Raspberry Lemonade

 Ahhhhhhh......summer.    Maybe it's not officially summer yet, but my kids are through with school and the weather is warm-- the lazy days of summer are in full swing around here.  This recipe for raspberry lemonade is the perfect refreshment on a hot day!

But first.......I need to give a shout-out to my baseball team, the Cardinals.  We won our semi-final game tonight and are headed to the league championship game on Friday.  What a great group of kids they are, so much fun to be around.  Go Cardinals!

Favorite Kitchen Tools, Part IV....and Roasted Sliced Potatoes

It's been awhile since I've blogged about a favorite kitchen tool!

You may remember the basil keeper, mini tart-shaper, and the citrus press and julienne peeler.

Today's favorite gadget is my mandoline slicer.  It slices, juliennes or waffle-cuts huge amounts of vegetables in the blink of an eye.

I used it twice last week.  First, to julienne vegetables.

Four carrots,

two zucchini and a yellow squash, sliced in no time.

I needed to julienne the vegetables to make a special dinner that I was craving.

 Sauteed chicken topped with the julienned vegetables and shrimp, drizzled with a yummy cheese & wine sauce.

This used to be my favorite menu item (actually, the real recipe uses lobster instead of shrimp, but I didn't have any lobster on hand) at my favorite restaurant.  Until the restaurant closed, that is.  Now if I want to eat    

"Chicken Genevieve" (which is what the restaurant called it), I have to attempt to make it myself.

I will not give you the recipe because it's kinda labor-intense and I don't want you to hate me when you have to clean up all the pots and pans that you use to prepare the chicken, veggies, shrimp and sauce.  Not to mention all the juggling while you're trying to stir all those pots at the same time.

But when I was julienning (sheesh, is that even a word?) the veggies I was thinking that it's about time I blogged about another favorite kitchen tool!  So here's a potato recipe that uses the mandoline slicer, and it's easy-peasy to make.

Busy Time

So much going on over the last few weeks.  I've been waaaaaaaaay busy!!

Remember the bed I made last month for my niece's dog, Milo?

I think he likes it.

Doesn't he look comfortable?

Too bad he roots for the wrong team.  I'm a die-hard Red Sox fan, and I wish he had better taste!

 I bought this framed print at an auction.  I love the simple rose print, matted with sage-colored silk.  The gold frame, not so much...........

So I painted the frame.

Then I got busy in my kitchen and dining room.  I did the semi-annual decor switch.  I like red in the fall and winter, and plum in the spring and summer.

So into the attic went the red valances.......

.........and the red rugs.

And up went the plum-colored valances (in the dining room),

cornices (in the kitchen),

and rugs.  This is the dining room rug,

and these throw rugs are in the kitchen.  And then I switched the dishes.  And the pictures on the wall.    

And the towels, potholders, napkins, placemats and dog dishes.  Yes, dog dishes.  Out with the red, in with the plum.  For six months.  Then I'll switch back.  

I started thinking that it's been several years since I sewed those valances, so maybe it's time for a change, time to freshen up the look and sew something new..........and then I stopped and gave myself a reality check.  Maybe next year.

I've also been spending lots of time at the ball field!  Evenings spent coaching a team of 13 to 15-year old boys (we are currently in second place in our 10-team league), 

and afternoons watching Erin pitch for her high school softball team.

And then it was time for the Senior prom (that's Sean in the middle, behind his date in the pink and white dress).  

Yes, Senior prom and then.........

his graduation!

And this past weekend, a graduation party for Sean.  Which means that for the last month, I've been frantically trying to get my garden in shape for the party.

 Filling the planters on the front steps......

 and on the deck..........

 and by the back door........

and by the driveway..........

 and then hoping that I can keep them healthy and thriving!

 The hanging baskets..........

at the front door.......

 the boxes on the deck..........

 the window boxes,

 newly installed for this year.........

wondering if I planted the right flowers for the amount of sun and shade that they will receive?

And in the midst of my preparations, goofing around with my camera, taking pictures of the perennials that are currently in bloom!

 The clematis......

 dianthus.......

and my favorite peonies.

And a new favorite, in my deck boxes.  I don't even know what this flower is called, but I love the way it's starting to trail down the sides of the containers.

Chocolate Chip Muffins.....and a guest post from Gus

Hi all!  It's me, Gus.  Also known as Goose, Guzman, Gustopher and Angus.  Used to be known as Goose-Poop and Gas, but I've put those days behind me.  (Pun intended, hehe.)

Today's my day to warm you up while Fran gets her playlist together.

In case you're wondering, I don't call her Fran to her face.  I don't call her anything at all, but I think of her as The Source Of Food.  Or TSOF, for short.  And since I'm an anagram-lover, let's go a little bit further and change TSOF into SOFT.

Yeah, she's soft in so many ways, but she's especially soft in the way she turns to putty in my paws and the way she melts when I gaze upon her with my puppy-dog eyes.

But enough of that, I've got a tutorial here for you today.  Do you remember last year when Fran posted a couple of videos of me catching a Frisbee?  Let me give you a step-by-step of how it's done.

How to Catch a Frisbee, By Gus

 Chase that Frisbee until it starts to hover.  It's gonna hover and hesitate right before it drops.  Get ready to grab it just as it starts to descend.

 Leap up and open wide!

 Land gracefully.

 Apply the brakes so you don't crash.

That's it in a nutshell.  I hope Caitie and Erin like this post.  They begged Fran not to let me take over her blog, they said it would be annoying.  

Hopefully, they don't find this too annoying and I'll get a chance to write another tutorial someday.  Actually, since I'm here now and I'm not really sure they're gonna allow me back anytime soon, I'm gonna give you another tutorial but it's gonna be really quick since Fran's almost done with her playlist.

How to Cross the Street, By Gus

Look to the right.

Look to the left.

If no cars are coming, proceed with a smile on your face.

See ya!

Gus

Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Not much of what I've been cooking lately has been blog-worthy.

When I'm trying out a new recipe, snapping pictures as I cook, I usually find myself wondering if the finished product will turn out to be a keeper, or will it end up in the scrap heap.

Take these potatoes, for example.  They look pretty good, no?  I apologize if you feel that I'm trying to tantalize you with a picture.  The taste was somewhere between "eh" and "blah," so this recipe has been scrapped and the pictures I took while I was preparing them have all been deleted.  Well, I deleted all the pictures except for this one.

And sometimes, the recipe works out!  Like this recipe for Buffalo Chicken Pasta that I'm about to give you.  

How did it come about?  We've been doing the college search with Sean for the last year.  He finally narrowed it down to two choices and last month paid one last visit to each of those schools.  At one of the schools, the student tour guide was raving about the school's Buffalo Chicken Pasta.  So when Sean and Mr. Terrific came home, they were trying to talk me into making some.  And they've both mentioned it a few more times.........so I decided I needed to figure out how to make it!

Watermelon Lemonade

Today's weather could not have been more perfect.  

The morning spent at the baseball field, our first game of the 2012 season.  My team got their first win.....it's always nice to start the season with a victory.  Go Cardinals!

Then I spent the afternoon gardening: pruning, trimming, planting bulbs and seeds.  While I gardened and worked up a sweat, all I could think of was an ice-cold glass of fresh-squeezed lemonade.

By the time I was done gardening, I felt the need to add some fresh raspberry puree to my fresh-squeezed lemonade.  As usual, this complicated things........I had the ingredients for my lemonade, but I didn't have any raspberries.

So I went to the store, and they didn't have raspberries, either!  But there was some spectacular-looking watermelon.......so I found myself thinking, why not?

I've never even had watermelon lemonade before, much less made it myself, but I decided to give it a go.  I'm happy to say that it went well!

Strawberry Scones with Lemon Curd

It's been a few weeks since I made one of the gazillion recipes that I've been pinning on Pinterest.

Eenie-meanie-miney-moe...........for today's recipe I picked Strawberry Lemonade Scones by Munchkin Munchies.

The recipe says to drizzle them with prepared lemon curd.  I know, you're just. like. me.  You're thinking, "why used prepared lemon curd when I can make my own?"

I'm so glad that we think alike!

Make the lemon curd the day before you make the scones.  It's not difficult at all to make, but you need to give it time to chill before you use it, and chill time takes at least an hour.

Unless you like to get up at an ungodly hour so you can make your homemade lemon curd and give it an hour to chill and then make your homemade scones in time for breakfast.  In which case, we don't think alike at all.

Shrimp & Potato Soup

Will it really reach 90 degrees on Monday as everyone seems to think?

I figured I should take a few pictures of the blooms and blossoms in my yard before they wilt and drop from heat exhaustion.

None of the tulips have opened yet, I'm hoping they can hold on until after the heatwave!

My niece has adopted a puppy.  Meet Milo!

They live about 100 miles away, I'm afraid by the time I meet him in person his puppy days will be behind him.

Fortunately, she's posting lots of pictures of him on her facebook page so I get to "oooh" and aaaaah" over him all day long!

I made this pillow for the bottom of his crate.....puppies should be pampered, don'tcha think?

I decided to pamper myself a bit tonight!  Mr. Terrific and Sean went to the Red Sox game (Go Sox!!), Erin was out with friends, so I only had myself to cook for.  I'm the only seafood lover in this house, so unless I want to listen to a chorus of groans I rarely prepare anything remotely fishy.  

Tonight, I seized the opportunity to get creative in the kitchen without having to worry about pleasing anyone other than myself!

With the warmer weather coming, I figure that my soup-making days will be on hold for the next five months or so. The only seafood I had in the house was some shrimp in my freezer, but I had enough ingredients on hand to put together a really yummy soup!

Chocolate Banana Bread

Lots of baking going on around here in the last couple of days.

Erin's been busy.  First she whipped up a batch of Easter-themed Honey Nut Chex Mix.

Her Easter baking continued, with marshmallow peeps sitting on speckled M&M eggs in their Rice Krispie treat nests.

All of these Easter treats are gone, devoured.

We're not out of baked goods, though..........thanks to a few over-ripe bananas that inspired me to make Chocolate Banana Bread tonight.

Grilled Cheese Panini with Avocado and Prosciutto

Today I decided to snap a few photos of the flowers that are blooming in my yard.  Everything is blooming so early this year, I wonder if it will continue at this early pace?

I snapped this photo a split-second before Gus came and dropped his frisbee on these daffodils and flattened them.

These daffodils were facing downward so I held my camera on the ground to get this shot.

These white daffodils with the pink centers are my favorite.  I'm thinking that I might have to cut them and bring them into the house where I can enjoy them.

The inspiration for today's recipe came about when I was standing in line at the deli yesterday.  The deli clerk was slicing prosciutto di Parma for the woman in front of me.  He was slicing it so thin and perfect.  I bet you could've read a newspaper through the slices, they were so transparent.  It was out of my control.  I had to buy some.

Then, I had to figure out what to do with the prosciutto.  My favorite thing would be prosciutto/mozzarella asparagus wraps , but unfortunately the rest of my family doesn't share my enthusiasm for asparagus.     

So I just started pulling some of my favorite things out of the fridge (fresh mozzarella) and the fruit bowl (avocado.....I'm still obsessed) and the bread box (awesome ciabatta) and decided on panini instead.

It was sooooooooo good.  In fact, it was such a perfect combination of salty/chewy-crunchy/melty-creamy that I made another one just like it today.