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!)

Apple Dutch Baby Puff Pancake

My daughters and I were discussing pancakes the other day. Well, we really were discussing our dislike of pancakes.

Maybe the reason why I don't like traditional pancakes is because I'm not good at making them.  I don't flip them, I destroy them.

Or maybe the reason why I'm not good at making pancakes is because I just don't like them.

However, I'll take a Dutch Baby Puff Pancake any day.

Especially if it's an Apple Dutch Baby!

You could whip one of these up in the same amount of time that it would take you to measure, mix and pour a batch of traditional pancakes.  And as far as flipping goes---no flipping required!

Cooking Show: College Cuisine!!

We filmed another episode of the cooking show a few days ago.

I was cheerfully assisted by two college students, Becky and Natalie.  They are friends of my daughter, Erin, and they enthusiastically helped me prepare a few dishes that we felt would be a hit with the college crowd.

My dining room was packed to capacity with more college friends, and when we finished filming the show, everything you see in this picture was happily devoured.

I wish I that I had taken a photo when they were through.

We started with Chunky Guacamole.  Becky and I both agreed that we like our guacamole with chunks of avocado.  If you prefer your avocados smooth, however, go ahead and mash 'em up.

Here's the link for the printable recipe.

Then we made Strawberry-Spinach-Bacon-Wonton Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette.  Yum!

Click here for the printable.

(Chipotle Knockoff) Steak Burritos, with cilantro-lime rice, black beans, pico de gallo and all the other necessary accompaniments (sour cream, Monterey jack cheese, avocados).

 I made a double-batch and crossed my fingers that it was enough. (It was.  Phew.)

I don't yet have a blogpost written with step-by-step photos, but you can click here for the printable recipe.

And finally, No-Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake.  I think everyone was surprised by how quick and easy this was to prepare.

Quick & Easy No-Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake

If you can't get enough of strawberries in the springtime and you're looking for recipe ideas, here you go!

No baking required.  Hardly any prep.  The most time-consuming step was washing and slicing the berries!

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!