A few days ago, I returned from a Girls Week at the beach with my daughters, Mom, Aunt and cousins. We had a fantastic time together and it was so nice to just hang out and reconnect, since we don’t get to see each other that often. We live in different states, and all lead very busy lives, so we were eager to park our chairs in the sand and just “be” for a week. I think the trip did all of us some good! Oh, and the Mojitos helped too.
Oh, Peter Brady. Thanks to my deeply embedded (or “annoying”, if you’re talking to my husband) love of pop culture references and all things “sitcom”, I can’t think of pork chops and applesauce without thinking of you.
I agree with Peter. I think pork chops and applesauce are, indeed, “swell” in the crisp and cool days of fall. Right now, though, it’s July, and things are far from cool and crisp. I’m in Georgia, it’s 100+ degrees outside and I’m surrounded by peaches instead of apples. The heat is a little extreme, but being surrounded by peaches isn’t a bad thing.
Never one to shy away from a food trend, I’m happy to say that I’ve finally jumped on the quinoa bandwagon. Have you heard of quinoa? If you haven’t, no offense, but I think you may be living under some sort of culinary rock. If you regularly browse the food blogs, play around with the recipe boards on Pinterest, watch cooking shows, or frequently read any cooking or health magazines, you’ll have bumped into quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah). It’s taking the recipe world by storm…so I figured I’d join in.
A while ago, I posted a recipe for a delicious, crowd pleasing (quite large) Cream Puff Cake after I’d tried to quench my craving for a good, old-fashioned Sanders Hot Fudge Cream Puff. Those of you from Michigan know what I’m talking about. I grew up with Sanders hot fudge and fondly remember my Grandma making me cream puff sundaes in her kitchen. My mom continued this tradition and taught me that cream puffs, or Profiteroles, are not hard to make. In fact, they are pretty easy and use the simplest of ingredients. I’m pretty sure you have everything you’d need to make the cream puff shells. What you fill them with is up to you!
I love, love, LOVE a bowl of icy, cool Gazpacho in the summer. When it’s miserably hot out, there’s nothing finer. I hadn’t made Gazpacho in ages, though, but after having a delicious bowl of a Southwestern inspired Gazpacho on a recent trip to Michigan, I’d been craving another bowl. I didn’t get up the nerve to ask for the recipe when I was at the restaurant, so I decided to play around with a regular Gazpacho recipe. The result was fantastic. In fact, my husband told me it’s the best Gazpacho I’ve ever made. So, I guess this is my new go-to Gazpacho recipe!
We often joke that Emily, my oldest, could easily be a vegetarian if it wasn’t for pork. That girl loves her bacon, her baby back ribs, her pork tenderloin and chops. Most recently, she’s discovered that her new favorite thing on the menu at a Mexican restaurant is pork carnitas. I can’t say I blame her. They are pretty good.
If you usually stick to the beef or chicken section of the Mexi menu, turn the page and try out the carnitas next time. Carnitas is slow-roasted, nicely spiced, usually shredded pork shoulder. It’s delicious and used in tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, or even as a nacho topping. And, in many Mexican restaurants, you can order up a plate of just the carnitas on their own!
Isn’t the Internet grand? You have an idea, throw it into a search engine and endless possibilities pop up. That was the case with this recipe. I knew I wanted to make something for dessert (It was one of those days…) and I had some lemons and raspberries calling my name. The combination of lemon and raspberry is one of my favorites, especially in the summer. So light, and tart, but still sweet….Mmmm. It’s good stuff.
OK, this heat is crazy. It’s officially summer. Gone are the days of June, where I was almost swayed to believe that the weather was going to stay pretty mild until the kids went back to school. We’re at the point in our summer where the kids don’t even want to be outside because it’s so hot. This is a major bummer from a parental standpoint.
I always find it amazing when I talk to people about cooking and find out that they’ve never cooked up a fresh vegetable in their life. I’ve run across more people than I can count who only rely on frozen veggies or canned. I’ve found that, with most of these people, it’s not a dislike of vegetables holding them back, it’s that they are intimidated by the work involved in cooking up something fresh.
Tomorrow morning, the girls and I are heading home after a two week long trip up to the Midwest. Namely, Michigan and Indiana. We were hoping to escape the heat in Georgia, and that worked for the first half of our trip, but wow…did it get hot! Despite the heat wave, we’ve had a wonderful visit.
We packed a lot of activity into those two weeks, but best of all, we got to spend a lot of time with family and friends that we don’t get to see often enough.
It’s been a fantastic trip.