My friend Vicki gave me some mini homegrown peaches. Thanks, Mama!
This morning I gathered four of them, some fresh ginger, a squeeze of honey, a few big spoonfuls of plain yogurt, a splash of milk and about 2 cups crushed ice and gave it all a whirl in the blender.
It made the most beautiful pastel orange smoothie with nice specks from the fuzzy skins that I left on…
I put just enough ginger…about 2 tsp grated. It complements the peaches perfectly and the honey gives it just the right amount of sweetness.
{I keep a big piece of ginger root in the freezer in a plastic bag. When I need it for a recipe, I pull it out, use a potato peeler to remove the skin just from the section that I’m going to use and grate in on a microplane}
Jay wanted meat and potatoes for lunch and dinner yesterday, so that is what Jay got.
We had a little hiccup along the way and discovered his first lunch choice, Irv’s Burgers, is closed on Sundays. So we decided on runner up, Umami Burger in Los Feliz.
Fortunately we were seated immediately and got to ordering…
Tempura Onion Rings with Jalapeño Ranch & Sweet Potato Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli
Jay had the Manly Burger {of course} ~ beer-cheddar cheese, smoke salt onion strings & bacon lardons
I had the SoCal Burger ~ butter lettuce, slow-roasted tomato, house spread, house-made american cheese & caramelized onions
For dessert we all shared a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff moon pie {OMG!} and a peanut butter chip ice cream sandwich. Gone in a flash!
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In between our two meat and potato meals, we visited The Grove where I made a little dent in the niiiice Crate & Barrel gift card Jay won in a raffle at work and he and the kids went to the Apple store and fiddled with the iPod Touches and spotted Stevie Wonder!
{sorry Stevie, this is probably the worst ever picture of you…I mean not YOU, but the picture quality!}
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For din din, his choice was chicken fried steak and garlic roasted mashed potatoes with blue cheese. I made Sonoma salad for a little something green!
Thanks, P-Dub for helpin’ me out with this one. I had NO idea how to even begin to make this….
And there you have it…meat n taters with a little speck o green peeking out in the background ~ a MANLY meal!
{for the mashed potatoes I just boiled up three large taters that were peeled and cubed until fork tender. then i melted half a stick of butter and about 3/4 cup milk and added it to the potatoes. i roasted a whole head of garlic [cut about 1/4″ off the top, drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, put cut side down on a large piece of foil and wrap the garlic in the foil. roast at 350* for about an hour. the garlic will be soft and spreadable! squeeze out the cloves and add to the potatoes and butter/milk mixture]. use hand mixer to blend until smooth. also added a little blue cheese.}
I was a little nervous about this meal since it’s something I’ve never made and wouldn’t ever order at a restaurant…but it was quite good. The cube steaks were very lean and I used just a little canola oil to pan fry them. The pan gravy turned out very well, too, since gravy is not one of my strengths.
{side note: Pioneer Woman mentions that her favorite way to eat chicken fried steak is between two slices of soft white bread with mayo. In the recipe she mentions Miracle Whip and I had to laugh because, I too, can not stand the stuff! When I was about 6 years old, I vividly remember being at our neighbor’s house and the mom serving me some kind of sandwich with M.W. ….. I must have said I {didn’t care for} it because I recall her saying, “Oh, no honey, it’s not Miracle Whip!” UM, YES IT WAS! Remember that commercial where the guy goes to the store in the middle of the night because he ran out of it? Yeh. NO thanks! I’m not a picky eater at all, but if you really DON’T want me to come over for lunch, just serve sammies with [the whip] AND alfalfa sprouts. Blech!}
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I am addicted to making these gift caddies! This was the one for our hero…..
{a couple Seattle’s Best iced mochas, Peanut Toffee Buzz CLIF Bar [with caffeine!], Carmex 3-pack and some shower gel}
{a nice big Hefeweizen and an orange to float in it}
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It was the perfect day even though {we} forgot the camera, Irv’s was closed and it took 15 minutes to park at The Grove.
Summer’s almost here and I am always looking for new salad ideas…particularly ones that don’t involve mayo which are not only healthier, but more warm weather picnic friendly.
For a change, I used flat leaf parsley instead of cilantro. Every time I chop flat leaf for a recipe I wonder why I don’t use it more often. It adds so much fresh flavor to the dish ~ not to mention gorgeous color!
This salad is delish. I’m certain it will be more flavorful the longer it sits.
I made it to take to Elliott’s last day of school picnic lunch on Friday.
Rainbow layered cakes are all the rage these days.
Yes, they’re a little more time consuming {especially when you only have one pan and need to bake 4 separate cakes!}
But it’s all worth it when you cut into it and reveal this…
Your guests will “ooooh and ahhhhh”.
How can you not?
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For this cake, I used two boxes of white cake mix. I prepared the first box and then took 2 cups of batter and put it into another bowl. I used food coloring {gels} rather than regular food coloring as they are more vibrant. First, I put about 15 drops of pink and yellow, mixed well and baked those off. Then I repeated the process with the second box of mix and used the same amount of food coloring for the green and blue cakes and baked them off. Let cool and then layer them together with just a bit of frosting. Frost the whole cake, decorate, sing and then serve up a smile.
Happy 6th Birthday, Elliott!
Thank you for all the {smiles} you bring to our family!
When my little cake grows up, it wants to be just like this!
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{I found the Wilton gel food colors at Target {pink, yellow, green & blue}. You can also find them at Michael’s or Wal-mart in many different colors. These cakes are fun for holidays, graduations or sporting events. It’s fun to grab the school or team colors and bake up some spirited cupcakes or layered cake}
Jay made a batch of pesto with his home grown basil for Mother’s Day.
We had it on pizza with fresh tomatoes…
It was delish…used the garlic herb pizza dough from Trader Joe’s.
Pesto is a favorite sauce of mine…perfect on pizzas, pastas or as a condiment on sandwiches. Use it as a “rub” on chicken or pork and grill. Also perfect mixed with a little ranch dressing for a creamy pesto drizzle over your salad.
I love that you can interchange the herbs and nuts to make other pestos, too…
Quick Taco Bell bean & cheese burrito via the drive-thru amongst volunteering in Elliott’s class, picking up fresh flowers for Holden’s teacher, stopping for stamps, dropping bills at the post office, picking up Holden, buzzing through Mickey D’s for Holden’s hamburguesa con queso {lunch in the car!}, dropping off paperwork, grabbing a gallon of milk and an avocado before getting in the valet line to pick up Elliott.
Temps are up there today so it’s perfect margarita drinking weather, but those will have to wait until tomorrow evening…..
Hope your day has been filled with chips n salsa and something festive to wash it all down!
Yesterday morning I whipped up our first {green} smoothie.
Used this recipe, but omitted the chia seeds {my mind immediately goes to the Chia Pet commercial….}
I did add a splash of orange juice to help get the blender going.
First, I started with some crushed ice, o.j., half a mango and several fresh pineapple chunks. Blend that to make room for several handfuls of baby spinach {I use organic since this is one of the dirty dozen} and then blend again.
I love the wheatgrass shots at Jamba, so I’m not afraid to drink green slime!
This was very good. The sweetness from the mango and the pineapple take away much of the spinach taste.
Apparently we thought we were feeding an army because we had TONS leftover.
{note to self: next time only buy ONE package of andouille sausage}
I was in a pinch for dinner one night this week so I threw together a quick frittata using stuff that needed to be eaten up….
4 eggs that didn’t make the cut to be boiled and dyed for Easter
Several pieces of TJ’s chicken andouille leftover from the clambake
1/3 container of crumbled goat cheese
Enter andouille sausage and goat cheese baked frittata…
Jay even raved about it.
I love quiches, but can certainly do without the crust. This would make a great quiche, too though.
The addition of caramelized onions would be nice, as well.
The great thing about frittatas is that you can literally add just about any combination of meat, veggie and cheese. They are easy to make for two people or twenty people. You can make them vegetarian or super manly with lots of meat. {Note: the meat needs to be fully cooked and the veggies sauteed, grilled or at least blanched before adding them to the egg mixture}
I just whisked together the 4 eggs with 2/3 cup milk {I literally used a combination of half & half, whole and skim ~ again, we’re cleaning out the fridge} and some salt & pepper. To make it lower in fat and cholesterol, simply use 8 egg whites {not sure how it would turn out with all skim or lowfat milk, but I’m sure it would be fine}.
Pour the egg mixture into your lightly greased, oven safe pan and bake at 350* for about 25-30 minutes or until eggs have set.
Cut into wedges and serve with a green salad or fruit.
{Or with leftover red potatoes from your clam bake!}
