I Love These Beverage Dispensers!!!

                                                   
I just received this one yesterday as a free gift in a giveaway from this blog site...Dine and Dish...you can read about it there! It's a fun blogsite written by a freelance writer and mother named Kristen! She's also a very talented photographer...her food photos always make me drool! Check out her blog for lots of great recipes and giveaways! 

This is a very nice dispenser because it's glass and holds 1.6 gallons! It's from OverStock.com and you can get it at a very reasonable price!

When my 2 girls were young, I would fill these kinds of dispensers with lemonade for their 'Lemonade Stand'! They would sit outside selling lemonade for HOURS!!! They made some pretty good money too! 

Now I think I'll be getting lots of use out of this for my new favorite drink...Smooth Sweet Tea! Check it out in this post I did recently...'Seis de Mayo'...or maybe I can fill it with my favorite homemade cocktail...'Red Apple Martinis'!

Thank you so much Kristen, from Dine and Dish!
I know I'll be getting lots of use out of my prize!

Thank You Allrecipes.com

We were greeted with this banner as we stepped out of the elevator!

I had such an amazing and fun filled 2 days at the Allrecipes.com 15th Anniversary Party in Seattle on July 26th and 27th! They were generous enough to send their 'Brand Ambassador's out to their headquarters for an all expense paid anniversary celebration! 70 of us were flown there from all parts of the country! It was epic!

We all had gorgeous rooms at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle.

The view from my room!

Most of us were meeting in person for the first time! We usually only know each from chatting on the Allrecipes website. So this was a dream come true to be able to talk face to face! And we talked...and talked...and talked! The time flew by way too quickly! But we all have great memories to last a lifetime! This is the kind of event that you never forget!

The food was first class all the way! Prepared by an on site chef in the Allrecipes kitchen. I just LOVE that kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 

 And look at this custom designed ice fountain!

The drinks flowed freely the entire time!

I even had a little fun at Pike Place Market!

One of my favorite places in downtown Seattle!

It's a foodie paradise!

Thank you so very much to all the employees at Allrecipes.com who worked so hard to organize the enormous event!

Handy Dandy Giveaway!

I have a couple of helpful kitchen products to giveaway to one of my wonderful readers!

A Spontaneous and Perfect Outing!

Don't you just love it when you do something spontaneous and everything works out perfectly! Well that's what happened on this day! The stars were aligned and all was good with the world!

After dinner, my hubby asked me if I wanted to go see the sunset at our favorite beach. We do this often on nice days in the spring and summer. We didn't have much time though because it was 6 pm and we would have to leave the house by 7 pm if we wanted to get there in time to sit and relax as the sun went down! So now the rush was on!

Sauteed Radishes Taste Nothing Like Raw Radishes

I'm not a big fan of raw radishes because of their spiciness. Well, when I sliced them and sauteed them with butter and garlic, the radishes were transformed into these lovely mauve medallions of flavorful tenderness! It was like magic! They tasted nothing like raw radishes. The taste was very similar to sauteed cauliflower.

Saturday Morning Syrup

Saturday Morning Syrup


INGREDIENTS;
1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup of your favorite liquor

DIRECTIONS;
Heat sugar and corn syrup til dissolved.
Add liquor. Allow to simmer at least 3 minutes.
For a thinner syrup add more liquor.
For a thicker syrup add more sugar or cook longer.
Cool mixture in fridge to thicken.

Recipe from GroupRecipes.com

You will wish every morning was Saturday morning with this syrup on the table!

 I never thought to make a breakfast syrup with liquor until I saw this recipe! Any liquor of your choice can be used. For my syrup I used cream sherry. And I served it over strawberry waffles...so VERY good! And so easy to make!

I found this recipe on the GroupRecipes cooking site, posted by a cook known as Reecespieces.

She's made this many different ways by using Irish Cream, Coffee Liquor, Amaretto or Hazelnut Liquor. 
This is not only used on breakfast foods, it's drizzled on dessert cakes as well.     

Cute and Delicious Cucumber Snacks

I love cucumbers! And I love finding new ways to serve them. They're crunchy, refreshing and a healthy snack.

I recently started using cucumbers to make my own pickles from leftover jarred pickle brine. I mentioned how easy it is to do that in this post...'Recycle Your Pickle Brine'

So now I was hungry for new cucumber recipes and came across these next two ideas.


Cucumber Cream Cheese Bites

Roasted Marshmallow Frosted Cupcakes

This is such a great way to frost cupcakes when you don't have regular frosting...plus it's so quick to do and tastes great!

Baked Parmesan Truffle Fries

These fries are something I've been craving and researching for a very long time! I first had to find the perfect truffle oil. And that was no easy task! There are so many varieties. I didn't want a low quality truffle oil, but I also didn't want to remortgage my house to buy a high grade version. Then I had to decide if I wanted white or black truffle oil. I decided on the white because it's a milder taste. Sometimes black truffle oil can taste like what burnt rubber tires smell like. Well, that's if you could taste a smell. But I guess you can taste smells because one of the ingredients in this white truffle oil is 'truffle aroma'. I wonder how they captured the aroma and put in the bottle? This oil was pretty good for the price...only $10 for 3.38 fl.oz

My next step was to find a great recipe. Again, no easy task. There are a ton of truffle fries (or is it 'fry') recipes out there. I know I wanted baked fries with parmesan cheese on top, so that narrowed it down a bit. But I also wanted a very 'easy to make' recipe. You would be so surprised at how so many cooks make this so difficult. I found this recipe **Click Here** and it seemed to be the easiest. I tried it and loved it...then I tried it a second time, but I made it even easier because I didn't soak the potato slices in water for 30-60 minutes. And since I didn't soak them, there was no need to pat them dry. So I saved 2 big steps. The fries turned out exactly the same as when I did those extra 2 steps. I also saved a cooking step because I didn't turn the fries over during baking. What a pain that is, turning each individual fry...or is it 'fries'? 
These fries were perfectly browned and crispy, as you can see in my photo above.

 Maybe the key to my success was that I used this round, black, non stick, pizza pan. And I baked them in my convection toaster oven at 425 degrees for only 35 minutes. Not 50 minutes as stated in the above recipe! They would have been totally burnt if I baked them for 50 minutes!  All I had to do was give the pan a 1/4 turn every 10 minutes so they would brown evenly.

So now I can EASILY have baked truffle fries whenever I crave them!

Which is a good thing because there aren't any restaurants near me that serve these...what's up with that, Long Island?

Easily Peel Hard Boiled Eggs!

I am so in love with this little trick! I've been making LOTS of hard boiled eggs lately because my daughter is on an egg salad sandwich binge. I was having such a hard time peeling the eggs. I even bought this contraption, that I blogged about recently, to avoid peeling eggs...**Click Here** Then I Googled 'How to easily peel hard boiled eggs' and found this video that shows a super easy method!

Smokey Tuna Casserole

My husband has been asking me to make a tuna casserole since we were newlyweds! I just didn't like the idea of eating warm, canned tuna fish with pasta...YUK! He said his mother made it all the time when he was young and it was delicious! Sorry, still not sold. I just gagged at the thought of  it!

Almond Joy Ice Cream

I love Almond Joy candy bars! I once tried a recipe called 'Almond Joy Cake Mix Cookies'...they were VERY good!

So it was only natural that I try to make Almond Joy Ice Cream! And I'm so glad I did because it was Almond Joy heaven! It tasted just like the candy bar! My family totally loved it! I took this ice cream recipe that I tried recently 'Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream' and tweaked it to make my Almond Joy ice cream.

Stovetop Hot Pepper Jelly



Hot Pepper Jelly with Cream Cheese

I was so happy to find this recipe for 'Stovetop Hot Pepper Jelly' on the 'Averie Cooks' blog. I've never tried canning and I'm a little intimidated by the whole idea of boiling food in jars. But with this recipe you don't do any of that.

Addictive Blog Award

I was recently honoured to be chosen for 'The Addictive Blog Award' by a sweet and talented blogger named Didi from the 'Dishin with Didi' blog! I'm also addicted to her blog because she is an amazing cook...and so freakin adorable! Go check out her blog and you'll see what I mean!

My reason for blogging was to be able to share all the best recipes I've found and tried from various cooking sites and blogs. When I try a new recipe and it turns out to be delicious, it's like finding a gem! And I want to share all those gems with other cooks!

Now it's my turn to show you my 10 'addictive blogs'...I actually have much more than 10, that I'm currently addicted to, but I'll stick to the rules!

1. Chat 'n Dish

2. Road Trip Eats

3. Crunchy Creamy Sweet

4. Pearls, Handcuffs & Happy Hour

5. Plain Chicken

6. Vittles and Bits

7. Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch

8. Skinny Taste

9. Rita's Recipes

10. Heather Likes Food

Thank you so much Didi! I'm so thrilled that I made your list of addictive blogs! You truly made my day! I hope you'll always be addicted to my blog.

(((HUGS)))

 

Art Smith (Oprah's Chef) Cookbook Giveaway

I love Art Smith. He's an amazing Chef and cookbook author. I also love his cooking videos. He is so down to earth and makes food that is simple and easy, but can be elegant for entertaining! Check out his videos *Here*

Creamy Easy Crock Pot Mac n' Cheese

A view of my crock pot...I love the plastic crock pot liners!

I love to try new mac n' cheese recipes because just when I think I've found the perfect one...another great one comes along! I never made mac n' cheese in a crock pot before, but it's so much easier than making it on the stovetop. No more constant hovering over the stove to make the cheese sauce. 

Fried Green Potatoes...Not Tomatoes!

The potatoes aren't green...the spinach is! This is my version of hash browns! I love the flavor of fried potatoes with bacon, onions and spinach! It's important to get a nice crust on the potatoes.

Fried Green Potatoes