Memorial Day weekend is upon us and I have a perfect, easy drink recipe for you! I have no idea from where it originated (except for from my mother-in-law) but whoever came up with it is a genius! I love trying out different and/or special drinks when I'm having company over, but sometimes I end up having to buy like 5 different kinds of alcohol and spending as much on them as I did on the food! Plus, it can really stink to have to be reading the recipe, measuring, reading again, mixing, reading again...ugh! This is one you could put your 5-year-old in charge of. Well, not mine of course because that's just not right -- she spills every liquid she can find and then that would be such a waste of a great drink! ;) With just four -- that's right -- FOUR simple, you-can-find-all-of-them-in-your-local-grocery-store ingredients, it's an easy drink to add to your party without much fuss.
~Leah
Pineapple Coconut Rum Slush
Recipe Type: Beverage
Author: Leah
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10-12
Ingredients
1 (46 oz) can pineapple juice
1 (15 oz) can cream of coconut
Rum
Lemon-lime soda
optional garnishes
Fresh pineapple
Maraschino cherries
Lime
Oranges
Instructions
Pour all of the pineapple juice and cream of coconut in a medium to large mixing bowl and stir. Fill the can from the cream of coconut with rum and add that to the pineapple/coconut mixture and stir well.
Cover the bowl and freeze overnight, stirring very few hours (don't set your alarm or anything! :)) to create a slush.
When ready to serve, scoop the slush to fill whatever cup you're using 1/2 to 3/4 full and pour lemon-lime soda over the top to fill the glass.
Place the unused slush back in the freezer for refills.
Notes
Cream of coconut can usually be found near ethnic foods...Thai, Hispanic...if you can't find it, just ask...it's most likely your store carries it and you just haven't seen it before! It's best to make this the day before a party to give it ample time to freeze. I usually try to make it before lunchtime the day before so I can get some stirs in throughout the day before I go to bed. Then I get up, give it another stir, and voila!
Even with all of this goofy weather we've been having around here (6 inches in 24 hours?! Snow this morning?!) I've officially been in "summer mode" when it comes to recipes/cooking lately. I'm always excited to get back to recipes I haven't made in a few months when we go from summer to fall and winter to spring. When we first started discussing doing this blog last fall, I had a lot of recipes in mind that I wanted to use but many of them weren't fall/winter appropriate so I'm very excited that we're getting to begin to share a new season of recipes.
I'm kicking off my spring/summer recipes with this Taco Bean Dip. It's so easy and great to bring to summer parties. I like to serve it with tortilla chips, or Fritos, or veggies...or all three! If you have some leftover (like I did after our photo shoot), it's great to turn into a nacho platter or use as all of your toppings for tacos for dinner (thanks for that idea, Erin!)
~Leah
Taco Bean Layer Dip
Recipe Type: Appetizer
Author: Leah
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
2 cans bean dip
2-3 soft avocados
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1/2 c green onions, diced
1/2 c tomatoes, diced
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
Mash the avocados in a small bowl and stir in the lemon juice. Set aside.
Mix the mayo, sour cream, and taco seasoning in a small bowl. Set aside.
Layer all of the ingredients, starting with the bean dip spread on the bottom, follow with the mashed avocado, olives, sour cream/taco mixture, onions, tomatoes, and ending with the cheese in an 8x11.5 (2 inch deep) baking dish or other dish or serving platter of similar proportions.
Do you have one of those friends or relatives that is the consummate host/hostess and is always serving something new and delicious? I have a few but definitely tops on my list is my friend/sister-in-law, Denise. She is always trying new recipes and I would say a good portion of the recipes I'll post will have come from her (sorry, we don't have the funds to provide finder's fees Denise!)
This is one that she used to make way back when and I would look forward to having them at her get-togethers. It's a recipe from Pampered Chef that was originally named "North Stars" because they wanted you to use their star bread pan to make the little breads for the toast. Well, I do not have that pan, and sometimes I just want to be able to make an appetizer that is stupid easy but tasty and using the little cocktail breads from the grocery store makes these completely fit the bill. Don't get me wrong, Denise's with the fresh baked breads was delicious and if you either have a little tube bread pan like that or feel the urge to bake some fresh bread, cut it into thin slices, and then cut it into stars or some other shape to use for these, then more power to ya!
~Leah
Pepper Cheese Toasts
Recipe Type: Appetizer
Author: Leah (from Pampered Chef)
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
1 package sourdough cocktail bread (usually near the deli)
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 (0.7 ounce) package dry Italian salad dressing mix
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Lay out bread slices (start with about 20-24 and see where you end up with the cheese mixure) on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Mix together the cheese, mayo, sour cream, and dressing mix and spread evenly onto each piece of bread (about 1 Tbsp. per toast) and top with the peppers.
In the interest of complete honesty on this blog, I have to say...I got nuthin'.
I don't know if it's the post-turkey, end-of- the-kids-being-home-all-week, ready-for-bed brain but I've been sitting here for 2 hours telling myself, "Alright! Pick up that netbook and write about that awesome almond cake for your post for tomorrow!" I knew that sometimes I'd struggle trying to figure out what to say about some recipes if I didn't have some personal anecdote about it, but I certainly did not think it would happen on my THIRD post! I even just asked my Lucky guy if he had any special memories about it (I got the recipe from his mom when we were dating) and he said, "No, I just remember that my mom would make it and I liked it."
Ok. Thanks. ;)
So, I can give you the facts. This cake is like pound cake on crack – if you like almond, you'll love this cake. It is a recipe from a SOLO cookbook from 1988 and is one of the easiest cakes I make. Always a crowd pleaser. Enjoy!
~Leah
AlmondCake
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Leah (adapted from Solo)
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10-12
Ingredients
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 can Solo almond filling
2 1/4 c flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. milk
Almond Glaze:
1 c confectioners/powdered sugar
2-3 Tbsp. whipping cream
1/2 tsp. almond extract
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour (I always cheat and use the baking spray with flour in it) a 12-cup Bundt pan.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after adding each one.
Beat in almond filling until blended.
In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking powder, and salt untli mixed.
Add to the almond mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Beat until blended.
Spread batter evenly in the prepared bundt pan.
Bake 50-55 minutes or until toothpick/skewer comes out clean.
Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on the rack.
To make the glaze, combine the powdered sugar, cream, and almond extract in a small bowl and stir until blended and smooth. Spoon or drizzle over the top of the cake. Let stand until the glaze is set.
Notes
Make sure you either grease and flour or spray your pan really well! If you are using a dark bundt pan, reduce your oven temp to 325. Darker pans are supposed to bake faster, so I had set my timer for 40 minutes to check, but ended up baking the cake 55 minutes. When making the glaze, start with 2 Tbsp of the cream and check the consisitency for how you like it. I feel like every time I make it, I use different proportions and I have no idea why...maybe different brands? Also, if you're going to drizzle, I like to use a decorator icing bag or a ziploc with a small hole snipped in the bottom corner. I can never seem to drizzle nicely when I use a spoon.
So as I was trying to formulate in my head what I would write about these, I was thinking of saying something along the lines of, "even if you don't like asparagus, you'll like these" and I realized I have a theme going. Of the four recipes I am posting this month, three of them qualify under this "even if you don't like it, try it" mantra. (See Pumpkin Squares and the as yet to come Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta.)
I don't know why this is. It isn't like I planned to post things that people may not like. It's actually a horrible idea the more I think about it. "Let's start a food blog! OK! I'm gonna pick recipes that a lot of people will take one look at and say, 'Ew. No thank you!'" Genius.
I guess when I was weeding through my ridiculous amount of recipe options trying to pick which ones I wanted to start with, I was (subconsciously or consciously) choosing ones that are so fabulously delicious despite what they may be made out of. They have that little bit of a surprise factor that takes something you've probably had before and may not have liked (asparagus {canned no less}, pumpkin, or brussels sprouts) and turns it into this great recipe that you will make over and over again. In fact, this and the pumpkin squares are recipes my mom got from friends of hers when I was little (which was a LOOOONG time ago) and we still make them.
Now, don't balk at the high-class, fancy ingredients here... I'm totally joking...these are about as WT as you can get – white bread, canned asparagus... But they are SOOOO good and can be made ahead of time (always a plus in my book). I swear this is another one of those recipes that I take somewhere and people say, "Oh, no thanks...I don't like asparagus" and then someone will encourage them to try it (usually a spouse since we're the only ones who will HOUND the other enough to get them to try something – and then they only really eat it to get us to shut up with plans to spit it into their cocktail napkin) and they ALWAYS like it. I've never had anyone spit them out into their cocktail napkin (that I know of).
And there's bacon in them – that's really probably all I needed to write. Bacon. ~Leah
Asparagus Roll-Ups with Bacon
Recipe Type: Appetizer
Author: Leah
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8-12
Ingredients
12 slices white bread
8 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp
8 slices bacon
1 can of asparagus spears, drained
1/2 stick of butter, melted
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350.
Cook, drain, and crumble the bacon.
Stir the bacon into the softened cream cheese until well distributed. Set aside.
Trim the crusts from the bread and flatten each slice with a rolling pin (they will get pretty thin and flat).
Spread the cream cheese and bacon mixture evenly onto each of the 12 slices of bread.
Lay one asparagus spear in the center of each slice of bread, trimming the ends if necessary so that they are even with the top and bottom of the bread.
Roll the bread lengthwise so that the asparagus spear runs through the center of the entire roll from end to end.
Cut each of the 12 rolls of bread into thirds.
Place seam side down on a foil-lined cookie sheet and brush with the melted butter.
Bake 12-14 minutes until warmed through then Broil for 2-4 minutes to toast/brown the bread...keep a close watch so you don't burn your bread!
Serve warm.
Notes
I like to prepare bacon 1 of 2 ways for crumbling. Either put it in a cold oven on a rack over a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or I like to stack the raw slices and cut them up as small as I can and then cook/brown them in a pan and scoop out with a slotted spoon to drain.
If you're having a hard time mixing the bacon in with the cream cheese, you can try using a hand mixer or microwaving the cream cheese for just a few seconds at a time until you can work with it...you don't want to completely melt it though!
These are great to prepare the day before or to bring to a party and then bake. If you do prepare them beforehand, don't brush them with the melted butter and you will need to store them in the fridge. Take them out for at least a half hour before baking and then brush with the melted butter. Also be aware that your baking time will probably be longer if you're using them from the fridge.
