Avocado Hummus

I found a great recipe for Avocado Hummus on Pinterest and I made it yesterday.  And if I must say, it was delicious! 

Here's the original recipe.

Here's my version.  I modified the original because I don't typically have tahini hanging out in the old cupboard.  So I upped the lime juice, garlic, and cumin to give it extra flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 (15 oz) can chick peas, well drained
• 2 medium ripe avocados, cored and peeled
• 3 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for serving if desired
• 6 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 clove garlic, peeled
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 - 2 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro leaves, for topping
• Red pepper flakes, for topping 

Directions:

Place the first seven ingredients into the food processor and blend for about 2 minutes until smooth.

Garnish with cilantro and red pepper flakes if you want to make it fancy.  (When Sarah saw the completed dish she exclaimed, "Mom, it's so pretty!  And so fancy!")

I ate half the bowl with sugar snap peas.  Don't judge.  It was my lunch!

Beth's Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup

If you've been to Carrabba's then you've probably had their sausauge and lentil soup.  And if you've had their sausage and lentil soup then you probably love it.  And if you love it then you probably want some more of it!

I took a recipe that I found online at Food.com and made a few changes based on what I had in the pantry.  We love it!

Beth's Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup onion,chopped
• 3/4 cup carrot, grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 lb. Italian sausage, mild and in bulk
• 1/2 cup ham , diced
• 7 cups water
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1 lb lentils, rinsed
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies, drained
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

Directions:

1.  Heat olive oil in large soup pot.  Add onion, carrot, garlic and sausage.  Saute for 8 minutes stirring frequently. Break up the sausage but not too small - be sure to leave some large chunks. 

2. Add ham and cook for another minute.

3. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and bring to a boil.  Then reduce heat and simmer for an hour.

4. Before serving use an emulsion blender to puree the soup. Do it long enough so that about half of the lentils are pureed and the other half are still whole. (I do this because we like a smoother soup. You can skip this step if you like your beans whole.)

I served this with bread that was fresh out of my bread maker. All you need to make it just like being at Carrabba's is the oil and vinegar and spices for dipping - and I've got a recipe for that too!  I'll try to post that later on in the week.

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Epic Cheesecake

The cheesecake was delicious!  Peter said it was "epic".  Everyone else said it was delicious - even my mom who doesn't even like cheesecake.  So I guess it's good enough to share!

I got the recipe from Cooking Club of America.

Here it is.  I've added some notes in red to make a few parts a little clearer.

Brownie Chunk Cheesecake

CRUST
31 creme-filled chocolate cookies, crushed
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

FILLING
3 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
4 eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped brownies (I used pre-made brownies from Walmart and they worked great.  I used the small round ones and quartered them.  Next time I would probably only halve them to make the chunks bigger in the cake.)

TOPPING
8 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
2 oz. white chocolate, melted

1. Heat oven to 325ºF. In medium bowl, stir together all crust ingredients. Press into bottom and 1 inch up sides of 9-inch springform pan. Wrap pan with heavy-duty foil; freeze 30 minutes. (By "wrap pan with foil", they mean wrap the bottom of the pan and up the sides.  The pan is going to be submerged in a water bath and this step is to keep any water from seeping in.  I didn't realize that until the end.  I thought they meant cover the top of the pan while it's in the freezer.  Luckily I have a very good pan and no water got in.)

2. In large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla at medium speed until blended. Beat in sour cream and 1 cup cream. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until blended. Slowly beat in flour. Fold in brownies.

3. Place springform pan in large baking or broiler pan. Pour batter into crust (batter will come to within 1/4 inch of top edge). Add enough hot tap water to baking pan to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until edges are puffed and top is dry to the touch. Center should move slightly when pan is tapped but should not ripple as if liquid. (1 hour and 15 minutes was all I needed.)

4. Remove springform pan from baking pan; remove foil. Cool completely on wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.

5. Melt milk chocolate and 1/3 cup cream in medium saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Pour over top of cheesecake; let stand 10 minutes.

6. Pour white chocolate into small resealable plastic bag; snip off corner of bag. Drizzle chocolate over cheesecake. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Refrigerate leftovers.  (I melted the white chocolate in the microwave and poured it into a baggie.  I did this right out of the microwave and it was hot!  So hot that I could barely handle the bag and the bag started to melt.  This is why the top of my cake is not quite as attractive as the one in the picture with the original recipe. Next time I will wait a little longer...either that or borrow my mom's Wilton decorating bag!)

12 servings

This cake was delicious!  Just remember it has to be refrigerated overnight so don't think you are going to make this and eat it in the same day.

BCC

Good thing I ran three miles this morning because I'm having a big ole piece of this tonight! 

It's Brownie Chunk Cheesecake.  It's my first time making it and if it's any good, I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

I'm always looking for an easy recipe, but this might be taking it a step too far.

My cooking isn't very good.  I'll be the first to admit that.  Scratch that.  My family would be the first to admit that.  I wonder how they would feel if I served this latest "dish" being marketed by the makers of Campbell's Soup:

Recipe (in case you can't figure it out by looking at the little handy graphic):

Heat up a can of soup
Cook a cup of rice.
Dump soup over rice. 

My family might actually like it.  Although, in reality, I would be a 90-year-old woman in the rest home with my dear husband and he would still be saying, "Remember the time you tried to serve us a can of soup of rice?"  Emphasis on still.  I can't risk hearing about it for the next 49 years.

If anyone else has tried this, let me know.  I would be interested to hear how your family liked it.

Get to Arby's! Now!

We took the family to Arby's last night for dinner. 

Peter wolfed down his entire Jr. Roast Beef, licked his apple sauce cup clean and ate a large portion of my curly fries.  This is rare for Peter.  Other than cereal, he rarely eats anything with gusto and he never cleans his plate when I'm the chef.

So how could I resist when he looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said, "Can I have dessert Mom?  I cleaned my plate.  How about one of those Chocolate Turnovers?  I saw the sign for them.  They're only one dollar!"

I sent him up to the counter with $3 and told him to get two turnovers and that one of them would be for his sister.

He came back with a tray and two decent sized chocolate turnovers.  He began to eat his and Sarah started to eat hers.  It wasn't long before her shirt was covered in pastry - these things were flaky!  And it wasn't long before his mouth was covered in chocolate - they were indeed chocolaty!

Sarah couldn't finish hers.  "It's very rich, Mommy."  So I gladly finished it off for her. 

It was delicious. 

I'm not normally one for sweets. I prefer salty and crunchy but oh my goodness!  Peter ate almost 3/4 of his and I felt it was my motherly duty to eat the other 1/4. I mean there are children starving in Africa after all.  We can't let good food go to waste.

Do you see how the chocolate is oozing out of the center of the turnover?  Well, it is oozing because the center of the turnover is filled with chocolate!  Filled! 

Flakey!  Chocolatey!  And only $1!  Get  to Arby's right now before they take it off their dollar menu.  This pastry is well worth  $1. 

And now, since I didn't let my kid's leftover Chocolate Turnover go to waste - I've got to go for a run so it doesn't go to waist. 

My family doesn't like it, but maybe yours will!

Lately I have been trying new vegetable recipes in an attempt to get my family to eat more than potatoes, corn and green beans. 

I don't make the kids eat everything on their plate, but I do make them at least taste any new foods.  I am fully aware that they probably aren't going to like it, especially if it's a vegetable other than potatoes, but I enjoy watching them pinch their lips together, turn up their nose and close their eyes.  I even enjoy hearing the fake gagging noises they make even though I pretend to be heartbroken and feign tears.

Dan is pretty adventurous and has been eating the asparagus, brussel sprouts and broccoli that I place in front of him.  And even if he hates it, he will usually eat every bite of it. (Or try any way.)

My family can eat broccoli if it's covered in cheese or ranch dressing and I think it's o.k. too. But recently I came across a different way to serve broccoli and I have made it multiple times.

Now I'm not gong to lie to you.  I am the only one that will eat this but I LOVE it.  And I figure, one of these days, maybe, just maybe, one of the kids will decide they want to see what the fuss is all about.  Maybe.

Roasted Broccoli with Lemon

Ingredients

• 4 cups broccoli florets
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (I usually use more than this.  I like to make sure the broccoli is coated well.)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (I usually use a little more than this and I prefer Kosher salt.)
• 1 dash freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon cut into wedges (I usually just use lemon juice from those cute little plastic lemons.)
• garlic (I added this one and usually just mince up a couple of cloves.  I love garlic!)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Toss broccoli with oil, salt, pepper and garlic.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

When you are preparing this, you will think that the broccoli is burning.  Don't worry - it is!  Well, not really burning so much as roasting.  And you want it to really roast up because that's when it gets crispy.  And cripsy broccoli is good broccoli.


Here's the broccoli ready to go into the oven...

And here's the broccoli after it has been roasted.  See the black on the ends of the broccoli?  You know it's going to be a little crispy and a lot delicious!  (And look at all that roasted garlic on the pan.  That just adds to the deliciousness.)

My family may not love it, but maybe yours will!

Simple and tasty and oh, so chocolatey!

It was my intention to take these to my chuch's bake sale this weekend.  But as I was making them I realized that they should probably be kept refridgerated due to the fact they contained cream cheese. 

I didn't want to poison anyone so I did what any right-minded baker would do -  I kept them for myself  and gave the bake sale coordinator a monetary donation.

I consider it a win-win-win.  No one got sick, the bake sale still made money and I have been munching on these delicious little treats all weekend.

 

  

Easy Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided 1 (8 ounce) package PHILADELPHIA

Cream Cheese, softened 2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi -Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

Directions:

1.	Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
2.	Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
3.	Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

 (As with most of my recipes, this one came from AllRecipes.com.)

There's cream and cheese and garlic. How can you go wrong?

Everyone reads Ree's blog,  the Pioneer Woman, right?  Of course you do because everyone does.  But do you actually cook any of her recipes?  Well, if you don't, you should. You should stop what you are doing right now and make something from her cooking site.  (And notice how I refer to her as Ree, as if I know her? Well I don't, I only wish I did...sigh...)

We love her Crash Hot Potatoes.   Love. Them. Especially my husband.  He usually doesn't get excited about anything I cook but he raves about these.  And who can blame him, they are delicious!  Whenever we grill out in the summer I always cook them.

If we are having steak, I cook them.  If we are having chicken, I cook them.  If we are having ribs, I cook them.  If we are...you get the picture.

So when she posted her Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin a few weeks ago, I knew I had to try them.

And let me tell you, they did not disappoint.

They are creamy and cheesy and garlicky and just plain ole yum.

And they gave me the perfect excuse to use the $5 mandolin I bought at Aldi's a few months ago.

I only two changes I made to her recipe.  She says to use 4 russettpotatoes but I only used 2. My dish was still full of potatoes so I guess you could let that be your guide.

And her recipe says to use 4 garlic cloves.  I used 4 and it was very garlicky and that's fine with me but if you don't like garlic as much as I do you may want to cut it down a little.  Perhaps one garlic clove per potato.

My son who is an extremely picky eater said these were delicious.  "They are creamy like mashed poatoes only different and better," was his exact quote.

Now I'm kicking myself for not getting PW's cookbook.  (It's been on the NW Times best seller list for 11 weeks now.)  Perhaps I should get this for myself for Valentine's Day.  Does anyone else have it?  If so, what do you think of it?

Frankenstein Snack Mix

While the Frankenstein colored Sweet Pea Mash did not go over well at all with the kids, the Franken-Snack Mix Sarah and I made was a huge hit!

I go this recipe from Gourmet Mom on the Go.  If you have never been to her blog, you should make an extended visit.  It's a great place for cool fun food ideas.  Your kids will thank you!

Here's her recipe which we followed exactly as she had written it.  However, you can change it up based on what you have on hand or what your kids like.

Franken-Snacks
Ingredients:
8 c. Corn Chex Cereal
1 package Lemon-Lime drink mix (unsweetened, we used Kool-Aid)
1 c. Granulated Sugar
1/2 c. Light corn syrup
1/3 c. Butter or Margarine
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 oz. vanilla candy coating (we used Candi-Quick, available in the baking aisle)
1 oz. chocolate candy coating (we used Candi-Quick, available in the baking aisle)
1/4 c. Cheerios
Toothpick
Wax Paper
Non-Stick cooking spray

Mix-ins (you can change them as desired):

3 C. Kix Cereal
2 C. Trix Cereal
3 C. mini-pretzels
1 bag Goldfish Crackers
1 C. M & M's Candies

Directions:
Heat oven to 225 degrees and spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
Heat the sugar, syrup and margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat until boiling, stirring occasionally. Boil for 3 minutes (do not stir).
 Remove from heat and stir in soda and Koolaid.

Pour over 6 cups Chex Cereal and stir gently. Spread onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 225 F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and while still warm, set 20-30 pieces on another greased cookie sheet to use as your "Frankensteins". Cool completely, stirring occasionally if desired.

To assemble "Frankensteins", melt chocolate candy coating in a small microwave-safe bowl for 45 seconds. Stir well. Dip one end of a Chex square into the chocolate. This is your "hair". Set on wax paper to dry. Using a toothpick, dip end into chocolate and draw two eyes and a mouth on your creature. Repeat with all 20-30 squares. When set (about 5 minutes), melt vanilla candy coating as above. Dip two Cheerios in coating and attach to sides of Frankenstein (these are his "bolts"). Let dry completely.Mix remaining Chex and other Mix-ins in a large bowl. Top with your "Frankensteins" and serve it up to the waiting Goblins and Ghouls!

 To see what other moms and kids have been up to this week, visit Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

Sweet Pea Mash anyone?

My kids don't eat enough vegetables.  They eat lots of fruit but other than mashed potatoes and carrots that have been cooked in brown sugar and butter, they tend to shy away from anything that looks like it might have been grown in the ground.

So when I saw this recipe at Disney Family Food for Sweet Pea Mash I decided to give it a try.  I thought perhaps I could convince them that they were spooky Halloween mashed potatoes.

And they had a little bacon and a little sour cream in them so I thought they might actually be tasty.

So I drug out the ole food processor. 

I love my food processor but it's big and bulky and my kitchen is tiny with minimal storage so the Cuisinart spends it's time sitting forlornly on a shelf in the garage waiting to be used to create some grand food masterpiece.  And since I don't tend to whip out very many (um, any) grand food masterpieces it spends most of it's time gathering dust.

I cooked the peas.  I cooked the bacon.  I dumped it all into the food processor with the sour cream and some spices and I pulsed and I pulsed until I got this....

And yes, it was just as disgusting as it looks.

The texture was very course and grainy.  Even with the bacon and sour cream these had zero flavor.  And I never thought I would ever say that about any recipe that containd bacon and sour cream.

And even with lots of "Oooh!  Look!  It's the same color as Frankenstein!  These are Halloween Mashers!  Yum!"  the kids knew better and would not touch them.

Heck.  Even my husband who will eat anything I put in front of him would not touch these.  And I could only get down two very small bites before I officially declared these as inedible.

The only upside - the next time I feed them regular peas they won't seem quite so bad!

I'll tell you how my garden grows. With mildew and blight and dead plants all in a row.

Our poor little garden is a mess. Our zucchini plants were attacked and destroyed by squash bugs. Our cucumbers succumbed to powdery mildew. And now our tomatoes are being overcome by the blight.

The blight! That sounds so old-fashioned!

We didn't mind giving up the zucchini. And we ripped out the cucumbers and recently planted more. But we aren't giving up on our tomatoes as easily. We are fighting the blight with chemicals in the hopes of saving them. (I've never understood all the fuss over organic anyway!)

Last year we had tomatoes into November. November! This year, we'll be lucky if we have tomatoes for one more week. And to add insult to injury, a couple of nights ago as Sarah was eating a bowl of my delicious homemade tomato soup she said, "Ewwww. This doesn't taste like real tomato soup."

And if by "real" she means tasteless Campbell's tomato soup, I suppose she's right. Because for my not real tomato soup I roast the tomatoes with garlic and onions and red peppers before pureeing them with my emulsion hand blender. (Thanks, Aunt Cathy!)

Perhaps one day she will appreciate my tomato soup. But for now, I guess we will stick to Campbell's - it's easier anyway!

You can’t have one without the other!

You can’t do this…

Without coming home and doing this…

Delicious Blueberry Pie

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and salt. Add eggs, sour cream, vanilla and lemon juice, stirring until blended.
2. Place blueberries in pastry shell, and spoon sour cream mixture over berries.
3. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup flour. Cut in butter until mixture resembles course meal. Sprinkle this mixture over sour cream mixture and berries in the pie shell.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50, or until lightly browned.

WARNING – The only bad thing about this pie is that you will want to eat the entire thing by yourself. So if you are going to make this, please be sure that you have lots of friends and family around that you can share it with!

“Like little drops of heaven you can eat.”

Early last week, I decided that this past weekend I would make biscuits for breakfast. I realized after multiple trips to McDonald’s on our trip up and back from Massachusetts that my kids love biscuits. And really, what’s not to love?

So I informed my husband we would be having biscuits. He is reticent to change so I thought I should let him know early that our normal breakfast of Saturday muffins and Sunday cinnamon buns was going to be interrupted.

Intrigued, he asked, “Homemade?”

“Ha!” I scoffed. “They will be Pillsbury. You know I don’t roll out dough.”

He looked disappointed but I didn’t let that stop me from purchasing a can of biscuits at the grocery store on Monday afternoon.

Then on Wednesday morning I was reading the newspaper and low and behold they had a huge article on food scientist Shirley Corriher. She is a cookbook author (Cookwise and Bakewise) whose first book inspired Alton Brown’s show Good Eats.

And both of her cookbooks have won awards from the James Beard Foundation. And if you watch as much Top Chef as I do then you know that’s a big deal.

The newspaper mentioned that her BISCUIT recipe was so famous that she included it in both of her cookbooks.

I read through the recipe and when I realized that I would not have to roll out any dough, I decided to make it.

And y’all…I am so glad I did.

These things were easy to make. They were quick to make. And best of all THEY WERE WONDERFUL!

Over breakfast, my husband leaned over to my son and whispered to him, “These are like little drops of heaven you can eat!”

I asked him why he didn’t say that out loud to me and he said because he didn’t want it to go to my head.

I spent the better half of Sunday twirling around and saying, “My biscuits are like little drops of heaven you can eat!”

My husband knows me too well.

Oh! And it gets better. Shirley Corriher also included a Cherry Chambord Butter recipe that was wonderful on these biscuits. In fact, it is so good, I’ve been eating it by the spoonful.

So without further ado…here are the recipes…

Touch of Grace Biscuits

Recipe from Shirley Corriher's Bakewise.

Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups self-rising, low-protein flour, such as Southern Biscuit, White Lily, Martha White
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup shortening
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup buttermilk or more
1 cup plain all-purpose l flour, for shaping
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees and arrange one shelf slightly below the center of the oven. Spray an 8- or 9-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the self-rising flour, sugar and salt. Work the shortening in with your fingertips until there are no large lumps. Gently stir in the cream, then some of the buttermilk. Continue stirring in buttermilk until the dough resembles cottage cheese. It should be a wet mess -- not soup, but cottage-cheese texture. If you are not using a low-protein flour, this may require considerably more than 1 cup buttermilk.

3. Spread the all-purpose flour out on a plate or pie pan. With a medium-size ice cream scoop or spoon, place 3 or 4 scoops of dough well apart in the flour. Sprinkle flour over each. Flour your hands. Turn a dough ball in the flour to coat, pick it up and gently shape it into round, shaking off the excess flour as you work. Place this biscuit in the prepared pan. Coat each dough ball in the same way and place each shaped biscuit scrunched up against its neighbor so the biscuits rise up and don't spread out. Continue scooping and shaping until all of the dough is used.

4. Place pan on the arranged shelf in the oven. Bake until lightly browned, about 20 to 35 minutes. Brush with the melted butter. Invert pan onto one plate, and then back onto another. With a knife or spatula, cut quickly between the biscuits to make them easy to remove. Serve immediately.
Makes 12 to 14 medium biscuits.

Cherry Chambord Butter

Recipe from Shirley Corriher's Bakewise.

½ cup butter
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
2 tablespoons Chambord or other raspberry liqueur **
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
4 tablespoons cherry preserves

1. Place the butter, cream cheese, liqueur and confectioners' sugar in a food processor with a steel blade. Process to blend well. Stir in the preserves by hand. Chill well before serving. The butter will keep well for several weeks in a closed jar in the refrigerator.

**I did not use the liqueur and threw in an extra tablespoon of the preserves.

Touch of Grace Biscuits

The Cherry Butter

One of the “Little Bites of Heaven You Can Eat”. My husband has never been more right!

For more tips, tidbits and easy recipes, visit We Are THAT Family for Works For Me Wednesday.

Easy Method For Husking and Silking Corn on the Cob

This time of year I love serving fresh corn on the cob. But I hate getting the husks and the silks off. Hate it!

But I have discovered a simple technique that makes cooking and husking easy. Just follow these easy steps and you will be nibbling on corn on the cob in no time!

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Place corn (husks and all) on a cookie sheet.
• Heat in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let cool for a couple of minutes.
• Start peeling off husks. You will find that they are super easy to remove and the silk (that dreaded silk!) practically slides right off! (And I have been known to use an oven mitt for this if I'm in a hurry and can't wait for it to cool a little.)

Enjoy!

And for more summer recipes, visit Kristin at We Are That Family.

It's BAAAAAAAAAACK!

I love Dairy Queen. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. But if not, let me restate it for you.

I. Love. Dairy Queen.

Specifically, I love DQ Blizzards.

And even more specifically, I love The Brownie Batter Blizzard.

I just got my DQ monthly email (yes, I am a member of the Blizzard Fan club and I get an email from them every month letting me know what the Blizzard of the Month is) and The Brownie Batter Blizzard is the Blizzard of the Month.

I emailed my husband as soon as I got the email and I told him that I had tears in my eyes.

The Brownie Batter Blizzard hasn't been the Blizzard of the Month for probably two years (give or take a few months.) And because it's a specialty Blizzard you can only get it when it's a Blizzard of the Month.

I think DQ is going to be seeing a lot of me this month.


And yes, I have noted the irony that my previous post that was published a mere two hours ago was about Shredding, and pointing and laughing, and squishy bellies, and six-packs. But, ya'll, it's The Brownie Batter Blizzard.

I'll just have to Shred a little harder this month.

I think I'm in love...

This is my new favorite Pampered Chef product. And I have A LOT of Pampered Chef products.

If you cook a lot of ground beef, you need one of these. Trust me.

Cream cheese...she comforts me...

My desktop computer is dead. And this time I can't blame Dell. I have no one to blame but myself.

Last spring, when I bought my laptop, the sales associate recommended Norton for virus protection so I dutifully purchased it.

Over the summer when my McAfee subscription expired on my desktop I purchased Norton. After all, it came at the recommendation of the kind sales associate from Circuit City and I didn't have any problems with it on my laptop.

I installed it and began to use it without problem. However I started to notice that my computer seemed to be running slow. And the problem was gradually getting worse day by day.

Finally, around the beginning of December, I could take it no longer and decided to Google "Norton". And then I googled "Norton is making my computer slow". And a couple of days later I Googled "I'm going to shoot my computer if I don't get Norton off of it right away!"

It seems as if I am not the only person who has experienced problems with Norton. And it seems as if most of the geeks on the computer chat boards recommended removing Norton right away.

So, I took their advice and removed Norton right away. And low and behold, my computer started running like she used to run. I could zip between files, websites and applications without pause.

Cue the Angels singing.

The whole time I was enjoying my new found computer speed, I kept thinking in the back of my head that I really need to get McAfee or another virus protector back on the computer.

But I was busy and never got around to it. It was December after all. Christmas, vacation, travel, gifts, etc. I was busy!

Cut to the audience rolling their eyes, shaking their heads and murmuring, "we can see where this is headed."

Yesterday I pulled up the Internet and a bunch of pop up ads assaulted my screen. And then I tried to type in a web address and even though it was typed in correctly, I was sent to a different website.

And then I got the dreaded blue screen.

I almost started to cry when I saw the blue screen.

I turned off the computer, turned it back on and after many pop up ads and many reboots later, I finally got McAffee installed.

And after many more reboots I started running the virus scan.

I definitely have viruses and I think I removed a few of them from the computer. Unfortunately the dreaded blue screen keeps coming up before I can get the whole virus scan completed.

I made a few more attempts this morning but finally threw up my hands in despair.

I shut her down and will be taking her to my friends at the Geek Squad on Thursday morning.

Thank goodness for my trusty laptop. And thank goodness for cream cheese. I think I'm going to drown my sorrows in some right now.

And no. I will not be adding feta to it. I've learned my lesson.

I have it narrowed down to salsa or Harry and David's Sweet Red and Ancho Pepper Chili Sauce.

Ahhh...cream cheese...she comforts me.

Marshmallow ghost treats!

Yesterday I wanted to make a Halloween treat with the kids, so we made ghosts out of marshmallows and Candiquik. Because I figured they weren't going to get enough sugary treats this week.

They didn't turn out as professional looking as some of the others I have seen around the web and in different magazines but the kids and I had fun making them.

All you do melt vanilla Candiquik in the microwave for 1 minute (many recipes called for melting white chocolate with milk but I think this was much quicker and you get the same result. Plus I got the Wal-Mart version of the Candiquik cheaper than the white chocolate).

Then poke two large marshmallows on sucker sticks (which I also bought at Wal-Mart).

Then roll the marshmallows in the melted Candiquik until they are covered and then use gel icing to make a ghostly face.

I laid these on a plate to harden and in hindsight, I should have used wax paper because I had to use a knife to pry them off the plate.

It would have been even better if I had some Styrofoam or even some Oasis flower foam to stick them in while they hardened.

This was a very quick spooky snack and the kids and their friends gobbled them up.

Works For Me Wenesday - It's all about the sauce!

It is always a struggle to kid my kids to eat their vegetables. If it's green and placed on their plate,they will not eat it - especially Peter.

And they are completely over Ranch dressing as a dipping sauce unless there is a nugget involved.

So in my quest to get them to eat more vegetables, I tried out a new dipping sauce...hollandaise!

I love hollandaise sauce but most of the recipes I have found for it are a little too complicated for a simple cook like me.

But I searched until I found one that looked doable and I made it one evening when we were having broccoli.

The results can be summed up in one word - YUM!

It was so good that I was practically licking the bowl when I ran out of broccoli to dip in it. And the kids managed to eat a small serving of broccoli without too much gagging, so I considered it a smashing success.

Here is the recipe for Easy Hollandaise Sauce:

1/2 cup butter
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
dash cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce
2 tablespoons hot water

Heat butter in a heavy saucepan until hot and foamy, but not browned. In a small bowl, whisk or beat egg yolks with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper or hot sauce. Gradually beat in butter, then water. Return mixture to saucepan and beat over very low heat until mixture is slightly thickened. Serve immediately or let stand over warm water for up to 30 minutes.

(Recipe courtesy of About.com)

If you are looking for more tips, head on over to Rocks In My Dryer for more Works For Me Wednesday.