Summer Time

Tonight we are going to an outdoor dinner and were asked to bring "something". I racked my brain over what to bring, I read recipes, I went through cook books and finally it hit me. I wanted something cool, summery and refreshing. I'm making a fruit trifle.


Everthing about this trifle screams summer. From its airy pudding and easy preperation to its chilled trifle dish and sweet fruits.... ahhh yes - SUMMER!

Summer Trifle
recipe by me

one store bought angel food cake
7 kiwis
1 mango
1 package of strawberries
1 small pack of Jello instant pudding, white chocolate
1 small container cool whip
mini chocolate chips

cut all of the fruit into little bite size pieces, sprinkle with sugar, toss and put into the fridge so they can make a syrup amongst themselves. make the pudding and put it in the fridge to "pudding up". go play on the internet or watch tv or accidently fall asleep. wake up - cube the angel food cake into bite size pieces into the bottom of a trifle dish and gently press them into an even layer. top with the fruit salad and make that layer even as well. top with a thin layer of mini chocolate chips. now whisk in about half the cool whip with the pudding and pour over the top, smoothing out with a rubber spatula. decorate with a ring of mini chocolate chips an a sprig of mint if desired. cover with plastic wrap and chill until you are ready to enjoy!

I'm Sick

But not as sick as I was.

Friday night we had a girls night and I stayed out later than I have in a LONG time. The night started out around the pool. I had two drinks and then turned to ice water around 9 or 10 o'clock.Then around midnight someone called "the dew".... which means this TINY tiny bar near my neighborhood where..... "country" people go to karaoke and dance with the lights on. I love it because you dont have to worry about guys hitting on you and then getting pissed off when you decline their offer. Theyre just a bunch of country guys and would rather sit and laugh with you about everyone dancing this physically hitting on you. That AND you know everyone when you walk in the door so no one would even dare hit on you out of respect for your - father, mother, husband, sister, brother......

Wow Im getting off track here. My point is that once we got to the bar, I was still drinking ice water and did the entire night. I was having so much fun no one even noticed. Someone even "complimented" me on the way I was putting my drinks away and I just smiled. So after we shut it down and I'm climbed into bed, I couldn't go to sleep for coughing. I blamed it on the smoke and just made myself sleep. I woke up at 8:30 and cleaned house and just felt like crap. My initial thought was "gah im hungover, im getting old" but then I remembered that I hadn't drank anything. That's when my ears started ringing and my throat started closing. OH no..... I'm sick!!!! I rolled around in bed all day waiting on Bradley to get home, come to find out he was sick in another region so he couldn't baby me. In fact I even went to the store to get stuff to try to make him feel better. We ordered pizza and went to bed early. Sunday morning he got up early and made breakfast and I ate half a biscuit and a few bites of eggs. I was just worthless.

He had to go do some stuff so I stayed in the bed and moved to the couch later on. Actually just in time for a huge black cloud to move in front of the window and forewarn me to let the dogs in now lest they be soaked rats in a few seconds. So I did. Daisy immediately went to the window and stared out, like she always does, nosy thing. Then I heard a "pop" and another "pop" and I yelled at her for hitting the window..... but was it her? Then I saw it... a golf ball bouncing in my yard. Who the crap is throwing golf balls at my windows.... wait.... that's not a golf ball... THATS HAIL!!!

Yes, it hailed in JUNE in Alabama. I am stunned. I thought it had to be cold. It was more like quarter sized once I got up and looked. This went on for about 30 minutes and I cringed every time one hit a window, just waiting for it to bust.

Bradley finally made it home and I was just rolling around in pain and congestion. The cough syrup I had was just laughing at me and my throat was killing me. So he decided to make me up his own special cough syrup. Oh boy.

Actually it was really good and we dubbed it, "The Sweet Jimmy". Rub a lime around the top of a shot glass and then dip the rim in a cinnamon sugar mixture. Fill it a little less than half way up with a mix of lemon/lime juice and honey and then top it with Jim Beam. Stir. Sip or shoot.... I sipped. I had two and it really did stop the coughing and kinda numbed my throat from the pain.


Monday was doctor but I got some bad news.... my doctor was out of the office and I could either wait until Tuesday or see the other doctor in the office. Great... shes gonna be PACKED, but I needed something now so I got an appointment for 2:30. Which meant I was gonna work up until time to go. A few of my customers called me and said "Oh Im sorry I was trying to reach DeLa" I was like its me I just sound like a man. Oh and did I mention that on Monday "work" consisted of building a Habitat for Humanity and it was sheet rock day?! The doctor yelled at me for that. Then she gave me a shot in the hip and like usual I almost passed out and my back really did have convulsing pain for about 5 minutes. It was weird, I hate shots. All this was after I set in the waiting room coughing on the magazines for 45 minutes. Then I had to make the long journey from Pelham to Moody and wait in CVS for my 3 rx's. I did find a cute little cordless tranquility water fountain to the day wasn't a complete loss. Got the drugs and then headed another 20 minutes east to HOME. I got an allergy medicine, horse pill antibiotics and home codeine cough syrup. She said not to take it during work or I would be loopy. I needed some NOW so I did something stupid that we both thought would be a good idea - take more than it said to. I went and jumped in the shower and by the time i got out.... Bradley had to help me to the bed so I could lay down and keep from hurling. I lied there for about an hour and finally set up and drank a coke then tip toed into the kitchen and set in a bar stool and told him how to cook dinner. I wanted to cook SO BAD that I got him to put me a chair by the grill so I could baste my corn as he turned it while laying down. I don't think the charcoal grill got hot enough to cook the corn or maybe I'm just use to canned corn or maybe I had a medicine mouth and nothing tasted right. But I'm saving it and plan on making a hash with it and some potatoes and bacon. Which I thought of last night when the cough syrup had worn off and I was laying in bed wide awake.

I also learned that if you are so doped up that you can't ring your mouth to eat dinner and need your husband to help you eat it - don't hang on to his right side if he is right handed and expect it to go much better. He was REALLY sweet and helpful though and I did get my fill.

Today I still feel dopey with waves of nausea. But life must go on.... so I'm off to eat breakfast, take medicine and start my day. Getting out of the house always makes me feel better.

Mother's Day... continued!!

We had a great summery lunch and when women get together, you know dessert will be involved! I wanted something fun and light but I wanted it to be something that mama loved. Jaime at Burnt Toast blogged about making Turtles for her mother because it was her favorite. That's so funny because turtles are also one of my mother's favorites!! But her first favorite is key lime pie! I was off to find a recipe....

If you recall me talking about my grocery shopping mishaps in the Platinum Chef post, I'm just going to pick up where I left off -

They did not have key limes. Which made me so mad because I saw key limes at the dang Wal Mart just the week before and Publix didn't have any. Is that weird or what!? So I had to settle for a bottled key lime juice that I think may have altered the flavor of the dish. When I made the strawberry sauce, it had a medicine taste to it. The dish itself wasn't the best thing I've ever made. But I'm hoping it was the bottled key lime juice, because I don't see how you can go wrong with key lime mousse and strawberries.

The original recipe can be found on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

**pictures to come, although they look really close to the ones peabody posted (and yes that is her first name, isn't that cool!?)

Look what I made!

Jaime at Burnt Toast tagged me to blog about recipes I have made that I found on other foodie blogs.

HERE ARE THE RULES to LOOK WHAT I MADE!

1. List the names of 2-5 recipes you tried from other blogs. Provide a direct link to the recipe. If not available, give the blog link and let the reader search for the recipe by name.

2. Shortly describe your experience with the recipe.

3. Tag 3-5 other bloggers or the authors of the recipes you listed to post the links to the recipes they have tried from other bloggers. Note: If you are new to the blogging world and haven’t had a chance to try any recipes from your fellow foodies, just pass the tag on to someone else.

4. Notify the tagged bloggers about the tag either by leaving a comment on their blogs or by emailing them.

Here they are (in no specific order because they were all amazing and I couldn't rank them if my life depended on it) :

Chocolate Pie - Can you believe I don't even like this pie? Too much chocolate for me. I just love to make it because it is SO easy and the looks on peoples faces when they take the first bite makes me want to make it over and over again. Plus it is John Evan's favorite. Pioneer Woman get all the credit for the chocolate part, but I'm taking the credit for the cheesecake topping I created for it.

Savory Mini Muffins - I love fresh hot bread and these little bites of love did not let me down, thanks to Amber from Amber's Delectable Delights. I've made them 3 times since I found the recipe at the first of this month. The chedder dill are still my favorite of the two! But I have been running my brain trying to think of new herb/cheese mixes.

Jalapeno Poppers - Holy flippin crap! These things are the best thing I've eaten in a long time, Bradley and I made a meal out of them one Friday night. I added ranch powder to the plain cream cheese the recipe calls for, but they would be good no matter what you added to the recipe! Pioneer Woman wins another one!

Key Lime Mousse and Strawberries Parfait - These were good, but I wish I would of had access to fresh key limes! Peabody makes everything look so easy, and I have to admit I was intimidated by the recipe, but once I got started - it was a breeze!

I'm glad I was tagged to do this because it made me realize that I haven't really tried a lot of other blogger's recipes... I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. But I will make an effort to try your recipes, even if I don't blog about them :D

I tag.... The "other" Jaime, Leslie, and Celeste

Loved

Nicole @ Art and Aioli loved me enough to give me an "I love you this much" award. How sweet!!!

It is up to me to now pick ten other blogs that I love and pass the award on to them. This is going to be hard! I hope it is not just cooking blogs, because I love some people that don't post recipes.

Number 1 - My ever so sweet brother in law. I love him and I love reading his blog, so John Evan.... please have this award. His blog is located HERE

Number 2 - A good friend I met through work, Jaime. She is quite the multi tasking mama these days. With a new husband and a new marriage and there is almost a new baby here, she still finds time to scour the internet and find recipes to go home and cook after spending alllllll day in the office. She also has a great ability to create original recipes. She is located at Burnt Toast

Number 3 - Amanda is a friend I made when I got married. My husband's family and her family have apparently been life long pals. So I had no choice but to make a new friend and I'm glad I did! She is so funny and stylish! I just love her! She is located at A Day in the Life of a Bama Girl

Number 4 - Madison is another friend I made when I got married. She is Amanda's niece and new to the blogging world. Everyone loves a little traffic on their page when it is new. Plus she rocks, takes amazing pictures and I love her hair! She is located at Fun Sized

Number 5 - Amber from Amber's Delectable Delights. She is one of the reasons I bought a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, her bread recipes make me DROOL! And, believe it or not, I still haven't made bread with my stand mixer. But I plan on it and the first one I'm going to make is her Garlic Herb Swirl Bread

Number 6 - Annie from Annie's Eats also has great bread recipes I want to try out. She is also pregnant and I just recently found out that she has lived through Hodgkin’s lymphoma. All that said, I think she is awesome and has great recipes that I plan on trying my hand at.

Number 7 - Lori from The Recipe Girl is author of a blog I just recently became fond of. But with her scrumptious sounding recipes and mouthwatering photos, I know she will become a new must have in my daily blog browsing.

Number 8 - Paige from the Webb family! I love my Webb's and am so glad I was welcomed into the family with open arms. Her blog is a hoot to read and she has even posted about a belated Thanksgiving feast she put together for friends and family. She can be found at Days of Our Uninteresting Lives

Number 9 - Cynthia at Tastes Like Home is a true southern cook! I love to read about her southern dishes and can't wait to see if I can make them!

Number 10 - Danielle at Make No Little Meals. Her blog looks like something out of Food and Wine. The pictures, the recipes, the descriptions..... oh my gosh! This girl is something else!!!


Everyone remember - I LOVE YOU!

Platinum Chef, Challenge 7.... Mother's Day Edition

I actually dubbed it mother's day edition because the recipe I came up with that used the five ingredients I considered to be "girly" and even though my husband would of probably eaten it..... it was more fun to have a girls luncheon.

Ok - down to business....

Platinum Chef was started by Cara @ Cara's Cravings. It is a spin off from the Food Network show "Iron Chef" where the chefs are given one secret ingredient and have to come up with multiple dishes all featuring that one ingredient.... and they only have one hour. You try making dessert out of shrimp!!! Or whatever the secret ingredient is that day. Cara made it a little easier for us bloggers. She set out 5 ingredients and gave a couple of weeks for everyone who wanted to play, perfect their dish(es) and submit it (them). The most recent winner is Danielle @ Make No Little Meals. That means that she gets a turn to host the event which entails picking the ingredients, having the dishes submitted to her and then the most important part, selecting the winner.



Her five ingredients were -

Bok Choy
Panko
Mint
Yogurt
Mango











Side note - I had a bad shopping experience that thankfully didn't affect my meal too much. My mint was a little wilty, I wanted really small shrimp and all they had was 21/30 count (which ended up being perfect), the mango wasn't fully ripe on one side and the bean sprouts had turned into a wormy mush. I could salvage the mint and mango but the bean sprouts were trash.

My first thought when reading the ingredients was "lamb" because mint and lamb go together so well. But I had never cooked lamb and it is rather expensive to buy around here. So I went back to the drawing board. Since the bok choy is a popular Chinese vegetable and panko is a Japanese bread flake, I chose an Asian theme. But.... that just helped me with the theme. I needed an actual dish. After much thought, I decided to go the summery route and make a salad.

I present to you, my Platinum Chef submission:

Bok Choy Salad with Mango Mint Dressing and Shrimp "Croutons"

Let's start with the dressing. Which by the way I think would be excellent to dip chicken fingers in. It was so summery and light and sweet but with a tiny kick of spice. I honestly was not expecting it to be as great as it was.



the ingredients are -

1 cup plain yogurt
juice and flesh of one mango
1 oz of mint leaves (about half a cup)
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sweet hot mustard





Dump everything into a blender and use the "liquefy" button to turn it into a dressing. I did this the night before and let all the flavors party in the fridge.

See how delicious this dressing looks!!!

For the shrimp, I used a store bought Sesame Ginger marinade and let them soak overnight (peels and tails removed). I must say that I am not too fond of Asian marinades that contain mandarin orange, and actually did not know this one even contained it until I got home. I was a little apprehensive to use it, but after I tasted it, I must say this is my new favorite marinade for shrimp. It really compliments the taste of shrimp!







To turn the shrimp into croutons, I toasted one teaspoon of sesame seeds.





I combined the toasted sesame seeds with 1/2 cup panko, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder and 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper.







From there, take the shrimp straight out of the marinade and dredge them in the panko mixture. Really press it into the shrimp.









Drop them one by one into hot vegetable oil and fry for about 30 seconds each. It really does not take long at all to fry shrimp! You don't want them to be overcooked and chewy.

Now the fun part - putting it all together!!! I plated up one head of chopped bok choy leaves, which perfectly served two people.

Topped that with fun asian inspired ingredients such as - chopped water chestnuts, diced red, green and yellow bell peppers, chopped carrots, enoki mushrooms, and crunchy rice noodles.

And for the finishing touch on my Platinum Chef submission, I spooned the dressing onto the salad and topped with the shrimp croutons. It looked amazing and the taste was equally amazing!

Infusing Oil

I don't know why I wanted to do this, but I'm sure it was so I could blog about it! ha! It was really easy and very versatile! You can use whatever ingredients you want. I chose garlic, lemon and rosemary - I intend on using it with seafood.

Start with a very pretty bottle - be certain to make sure all the genies are out of it. I would hate to drown them with olive oil!!


Set out all your ingredients. I used a higher priced oil that I normally wouldn't buy, just so it would have a better taste. Because, let's face it, a great tasting olive oil is sheer bliss.


Cut 3 - 4 thin slices off the lemon, fold them and push them into the bottle. Bruise the rosemary before putting it into the bottle. De-paper and smash 3 - 4 garlic cloves and put them into the bottle. Shake it all around and get the inside of the bottle nice and wet.

Pour the oil into the bottle, make sure you leave enough room for the cork!


Set it in a dimly lit place and wait at least two weeks before you use it.