Cre8tive Kitchen

Vote in Foodie Fights until June 3; 6 pm EST

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:50:00 +0000

The fight is on! Now is your chance to make your voice heard in this weeks Foodie Fight. It is Battle Melon/Red Pepper Flake and I am a participant with my Honey Cantaloupe Sorbet with Dark Chocolate Pepper Ganache. There is some fierce competition with the other chefs in the battle. Just go to Foodie Fights and pick your favorite! Hopefully my loyal Cre8tive readers will pick mine (hint hint) but do go and read all of the entries and then make an honest decision about who should really win. Hoping it is me, but those are some tough dishes to beat! Go check them out! Or, if you have already decided, then you can vote here!

Good Luck to all the participants in this battle! You can vote until June 3, 2009 by 6 pm EST.

Honey Cantaloupe Sorbet with Dark Chocolate Pepper Ganache

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:05:00 +0000

I was so excited last week when I opened my email from Nick at Foodie Fights and was chosen for Battle #4 Cantaloupe/Red Pepper Flake battle. At first I was stumped at the choice of ingredients and took me a couple days to figure out what to make that was not only creative, eye pleasing, and good tasting with these two ingredients. I finally figured out that I would make dessert. Honey Cantaloupe Sorbet with Dark Chocolate Pepper Ganache. Try saying that 3 times fast! This is my first time doing something like this and being judged. I hope it is ok since I am up against some pretty darn good chefs. So check out the posts at Foodie Fights on June 2nd to see how I stack up. Ok here is the recipe... and some great photos!

Honey Cantaloupe Sorbet
(an adaptation of an Orange Sorbet, I found in one of my recipe boxes from my grandmother's things)

1 cantaloupe, cubed (I used a rather big one that you get at Costco)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 Tbsp honey

Combine water and sugar in a sauce pan to form simple syrup. Boil and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

In a blender, puree the cantaloupe, lemon juice, and honey. Add cooled simple syrup. Pour into a freezer container and freeze.

Dark Chocolate Pepper Ganache

1/4 cup heavy cream
1 dark chocolate bar (I bought a 72% cacao bar from World Market)
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Heat the cream until very hot, add chocolate. Let sit for a couple minutes, beat. Add pepper flakes. Let sit until room temperature.

Then all you have to do it put them together. Scoop some sorbet into a dish, spoon on some ganache, sprinkle with pepper flakes, garnish with a mint sprig. That is all. It was easier than it looks. You could serve this at a dinner party, BBQ, or whereever you think this dish would fit in. It was fun to participate in the Foodie Fights and I hope they pick mine because I think it would be fun to judge a contest like this.

Enjoy a couple of pictures of the finished product!

Decadent Chocolate Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:21:00 +0000

This is the cake I made for my and my mother-in-law's birthdays for the big BBQ we had this weekend. It was so good I just have to share where I got the recipe and what I did to make it so yummy! It was received well by everyone.

Also, this is my last day of NaBloPoMo and I did it!! I did 31 blog posts in 31 days for the whole month of May, I did it!! I will do it again, just not the rest of the summer because we have many many plans this summer for fun things outside. But I can say that I did it! Ok, back to the cake.

The cake recipe I used was one I found from a fellow food blogger at Food and Passion and it was wonderful! So moist and chocolaty, it was just what the doctor ordered for a great chocolate fix. I made it even more decadent because I put in Philly Cheesecake filling in between the layers. The cheesecake just gave it that something that put it over the edge of rich and yummy! Other than that I followed her directions to the letter to make this cake and the chocolate ganache that frosted the outside of this cake.

Check it out! It was fantastic! Try it yourself, very easy recipe. Here is the link to that recipe one more time: Food and Passion Dark and Moist One Bowl Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache and now here are some more pictures to convince you to go visit Food and Passion and make this cake!

Here is the cake before frosting with the chocolate ganache. I took the 2 thick layers the recipe made and cut them in half to make a 4 layer cake to have more cheesecake filling. It was so good!

This is the cake after frosting with the chocolate ganache.

And here is the slice, before I gobbled it up! It was so yummy and rich, one slice was enough... for now! Having some more later!

Now, if that isn't enough to convince you to go make this cake... I don't know what else to do. It is that good, and so easy to make. The instructions for this cake were so simple, that makes it even better! Go make some! You will be glad you did!

A Trip to the Beach and Cioppino

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Today I was not working so me and the family decided to go to Westport WA right on the Pacific Ocean. Our goal was to play at the beach and just enjoy the day; however, Mother Nature had other plans. It was so cold and windy and we did not bring coats or wear long pants. It was about 85 degrees when we left home and about 60 when we got to the beach with high winds. Needless to say we did not stay long, which brought me to my second and third goals.

Second on my list of things to do was to go to my favorite candy shop and buy saltwater taffy. This is the only place I buy it because it is the real deal and it is so yummy and fresh. They have so many flavors it makes a person's head double take at all the cool flavors. They also have a great fudge counter, but saltwater taffy takes the center stage with me when I go here. It is called Gifts Ahoy Sea Shanty and anyone who visits Westport must go here to get taffy, fudge, and really cool gifts. It is right across the street from all the piers and floats right there in the heart of this wonderful fishing town of Westport WA.
Check out all the taffy flavors. And, I didn't even get all of them in the pictures, there was also taffy above and below the middle racks of which is pictured here. They have so many flavors, it is a taffy lover's dream.

Then my third goal of this visit was to go to the floating seafood shop called Seafood Connection right on the water at Float 8 on the Westport fishing piers. This is one of the best places in Westport to buy seafood. It is fresh off the boats and when it is sold out, there is nothing frozen or anything. Once it is gone, it is gone; you wait until tomorrow if you want seafood from here. It is so fresh. The cool thing is that it floats, you can actually feel the waves beneath your feet as you shop and they wrap up your seafood and ice it right there. You can buy live crabs, live prawns, halibut, and many other types of seafood. This is where I bought my seafood for my Cioppino that we had for dinner. Nothing like a fresh seafood meal with some yummy sourdough to round out a great day.

Another unexpected treat we got was a sea lion popped up out of the water while we were walking down the pier to go back to the car, he was so close and I had put my camera away. I was pretty disappointed that he did not rear his head again as he was maybe 4 feet away from us and that picture would have been great! But we saw him again from afar and so this is the picture I got.

Yes the little dot in the water is the sea lion. They know when the fishing boats come in and hang out while they throw out any fish parts they do not need, or bait they did not use, so they can get a feast when the charter boats come in.

Here is the wonderful seafood I purchased. We got a dungeness crab, mussels, clams, and part of a halibut fillet.

Ok if you have made it this far in this great day story, then here is the recipe for the Cioppino. It is an adaptation of a recipe I found online at Mama Chios Shellfish Cioppino and I changed it up a little bit to make it a little less spicy and to use what I had on hand and what seafood was in season. Just click the link to get the original recipe and here is the changes included.

Cioppino

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley leaves
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 cup merlot wine (we used Fat Bastard Merlot, it was also so good to drink; it is also a great priced bottle at $10 a bottle that tastes like we paid more, it was really good)
2 cups chopped roma tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp red pepper
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2 cups water

1 dungeness crab, shelled
3/4 lb halibut fillet, cut into bite sized chunks
1 lb clams
1 lb mussels

Heat oil and butter in large pot. Add onion, parsley, and garlic. Cook until onion is transparent. Add wine and cook an additional 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and spices. Stir frequently while cooking 15-20 minutes. Add water, cover, simmer for 30 minutes. Add all seafood except halibut to sauce. Add more water if necessary to make sure all shellfish is covered. Cook for 5 minutes; add halibut, and cook additional 10 minutes. When clams have opened, cioppino is ready to serve.

Notes:
- if any clams or mussels have not opened, discard them.
- We ate this with some sourdough bread to soak up broth.

What a Great Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Yes, today is my birthday. I am 29 and holding... or as one of my friends says, "I am 29 plus shipping and handling and I am getting quite expensive to go anywhere" That makes me laugh whenever I hear that. I am getting older, but as the old saying goes; Aging like fine wine is what I am. I just cannot remember who said that but it is someone I am related to, just can't remember who. Oh My Gosh.. they say the first thing to go is the mind and with me forgetting things, who knows. Oh well on with my day. I will stop being philosophical because I am no good at it.

My day started out like most any day, I got the kids on the bus and sat down with coffee. But I had plans; plans to shop and buy some things that I wanted and things I did not need. I succeeded. My first stop was of course Starbucks for an Espresso Truffle. I have come to love this concoction of a drink, it is so flavorful to the point of almost being addicting. I savored my coffee as I drove to downtown Olympia for my first real stop on my day of fun (I should say my morning of fun since I was with no kids and able to go shop for myself, that is until 12:30 when the bus comes to bring home my preschooler). Anyway, my first stop was at a very cool little shop downtown right near Farmer's Market called Einmaleins and if you are visiting Olympia WA or you live here in Olympia or near here, you have to go into this store at 121 State Ave downtown. Mathias is such a nice person and we had a great chat in the store while I was purchasing my newest cookbook, Flavors by Donna Hay. He also had some chocolate on the counter that was coffee infused chocolate and it was so good, I should have bought some. I could have eaten that as my morning treat with my Espresso Truffle, but I had to resist since I was having other treats during my day. You can find him at the site (just click the Einmaleins name above, or he is @einmaleins on Twitter. Look him up, he is a neat person and I look forward to going back to his store soon (after all I have to buy up the rest of the Donna Hay cookbooks, I really like that the recipes are simple and don't take 15 million ingredients to get something yummy on the table). See you another time Mathias!

Onward was next to Farmer's Market where I bought herb plants and a couple of pepper plants. I attempted to grow my own herb garden from seeds and failed... miserably. I do not think I am cut out to grow things from seeds, I have failed now a few times so now I give up and will always buy plants instead. I got some really nice herbs (chocolate mint, greek oregano, sweet basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and lavender; I have always wanted to experiment with lavender, I hear people rave about it). Then I bought a green bell pepper and red bell pepper plant. I look forward to planting those this evening after the hot sun goes down with my little planting helper (who happens to be 4 years old and has an aversion to dirt and hates to get dirty so this is my chance to expose her to dirt... again). Oh, and I also bought her a sunflower plant because her little seedlings died also. She wanted to grow her own sunflower, so now she can.

Then again it was on to Jay's Produce Stand because I wanted to get some more things for the house and it is really fun shopping there because the prices are so good, I can buy a lot and not worry about cost. This time I spent $14.90 and got basically heavy things such as:
Cantaloupe 3 lbs/$1
On the vine tomatoes 84 cents/lb
baby lemons 10/$1
baby limes 5/$1
cauliflower 69 cents/lb
navel oranges 59 cents/lb
bananas 49 cents/lb
pink lady apples 69 cents/lb
asparagus 79 cents/lb (I have never seen asparagus that inexpensive and so I also ordered my 40 lbs of asparagus for canning next week, I will pay for that when I go pick it up)

Again, Jay's did not let me down. I still think this place is hands down the best produce stand in Thurston County, anyone who lives here should visit. They are on Mud Bay Road on the west side of Olympia WA.

Then I did some other things today; took Nicole to Taekwondo, went and picked up pizza, had dinner, went to Walmart, etc etc yadda yadda. Then Nessa (my 4 yr old little helper) helped me to plant my plants I bought at Farmer's Market and planted her sunflower. It was a lot of fun watching her try to avoid getting her hands dirty or her clothes dirty, she sure took a long time to plant her one little plant because of that. You will notice all my plants are in pots; well, that is because we live in an apartment and have no actual ground to plant directly into. So we have to use pots, but it still enables me to have my fresh herbs and homegrown tomatoes which is what I want because they are better that way.

One more birthday on the books is now almost past. This year it is 39, next year is 40 but I am confident that I am going to age gracefully like fine wine! So this is also day 29 on the books of NaBloPoMo and looks like I am going to make it to 31 days this month of blogging. YAY me! I usually never back down from a challenge.. ok well a challenge like this anyway.

BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:22:00 +0000

This is what I call a masterpiece! BBQ Pulled Pork in a pizza; especially since pizza is my favorite food of all time. You can do anything with a pizza with any kind of toppings. Here we used leftover pulled pork and homemade BBQ sauce to make this pizza. It was so good. It was my first attempt at grilling a pizza and it failed. Only because the BBQ ran out of propane and smoked a lot while it was cooking for the short time that it did. It was finished in the oven on the pizza stone. But, it was still yummy!

First, I made a basic pizza dough (any favorite dough will do, my recipe is as follows after the picture). Nothing fancy as I did not want it to overpower everything on the pizza.

Basic Pizza Dough:
3 1/4 cups flour
1 packet of active dry yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup warm water (about 120-130 degrees)
2 Tbsp olive oil

In a bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, and salt. Add water and oil. Beat with electric mixer on low until all incorporated. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time and beat with dough hooks until as much of the flour is incorporated and a dough is formed. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead in any extra flour remaining until you get an elastic consistency, keeping surface floured while kneading so it doesn't stick. Put into a greased bowl and let rise with a kitchen towel over the top until double. Punch down and divide in half. Let rest 10 minutes. Form your pizza crust. Bake for about 5 minutes at 400 degrees so it does not rise anymore. At this point, the other crust can be packaged to be frozen for use later if needed. It is always good to have pizza crust on hand.

The toppings I used for this BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza is:
- fresh pineapple
- black olives
- fresh chopped spinach
- 3 cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan)

First, put on some BBQ sauce on the crust, as thick or thin as you want. It just depends on how saucy you want your sauce. Click here for my favorite BBQ sauce recipe

Then, you spread on the leftover BBQ pulled pork over the sauce. You can make this as thick or as thin as you want. It also depends on how much leftover you have, in this case, we had a lot of leftover because it was a large pork shoulder roast.

Next, I put on the fresh pineapple and black olives...

Then, it was a thin layer of mozzarella cheese and the chopped spinach...

And then, the rest of the cheese with the parmesan on the very top.

So now that the pizza is built, it is time for the grill (or so I thought) I preheated the grill outside. I put the pizza on the pizza stone (since I was told that it was good to use the pizza stone if I did not want the whole bottom charred, which I didn't since I am not that fond of charred bread products) and took it outside and put it on the grill.

However, just about 5 minutes into the cooking... all the flames went out and it was smoking so badly, I thought I was just going to turn it off anyway and bring it into the house. But it helped that the grill also ran out of propane. Just my luck! I cleaned the grill really good too before putting on the pizza which led me to believe that it was below the grill that needed the cleaning. So, to make a long story short... I finished the pizza in the oven in the house. I baked it at 400 degrees for another 10 minutes and it was done and so yummy! Although the crust was a little crispier than I would have liked, but it was still good! Check this out...

And this...

And finally this one...

It was so good! We ate the whole thing! Just me and the kids... dang, we must have been hungry.. I will have to make this again when Cooking Dad is home, he was out on the road, I almost felt guilty of eating all of it. Almost. But, not quite. Now it is your turn, go and make the best grilled pizza you can but remember this: Make sure your grill is clean inside and out, and that it has propane!

Chocolate Mousse with Blueberry Topping

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:51:00 +0000

The other night I was wanting some yummy chocolate mousse and when Cooking Dad went to the store, he picked a box of chocolate mousse mix up. (He thought he would simplify my life with the mix, he is so sweet!). So I thought I want it a little more decadent and yummy; I made this with chocolate cups as the bowl for my chocolate mousse. The blueberry topping was so easy to make that I will make it more often for pancakes and waffles. I just used regular whipping cream and used a little bit of chocolate from the chocolate cups to make the little chocolate decorations on top. It was a hit, especially with the kids. They ate double helpings of dessert (every once in a while, double helpings of dessert is ok).

First off I had to make the chocolate cups. So I used milk chocolate chips (I already had those in the house) and melted them. Then I lined the muffin tins with cupcake liners and poured in some chocolate. Then used a pastry brush to brush it up onto the liner up to the brim of the liner. In the freezer they went for about 20 minutes to harden. It was not an easy task to peel off the cupcake liners, but eventually they got done and I had chocolate cups to put the mousse in. These are not the most glamorous looking chocolate cups but since it was just for family and the kids helped, they were just perfect for us.

This is the box of chocolate mousse I had to work with. It was easy to make and very creamy. Usually I would have just gotten myself a great recipe for homemade chocolate mousse; but, I figured there was room to dress this up while I had the box. After making to package instructions, I refrigerated it until I had the blueberry sauce ready and cooled. In the meantime, the chocolate cups are just chilling out in the fridge waiting to be filled and devoured.

To make the blueberry sauce, I just took about 2 cups of frozen blueberries (thawed) + 1/4 cup of the juice, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp water (mixed it up so I have a white cornstarch liquid). Put the blueberries, juice, and sugar in a sauce pan and heated just until boiling. Add the cornstarch liquid and stir until thickened on low heat. Set aside and cool. Now, back to the chocolate cups.

The process in which I filled and dressed up the chocolate mousse is as follows:
1. You get out your chocolate cup from the fridge.

2. Add enough chocolate mousse until it just comes about 1/2 inch from the top (this is to make room for the blueberry topping and whipped cream)

3. Then add the blueberries and whipped cream (garnish with chocolate decoration which I made just by putting some of the leftover melted chocolate in a baggie; cut off a corner of the baggie and by the looks of this chocolate, I made the hole too big. I piped it onto parchment paper and let it harden and you can do this in any decoration you choose, it is very easy) And, there you go, you have a dressed up chocolate mousse that was very easy to make and looks pretty too so you can even have this when company comes. The kids thought it was fabulous and they had fun helping too.

Just remember you can use any fruit that you think will go well with chocolate, I just happened to have blueberries in the freezer so that is what I used. I can see a cherry, raspberry, or even strawberry filling added to this and it would be equally good. Have fun with it and just be creative!

Grilled Corn with Pepper Mayonnaise

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:41:00 +0000

The unofficial start to summer was upon us this Memorial Day weekend. It was sunny and gorgeous the whole time; here in western WA, we have not seen a more gorgeous weekend in years. It usually rains. So we thought we would grill us up some dinner last night. Cooking Dad made us some wonderful BBQ country ribs, baked beans; but what stood out the most was the corn he made. He decided he wanted something different than a regular corn on the cob, he wanted something more exciting. So he thought he would grill the corn. But he also wanted something else other than butter on that corn. We have a huge jar of mayonnaise and he thought he would try his hand at concocting a spread or sauce for that corn. He came up with the Pepper Mayonnaise that was wonderful on the corn. He did a good job at his first try to make up his own recipe. I was going to call it Roasted Red Pepper Mayonnaise, but he wanted it just called Pepper Mayonnaise, since he thought you could probably interchange the peppers from either red or green (or another color) and make it different if you wanted a spicy Mexican style mayonnaise. So Pepper Mayonnaise it is.

Grilled Corn with Pepper Mayonnaise

8 ears of corn, husked and small ends cut down (makes for more even cooking without the ends getting burned)
salt to flavor corn

Pepper Mayonnaise
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup roasted pepper, chopped fine (we used red, and here is the link to how to roast peppers Click Here
2 Tbsp finely diced shallots
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste
1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley, Italian or regular, it does not matter
1 tsp finely chopped basil

Mix up the pepper mayonnaise, reserving about 1/3 cup for on the table (we did not think to do this so our corn was smathered really good with the mayonnaise, I would have liked to have this on the table as well as on the corn, so we thought of reserving while writing the recipe).

Grill the corn about 5 minutes directly on the grill so it gets browned. Then spread Pepper Mayonnaise all around each ear.

Wrap each ear in foil, grill for 8 minutes turning once over medium flame.

Serve and enjoy! It was so good! Wish we would have thought before eating to save some Pepper Mayonnaise for on the side, that would have been even more heavenly!

Roasting Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Happy Memorial Day! To those service men and women who serve our country here and abroad, and for those who have fallen... I thank you for all you do to preserve our freedom in this great country!

Cooking Dad wanted to make some roasted red peppers for his Roasted Red Pepper Mayo which he is putting on our grilled corn on the cob today for part of our wonderful BBQ dinner. He really didn't know how to do it, so I told him. Here is the instructions for some wonderful roasted peppers. The key is blackening the peppers so they peel easily to then roast them in the oven.

The method I told him to do for blackening the skin on the peppers was the grilling method outside. A person can also use the cookie sheet under the broiler or an indoor grill for blackening the skins on peppers.

Here is when we first put the peppers on the grill, they are indeed red. (they changed colors as they cooked from red to orange before becoming blackened).

Then as they are grilling they start to turn black; and, they smell so good! They are starting to turn orange while they are blackening.

When he took them off the grill, they are pretty blackened. This way you can peel off the skins after they have sat either in a paper bag or under a kitchen towel for about 5 minutes.

Well, I should have told him to get a large red pepper, because then maybe the peeling would have been easier for him. Instead we bought a bag of small peppers at Costco so that I could have other peppers for cooking and those baby peppers make great snacks. Our kids love to just eat the sweet peppers right out of the bag. They are kind of funny aren't they? Most kids won't eat peppers like that, but ours love those peppers. But, for roasting you really need a bigger pepper; Cooking Dad had a hard time peeling these because they are small.

After they are peeled, you preheat an oven to 400 degrees. In a square baking dish, put down a little olive oil (about 1 Tbsp) and put in the peppers and roast in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

Then you just chop them up and add them to your favorite recipe. In this case, Cooking Dad is making Roasted Red Pepper Mayo for our corn tonight. Very easy to roast peppers, just takes a bit of time and a couple different cooking methods to make some great roasted peppers.

Topsy Turvy vs Homemade Upside Down Tomato Planter Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:38:00 +0000

This week I am a little late in my weekly Topsy Turvy vs Homemade video series. I have been working quite a bit and been very busy with work and the family. Also trying to figure out the video mode on my new camera, so hopefully this will turn out well.

So far we are into Week 4 of comparing upside down planters along with having a tomato in a pot growing the normal way. So far my observations are this:

- I still think the weight of the dirt on top of the Topsy Turvy plant is a concern to why it is not growing like the homemade planter is. They are watered the same times with the same amount.
- They are using the same fertilizer and the homemade tomato planter and the potted tomato are just taking off. The Topsy Turvy has not grown much although it is getting new leaves... finally.
- The potted tomato and the homemade upside down planter are both getting flowers on them for some tomatoes, the Topsy Turvy is not as it barely has any new growth.

Here is the 3 plants in photos taken yesterday 5-23-09:
The Homemade Planter

The Potted Tomato:

The Topsy Turvy Planter:

I also did the video like always since I got the video part of the camera figured out (which was the main reason I took the stills because as of yesterday, I still had not figured it out) and it was videoed today just about an hour or so ago (it is 8:45 pm right now as I am posting). The difference is pretty staggering with the Topsy Turvy and the other 2 tomatoes. Still makes me wonder how many tomatoes I will actually get from the Topsy Turvy, we will see. Enjoy the show!

We will see how this is doing next Sunday, so stay tuned in my journey of experimentation on this project!

Mint Lemonade

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:06:00 +0000

Yesterday I made the most refreshing Mint Lemonade and it was so good! The family drank it so fast, I didn't get a chance to get some cool pictures. I will take some the next time I make it and then add pictures. It is so refreshing and the hint of mint just makes it so yummy!

Mint Lemonade

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate
2-3 mint sprigs
1 lemon, sliced
1 lime, sliced

Make lemonade according to can directions. Add mint, lemon, lime, and ice cubes. Refrigerate for about 2 hours so the mint permeates the lemonade.

Notes:
- to make a wine spritzer, add sparkling wine for half of the water.

Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:46:00 +0000

Just want to give a shout out to my friend Anya over at Anya Cooks because she gave me an awesome recipe for Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta that I made last night for dinner. It was fantastic and not too spicy at all!

This recipe was so easy and took me less than 20 minutes to prepare from start to finish. While the pasta was cooking; I made the sauce, then whipped up a salad, and then whipped up some garlic bread also to go with it. Such an easy meal for when you come home from work and want something yummy, but don't feel like a huge ordeal of cooking. I love that it was so easy! That was definitely the best part after the eating. All I heard at the dinner table was "mmmmmmm" and more "mmmmmmm" and silence while everyone wolfed it down.

My dish probably is not as good looking as hers is (I only had tiny shrimp to work with not the good ones where you can grill them and leave grill marks.. oh well, next time) but it is as good. We also added just a bit of shredded parmesan cheese and little parsley on top and it was yummy! Otherwise we did nothing different than what she had posted on her site. We made it exactly as Anya directed.

Check out her recipe here Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta. It is definitely a recipe everyone should have in their recipe box. It will be a regular meal at our house, it was that good! Thanks Anya!

"In The Bag" Broccoli Blue Cheese Focaccia Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:22:00 +0000

"In The Bag" is a round-up event sponsored by Real Epicurean for the month of May 2009. Each month 2-3 ingredients are chosen and the participants have to use the ingredients in a dish of their choosing. This month the ingredients chosen are broccoli and blue cheese. The dish of my choosing for this round-up is Broccoli Blue Cheese Focaccia Pizza. Pizza is my favorite dish of all time and so I thought it only fitting that I chose pizza.

I didn't want to make just a standard crust and then it hit me... Focaccia Crust. I thought this would make a better tasting pizza since I used a Basil Garlic Focaccia as my crust. It was very easy to make and I amazed myself on how tender the bread was.

For my sauce, I decided on a parmesan white sauce which is similar to an alfredo sauce just not as thick. I found this in my Simply Delicious by Ron Kalenuik cookbook. It is a classic Mornay Sauce. Very tasty and would make a great base for other pasta or pizza sauces. The only thing I did differently is I added just a tad bit of garlic and basil to the sauce.

So, now here are the recipes and what I used to top my Broccoli Blue Cheese Focaccia Pizza. Makes a wonderful meal as we had it with green salad.

Broccoli Blue Cheese Focaccia Pizza
Focaccia Crust: (adapted from recipe #27968 on RecipeZaar I changed a couple of ingredients around and omitted a couple just so I could have the basil garlic flavor I was looking for, just click on the RecipeZaar link to see the actual recipe)

2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water (between 105-115 degrees)
2 Tbsp olive oil (for brushing on before baking)

Mix the yeast and water in a small bowl. Let proof for 10 minutes (until bubbles begin to form). In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, sugar, garlic, basil, and black pepper. Add the yeast mix and 1 Tbsp olive oil to the dry ingredients and combine. When dough has pulled together, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with damp cloth and let rise in warm place 25 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Punch down dough, place on greased baking sheet. Pat dough to 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Using your knuckle, make indentations int he dough about 1/2 inch apart , then prick down with fork. Brush with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Parmesan Cream Sauce (from recipe for Mornay Sauce in Simply Delicious by Ron Kalenuik)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups chicken broth
1 1/4 cups half & half cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

Heat the butter in the sauce pan. Add flour and cook 2 minutes over low heat. Stir in the chicken broth and cream. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened. Stir in cheese, garlic, and basil. Simmer for 2 more minutes. Top the focaccia pizza crust with sauce within 1/2 inch from edges.

The Toppings:

1 roma tomato, diced
1/2 lb broccoli florets, chopped
1/2 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup black olives
1 small purple onion, sliced
6 oz cooked chicken
2-3 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 cup mozzarella cheese

On top of the sauced crust apply mozzarella cheese, then add chicken, then tomatoes, purple onions, and olives. Add the broccoli florets. Crumble blue cheese on top and then top with chopped basil. On center rack in oven, broil on low for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and top is golden brown. Cut into squares and serve.

Talk about yummy! The kids really ate it up, they love pizza and veggies so I figured this would be a hit with them. It is a one pan meal since it has the meat, the grain (as in bread), and lots of vegetables on top. We still had a green salad on the side as well. A successful dinner was had by all!

Thank you Scott at Real Epicurean for letting me participate for the first time ever in something like this. It was fun, I discovered some new ingredients that go great together. Always room to learn something new every day!

Teriyaki Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:32:00 +0000

I promise these are the last photos from my old camera. But, this sandwich was really good! The kids really enjoyed it as a different treat for dinner, now to only find a soup that it will go really good with. We just had it with salad instead of soup.

If you have leftover ham; then you take pineapple and cheese put them in between 2 slices of bread, glaze with teriyaki sauce and walah! You have a Teriyaki Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich.

If you need to refer back to how to make the teriyaki glaze, Click Here and just scroll a tiny bit down for the recipe for Teriyaki Sauce.

Here is what it looked like before adding the final slice of bread:

The final product; Teriyaki Grilled Ham and Cheese Sandwich:

What I used:
leftover spiral sliced honey ham
pineapple slices cut into wedges
havarti cheese (you can also use cheddar, that is what my daughter wanted instead of havarti, I just like havarti because it melts easy and becomes really gooey with cheese)
leftover teriyaki glaze from shish kebabs
2 slices bread
butter

Just build the sandwich, with bread spread with butter and down on grill (butter side down), then add the cheese; then the ham; glaze with teriyaki sauce; then add pineapple; and glaze with more teriyaki sauce; then one more slice cheese; then slice of bread; spread with butter and put on griddle and cook until golden brown and cheese is melted.

Anyone have any ideas for a soup this will go with? Leave me a comment with your ideas!

Banana Cake with Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:13:00 +0000

Can we say yummy? This cake was a surprise to me yesterday since I was craving dessert and I didn't have much in the house for anything really spectacular. Well, the way this Banana Cake turned out, it was nothing short of spectacular! You would never know this was NOT a scratch cake. This cake was ooozing of goodness with the bananas, butter, eggs, and it was so moist. Pair that up with a homemade banana cream cheese frosting and this is definitely a winner. I had to raid The Cooking Dad's stash of cake mixes to make this because there was nothing really in the house since I am low on staples (thank god it is almost payday and I can go shopping) so I decided what the heck, we will see how it turns out. We always have cake mixes in the house so that when The Cooking Dad wants some dessert, it is fast and easy for him to make. He likes to feel accomplished in the kitchen too and I like him in the kitchen cooking and baking because that way I do not have to feel like it is always my job because he can do pretty well too and he does quite often.

Anyway, on to the recipe! Just a note: I forgot to put in the baking soda as I was going and the layers were kind of flat but that did not compromise on the flavor and the cake was still moist and wonderful, just not as high as it could have been and since I came out with 3 layers, I am glad that I forgot or else we would have had a mile high cake that probably would have been difficult to frost. But it would have probably been better on the eyes if it was higher. This cake is not the most beautiful cake, but it sure tasted good! Just what the doctor ordered for my dessert craving yesterday!

Banana Cake with Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:
1 box Pillsbury Yellow Butter cake mix
3 ripe bananas, smashed
1 tsp baking soda

Mix cake to box directions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Smash the bananas. I actually had my 4 yr old helper smash my bananas for me as she likes to help and this is right up her alley.

Add the bananas and baking soda to the cake mix. Mix well. (just remember if you want high layers, do not forget like I did)

Put pans in the oven for 30 minutes, check doneness by inserting a toothpick into center of layers; if it comes out clean, it is done. Let cool on racks for 10 minutes. Invert onto racks and let cool completely before frosting. (note what layers will look like when you forget the baking soda, just also note that it still tastes good though, even though they are a tad flat)

Banana Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package cream cheese
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp banana flavoring (I used an espresso syrup for the banana flavoring since I used to drink tons of espresso and now I just use it when I need great flavor for something)
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

(here is the banana syrup I used, you can get it at any cash and carry or where espresso supplies are sold, I get my bottles at Cash and Carry in Olympia because they are just a couple dollars a bottle, lots cheaper than the grocery stores)

Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add the banana syrup and mix well until creamy. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and mix well. Gradually add remaining powdered sugar mixing until desired spreading consistency. Will frost this banana cake with leftover frosting. Refrigerate leftover frosting for use with cookies or cupcakes, or something else.

If you wanted to you could add a couple drops of yellow food coloring to tint the frosting yellow, for a more spring like cake. But I chose not to do that at this time.
Here are a couple of yummy looking pictures of the finished product! Enjoy! Do try this cake at home, it is so yummy and simple!

Here is the finished cake, before digging in...

mmmmmmmm look at that frosting...

Wanna bite?? Go make your own! This one is mine! Have a great day!

Grilled Pineapple with Rum Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:58:00 +0000

If you are looking for a wonderful dessert, look no further. The Cooking Dad bought a fresh pineapple at Costco and he had this great idea to grill it. He grills everything he can. So while I was at work he looked for a recipe for his grilled pineapple. He found at RecipeZaar which is his favorite go to place for recipes. Just click on the RecipeZaar link in the previous sentence to go straight to the recipe. It was so good!

It was so simple and easy to make, he was really excited about that. He wants to make different things but just is not kitchen saavy... yet. It smelled so good while it was grilling.

The one thing he did differently is he used Captain Morgan's Coconut Rum instead of regular rum and it was fantastic with the little bit of coconut flavor with the pineapple and brown sugar.

First, you have to cut the pineapple into slices and add the rum and brown sugar. Let it sit in the fridge anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days.

Then after it has sat in the fridge soaking up all that rum/brown sugar goodness, you put it on the grill. Grill just until hot and carmelized.

Then you cut it up in chunks and serve with vanilla ice cream and some of the juice from the pineapple. We heated the sauce in a sauce pan and reduced it to a carmelly (is that even a word? well it is now) consistency to put over the pineapple and ice cream. Such a yummy dessert for a spring or summer day. Or, even if you BBQ in the winter, you can make this for a taste of the tropics.

Notes:
- While heating the sauce from the pineapple, watch for flareups while it is reducing because it does still have the alcohol in it from the rum. We got lucky and it did not flare up, but it can if it wants to.
- Another suggestion on the recipe site is that it can be eaten along side a main dish such as ham or pork.

Zucchini Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 18 May 2009 05:31:00 +0000

Here is a wonderful recipe for an easy Zucchini Bread. It came from my mother in law who is the master at making this bread. It is such an easy recipe that she has been making for years and years; my kids love it anytime. I made 2 loaves out of this recipe and they were gone within a day and a half by my kids, I did not get any! What is up with that? The Cooking Dad never got any either. Now I have to go buy more zucchini so I can make more, this time maybe I will load up and make about 10 loaves and freeze some, that way maybe we can get some before the kids eat it all. Well, here is the awesome recipe!

Zucchini Bread

3 C flour
2 C sugar
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
2 C shredded zucchini

Mix all ingredients together. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.

See... I said super simple and it was.

Notes:
Some other variations that she has done with this recipe to change it up a little.
- Add 1 cup raisins
- Add 1 cup diced apple
- Add 1 cup chocolate chips (seriously, the chocolate chips tastes really good in this bread, I thought it was funny at first, until I tasted it... delicious!)
- Spraying the loaf pans with cooking spray is ok too; that is what I did because I did not feel like greasing and flouring and it worked fine.

Day 16 of NaBloPoMo and Teriyaki Shish Kebabs

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:04:00 +0000

Well here it is the middle of the month, May 16 and I am halfway done with the NaBloPoMo Challenge and still going strong. So far it has been not too difficult. The only thing is that there were a couple times where I almost forgot I needed to post and had to do fast posts right before midnight. Now that I have a job 4 days a week, most of my blogging comes at night after dinner, which is ok even though I prefer my blogging earlier in the day. So here we are at Day 16 and so far not running out of blogging material. YAY!

The other night I made Teriyaki Shish Kebabs for dinner, I was going to grill them myself and then I thought...Why not let Nicole (my 10 yr old daughter) grill them for herself. She always wants to help in the kitchen and she can make simple meals for herself. Nicole can learn how to grill, after all, it is part of cooking and she wants to learn. It is a good life skill for a kid to know how to cook for themself or others, as she will have to do it when she gets older and all the rest of her life. So, under supervision, I let her do the grilling. Next time, I will let her grill the burgers since she did such a good job.

Shish Kebabs

1 lb beef stew meat
zucchini cut into slices
onion cut into wedges
Fresh pineapple cut into chunks
cherry tomatoes

Teriyaki Sauce
1 cup soy sauce
4 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp ginger
4 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tbsp pineapple juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp water (mixed together)

To make the teriyaki sauce, mix all ingredients in a small sauce pan. (reserve about 1/2 cup of unthickened sauce for marinating the meat) Then heat just until boiling on medium heat. Add cornstarch mixture and stir until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Let cool.

Take the 1/2 cup reserved unthickened teriyaki sauce and put that and the meat in a ziplock bag and marinate about 2 hours or until ready to use.

On skewers, alternate between meat, onion, pineapple, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes until skewers are full. When all skewers are full, turn on BBQ and grill kebabs for about 5-6 minutes each side. Brush on thickened teriyaki glaze and cook about 2 minutes more. Serve hot with extra teriyaki on the side if desired.

We had more of the grilled asparagus from the night before still marinating, so we grilled that also with the Shish Kebabs, and it was still just as good as the night before when The Cooking Dad grilled the vegetables. What a nice and colorful dinner for the kids, and they had fun eating them. Nicole was very proud of the job she did cooking the dinner. We are pretty proud of her too, she is growing up to be a great young lady.

Grilled Asparagus and Tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:39:00 +0000

Here is a simple easy way to prepare asparagus. I always hated asparagus growing up because it was always woody tasting and it tasted and had a texture like bamboo. Who wants to eat what tastes like a tree? Surely not me or my sisters either.

I recently discovered that asparagus can be so yummy when prepared right and getting the right stalks. Having learned that the skinny stalks are more tender and are better to cook, I have started to really like asparagus.

The Cooking Dad wanted to grill some asparagus the other night and so we went to the produce stand (Jay's Produce stand on Mud Bay Road in Olympia to be exact, and the location for those who read this that are in and around Thurston County WA)and bought asparagus for 99 cents/lb. What was really nice is that I got to pick my own stalks since they had them in bulk rather than buying pre-portioned asparagus. So, I chose the smallest skinniest stalks I could find. It was no small feat pawing my way through oodles of asparagus and impatient people saying to me "are you done yet??" to which I replied.. "nope give me a few minutes" So the asparagus was bought and home it came where The Cooking Dad was going to grill it.

Before we grilled it, we marinated it... so to speak. In a plastic bag, we added about 3 Tbsp olive oil, 1 Tbsp coarse salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 clove garlic (sliced), 2 roma tomatoes (quartered), and about 2 tsp lemon juice. We let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours. We used a foil pan with holes in the bottom and sprayed it with cooking spray, and then after our meat was done; we added the asparagus and cooked for about 6 minutes turning once with the lid down on the grill. It was soooo yummy!!

The stalks were very tender, crispy, and just plain good. My faith in asparagus has been restored. It is also great pickled and I am going back soon to get a bunch to pickle and some to blanch and freeze so we always have some asparagus on hand. What used to be a mystery vegetable to me, turned out to be a pleasant surprise and we will be fixing it more often. Now, just gotta find different ways to prepare it... research is the fun part!

A Gift For SafePlace

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:24:00 +0000

The last few weeks I have participated in an event sponsored by Drop In and Decorate which donates cookies to homeless shelters, senior citizen centers, battered women's shelters, among many other types of agencies. The agency I chose is SafePlace of Olympia which houses victims and their children from sexual abuse and domestic violence. Having been a survivor myself from domestic violence, I can understand what they go through on a day to day basis and how scary it is to wonder if you are doing right, are you going to get out, and that makes a person just a bundle of nerves ready to pop.

My daughters and I made 65 sugar cookies and decorated them to have delivered in time for Mother's Day however, we ran into a miscommunication snag with our contact at SafePlace and part of the miscommunication was on my part as well. We went to deliver the cookies on Friday May 8 and no one was there to accept them. I had thought we were to deliver on Friday but they are closed on Friday. So, I went home and found an email and we rescheduled. I am happy to say that today May 14, we delivered another 65 cookies (we made fresh ones, I didn't want to deliver stale non-fresh cookies) and it was such a satisfying experience to know that this little thing will brighten someone's day and let them know that we are thinking about them and understand what they go through. It was an awesome learning experience for my daughters, and for myself too. We are definitely going to do more events in the future. Not only did they learn something about community, my daughters and I also got great quality time with each other doing something that we all love.

Check out the pictures: (Note: if you are not fond of lots of pictures on a blog post, please turn back now, there were quite a few, we had to document the good time we had, right? riiiiighhhhhtttt...)

First, we had to roll out and cut the cookies.. here are my daughters (Nicole is the older one, and Vanessa is the younger one) rolling out their dough to get ready for cookie cutters.

Of course next, they had to cut them out. We chose to make butterflies and flowers. Butterflies signify the wings these women will acquire when they are free of their abuse, and flowers signify how healthy and beautiful they will bloom without domestic violence in the lives.

Nicole helped me by cutting out the labels for the cookies, she did an awesome job!

Here is a bunch of pictures of us frosting the cookies, after I put a base coat on the cookies while the kids were sleeping so it would be dry the next day for decorating. They had such a good time decorating, it was so much easier with squeeze bottles, and a lot less messy! The squeeze bottles are just regular ketchup and mustard bottles with the openings made a tad bigger by me, and each 2 pack of bottles was $1 at the dollar store. Definitely will use them for Christmas cookies. I used Wilton gel colors for the vibrant colors of the frostings. The frosting is just a basic buttercream tinted each color. So much fun!

And the fruits of their labors... even though it didn't take long at all once they got into it.

And, if you are still with me after this so very long post (sorry about that) how about donating to a great place for women and children who need and deserve the help to make their lives better.

Click here to donate to SafePlace so they can keep on helping women and children escape sexual abuse and domestic violence.

It would be appreciated if anyone would please stumble this post, or send it to everyone you know. Maybe if this touched you, you will give back and get a hold of Lydia at Drop In and Decorate and find out what you can do to bring this non-profit organization to your area. Let's try to make this nationwide!

Support Great American Bake Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:02:00 +0000

I got an email from Alice Marshall, from Share Our Strength Team and it touched me, as well as a couple friends who took the challenge of No Food For You for a weekend to see what it was like to be that child who does not have food available to them on the weekend and have to take full advantage of school breakfast/lunch programs at school.

Great American Bake Sale benefits afterschool and summer feeding programs that benefit millions of children. Today, more than 12 million children in the United States do not know when their next meal will come. Unfortunately, this number continues to rise as these difficult economic times are leaving more and more people jobless, without homes, and unable to provide food for their families.

If you would like to support this cause or have your own bake sale, here is the information:

1. Sign-up to host a bake sale: Great American Bake Sale
2. Buy the virtual Great American Bake Sale eBook: Click here to buy the book
3. Post a ChipIn widget or banner on your blog: Post a widget or banner

Make a difference in a child’s life by signing up and purchasing a virtual cookbook today! 100% of the proceeds from this eBook will benefit Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale, which is a national effort that encourages Americans to host bake sales in their communities to help end childhood hunger. Funds raised support summer and after-school feeding programs in your community that thousands of kids depend on.

Once you have purchased your virtual Great American Bake Sale cookbook, double your impact and use the recipes to host your own Great American Bake Sale! Hosting a Bake Sale is a fun and easy way to make a big impact! To register your Bake Sale or for more information, please visit Great American Bake Sale.org

*This was taken directly from Alice's email so I could convey the message as she wants to have happen.*

If you never have stumbled a post or usually do not stumble, now would be the time to stumble for a great cause... the button directly following will stumble this post and get it out to many more people! Thank you!

Topsy Turvy vs Homemade Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Well last week, I thought it was the end of the Topsy Turvy tomato plant. However, this week has brought a pleasant surprise. That plant has started to perk up a bit and is growing new leaves. Good news for me! I still have my doubts but we will see how it goes. I am not going to count out the Topsy Turvy until the plant is dead and leaves have shriveled away. Now I think it will perk up and become a great plant. Time will tell however.

A couple observations this week:

- The upside down plants do not need to be watered as much as the potted plant. The sponges in the bottom of the planters stay wet which is still allowing the roots to gain water.
- The upside down plants do not get as much sun as the potted plants. I am guessing that it is because they are shaded by the planter mechanism directly over the plants whereas the potted plant is always exposed when the sun is out.

Interesting...
Well form your own opinion on how they are doing by watching this video of this weeks progress and see the growth for yourself.

As for the NaBloPoMo, I am on day 12 and so far doing fine! I have been busy this month so there will be alot of good blog posts on the way. We are cooking a lot of different things and experimenting more with food and other topics. I am on my way to beating this challenge, and have NOT felt the difficulty of it yet. We will see how I am doing when it comes down to day 20 or 24 or something like that. Have a great day!

Cupcakes and Jell-o

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:01:00 +0000

When it comes to desserts, my kids think cupcakes are their favorites. This cupcake I make for them when it gets close to summer are just awesome and so easy to do! Little more time consuming than most out of mix cupcakes, they hit the spot when it is warm outside.

What do you get when you mix cupcakes and Jell-o? You get an easy and yummy summertime cupcake. When I make white cupcakes, I also add any flavor of jell-o gelatin on top to make them swirling with flavor. This last time I made these, I made white cupcakes with strawberry jell-o. It was their dessert of choice for Cinco de Mayo. Not your normal Cinco de Mayo dessert, but, for the kids; it was their choice. They wolf them down quickly! This time I decided to make them a little more festive with some sprinkles on top, they loved it!

You start with a normal white cake mix and make it to package directions. Or, you can use your favorite cake recipe from scratch. With these you have to make white cupcakes so that the colors really come out of the jell-o gelatin. This time I used a cake mix because I bought a bunch since at my grocery store they were buy 2 and get 3 free, I cannot pass up a deal on that for quick easy desserts for my kids. Bake the cupcakes according to package directions, this time they took 18 minutes in the oven.

Then, you let them cool in the pan. Well, since I have only one muffin pan, I had to make them and take them out before adding the gelatin so it was a little trickier to get the gelatin on top since usually you put the gelatin on top while they are still in the pan. I had to come up with an inventive way to do this. After I poked the holes in the cupcakes, I figured out that with a bowl and a strainer, I could add the gelatin on top of the cupcakes by spooning it on like in the next pictures.
Not the most graceful way of doing it but it still got the job done.

Then they should look like this:

After the gelatin is on top of all the cupcakes, you put them in the fridge for 2 hours so the gelatin can set. Then frost it with whipped topping. But, since I did not have whipped topping, I made a buttercream frosting and frosted with that instead.

My buttercream frosting recipe:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
(if you want the frosting colored, use a couple drops of food coloring; if you want the frosting flavored add what flavor extract you want instead of the vanilla, in this case strawberry extract or flavoring would be very tasty with these)
Whip up the butter until fluffy, add half of the powdered sugar. Then slowly add the milk and vanilla and beat until all mixed. Add remaining powdered sugar and whip until light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes.

When you cut into the cupcakes, they should look like this:

And, that, my friends, is how to make a simple tasty dessert out of one cake mix and one gelatin package for a whole bunch of fun! Next time I think I will use the purple Berry Fusion jello I have in the cupboard. YUMMY!

What a Great Mother's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:38:00 +0000

Just a fun post to share with you all what a fun Mother's Day I had with my husband and kids. They were pretty sweet today, aside from the neverending daily bickering my 2 daughters do. Sometimes it is a complete zoo at my house, but I would never trade them for anything and they are the light of my life.

Today, I was allowed to sleep in; it was nice! Then I had my coffee ready and Cooking Dad didn't drink all the flavored coffee creamer this time, that was really cool too!

Even though the day was overcast, cloudy, and almost rainy; it still didn't dampen the fact that we went to the Farmer's Market and a new produce stand (which I will be frequenting very often since their prices were the best I have seen).

Jay's Produce Stand (located right by my house) and for fellow Thurston County people (meaning people who live or visit here), this is the best place for great produce with such low prices. I spent a grand total of $8.48 and got this

Asparagus 99 cents/lb (I got about 1 lb)
Roma Tomatoes 99 cents/lb (got 4 tomatoes)
Zucchini 79 cents/lb (got 4 small zucchinis)
3 lb bag of red potatoes 99 cents
organic basil 1.49 for the bunch
green onions 50 cents a bunch
green pepper 59 cents each
Pink Lady apples 69 cents/lb
celery 89 cents per bunch

I would say I did awesome on my great food find. Since, I was trying not to spend a ton of money today, we passed on a bunch of things I could have gotten at very good prices also. Such as, navel oranges 49 cents/lb, head lettuce 59 cents each, the hugest globe artichokes I have ever seen (I would guess they were as big as a small cantaloupe...) they were $2.00 each, plus tons more great buys!

The place is Jay's Farm Stand and is located 3533 Mud Bay Road NW in Olympia WA. Their phone number is 360-489-0295. They take orders for large amounts of produce for canning when it is in season. I am definitely going to order about 30 lbs of asparagus for canning and pickling it in a couple weeks. They told me I could get wholesale prices on orders 25 lbs or more. That is a great deal since produce is getting so expensive to round off costs of trucking it in, but they are still keeping their prices low. They were packed with wall to wall people and the produce looked phenomenal.

Then, we went to the Farmer's Market and just walked around, and walked on the waterfront since the market is right by the bay on Southern most tip of Puget Sound. Even with the clouds it was still a nice day. Sad part is that we did not buy anything from Farmer's Market because their prices on produce is shocking. I love going there for plants and seafood though, but just was not in the market for plants or seafood today.

Pictures on the waterfront:
Me and my daughters, Nicole is 10 and Vanessa is 4

Then the pictures at the waterfront where this weekend was our annual Wooden Boat Festival, which showcases fancy wooden boats and has a street fair and market for this weekend. Lots of fun!

Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to get to the wooden boats before it started to rain and my youngest was acting up because she was cold since she brought no coat, she left it in the car. So we made our way back to the car. To go to Grandma's house for BBQ and that was fantastic! BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, a wonderful cauliflower casserole (of which I am going to make myself so I can blog it), and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I would have taken pictures all day today but I neglected to bring spare batteries (bad Bren...) and didn't get a chance to get some new ones. But, this day was awesome; I had my family, I didn't have to work, and I got to just spent time with them. Can't get much better than that!

Hope you and yours had a very Happy Mother's Day!!

The Winners of the Cookbook Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Brenda Campbell) — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:58:00 +0000

Well, this has been quite the experience of my first giveaway. The prize is a great cookbook called Picture Yourself Cooking with Your Kids by Beth Sheresh and it looks like a fantastic book.

I botched things up though and mislabeled the entries and so we have 2 winners. I am not going to be dishonest and put another's name on the number when I already announced it, so I am just going to be the bigger person and admit to making a mistake and award both people as they are both deserving winners.

So Comment #39 won, and I labeled it as Judy Brittle, when it should have been Jill Page. They both win! I figured that I would give one of them my signed copy of the cookbook since I did screw up, but Beth Sheresh is such the awesome person that she is, is still going to give me my book and award and ship 2 books to 2 winners. How is that for such a nice person. You must visit her sites and get her book. Here are the links to her sites and to her book:

Kitchen Mage She has the most tasty looking Pomegranate Limoncello Sorbet pictured and posted on her site. YUMMY!
A Year in Bread is a site where she co-writes with 2 other great people about bread, very yummy site!
Picture Yourself Cooking with Your Kids which has the direct link to go buy Beth's book, and a bunch of yummy stuff on her site there.

Thanks again for everyone who entered and thank you to Beth for giving away 3 books total, you are awesome!

To the winners, we have already had one (Jill, thanks) claim her prize and I am now waiting for the other winner to claim her prize within 48 hours simply by emailing me back.