Category — Holiday

Connor’s friend, Rachael, brought these super easy and super tasty little appetizer picks. Luckily I was able to snap a photo before they were all snapped up!

No one had signed up for chips and dip, so I asked Connor to provide those.

You have to have chips and dip!

I threw together a red, white, and blue flag snack tray using, red grapes, banana slices, strawberries, yogurt-covered pretzels, blueberries, and raspberries.

Lastly, I purchased a mock gingerbread house at Trader Joe’s, which was really a sugar cookie White House and I pretended like it was Christmas in July. I loved putting it together since our long family tradition of Marissa and Connor each assembling their own Christmas gingerbread houses has fallen by the wayside. Mostly because they hate it! Oh well, a mom can reminisce.

These were a few of the little extras at the 4^th of July Party Pot-Luck Pool Party. The main course and dessert details will follow in the coming days.

[Read more →]

George and Julie brought not only a tasty broccoli salad but their four beautiful children as well. Actually, the party more than doubled in size from when I originally lamented about it being so small, in this post. That made me happy. My motto when it comes to parties is always “the more the merrier!” When kids and teens are added to the mix, nothing could be truer!

Case in point – I asked Dave to please set up the ping-pong table and the lawn games; cornhole, ladder ball toss, and croquet.

He balked, saying that no one was going to play any of those things because it was too hot. I argued that people would hop in and out of the pool and I wanted there to be a variety of activities for them to choose from.

Um, do you want to take a wild guess at who was right? Those kids walked straight in the front door, through the house, and into the yard. All games and activities were played, not only the ones above but also the pool volleyball and basketball and the putting green. Take that 109 degrees!

Back to the broccoli salad. Julie said the recipe comes from a department store restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. The store was called Lazarus & Co. and although it is no longer there, the salad lives on. Thanks for sharing, Julie!

[Read more →]

My cousin, Ty, and his beautiful wife, Michelle, brought a pasta salad to the potluck. She named it, not me. She cracks me up.

It’s not only ridiculously easy but also ridiculously delicious!

Above are the “Three T’s” –  Ty, Tram, and the Twins. Below is Michelle with Zoey … doing … I’m not sure what but they sure are cute!

[Read more →]

Here are a few select images of decorations from our 4th of July Pot-Luck Pool Party.

I say “a few select” because I had more than six dozen to choose from.

Believe it or not, I’m exercising a lot of constraint here.

[Read more →]

This dessert recipe could not be easier or have less ingredients. Is four ingredients few enough for you?

Photo

I made them for our small 4th of July Pool Party, so one batch is just enough. I found a video from dingster.eats on Instagram and immediately knew that this is my kind of baking recipe and that it would be perfect for the 4th.

They are made in Mason jar bands and are the cutest things ever.

I’ll also be baking my All-American Berry-Cherry Flag Pie.  For that recipe, I’ll need a can of cherry and a half can of blueberry pie filling.

With that in mind, I decided to use three pie-filling flavors for the hand pies; apple for the White, the other half of a can of blueberry for the Blue, and a few tablespoons of the cherry for the Red. For the flag pie, I plan to supplement extra fresh cherries with the cherry filling I swiped from the can. Ignore the can of peach pie filling, I was waffling between the apple and peach and ultimately decided that since it’s the 4th of July, it had to be an apple!

One last thing – I used a Silpat to line my baking sheet. I don’t recommend that the bottoms did not brown properly. Use parchment or just grease the baking sheet instead.

[Read more →]

I have one last recipe to share from the Friday the 13th Dinner Party, but it will have to wait until next week. I’ll post that and the party wrap-up on Monday along with the full menu and recipe links.

The reason it is put on hold is that I must share the recipe for the most beautiful pie in the world – in time for you to make it for the long Memorial Day Weekend.

Just in case you’re new here, you should know that I don’t enjoy baking. I’m not very good at baking. I have had and continue to have more than my fair share of baking disappointments and disasters. So much so in fact, that a while back I was contemplating changing the name of this blog to “Cooking Triumphs and Baking Failures.”  Not anymore, not after my spectacular and unexpected triumph in baking the most beautiful pie ever!

Are you ready to be blown away?  OK then, here we go…

[Read more →]

How I end up with any baking recipes on here, I’ll never understand. I’m so bad at it, but for some reason, I keep trying.

Case in point – this hot mess of a cake.

I know, it looks good on the outside, but if you only knew what it looked like on the inside!

What the heck … I’ll show you!

That’s right – this is the lovely cake I baked – from a Boxed Mix! Seriously, could anything be easier to bake than a cake mix? Small children succeed with box mixes all the time!

Even though I greased the pans and let the layers cool the required about of time before turning over, it looked like that! What the heck? I did my best to salvage it by leaving it on the rack, covering it with plastic, and refrigerating half the day.

Thankfully, the frosting I made turned out perfect and was the glue that magically held it all together. I found the recipe for the super cute and clever Piñata Cake HERE. As you can see, it called for a homemade cake, and I thought I was taking the safer route with the boxed variety. Oh well, at least it looked good. Not only is this the perfect cake for Cinco de Mayo, but it would be adorable for a birthday party any time of the year.

I did change the original recipe a little. I found the amount of coconut the recipe called for was way too much, so I’ve reduced that. Look at how much extra coconut I have! I feel that I have no choice but to bake some sugar cookies to use them up. #nothappy#hatetobake

I did follow the frosting recipe to the letter, thank goodness!

I brought the cake to my dear friend and neighbor, Lisa’s, annual Cinco de Mayo party last night. I cut the first piece out and hoped for the best. I was certain the whole thing would collapse, but it somehow held up. Although, I did not wait around to see what happened when the subsequent pieces were removed. :-/

Oh well, a piñta is supposed to fall apart, right?

[Read more →]

I spotted this cake all over the Internet in the weeks leading up to Easter and I knew it was the dessert for me. It has so many things I love!

1. Coconut – check
2. Malted milk – check
3. Malted milk balls – check
4. Cuteness Overload – check and Yes Please!

Now, I could just send you to the LINK at Country Living from where the recipe came. But then I couldn’t tell you all of my little trials and frustrations with it and pass along a few hints and tips that might make it easier for you in case you decide to make it.

First, let’s review the differences between the various liquid coconut products available:

• Coconut water is the clear natural juice found when you crack open a coconut.

• Coconut milk has the consistency of dairy milk and is made by simmering one part shredded coconut with one part coconut water.

• Coconut cream is much thicker and much richer than coconut milk. It is made by simmering four parts shredded coconut in one part coconut water. If there is a bit of cream that rises to the top of a can of coconut milk – it is also considered coconut cream.

• Cream of coconut is sweetened coconut cream. It has a thick almost syrupy consistency and is most often used in desserts and mixed drinks, such as a Piña Colada.

The frosting calls for cream of coconut. I accidentally pulled out a can of coconut cream, took photos with it along with the rest of the frosting ingredients, opened it, and only then realized I had grabbed the wrong product.

Here you can see the difference in the look and consistency of coconut cream vs. cream of coconut. Happily, once opened, coconut cream will keep, transferred to another container, covered and refrigerated, for about a week, so I used it to make a chicken curry a few days later. If you can’t find the cream of coconut in the baking section of the grocery store, look in the liquor area or just ask.

Next, let’s once again look at the lovely photo from the Country Living website for this beautiful cake. My frustration in trying to get my frosting to look like my robin eggs was tremendous. Just look at how perfectly their frosting coloring and speckling match their eggs. Seriously, it’s as if they are cut from the exact same cloth.

[Read more →]

Today and tomorrow will round out the posts from Easter. The problem is, I can’t decide which to do first, the dessert or the tablescape. So while I’m thinking about it – I’ll begin with this, the last entry from my Austin trip.

First, there was our boat cruise on Lady Bird Lake to watch the bats, then we got on the lake once again. This time on WaterBikes.

It’s an easy and fun way to cruise down the river and you’re just about guaranteed to stay dry. It would take some real effort to tip one of these over or fall off. I like staying dry! Plus, look at that gorgeous view of downtown Austin. Totally worth it!

We had a good variety of meals while I was there. I already told you about the Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ. We also enjoyed wonderful seafood at the very cute and quaint Clark’s Oyster Bar where we, of course, had oysters.

Our high-end night out was at Lenoir Restaurant, a farm-to-table – prix-fixe menu, sort of place.

What I enjoyed most about Lenoir was that they let you choose your three prix-fixe items from any part of the menu you wish. Generally, you must pick one dish from each category; let’s say one from Field, one from Sea, one from Land, and/or a dish from Dream. Here, you can have all three of your selections from Sea if that’s what you want to do. Nice!

Clockwise from the Top we had: Tuna Crudo, Cashew Ginger Soup, Braised Pork, Smoked Duck, Herb Stozzapreti, and Almond Crusted Snapper. I think this was Marissa’s favorite meal of the weekend.

My favorite was at a place much more casual, El Alma, which is within walking distance from the kids’ apartment. Marissa had the vegetarian Enchiladas Placeras, while Jeff and I had the Shrimp and Crab Relleno. The best Relleno I’ve had in a very long time! I’ll be dreaming about it until I get my fix the next time I visit!

That wraps up Austin. And posting that helped me decide that today it would be best to share the Easter tablescape with you. The dessert, a cake, has so many photos to go along with it, that I’ll save that for tomorrow when I have no more travel photos to share.

[Read more →]

Two Sundays ago was Easter and I’m still posting Easter recipes. This past Sunday I was in Austin and Marissa and Jeff took me to Gospel Brunch – it was AMAZING!

There are several restaurants in Austin that serve brunch with a side of gospel music, we went to Stubb’s BBQ and heard The Original Bells of Joy. What an absolute JOY it was. Thanks, M & J!

The night before that we took a boat cruise out on Lady Bird Lake and watched as the 750,000 pregnant Mexican bats started out for a night of hunting.

You can read all about it HERE. It is a truly beautiful and fascinating sight to behold.

My Easter ham was a no-brainer.  I bought a spiral-cut ham at Costco. I mixed together some whole-grain Dijon mustard (1/4 cup) with 1/2 cup each of the following; maple syrup, brown sugar, and fresh orange juice. I spread that all over the ham put it on a rack and stuck it in a 325-degree oven for 90 minutes. That was it. No recipe is needed and no photos were taken of the easy process.

The lamb was almost as simple, though I do have a recipe and photos for you. I bought a little French-trimmed rack of lamb at Costco, cut it into chops, and served the chops with a chimichurri sauce.

[Read more →]