Overactive Sweet Tooth

I love sweets. Entirely too much. I made not one, but two desserts today. Like I need them.

First I made this yummy blueberry pie.

I love this stuff!

To make this you start with a buttload of clean blueberries. In case you're not familiar with a buttload, that's 4 cups.

Add one cup of water and one cup of blueberries in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

After it comes to a boil, add 3/4 cup sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 3 tbsp corn starch.

(I like to mix the corn starch together with a little bit of warm water in a little container with a lid and shake the snot out of it to get rid of lumps before I add it to the blueberry mixture)

Let all this boil together while stirring about 1 1/2 minutes then remove from heat.

Add the remaining 3 cups of blueberries and stir it all up to get all the berries covered with the glaze.

At this point pour the berries into your pre-baked pie crust. (see that missing chunk out of my pie crust? That's because I really like to eat frozen raw pie dough.)

Place the pie in the fridge and let it get nice and chilled before serving with some whipped topping of your choice.

I think I'm going to take this pie to work tomorrow to say "sorry for being crabby for no particular reason, eat the pie and get over it."

Later in the day I decided to make the chocolate sheet cake with peanut butter frosting I found at My Tasty Treasures.

We really enjoyed that frosting! The girl discovered it makes a pretty good dip for pretzels!

Well, thanks for stopping by...I have to go check my blood sugar now.

Too Hot To Live

I think today's high temp was 112.

It's about 109 in the house.

I have to go back to work tomorrow after 12 days off and that makes me feel like a...

The moral of this story? Nothing's cookin.

I'm sure I'll get back in the groove soon.

But...a friendly reminder to my giveaway winner:

I'll wait until Friday evening to hear from relyte@gmail.com, after that I'll offer the prize to a different entrant.

Winner Time

Hey everybody...it's time to announce the winner of my dessert themed giveaway.

First I want to apologize that I didn't offer it to all you good folks not in the US. I really am way too cheap but hopefully my undying love and devotion will make up for lack of contest entries. Or maybe I'm full of crap.

What's this giant cupcake got to do with anything? Nothing really, but it is dessert, and it made me happy when I saw it so it had to come home with me.

So according to the random number thingy entry #29 is the winner.

And that would be reylte@gmail.com.

I'll be emailing you to let you know you won and will send your loot your way!

Thanks so much to everyone for playing.

Here's a pic of a new friend I made on our recent camping trip. He was hanging out in the women's bathroom. Or maybe he's a she! After seeing this guy, my daughter decided peeing was not really necessary after all.

Next time I'll ask for the tarantula-free campground.

Crumb Top Blueberry Muffins

How'd you like to wake up to a plate full of these little darlings in the morning? They're pretty easy...I was even able to make some just a mere few minutes after crawling out of bed.

Isn't he beautiful? He wants you to be happy.

There it is, peace and tranquility on a plate. Covered with butter.

The recipe is at foodandwine.com. Go print it up and find your way to inner contentment.

Don't forget!

My giveaway ends tonight....go enter before it's too late.

Giveaway Time

Haven't I heard someone prattling on recently about a giveaway? Oh yeah, I think that was me. I'm finally getting off my lazy rear and getting it done. (well actually I'm on my rear since I'm at the computer, but you know what I mean)

Since I'm a big fan of dessert (as evidenced by the rear of which I was just speaking), let's go with a dessert themed giveaway. I found these cute little dessert plates at Big Lots some high dollar swanky store and got a set for you and one for me! It's a set of 6, two of each design shown here. Just think...you and I could be eating dessert off the same plates at the same time! It boggles the mind!

I think there's an 88.3% chance I can get these mailed to you mostly unbroken. No promises though.

And to sweeten the pot (get it?) I'm adding a couple of dessert related items too. A package of sugar cookie mix for when you need dessert and you need it NOW! Sprinkles to decorate those cookies. And a little dessert cookbook from Prevention. (yeah, that seemed ironic to me too, but whatever) Whoever wins the book will need to make what's on page 13 and get it to me right away. Seriously.

Rules:

1. Just leave a comment telling me your favorite dessert. If you say you don't like sweets you will be immediately disqualified.

2. Gotta keep it in the continental US again. I'm extraordinarily cheap.

3. Make sure I can contact you somehow.

4. Contest ends Thursday July 23rd at midnight. My time. Whatever that is.

Anyway thanks to everyone of you who have visited my blog and said nice things. Comments are almost as good as dessert!

Bowties with Italian Sausage and Veggies

This meal is inspired by a man named Benny who works in the cafeteria where I work.

A long time ago they would have a pasta bar once or twice a month and Benny would prepare your lunch to order while singing lounge songs. Nothing like an Italian dish made by a crazy Mexican singing old white people songs. (Is there anyone I didn't offend there?)

Benny would let you pick from linguine or bowties, and you could have sausage or chicken, and he had about six or seven different veggies to pick from. But I'm not Benny so the folks at my house don't get it to order, they get it with whatever I feel like putting in there...and these are the veggies I felt like today.

He would start with some olive oil and garlic...

then throw all your veggies in till they got semi tender.

Then he would toss the pasta on top and stir that around a bit and add the meat.

He had different toppings to pick from too, but I prefer tomato. I've made it before with jarred spaghetti sauce but today I made my own and it was great!

And mine was made while singing along with Jimmy Buffett.

Strawberry Shortcake: It's What's For Dinner

Wow, I haven't posted in a whole week...what have I been doing? Beats the heck out of me but I guess it didn't involve a whole lotta cooking.

I felt like having a little strawberry shortcake on biscuits tonight. Just made up a regular biscuit recipe and added a bit of sugar. I thought it was scrumptious! If I remember correctly that's the way Steak and Shake made their strawberry shortcake. I kinda miss them sometimes. (mmm! chili 3 way!)

We also had Ida Garten's Chicken Piccata. It looks kinda boring but that lemon sauce is lovely. And that would be Rice a Roni pasta it's served on.

Later this week I'll announce a giveaway...so be sure to check back!

Easy Peasy Red Beans and Rice

Many moons ago I bought a book called "Desperation Dinners". It promises home cooked meals for frantic families in 20 minutes flat. Well, I'm a little too type B personality to be frantic, but there are times I don't like to linger in the kitchen any longer than necessary. Like when it's 110 frikkin degrees, for example.

I had a late afternoon appointment today and wanted something easy to throw together. AND I was informed by my son, several times, that we needed to eat before 7pm because there was a new Fairly Oddparents coming on. No pressure there!

So I whipped out my old copy of Desperation Dinners and found this lovely beans and rice recipe I had never tried. I found it really did come together quickly, and I only had to use one pan to prepare it.

It went nicely with this brown sugar cornbread that I found at some insignificant obscure website. *cough*martha stewart*cough*

(I made that earlier in the day)

Not bad for 20 minutes!

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil

1 large onion chopped

2 med ribs celery chopped (I left this out)

1/2 large bell pepper

2 tsp bottled minced garlic

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

2 bay leaves

1 can (14 1/2 oz) chicken broth

1 pound kielbasa (cut into 1/4 inch slices)

1 can (15 1/2 oz) kidney beans (rinse and drain)

1 3/4 cup instant rice

Directions:

1. Heat the oil over med heat in skillet with lid. Add chopped onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cook about 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in garlic, thyme, basil, oregano, pepper, tabasco, and bay leaves.

2. Raise the heat to high and add the broth. Cover the skillet and bring to boil.

3. When the broth boils, stir in the sausage, beans, and rice. Reduce heat to med low, cover, and cook 5-10 minutes. If broth disappears before rice is tender, and 1/2 cup water...I also threw in some splashes of red wine I had sitting around.

P.S. If you do decide to make that cornbread, I wouldn't make it in a loaf pan as instructed in the recipe...it took forever to get done all the way through.

Red, White, and Blueberry Trifle: The One In Which Martha Redeems Herself

I have to admit I was still holding a grudge over the Boston Cream Pie incident and planned to never visit Martha's site again. But I was lead there unknowingly when I clicked a link for this trifle. I'm a sucker for a pretty trifle and this really didn't look too difficult so I decided to let bygones be bygones and give it a try.

It was quite easy to put together, as most trifles are, and didn't take up three hours of my life. We loved the cream cheese fluff mixture, and brushing the pound cake with a lemon syrup gives it a nice little something extra.

Here's the recipe for ya.

Ingredients

1/4 plus 1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

12 ounce pound cake, cut into 3/4 inch slices

8 ounces cream cheese, room temp

1 cup heavy cream

3 cups fresh blueberries

3 cups fresh raspberries

Directions

Make lemon sy

rup: In a small saucepan, bring 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, and 1/4 cup water to

a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Let cool completely, then brush over both sides

of cake slices. Quarter each slice.

With an electri

c mixer, beat cream cheese with remaining 1/3 cup sugar on high speed until lightened. With mixer on m

edium speed, gradually add heavy cream in a steady stream; contin

ue beating until mixture is light and airy (mixture will be like a very soft whipped cream).

Arrange half the

cake pieces in the bottom of a 2-quart serving dish. Spoon half the cream-cheese mixture over cake in dollops;

spread to sides of dish. Scatter half the blueberries and raspberries on top. Repeat layering with r

emaining cake, cream-cheese mixture, and b

erries, piling berries in the center.

Cover, and refrigerate until chilled, at least

1 hour and up to overnight.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!