Monthly Archives: June 2012

Weekend RoundUP June 30

Posted on June 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

I truly think Sarah Young’s devotional Jesus Calling is one of the best I have ever read. I like the idea of reading a snippet of a devotional early in the day and sometimes again during the day. It helps me to stay focused on what is really important and let go of the not-important junk in my life. While I am sure the publishers will not let me copy it everyday, once in a while shouldn’t hurt, so I am sharing her June 28th devotional with you today. I thank God for inspiring Sarah to write these words that I can understand. Blessings as you read!

TASTE AND SEE THAT I AM GOOD. This command contains an invitation to experience My living Presence. It also contains a promise. The more you experience Me, the more convinced you become of My goodness. This knowledge is essential to your faithwalk. When adversities strike, the human instinct is to doubt My goodness. My ways are mysterious, even to those who know Me intimately. As the heavens are higher than earth, so are My ways and thoughts higher than your ways and thoughts. Do not try to fathom My ways. Instead, spend time enjoying Me and experiencing My goodness.
Psalm 34:8; Isaiah 55:8-9

As you enjoy the slide show of photos from this week’s recipes I wish you a relaxed weekend, coolness in the heat of the day, and blessings for you and those you love. ~Catherine

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Posted in Breakfast and Brunch, Cookies, Dessert, Drinks, Fruits, Salads, Side Dishes

Tagged Dessert, drinks, fruit pizza, side dish, slaw, strawberry lemondade, sugar cookie

Bleu Cheese Bacon Slaw

Posted on June 28, 2012 | 1 Comment

Walk Through The Bible In One Year
Week 22 reading plan Psalm 1 through 39
Click on the colored link to read each day’s scripture.
Monday Psalm 1-9, Tuesday Psalm 10-17,
Wednesday Psalm 18, Thursday Psalm 19-22,
Friday Psalm 23-29, Saturday Psalm 30-34,
Sunday Psalm 35-39

Pass the bacon slaw … just when you thought slaw couldn’t get any better along comes a recipe with blue cheese AND bacon! (Bleu cheese, if you are French, blue cheese to the rest of us!) If you are in charge of making the slaw for this year’s 4th of July celebration, consider this recipe! I found it in the May publication of the Tennessee Magazine and I couldn’t wait to make it. There were six other slaw recipes but combining blue cheese (which I love) and bacon (and who doesn’t like bacon) seemed too good to pass up.

Since cabbage is one of the first crops from the garden I love cooking with it each week. In slaw it is all crunchy and cool and easy to use. One head of cabbage will feed the whole crowd at a barbecue, but if you aren’t into cutting and slicing then the packaged stuff works great too!

When I made this batch I added carrot sticks and some red cabbage I bought at the local farmers market. You can add what you have on hand or leave it out, either way the recipe will be delicious! And the leftovers … if there are any, are great piled on hot dogs, hamburgers, or a veggie sandwich the next day

Happy Cooking!
Blessings ~Catherine

Bleu Cheese Bacon Slaw

Print recipe

Serves	10
Prep time	10 minutes
From magazine	Tennesse Magazine

Crunchy and cool tossed with blue cheese and bacon gives a winning combination! Serve as salad or use as a topping for hotdogs or hamburgers.

Ingredients

1 head Shredded Cabbage (or one 16 oz. package colesslaw mix)
1 cup Shredded Carrots
1/4 head Red Cabbage, shredded
1 cup Crumbled Blue Cheese
8 Bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
3/4 cups Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
2 tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
1 tablespoon Honey
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Black Pepper

Directions

1	In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots, (or coleslaw mix,) cheese and bacon.
2	In a separate bowl, whisk together the mayo, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. Gently toss over the coleslaw mixture. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

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Posted in Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetables

Tagged bacon, bacon dishes, blue cheese, cole slaw, salads, side dish, slaw

Red, White and Blue Fruit Pizza

Posted on June 26, 2012 | 2 Comments

The calendar tells me that we are only a week away from the 4th of July. Is that possible? What happened to June? Summer 1/3 over? Is it only me that is having a hard time wrapping my head around July knocking at the door? Whew! Well, I had better get to gettin’ some celebration-worthy recipes for you! A week away means we are already making lists, planning menus and deciding who, what and where!

Earlier this month I found myself with raspberries, fresh blueberries, and blackberries all on hand. I had company coming for dinner and was aching to use up the berries. It has been several years since I made a fruit pizza but love the berries combined with cream cheese on a sugar cookie crust. For my summer berries it just doesn’t get better than fruit pizza. Some fruit pizza recipes start with the sugar cookie dough you can buy in a roll and bake. That works well, but I gotta tell you, making it from scratch takes maybe 10 minutes plus the baking time. AND it tastes so much better.
Once baked and cooled a cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla mixture is spread around the entire cookie, leaving just a little crust around the edge.

Then the creative part begins. I thought mine turned out especially pretty, with fruit placed in a nice circular pattern around the pizza. WRONG!

Mine actually looks … predictable. I really didn’t know that until this past weekend when my 13-year-old granddaughter was visiting and we decided to make a fruit pizza … for breakfast! (Ya, and it is yummy for breakfast!) We had fresh peaches, bananas, blueberries and strawberries. I asked Tayler if she would do the decorating. Her creativity immediately took over and she carefully, lovingly, and thoughtfully placed each piece of fruit. I watched with amazement as she started with a blueberry design and then filled in with other colors. The result very pretty, extremely tasty and a pizza that popped with color. See for yourself …
Thank you Tayler, it was fun making breakfast with you! Dessert or breakfast — you choose! A wonderful addition to any 4th of July celebration!

Blessings and Happy Cooking! ~Catherine

Red, White, and Blue Fruit Pizza

Print recipe

Serves	10-12
Prep time	20 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	30 minutes
Website	Allrecipes

Delicious, colorful dessert or breakfast pastry. Top with your favorite fresh fruits!

Ingredients

1/2 cup Unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
1 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Berries, Bananas, Mixed Fruit

Spread

1 Package Cream Cheese, 8 ounces
1/2 cup White Sugar
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Directions

1	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2	In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth. Mix in egg. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Stir into creamed mixture until just blended. Press the dough into an ungreased pizza pan.
3	Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool.
4	In a bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla. Spread on cooled crust.
5	Arrange favorite fruit on top of filling and chill for at least 1 hour.

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Posted in Cookies, Dessert, Fruits

Tagged 4th of July, Baking, baking with kids, blackberries, blueberries, breakfast pizza, Dessert, fruit pizza, raspberries, sugar cookie

Almost-Famous Strawberry Lemonade

Posted on June 24, 2012 | 2 Comments

I hope you had a happy and blessed weekend. We sure did. My step-son Michael, granddaughter Tayler, and grand-dog Mason, came from Tuscaloosa and we had a weekend full of lots of laughter and some fun in the kitchen! My next post will feature my 13-year old granddaughter helping in the kitchen. Oh what fun it is to cook with kids. They are so creative and willing to learn new things!
One of the un-expected highlights of the weekend turned out to be the Dog Contest at Frontier Days held in Lynchburg, TN. Since Lynchburg is just a few miles up the road we decided to mosey down to the festival and see what it was all about. Mason, a 1 year-old Boykin Spaniel, came right along with us. He is the best-natured dog. As we walked around the festival it was so fun to see little kids ask if they could pet him and then just drop to the ground to love on him. He didn’t mind a bit and tolerated it very well! All of this in preparation for his début dog show. When it was his turn to strut across the contest gazebo stage he minded Tayler very well as she told him to sit, lay, and roll-over. Okay, he didn’t roll-over but it may have been a bit of stage fright! All-in-all he and Tayler took home TWO awards! The first being the dog with the largest ears and the second for the dog and owner look-alike contest! Tayler had no idea when she tied her naturally curly hair to the side that morning, that the judges would consider Mason’s curly-haired ears and Tayler’s curly hair to look-alike! Tayler went home with $15 and Mason has two blue ribbons! What fun!

When we returned home everyone was especially thirsty and they were in luck as I gathered up the ingredients for a strawberry lemonade I had wanted to make. The recipe is adapted from Food Network Magazine. You start the process by making a lemon syrup by zesting a lemon into strips, adding sugar and water and bringing to a boil. Once this cools the lemon is infused nicely into the simple syrup. Lemon zest strips are then removed.

While it is cooling I made a strawberry syrup by tossing cut-up strawberries with sugar and letting it sit at room temperature for about 45 minutes. The original recipe says to strain out the berries, reserving the strawberry syrup for the drink. This is where I changed it up a bit. I wanted to use the strawberries and not just the syrup. I added the strawberries and syrup into the lemon syrup and gave it a good whirl in my blender. This my friends made an outstanding strawberry-lemon syrup!

At this point I took 2 cups fresh lemon juice (from the juice of about 10 lemons), the strawberry/lemon syrup, a pinch of salt and 2 cups cold water and mixed in a pitcher. For each drink I filled a glass full of ice and topped with the strawberry lemonade.

Now my Chief Culinary Consultant, also known as Grandpa Lee this weekend, was totally parched after spending time at Frontier Days in 98+ degree weather. So Grandpa took the opportunity to crank his Almost-Famous Strawberry Lemonade up a notch with the addition of a splash of tequila. He gave this Strawberry-Lemon Margarita two-thumbs up!
There are endless possibilities for making this drink to suit your taste. Add less sugar for more tartness, add more sugar for sweetness. Infuse mint leaves, serve with frozen strawberries and fewer ice cubes. Or how about topping off with seltzer water to tingle your tongue?! I will include the recipe at the end of today’s post. If you make this luscious drink please let us know how it turns out and how you make it to suit your taste!

A Few Tips About Lemons:

Lemon zest is the most aromatic and flavorful when first removed, so use immediately.

Lemon juice may be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for a few days or else frozen in ice cube trays for future use.

Always remove the zest first before halving and squeezing the lemon.

Thin, smooth skinned lemons at room temperature yield the most juice.

To extract the most juice first roll the lemon on a flat surface, exerting light pressure. This squashes the membranes.

Use a fine strainer to remove the seeds and pulp from the juice.

Thick, bumpy textured cold lemons give the maximum amount of zest.

Lemon zest, depending on its use, comes in many forms: long wide strips, julienne, or finely grated. Use a potato peeler for strips, a zester for julienne, and a grater for finely grated zest.

When removing the outer rind (zest) do not remove the white pith, which is very bitter and inedible.

Many Blessings and Happy Cooking! ~ Catherine

Almost-Famous Strawberry Lemonade

Print recipe

Serves	6
Prep time	45 minutes
From magazine	Adapted from Food Network Magazine

This luscious fruity summer-time drink is perfect for the thirsty folks in your home!

Ingredients

Zest of 1 lemon, cut into strips
2 cups Granulated Sugar
2 cups Chopped, hulled Strawberries
2 cups Fresh Lemon Juice (from about 10 large lemons)
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Directions

1	Make the lemon syrup: Bring the lemon zest, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 3 cups water to a boil in a microwaveable bowl. Stir to dissolve sugar. Cool to room temperature. Once cool remove lemon zest strips.
2	Make the strawberry syrup: Toss the strawberries and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and let sit at room temperature until the sugar dissolves; about 45 minutes.
3	In a blender combine lemon syrup and the strawberries in syrup. Blend well.
4	Make the lemonade: combine the fresh lemon juice, blended lemon/strawberry syrup, salt, and 2 cups cold water in a picture. Fill glass with ice and top with strawberry lemonade. Garnish with mint or fresh strawberry.