seen her since August!   It was so nice to have her home, if only for six days.  

We went to Ogunquit for the weekend--I'll save that for another post--but when we returned I asked her to let me know if there was anything in particular she would like me to make for her while she was home.  She requested a couple of old favorites, chicken pot pie for dinner on Monday, and broccoli soup with cheddar cheese on Tuesday.

Also, in the spirit of the fall season, she wanted to try some Apple Cider Sangria.  I know I've mentioned my love of "umbrella drinks" in previous posts, but sangria runs a close second.

If I can't have a frozen fruity concoction, I favor frolicking with a full-flavored sangria flooded with fruit.  Repeat that three times.

Then go and make yourself some lovely sangria.

Mocktails for the Family

Because I wanted to make a drink to make dinner seem special, because the heat called for a refreshing drink, because I needed to use the blueberries I bought at the farmers market, because I thought it would be fun for the whole family to drink out of my favorite margarita glasses........I served these pomegranate/blueberry concoctions at dinner last week.

To turn your mocktail into a cocktail, just add 1 oz. of vodka to your glass.