#Juneteenth

blue and white checkered tablecloth with a white plate, on the plate is a grilled BBQ chicken leg quarter, grilled asparagus and an orzo pasta salad

I do a little bit of volunteer work, trying to help out a few groups in ways where I am actually useful. Mostly I do social media and crafting, LOL! This year I had the idea that I would research and promote a small series of #juneteenth celebration recipes. My hopes were that nothing brings people together like food, if I could share some recipes from black chefs/bloggers, and those recipes had roots in the celebration of freedom for black Americans, then maybe just one person would make a dish and share it with their friends and family and explain its importance.

So I am going to try . . . → Read More: #Juneteenth

Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

I have been wanting to make Lobster Macaroni and Cheese for a long time, I would reckon it goes all the way back to the day I discovered that Carrabba’s was no longer offering it. I searched for recipes and this is the first one that stuck in my head. Don’t worry I have another one to try. I started with Ina Garten’s recipe and worked from there, you know adapting it and making it my own. We were joking that this was the most expensive experiment we’ve ever done, however now it was totally worth it.

Ingredients: 1 pound cavatappi (cork screw pasta) 1 clove of garlic whole 1 . . . → Read More: Lobster Macaroni and Cheese

Jalapeno Poppers right from the garden

And into the freezer!

So our jalapeno plant was very busy and gave us more fruits than we could use, maybe that is because I never got to can salsa. I was on a quest all last season to create things I could freeze and cook later. I decided that Kerry and Sam love the idea of melting their faces off with really HOT foods. Why not make poppers? They are totally easy and you more than likely own most of the ingredients required. Good news – outside of the pepper hotness you can adjust how hot these babies are by adding more or less cayenne and by picking different . . . → Read More: Jalapeno Poppers right from the garden

Awesome Sauce

Also known as Red Sauce, Pizza Sauce, and dip for your bread sticks!

Having a garden is GREAT. Having your harvest come in a little at a time SUCKS! Yeah, Yeah I know I was posting all summer that I am hauling in 12-16 lbs every few days, but dang it that is mostly cucumbers and squash! So what’s a girl to do with tomatoes in quantities not worthy of skinning, dicing and canning or freezing? ROAST THEM!! Now I can’t tell you exactly how many of everything you need, not all tomatoes are created equal, but I can give you some estimates. I used this technique multipe times during . . . → Read More: Awesome Sauce

Snicker Doodles

I was given this great book 101 Things to do with a cake mix, while I have only tried a few things one of my absolute favorites is the snickerdoodle recipe. Now I know it’s the Holidays and folks are needing thousands of cookies but since it is just the two of us this is a great recipe as it is QUICK and only produces about 2 dozen cookies. As I sat down to write this post I wondered “Why do they call them snicker doodles there aren’t any snickers in them?” Well a handy dandy BING search took me to the Wikipedia page for snickerdoodles and I wonder no . . . → Read More: Snicker Doodles

“Mexican Wedding Cakes”

Butterballs, Russian Tea Cake

Yesterday I set out to make Mexican Wedding Cakes, I new darn well that they in fact were not Mexican or wedding cakes so why on earth did we call them that? My research on this didn’t bring me any really good answers or even a <blockquote> to enhance the smartness of this page. All I found is that they were call Russian Tea Cakes until about the 1950s when the Mexican Wedding Cake term started being used. The guess is that it was because of our strained relationship with Russia at the time. Hmmm, can anyone say “Freedom Fries”.

Tea Cakes are a from . . . → Read More: “Mexican Wedding Cakes”

Tropical Dream Cupcakes

So I had this idea for a cupcake, I had been tinkering with the idea of strawberry cupcakes with Malibu butter cream frosting. I decided that the last time I had a strawberry cupcake it was too strong and fake tasting. Today was the day I decided to come home and give this recipe a try. I have to say I LOVE THEM!!!

Cupcakes

1 Strawberry boxed cake mix 1 c. Pineapple (used crushed in natural juice, I got about 1/4 cup of just juice out and put the fruit in the mini-processor) 1/3c. Oil 3 Eggs

Mix and bake as per box instructions. I didn’t want there . . . → Read More: Tropical Dream Cupcakes

Lemon Ginger Sorbetto

Last summer I made Lemon Ginger Sorbetto probably for the same reason I am making it now. I needed a lemon and had to buy an entire bag. 😀 Last year I worked so hard scraping the freezing concoction every 30 minutes while this year I cheated and used the ice cream maker. Gotta love technology. This is a very refreshing and pallet cleansing dish. Even my mom liked it!

Really what you need:

1 Cup Sugar 6 Tbl Honey 3 Cups Water 1 Cup Lemon Juice (about 8, but you can measure and I filled in with the bottled stuff) 2″ peice of ginger

What you need to do:

. . . → Read More: Lemon Ginger Sorbetto

Banana Paletas

Last summer I discovered Mexican Popsicles, Paletas while watching TV. There was a restaurant that sold them in any flavor you wanted. Funny that place is in Nashville, TN. Las Paletas. When it’s hot out everyone wants something cool and refreshing but what I discovered was that fruit bars and diet ice cream bars were not all the healthy and were loaded with calories. So I thought I would give this Paletas thing a try.

So easy! You will be glad you took the time to make them. I actually have 3 or 4 molds so that I can make a big batch of them all at once. Today . . . → Read More: Banana Paletas

Strawberries and Chocolate Shortcakes

So I am really far behind. I can’t really come up with a reason except that I just lost my motivation. Suddenly things are picking up around here and instead of doing something constructive I am going to give you a special treat!

I love strawberry shortcake and since NOW is the time to get your fresh strawberries it just felt like a good idea to seek out a recipe for chocolate short cakes. You know nothing goes better with strawberries than whipped cream and chocolate. After making adaptions twice to a recipe I found in FOODTV magazine I finally think I found one worthy of sharing. Next time I . . . → Read More: Strawberries and Chocolate Shortcakes