Friday, July 31, 2009

Farmer's Market Y'all

Pizza Bread~


We grilled our corn~


One of which I made a creation: before putting on the grill I smeared chive and onion cream cheese and also sprinkled fresh cut chive. Pretty good I might say~


The "meatiest" tomatoes I've EVER seen in my LIFE~


To make my Ma's spin on caprese salad: sliced tomatoes, sliced hard boiled eggs, fresh chopped basil, crumbled feta with olive oil sprinkled on top. Hey, it's one way to get even ME to eat fresh tomatoes! It's delish~

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Easiest Breakfast Of Your Life.....

So this is what I've been making for the past couple mornings when I get to my nanny job. You can't get any easier, yet it's really swell!





All you do is toast some cinnamon bread, place a layer of sliced bananas on the bread, then top with some pancake syrup! Can't be simpler! Enjoy that little nugget.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Pastamogasta

This is an incredibly easy recipe to make. I love it with alllll my heart. I made it from what I could remember of how of a close friend's muter made it. Try it. It may not be exactly how she made it, but you will love me forever and ever if it makes it to your mouth.

Here's what you need:
1 Yellow and red bell pepper
1 lb of ground...beef or Italian sausage, both work great!
1 large bottle of SPICY V8....I wouldn't insult this recipe with making it with anything but....it's really not that spicy peeps
1/2 onion (I tend to buy Vidalia ...you can use whateve)
4 cloves of garlic
1 box bow tie noodles
1 bottle of red wine (not for the recipe, but for you to drink while you cook! HELLOOOOO hee hee)


First get your pot of water going for your noodles. Then, dice up your peppers. (Take a sip of your wine)


Cook and drain your meat. Make sure it has no pink in it! Then I set it aside in a bowl with Saran Wrap over it, purely because I didn't have enough large pans to cook both meat and veggies at the same time. If you're a multitasker, and have the pans....go for it. (Take another sip of your wine)


Chop your 1/2 onion and mince the cloves of garlic. (Add more or lil less of both or either if you like) You also can probably get your noodles into the water by now. I used only 3/4 of the box because I figured I didn't need an "absurd" amount of food and a "ridiculous" amount would be just fine. HA. Anyways, cook them to ALMOST AL DENTE. This is because they will cook the rest of the way while simmering later. Drain, all that good stuff, when the time comes. (Siiiiiiiiiiiip!)


Start with cooking your peppers....


Then add the onions only a fewwwwww minutes later. Cook until ALMOST tender. Add the minced garlic. Cook until everything is tender. (Another sip of your wine)


Should look like this:


Put ALL cooked ingredients PLUS the ENTIRE bottle of V8 in the big pot from boiling the noodles. Like so:


You will have this giant amount of food simmer on low heat (stirring occasionally) for abouuuuuuuuuuut 20 min to half hour. (Refill your glass of wine and relax!)


When done, it looks like this! WARNING: Contents will be like MOLTEN LAVA. Use caution when trying to consume this delicious bowl of pastamogasta!


Some would ask themselves at this point, "Hey, I see some scrumptious bread in that last pic; how do I make that?" Well, it's very simple and I'll tell you how.

First slice some french bread in half and lengthwise. (We used Jimmy John's "day old" bread that they sell at the counter for dirt cheap!)


Round up this stuff:


Butter the bread, sprinkle the gaaaaaarlic powder, and drizzle EVOO on top.


Toast it up under the broiler (Keep a close eye on it!!!!) and voila!


(I think next time I might skip the garlic powder, do as planned with butter and EVOO...only at the end, I will rub a cut-in-half clove of fresh garlic on the bread. This might be a little yummier and healthier)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Mojiiiiitos!

PREPARE YOURSELF for the BEST Mojito of your LIFE! I have perfected it (with some help from my ma in the first stages). No need to fiddle with the concoction because we have tried errrrrverythang- powdered sugar, granulated sugar, and then finally a simple syrup solution....which we found was the KEY.

Simple Syrup (process not pictured)
1 C water
2 C granulated sugar

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil; simmer until the sugar is dissolved, 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. Store in something glass. Not plastic because it will take on the taste, and you don't want that. Store in the refrigerator.
One Bad Mama Jamma Mojiiiiito..
Items you'll need:
Simple Syrup
Club Soda
Bacardi
Limes
FRESH mint leaves
Nice frosty mug


First, cut half a lime into six small pieces and put at the bottom of the glass

Add about "12" mint leaves. I say it that way because it's ridiculous to put a number, they are all different sizes and some people like different amounts. So basically, this is where you say "I do what I want" and put as many as your hearts content! :)


Add 2 T of the simple syrup


Take your muddler (we didn't have an actual muddler so we used this. And my ma thought this was e-larious. hahaha)....


And muddle the HELL out of the mixture!


Should look like this. The whole point is to crush the limes and get the oils in the leaves movin and a shakin.


Then top off the glass with ice.
(***Edit. After making mannnny more mojitos since this run....we found that with ommitting this step and adding the ice at the end made it a lot easier to mix the drink....annnnnd get more "drink" in the glass. Do whatever you prefer. I just know how much rum to club soda ratio I like in mine) Proceeeeeed.....


Time for the RUUUUMMMMM!


Add 2 1/2-3 jiggers of rum and top off, almost to the top, with club soda.


Mix with a knife (or whateve) and ENJOY!!!!!!
This turned out GREAT. Then for my second one I just added fresh limes and mint leaves to my previous and continued with the recipe. Although, I would not do that for a third. Start with fresh everything. Holler.

Monday, July 13, 2009

BUBBLE TEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So today on my walk I decided to stop in at the Tasty House Restaurant because I've seen their sign in the window for Bubble Tea; which I have been dyin to try for a while now. They must have had over 15 flavors. Flavors including the norm...but also coffee, green tea (which I will eventually try) and AVOCADO! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa? Sounds verrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting. So after "mentally" picking out which one I would want, I asked the cashier which he would suggest and it happened to be the same: mango.

Verdict: DELISH!





Seeing as it's RIGHT around the corner, I will mos def be going back. But next time....food will be involved! :)