Watermelon-Yogurt Ice

I've been invited to a virtual birthday potluck at Lick The Bowl Good. Today is Monica's birthday. Go by and tell her to have a great one!

This is what I'm bringing to the shin-dig. I found the recipe at delish.com and wanted to give it a try. I've never made anything like it and thought turned out pretty good. It tastes like I think watermelon ought to taste....sweet, cold, and refreshing.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 cup diced seedless watermelon (about 3 pounds with the rind)
• 1 cup(s) low-fat vanilla yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lime juice

Combine water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring, over high heat until the sugar is dissolved. Transfer to a glass measuring cup and let cool slightly.

Puree watermelon in a food processor or blender, in 2 batches, pulsing until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in the cooled sugar syrup, yogurt, and lime juice until combined. Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into another large bowl, whisking to release all juice. Discard pulp. Pour the extracted juices into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. (Alternatively, pour into a shallow metal pan and freeze until solid, about 6 hours or overnight. Remove from freezer to defrost slightly, 5 minutes. Break into small chunks and process in a food processor, in batches, until smooth and creamy.) Serve immediately or transfer to a storage container and freeze for up to 2 hours.

I'm not sure what they mean freeze up to 2 hours. Seems to me if you want to keep it frozen you should keep it in the freezer.
I tried the ice cream maker method first, and it was an epic fail. So if you decide to make this just save yourself the trouble and stick it in the freezer to start with.
**********************

And here's a sneak peek of something I'm thinking of offering for a giveaway in a few weeks :)

Desperation....

It's never a pretty thing. The longing, the craving...gnawing at you like a...umm...beaver?

I was wanting some more of those chocolate oatmeal no bake cookies in a bad way. But lots of reasons not to make them. First of all, last night I just about made myself sick on them. Secondly, not enough oatmeal.

So I got to thinking....what if I just had something that tasted like those cookies? Just a little something. Not a whole batch of cookies that I'll just scarf down alone while my children are at grandma's and the hubby's snoring in the other room. Then I came up with this....

Looked kinda pretty in the bowl. Pretty much the same ingredients just made differently. But what I wound up with was....

A bowl of chocolate oatmeal. Not quite what I had in mind, to be honest. But might be okay for breakfast....assuming I want a bowl of sugar-laden, artery clogging (there's a lot of butter in there) gloppiness.

Hopefully I'll have something else to post soon to cover up this mess.

Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina

I'll have to say that Giada was resting on her laurels with this recipe It's got potential, but it just turned out rather blah. I know she makes some good stuff, I've made a few of her recipes that turned out really delicious.

I thought it looked pretty yummy all mixed up together, and a little bit colorful too. But it definitely needed something.

There was a fair amount of butter on top....so that wasn't the problem. Maybe it needed some more garlic, or the addition of some Italian seasonings might have been nice. Maybe a different kind of meat, some sausage may have boosted the flavor a bit.

The topping was pretty good, just a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan.

Well, thank goodness I had some yummy no bake cookies to make up for the disappointment. (yeah that's a dirty potholder there, sorry)

A friend of mine in college would make these for us all the time and she recently sent me her recipe. I used to be able to make these but lost the touch somehow, and they would always turn out too runny or something. But her recipe is just right!

1 stick butter 2 cups sugar 3 Tablespoons Hershey's Cocoa 1/2 cup milk Stir while boiling 4 minutes over med heat. Remove from heat and stir in 1 Teaspoon Vanilla 3/4 cup Jif Peanut Butter 2 Cups quick oats Drop quickly onto wax paper and allow to cool. Eat before the kids get out of school and hide all evidence.

Bowls of Hope*

I can't think of a clever way to start this post (but when has that ever stopped me), so let's just jump right in, shall we?

For every purchase of Post Shredded Wheat the company will donate one bowl of cereal to Feeding America, up to 15 million bowls. The purchase of a Bowls of Hope specially-marked cereal will support Post’s efforts in donating a bowl of Post Shredded Wheat Original, Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Original, Shredded Wheat and Bran, Shredded Wheat Lightly Frosted and Shredded Wheat Honey Nut.

Sounds like a worthwhile program to me. Perhaps the bowl in question will look like this.

And maybe it will say this on the side....

I don't think I've ever had a personalized bowl before. I'm a little choked up.

For more info on the program click here.

*Not to be confused with the Sadness Bowl.

Carnivores 'R Us

This Father's day was filled with the delightful aroma of meaty goodness. Courtesy of Pioneer Woman's brisket recipe. About as easy as falling off a log but a whole lot tastier. Yeah, I know that didn't make any sense.

All sliced up and yummy swimming around in the marinade juices. It was really delicious over mashed potatoes.

Okay, here's a token vegetable. Just some cukes chopped up with onions and tomatoes covered in Italian dressing.

Cream puffs made by the MIL. The story is she hadn't made them in over 20 years and decided to whip up a batch for the special occasion. She said it took her 3 tries to get it right. That's dedication. After the first time I would have tossed it all and bought a package of Ho-Ho's. But I'm glad she persisted.

Boston Cream Pie

Martha Stewart is ruining my life. That might be a bit of an overstatement, but she definitely did ruin my day. I found the recipe for her Boston Cream Pie at her website, and though "oh, I'll try that...why not?" PFFT! Why not indeed. I think this is one of the more labor intensive things I've ever tried to make. I probably spent a little over 3 hours on this! For a stupid little cake!

I'd like to be able to say that it was worth the time and effort; that it's the most glorious piece of baked good I've ever shoved into my face. But that would be untrue. It's not bad by any means. But definitely not worth the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it.

I can recall some time in the past purchasing one of those dessert kits for boston cream pie that was easy peasy, and it was just as good. Next time I'll save myself the trouble and get one of those. Thanks a whole heap, Martha.

P.S. Oh yeah...I only need one more fabulous person to follow me and I'll have 90! I'm not above begging. PLEEEASE! Maybe when I get to 100 I'll have a little giveaway.

Onion Dip---Revisited

A few weeks ago I made the onion dip I found at Closet Cooking and shared the results with y'all. I wanted to try it again and change it up just a little, and this is what I came up with.

This time I used the entire (8 oz) package of cream cheese, with about 1/4 cup of mayo. Along with the parmesan (maybe 2 large handfuls) I added some colby & monterey jack mix I had. About one handful of that. I baked it at 350 for about half an hour. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention there's 1/2 of a chopped vidalia onion in there.

So overall not a huge departure from what I did before. I did like the lower mayo content...just enough to give it a nice creamy texture. And adding the colby/monterey jack gives it just enough greasiness.

On a different note, the hubby and I decided to be a little adventuresome when we went out to eat on Sunday. Actually, we were more adventuresome than we meant to be. We thought we were trying a new Mexican place, but it was actually El Salvadorian (or however one would say that).

The place was called Salvadoreno Restaurante, (I know, that should have been some sort of giveaway right there) located in Phoenix. Their website is totally non-English.

He ordered the carne asada (shown below). He thought it was really tasty and very tender.

I decided to be really brave and ordered the sampler.

.

There's a lot going on this plate. The round things at the bottom are pupusas...one contained a meat mixture, and the other one had some beans and cheese. To the left of that are two little empanadas. One had meat & potatoes, and the other had plaintain in it. They were both so hard I thought I'd break my teeth on them. Between the empanadas and the weeds is some fried yucca. Aptly named, I'd say. There are 2 hunks of brown stuff in the middle of the plate...the lowest one I think is some type of roasted pork. Had a good flavor but was really tough. And the one with the white stuff (sugar) on top is dessert empanada with plaintain stuffing and cream filling. If you're still hanging in with me, the yellow strippy things at the top of the plate are plantain chips. They were pretty good dipped in that salsa, or the pico-type stuff that had a vinegary flavor. Lastly, in the silver wrap is a chipilin tamale. I had to google chipilin...it's some sort of legume. My favorite part, which I didn't get a picture of, was the corn tamales served with sour cream that we had as an appetizer. I would have been happiest with a big plate of those.

Camping

That's a pretty catchy title, eh? I reeled ya right in with that one. So we just got back yesterday afternoon. We stayed in a yurt. I love yurts...no trying to pitch a tent in the rain and the dark. It's already pitched. And you can lock the door. As if that would really keep anyone out, but anyway.

There was a pretty lake nearby....Lyman Lake to be exact. There was some flora and fauna...I've never quite known the difference. See the little lizard hiding in the pic below? My peeps climbed this mini mountain. They are the little specks at the mid-left of the picture below. Because I'm such an awesome mom I was lounging with my book inside the yurt when they got to the top and didn't get a pic of that. I suck.

We found a cool stream for dipping the tootsies in.

I did do a little cooking while there using the dutch oven that was another one of my favorite Goodwill finds. The first dish was just a layering of bacon with onions and potatoes. I left it on the coals close to an hour then at the end put some cheese on top. This was truly yummy! I have to find a way to recreate this at home.

This next conglomeration might be called a delicious failure. The recipe I followed called it Black Forest cake or something like that. It's just a can of cherry pie filling on bottom, a box of chocolate cake mix and a hershey bar....all left over the coals about 45 minutes. I had my suspicions this might not turn out as I hoped. Really if you can get past the appearance, it really was kind of good. I could have used some more liquid from somewhere.

If you have a weak stomach might not want to look at the end result.

Oh yeah, one more thing got cooked. You may be a redneck if.....you're too dumb to properly apply sunscreen.

.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Not really leaving in a plane so much as a Mercury. Driving north a bit to get out of the desert, see some pretty pine trees, and roast some weenies. I'll miss y'all a whole lot. There could be some withdrawal going on. Probably nothing that can't be fixed by some s'mores! I got an award! It's from Kris at Hands, House, and Heart Full. This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They re not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I try not to self aggrandize too much, but you know, sometimes...oh wait. I just looked it up. I'm in the clear.

So now I gotta pick 8 bloggers to pass this on to...hmm. So hard to choose. There are so many people who are so nice to come and visit me here and leave happy little comments. Just off the top of my head:

Francesca of 3 Bay B Chicks

Ingrid of 3 B's...Baseball, Baking, and Books

Tiffany of Eat at Home

Teresa of A Blog About Food

Kim of The Ungourmet

Joanna of The Fifty Factor

Christina of Deglaze Me

Mary of Shaking the Tree

Now if I can work up the energy to let them all know, I'll be in business.

See ya soon!

As American as Apple Pie and Bowling

I don't care what foodgawker anyone says, that's the money shot right there baby! Whoever decided to put ice cream on top of apple pie in the first place was a genius!

I'd never made a lattice top before, it's pretty fun. Pre-made store bought dough of course.

This recipe came from All Recipes. It ranked high on the yummy level, but it was very juicy! What causes that? And how does one keep it from happening? I need answers here, people!

.

In other news....some kids I know got to go bowling today. Check that form! Four dollars and fifty cents to rent shoes that have been worn more than I care to think about. Highway robbery, I tell ya!

Blueberry French Totes Casserole

I know toast is spelled wrong there, but that's how my baby girl used to wake me up when she was a toddler. "Mommmeeee.....TOTES!" It worked. Got my sleepy butt out of bed and made that girl some totes!

It was potluck day at work. We have themes now. Can't just whip up whatever tickles your fancy and bring it in...noooo! Today's theme was brunch. I made this bread-pudding like casserole that I found at About.com of all places. It's pretty darn easy. All I did was chop up the bread into cubes the night before and I was able to assemble it the next morning and throw it in the oven at the godless hour of 5:15 a.m. It's yummy with maple syrup. We had casseroles and cakes...

Potatoes and bacon....

Quiche and fruit....

Eggs and waffles!

And this....

That's right. I'm another year older and wiser. I mostly feel the older part :)