Cooking Show: Recipes with Lots of Fruits and Veggies!

My friend, Kerry, joined me for the latest episode of the cooking show.  The recipes we prepared were loaded with fruits & veggies.

Recipes that are perfect for this hot summer weather, when you're looking for something refreshing and not heavy!

We started with Tropical Mimosas.  

Okay, they're nothing like mimosas, there is neither orange juice nor champagne in these drinks.  I just thought it was a nice name for a light, fruity drink.

They're sort of a riff on Pina Coladas, but I swapped out the coconut creme (which has lots of calories) for coconut seltzer (no-calorie seltzer for the win)!

Next up was Brussels Sprouts Salad with Buttermilk Dressing.

Why bother with store-bought dressing when you can whip up buttermilk dressing of your own? If you don't have buttermilk on hand you can make your own substitute--for the 1/3 cup that is called for in this recipe, simply put 1 teaspoon of white vinegar into your measuring cup and then add milk to the 1/3-cup mark.  Stir and let it sit for five minutes.  Voilá, buttermilk substitute!

Arrange the salad ingredients in rows so that your family can easily spoon out their favorite combination...or avoid the ingredient that they don't want, as the case may be.  There are a few members of this household who avoid the gorgonzola!

We also used brussels sprouts in our Ginger/Honey/Soy Chicken Stir Fry.

If I had to to come up with a nickname for this recipe, I would call it Egg Roll Stir Fry.  With the shaved brussels sprouts and shredded carrots, the flavor is reminiscent of an egg roll, but without the calories of the deep-fried egg roll wrap.  Score!

Finally, we ended with Nectarine Crisp.

Similar to apple crisp, but it takes less time to prepare because unlike apples you don't need to peel the nectarines!

Cooking Show: Recipes for Halloween!

Our recent episode of the cooking show featured kid-friendly recipes for Halloween.

Thanks to the assistance of my nine-year-old sous chef, Lily, my counters were covered with spooktacular treats!

We mixed up a cauldron of Eyeball Punch.

Can you spot the eyeball ice cubes?

We then moved onto appetizers, beginning with Pretzel Broomsticks.  This turned out to be Lily's favorite recipe of the night!

Here's the printable recipe.

Next, we made Skeleton Veggies & Dip.  

Lily and I decided which veggies would best represent the bones from shoulders to toes!

Lily diligently went to work shredding string cheese for our Mummy Pizzas!

 Finally, for a sweet treat, we made Frozen Banana Ghost Pops.

Happy Halloween!!

Broiled Zucchini With Melted Cheese

Okay, I've spent way too much time trying to come up with a name for this recipe.  

 I've just spent almost an  

hour staring at this blank page.  Daydreaming, talking to Gus, anything to avoid the torture that is coming up with a name for a recipe.  Time to move on and go with a straight-to-the-point name.  The zucchini gets broiled, the cheese does melt...and so there you have it.

The important thing is this:  you will now have another recipe to go to when you are looking to use up the abundance of zucchini growing in your garden.

Roasted Herbed Pork Tenderloin With Vegetables

This recipe came about because I wasn't organized.  Another resolution--get organized--.........broken.

Pork tenderloins were on sale.  I thought I would make crock pot pork tenderloin .  All I had to do was throw everything in the crock pot and let it cook for the afternoon.

Maybe if it were one of those crock pot recipes that took eight or nine hours I would have felt pressured to get myself to the store early.  A crock pot recipe that only takes 4 1/2 hours gave me too much time to relax.  

Instead, I puttered around all morning, thinking to myself, "I have plenty of time, as long as I get it into the crock pot by 1 o'clock."  Can you see where I'm going with this?

That's right, the morning came and went, and then I found myself at the supermarket, buying pork tenderloin, knowing that I would not have time to cook it in the crock pot.......and this recipe is what I ended up with.

Prosciutto/Mozzarella Asparagus Wraps, and Christmas With The Dogs!

A couple of weeks ago, I was wondering if my amaryllis bulbs were going to bloom in time for Christmas.

And here we are!

Yeah!

We traveled to Connecticut for Christmas, to my brother's house.  You may remember my post a few months ago , where I showed a clip from ConnecticutStyle featuring his restaurant.

Christmas dinner started off with shrimp & lobster, and ended with cannoli cake.  With a lot of good stuff in between.  

My kids were eagerly anticipating our trip to Connecticut because my brother has four dogs.

I was unable to corral them into a group shot on Christmas, so here's an archive photo from this summer when Hounder (front and center) was a puppy.  All of these dogs are rescues, even the pure-bred Weimaraner.

The cast of characters:

Simba (a.k.a. "old man"), who will be 15 next month.

Hounder, the 70-lb puppy, 8 months old.

Oklee, 5 years old, eyeing one of Mrs. Dog's treats .

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good photo of 13-year-old Mrs. Dog (a.k.a. "girlfriend").  You can see her in the group photo, she's the black-and-tan dog on the far left.

Today's recipe is asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and mozzarella.  It's one of the side dishes I prepared for my Christmas Eve party.

But before I give you the recipe, I need to show you what Erin's been up to lately:

Aren't they cute?

She made them for our Christmas Eve party.

A double-batch of rice krispy treats, rolled into balls and decorated with oreos, mini reeses cups and pull-apart twizzlers.

The snowman theme continued yesterday, when her BFF Abby came over and they made this cake.

You Decide!

Until I started this blog, I rarely measured ingredients.  Many of the dishes I cook are from memory, and I just throw the ingredients in until it "looks" right.

Even when I'm following a written recipe, I estimate the measurements.  I hardly ever follow a recipe to the letter.  I'm always adding more, omitting, substituting.

(Except when I'm baking.  It's very important to correctly measure your ingredients when baking, so that your finished product isn't too dry, too moist, too flat, too hard or too scary-looking.)

Now that I'm blogging, I'm measuring.  I need to make sure that I'm writing down the correct amounts.  Because I care about you.  There, I've said it.  Awwwwww.

But I encourage you to think for yourself and be a rebel.  Switch it out if you don't like it.

In the following recipe, for example, use beef, or shrimp, or pork, if you're sick of chicken.

Use angel hair instead of linguine. Use rice instead of pasta.

Use broccoli and carrots instead of peppers and cucumbers.  Use ground black pepper instead of sugar.  JUST KIDDING, I wanted to see if you were paying attention.

And when your version of this recipe turns out so much better than mine, leave me a comment that says, "na-NAH nuh-NAH-na, MINE is better than YOURS is!"