Blueberry-Peach Sangria

Even though it isn't officially summer yet...

...here is my official summer drink.  It's my favorite sangria.  Blueberries and peaches and moscato. With a touch of simple syrup, peach juice and peach schnapps.

I don't think you even need a playlist while you are preparing this.  It's so quick and easy to prepare, just throw the ingredients into a pitcher and stir.

I realize, however, that playlists are a tradition on this blog so I will give you the one and only song that will put you in the mood to make this sangria:

Cooking Show--Girls' Night!

We filmed an episode of the cooking show last week.

My friend, Amy, cooked with me.  She suggested a theme of "Girls' Night"...she felt that she needed some different recipes to try when she gets together with friends.

We put our heads together and came up with an assortment that should satisfy all of her guests!

Artichoke Dip

You may think that you don't like artichokes, but this dip will change your mind.  The first few times I made it, I told my husband it was cheese dip.

By the time he found out that there were artichokes in it, he liked it so much that he didn't care what was in it.  It's probably his most-requested appetizer now.

Caprese Skewers with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Just thread the tomatoes, mozzarella and basil onto the skewers, throw the vinaigrette together and drizzle it on.

Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken

This is a restaurant knock-off recipe.  There's a little bit of advance prep involved, but the finish is totally hands-off--you just smother it in mushrooms and cheese and stick the whole pan into your oven to finish cooking.

It's so worth it.

Blueberry-Peach Sangria

This disappeared really fast.  Poof, and it was gone.

Chicken and Mushrooms with Creamy Asiago Sauce

My goal: to make something so that I could use fresh chives, which happen to be the only herb in my garden that survived being buried under five feet of snow this winter.

Success!

Cooking Show: Sandwiches!

We filmed another cooking show last week.  It wasn't hard to come up with a theme.

Sandwiches! We made lots of fabulous sandwiches.

Grilled Cheese Panini with Avocado & Prosciutto

We also added roasted red peppers, pesto, tomatoes...fill your panini with whatever makes you swoon.

Here's the printable recipe.

Lemon-Marinated Chicken Sandwiches

These are my favorite.  Layered with pear slices, prosciutto and arugula with a lemon-parmesan dressing, these are the sandwiches that disappeared after we finished taping the show.  The plate was emptied of sandwiches, the extra slices of chicken along with the fixings were demolished, the extra rolls "just in case" were put to use...if you only make one sandwich from this list, let this one be the one.  Here's the printable recipe.

Apricot Chicken Sandwiches

So. Easy. Really!  Soooooo easy.  

I wish we had set a timer when we made these, just to show how quick they came together.  Chop up the meat from a rotisserie chicken.  Make a dressing out of apricot jam, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper & chives.  Open up a bag of broccoli slaw.  Toss it all together, toast some rolls and then load 'em up.

Here's the printable recipe.

 And finally, Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Satay Sauce.

Grill up some chicken cutlets, layer them with lettuce and crunchy shredded veggies and then douse them with a sweet/soy/peanut sauce.  So many different flavors competing for attention, but they all blend together perfectly.  Here's the printable recipe.

Strawberry Bread with Almond Glaze

I wasn't planning on making strawberry bread.

My plan was to bake banana bread.

I needed three over-ripe bananas.  I always buy more bananas than I think we could possibly eat, hoping that there will be three left by the time they get soft and turn so brown that no one would possibly want to eat them. Three is the magic number for banana bread.

At 7:30 a.m. there were three brown bananas.  A half-hour later:

Ahem.  I should have known better than to count my brown bananas before my husband packed his lunch. 

I'm sure that he thought he was doing me a favor by taking a banana that he thought nobody else would want to eat, leaving better ones behind.

Yes, he left behind eight primo bananas.  And so the cycle begins again--once more, I think I bought more bananas than we can eat, I hope there will be three left by the time they turn brown and mushy.

Not enough bananas. I was forced to change my plans.  Fortunately, I had all the ingredients for strawberry bread on hand!

Chocolate Mini Muffins with Sugar Glaze

I made these mini muffins last week and I have been having an argument with myself ever since. 

To blog or not to blog?  That was the question.  

I was hoping to come up with a recipe that resembled the chocolate-glazed donut holes at our local donut shop.  The flavor that is my kids' favorite.  My husband's favorite.  I'm more of a butter crunch fan, but I digress.

I was hoping that I could come up with a mini-muffin that tasted like chocolate donuts, without all of the deep-fried calories.  Just like these Cinnamon/Sugar Mini Muffins remind me of the frozen Morton donuts I used to like in the '70's.  

I wasn't really sure that the chocolate mini-muffins duplicated the donut taste as I had hoped they would, however, so I decided not to blog about them.

That is, until Caitie said that she liked them, and then said something like, "They're a perfect little chocolate cake."

And then Mr. Terrific ate several of them, telling me between bites how much he liked them. 

That settled it.  Who am I, a butter crunch fan, to conclude that these little muffins aren't good enough to satisfy my chocolate donut-loving family?  I decided to listen to my family and blog about them, if only to have written testimony that this is a recipe that they like.

Maybe I'm just in a good mood because the snow is almost gone, tomorrow is going to be in the 60's and I feel like spring has finally arrived!

Will Clyde abandon his favorite niche by the back door to bask in the sun instead?

He doesn't quite fit there as well as he did when he was a puppy, but that doesn't stop him from trying!

Cooking Show--Baking Pies!

 We filmed another episode of the cooking show last week.

My friend, Trish, joined me and we baked up a bunch of pies.

Lemon Meringue Pie with Shortbread Crust.  

If you've never been a fan of traditional pie crust and prefer a shortbread crust, this is the pie for you.

Here is the printable recipe.

 Apple-Raspberry Pie with Almond Crumb Topping.

I admit it, this is my favorite pie ever.  Here is the printable recipe.

And finally, Whipped Strawberry Pie with a pretzel crust.  Here's the Recipe!

Apple-Raspberry Pie with Almond Crumb Topping

I baked this pie last week during an episode of the cooking show.

I'll do a post soon with links to all of the pies that we baked, but in the meantime I wanted to get this recipe up and running.  This is my go-to pie recipe! Whenever I have to bake a fruit pie, whether it's for a holiday dinner, to bring to a friend's house or simply because I'm in the mood to bake--THIS is the pie that I make.

This recipe uses frozen raspberries, so you don't even have to wait for raspberries to be in season!

Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies

Five ingredients.  That's all you need.  Butter, sugar, flour, extract and jam.

And I'm going to guess that these are ingredients that you already have in your pantry!

What are you waiting for?

Strawberry-Spinach-Bacon-Wonton Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette

Don't you just love it when supermarket strawberries change from hard, unripe & tasteless to plump, shiny & bursting with flavor?

Or is it just me?

Just take a look at these beauties!

Every supermarket that I've walked into over the past month seemed to have a huge display of strawberries right at the entrance.  Usually on sale.  And I bought a quart or two every time.

I've been overdoing the strawberry recipes, not least of all this incredible salad with spinach, bacon. wonton strips and a fabulous strawberry vinaigrette.  I've made it so many times in the past few weeks that I've lost count, but nobody here is complaining that I'm making it too often--a sure sign that this recipe is a keeper!