Saltine bars...

I've seen these saltine bars on several blogs in the last two weeks and since I needed a quick and easy dessert to feed those helping N & T move into their new home this weekend it was a easy choice since I had all the ingredients in the house. This is not a "new" recipe but an old one that I remember from growing up only back then we used the buttery club crackers. I found the recipe in a 1973 community cookbook. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet (with an edge) with foil and lightly butter. Then lay out your crackers on the bottom.
In a saucepan over low heat melt one cup butter and one cup brown sugar. Once the sugar has started to dissolve turn up the heat to medium and bring to a gentle (not rolling) boil. Stirring constantly, boil the mixture for 3 minutes and then pour over the crackers and spread to the edge with a spatula. Then pop into the 400 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle a 12 oz bag of semi sweet chocolate chips over the top. Let sit a few minutes until the chips are melted soft & shiny and then spread evenly with a knife.
After the pan has cooled down, chill until firm and then break apart into pieces.
I definitely didn't bring home any leftovers of these!

My notes: I spread one half of a bag of semi sweet chips on half the bars and the other half with half of a bag of milk choc chips since that is what I like ;)

Marsha - Thumbs Up to the milk choc side
Jeff - Thumbs Up to the dark choc side

let there be white....and lime

I have been absent from my blogs for a week because I have been scrubbing, painting and sewing to help my son & daughter-in-law get ready to move into their new home this weekend. But, I couldn't let down my friend, Kathleen and not participate in her second "Let there be White" event so I threw together a simple table in the satellite gazebo in the dark last night. Head over to Kathleen's blog, Cuisine Kathleen, to see all the amazing tablescapes.Like Kathleen, my hydrangeas guided me to my second color choice. The white Annabelles have turned green a sure sign of autumn approaching. Since I do not own an all white plate I also had to cheat a little and use my modern John Tams earthenware with the black words for a late night supper in the garden.
I added in some more lime color with some chopped romaine...
and some more white with grilled ciabatta garlic bread and grilled shrimp with lime flavors (marinated in margarita mix with tequila - tonight's shortcut to Susan's marvelous tequila & lime shrimp).
A simple late night supper from start to finish in less than 30 minutes...just what a tired gal needed.

sweet raisins...

My Tomaccio Sweet Raisin tomatoes are finally ripening and boy, do I love them. They are such a sweet little snack when popped right in your mouth while out picking them and last night I finally had enough to roast and I just have to say, it was like eating candy...so good!While I think I could have eaten the whole cookie sheet full of them right out of the oven...I used willpower and made the pasta dish I had planned. This one was truly right out of my "kitchen garden" with my tomatoes, peppers & herbs.
No recipe but this is what I did...
To roast the tomatoes for the pasta...

Heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, add 4 cups cherry tomatoes, 1 TB olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar and toss to coat all of the tomatoes. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit. Pour tomatoes onto the baking sheet and roast for 20 to 25 minutes or until they collapse and their skin begins to carmelize or slightly char.

Then I boiled a pot of spaghetti and while that was cooking, in a large saute pan with one tablespoon of olive oil I cooked 2 garlic gloves, one onion and one green pepper until softened. Then I added sliced fresh mushrooms, herbs from my garden (basil, thyme & oregano), a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes and S & P. Next, I added the roasted cherry tomatoes with the juice from the cookie sheet and a 1/2 cup of the pasta water and a few squirts of tomato paste from a tube. Tossed in the drained spaghetti and served with grated parmesan. No exact measurements as this was one of those "toss and taste" meals but boy was it good!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Tea and Scones...

Yesterday, I had a wonderful group of women tour the gardens. I served them tea and scones and we sat on the patio and enjoyed great conversation while watching little goldfinches entertain us. I didn't remember to take pictures until they left so I posed the leftover "blooming tea" with a few leftover scones for the blog.
I have used this recipe many times and the raspberry/white chocolate version is our favorite. We also like them with blueberries and white chocolate too ;) The recipe is from Thibeault's Table, a beautiful blog whose author believes "recipes are to be shared".

Click HERE for the scone recipe on her blog. These were made with frozen raspberries and white chocolate chips.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

Happy Birthday Debbie!

Though I am late in getting this post up, today is another celebration as it is the birthday of another of my special blogging buddies.

Special birthday wishes go out to my friend, Debbie, who is celebrating one of those "special" birthdays with rounded numbers today :) Debbie is another of the core group of friends that I met on another forum and has now joined the blogging world over at Mountain Breaths. That is a perfect name for her blog...did you know she and her husband are Adirondack 46's? Which means they have climbed all forty-six of the traditionally recognized High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. Amazing! When I think of Debbie, I think of the boundless energy she has working full time, hiking mountains, replacing windows, making their cottage a paradise and creating perfect culinary creations from recipes or recreating them on her own! I actually "borrowed" the images for her card from her blog. She taught us all how to make cream cheese filled strawberries and strawberry filled cupcakes. Can there be anything cuter? She also introduced me to Chicken Riggies a pepper filled pasta dish that is a regional favorite in her area of the country and which J & I both love. Thanks Debbie :)

Debbie's an early-bird so she usually is the one that starts our group out with an early morning photo and lots of positive words, in fact I don't know if I've ever heard (I mean read) a truly negative thing from her. Her life is filled with adventure and romance and she has the most creative art piece wine bottles to prove it. She is FUN in a lime polka dot and black & white check kind of way and you would just have to know her to understand that statement. She is creative, caring, generous and kind. A great friend who I am honored to know. She's a lady of leisure this week so I am picturing her as the long-haired beauty with the Jackie-O sunglasses walking down wildflower strewn paths with her husband and their faithful dog, Kiki.

Happy Birthday Debbie! I hope the day and your relaxing vacation surrounding it is filled with love, laughter and loads of FUN!

A Birthday Treat...

for Cynthia!
Today is my friend Cynthia's Birthday and I am so happy to be able to wish her a wonderful day here. When I think of Cynthia, I think of her kindness, caring (with a capital C), generous and graceful nature. We met on a food forum several years ago and though we no longer participate I can honestly say I met the BEST core group of nine friends there. When we all went to the blogging world, Cynthia chooses to have her's remain a private blog so that we can all enjoy seeing the wonderful photos and day trips she takes with her two precious grandchildren, Addi & Tate. She is a role model to me of how I want to be as a Grandma some day - Really, she is!! Cynthia has the best memory ever - she can remember and bring up things sometimes that just amazes me. I think it is the caring nature that shines the most through her, it doesn't matter that we are cyber friends or IRL friends, she truly cares about your life and families. Cynthia has shown me a whole new world of photography, and also introduced me to Peggy Karr glassware. I had not seen a lot of them here in MN but her collection is just amazing and it is such a joy when she shows her many pieces to us.

A week or so before we left on our trip, Cynthia left us a late night message about a cyber bargain and I was lucky enough to see it that night as they were sold out by morning. I got a $59.99 Cuisnart Ice Cream maker for $13.75 which included shipping! In honor of Cynthia's birthday today, I used it for the first time today.
My first try was a revised recipe using the ingredients I had on hand from the booklet that came with the maker.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream from Cuisnart.

Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 cup whole milk, chilled
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed chocolate mint candies, such as Andes® (about 15 mints)

Instructions
Combine heavy cream, whole milk, chocolate syrup, sugar and vanilla (not mint candies) in a medium mixing bowl and combine until well blended. Pour into freezer bowl of a Cuisinart® Automatic Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker. Turn the machine ON and let mix until mixture thickens, about 20 - 25 minutes. Add crushed chocolate mint candies to ice cream during last 5 - 10 minutes of mixing. Turn the machine OFF. Transfer to an air tight container and place in freezer until firm, about 2 hours.

My notes: I didn't have whole milk so used a cup of chocolate skim milk and I didn't have the mints so it was just chocolate ice cream. Still very good though, I think I will be searching for a few lower fat recipes to use as it seems like a lot of cream.

Happy Birthday Cynthia - I am very thankful you are my friend!

Garden Party...part 2

My friend, Susan from Savoring Time in the Kitchen is hosting a Garden Party at her blog this weekend so please CLICK HERE to see her party as well as all the other's joining in. Susan was the first person to show me Rooguchi clematis and I fell in love...I just planted this one this spring and isn't it a beauty?
The gardens are especially beautiful right now with the daylilies blooming...
and butterflies flitting about.
The wildflower border is blooming and all the annuals are bright spots of color.
At this time of year, unless it is extremely hot or raining, I eat all my meals outdoors.
After all the physical work in the gardens I was really hungry so I made a huge old fashioned meat & potatoes meal for supper. I set the table with my Kitchen Garden dishes and we started with a salad.

Sides were grilled fresh beets and new little red potatoes which I guess aren't techinically roots but tubers but there isn't a bowl for that ;)
Nothing dainty about the size of our steaks...so obviously no dessert...
unless you count the candy corn vine...
or the pineapple lilies.
By this morning, I was second guessing posting this meal for my garden party since obviously there are no recipes involved. So today I decided to try a summer recipe I have wanted to make for awhile. I set a more intimate table in the satellite gazebo...
where we dined by candlelight.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or as we say in MN, Supper - they all taste so much better when eaten in good company.
I brought the "Minnesota Nice" to the blogger garden party...
and made my first Pavlova! With a dessert like this we wanted a simple supper so Jeff fired up the grill and
we had a hot dog and mini peppers. Had to save room for dessert after all ;)
Dessert was not picture perfect but sure tasted great! We savored every forkful as...we watched some more goldies...
and bluejays attend the party.


Pavlova with Berries and Whipped Cream - recipe from our local newspaper columnist, Sue Doeden

4 egg whites, room temperature
1 cup superfine sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch, sifted
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 pints fresh berries of your choice
Extra powdered sugar for garnish

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet with no sides. Draw a 9- or 10-inch circle on the parchment, using a plate as your guide. Turn the paper over so the drawing is on the bottom. It will show through the parchment.

Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl. If you are using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites at low speed until they are very foamy. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add superfine sugar, beating until the sugar is dissolved after each addition. Beat the mixture 5 to 10 minutes, until it is very shiny and thick. Fold in cornstarch and vinegar.

Spread meringue mixture into the marked circle on parchment paper. Use the back of a spoon to shape evenly, spreading meringue to the sides and leaving a slight depression in the middle, similar to a nest. Run the flat side of a knife up the edge of meringue mixture, all the way around, making furrows. This strengthens the Pavlova and gives it a nice decorative finish.

Bake the meringue in preheated 250-degree oven for 1 hour. Turn off the oven. Leave Pavlova to cool in the oven with door slightly ajar. It will take at least 2 hours for the Pavlova to cool completely.

Use a wide metal spatula to carefully loosen the baked meringue shell from the parchment paper. Slide the meringue onto a cake platter.

An hour before serving, beat heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until firm.

Spoon sweetened whipped cream into the meringue shell and spread evenly. Spoon berries carefully over the whipped cream, leaving a border of cream and meringue. Sprinkle the Pavlova with powdered sugar just before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

The full article and link to the recipe can be found HERE.

I will definitely make this one again!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP