Hot enough for you? Try Ice Cream!

With so many areas of the country baking in record temperatures, it made me think about how fast they have to eat their ice cream. Ice cream has always been my mothers favorite treat and she has at least six flavors at a time in her freezer year round. I am considering getting a home ice cream maker to experiment with flavors. I found some great, interesting recipes for ice cream.

On Soupbelly.com there is a fantastic Cherry Ice Cream recipe that does not require a machine or eggs to make it. It even uses Amaretto as an optional ingredient which enhances the cherry flavor per soupbelly. Simple enough recipe for those of us without an ice cream maker.

For an Adults only Ice pop, Food and Wine is featuring Blueberry-Peach Tequila Popsicles using fresh peaches, blueberries and Tequila. Count me in in this one.

For my interesting recipe of the day I found a Coconut Avocado ice cream recipe at taste duds. It uses 2 to 3 avocados with coconut milk and vodka. Another adult only recipe. Where do they come up with this stuff?

Last but not least a creative ice cream: Spaghettieis - Spaghetti Ice Cream Sundae from Germany. This is created by pressing ice cream through a potato ricer making the noodle shape then covering with a strawberry sauce, sprinkle with coconut flakes as cheese. Clever.

Today try a one or two scoop ice cream cone, let it drip down your arm, get it all over your face, then make that yum its ice cream smile.

Panda Bread Cuteness

This is the cutest bread ever. Panda Bread! It is featured on Perfect Pandas from an original blog called Taro Taro. Make sure to visit cookpad to see Panda Bread flops. The recipe looks complicated to me but for the baker wanting a challenge it might be fun to try. If you can master the panda face think of all the other designs you could make in bread. How fun.

Summertime = Watermelon

One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of summer fruit. It is so enjoyable biting into the best tasting watermelon you found all summer. The sweetness, the juice, the moment of summer. I never really cooked with a watermelon and was wondering what kind of interesting recipes I could find. I found them!

Watermelon Pizza from The Washington Post.
This recipe for Watermelon Pizza uses a pre-baked crust, brie cheese, basil, seedless watermelon chunks and Parmesan cheese. It becomes an savory sweet pizza. Easy enough to make. Will I try it? Maybe.

Summertime Watermelon Waldorf Salad from the RecipeZaar by Sherrybeth.
Ingredients
3 cups cubed watermelon, seeds removed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup celery, sliced finely
1 cup seedless grapes, cut in half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup coleslaw dressing
1/4 cup almonds, toasted (sliced or slivered)
Directions
1. Stir together watermelon, celery, and grapes in bowl.
2. Keep the fruit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
3. Just before serving, stir salt into coleslaw dressing.
4. Pour mixture over fruit and stir until coated.
5. Sprinkle with almonds.

I like this recipe. It sounds very refreshing and tangy at the same time. It could become a family favorite. Definitely a must try.

For Dessert:
Sicilian Watermelon Pudding (Gelo di Melone) from saveur.com.
This recipe makes a thick pudding garnished with whipped cream, pistachios, citron and chocolate, dusted with the cinnamon. Brave to have chocolate with watermelon not sure about trying this recipe but I do like the idea of the thick watermelon pudding. I might change the garnish.

Quick and Easy Watermelon Pie from recipe4living.com.
Ingredients
1 9-in. graham cracker crust
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 C. lime juice
2 C. watermelon balls
4 oz. container refrigerated non-dairy topping, thawed
Directions
Fold together milk and topping. Add lime juice. Fold in watermelon balls, reserving about 5 balls for garnish. Pour into graham cracker crust. Place remaining watermelon balls on pie to garnish. Chill for 2 more hours before serving.
My feeling on this recipe, you can never go wrong with sweetened condensed milk. Simple preparation, not too fancy ingredients, I will try this recipe.

To find a ripe watermelon, look for a melon that is nice looking, meaning free of dents, bruises, cuts, etc. Check under the melon - if it has a yellow or light bottom, it should be ripe. If it's stripes are found all around the melon, pass on it. It's just not ready yet.

You may see people at the market tapping on watermelon. What exactly are they listening for? The are checking for signs of hollowness. It is sounds hollow, its ripe. Not hollow, unripe.

Look for a heavy melon. Watermelons are made up of mostly water, so an ideal melon should be heavy for its size.

Summertime sweetness is found in the flavor of watermelon. Enjoy one today!

Bake Me A Wish Helps Out

I recently posted a review about Bake Me a Wish Gourmet Cakes. I am impressed with the quality of the cakes. Here is a story about the quality of the people at Bake Me a Wish. Angela Logan and her “mortgage apple cake” have hit the big time. She began selling cakes to friends to help pay her mortgage. The media grabbed hold of the story creating a frenzy of orders for her Mortgage Apple Cake. The wonderful people at Bake Me A wish have contracted with Angela to let her use their baking facilities to catch up on all her orders. After Logan fills her pending cake orders, which are coming in from around the world, she will continue a business relationship with BakeMeAWish. The Mortgage Apple Cake eventually will become part of the company’s product line — the Web site was taking orders for it Thursday — and that proceeds from its sale will help other homeowners in financial distress. Bake Me A Wish, more than a cake, they fulfill people wishes too.

So Cute Cookie Bites

I happened upon a delicious looking blog called Playing With Sugar. Stacy created the most adorable, colorful Chocolate Chip Cookies cups. She states you can use your favorite chocolate chip recipe or even use a mix. They are made in a mini muffin pan. An indentation is made in the cookie right after removing them from the oven. When they are completely cooled, the cookie is filled with your favorite butter cream frosting. I love the simplicity of the recipe. Her colors are so bright. Too cute to eat. The recipe and the process she used is the Chocolate Dipped chocolate chip cookie bite recipe on her blog. These look scrumptious. This recipe is going in my one 2 try recipe box.

Intentional Chocolate Review - Do No Harm, Benefit Others

I recently had the pleasure of sampling a chocolate product from Intentional Chocolate. I was sent the Fine Dark Chocolate Pistoles with Intention (68% Cocoa Mass). The flavor is a rich dark chocolate with a pleasing lingering chocolate aftertaste. The purpose of Intentional Chocolate is more than just chocolate. Read on from the website:
Intentional Chocolate™ is the finest quality chocolate grown and manufactured with care and love and embedded with focused good intention by experienced meditators some of whom trained with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Intentional Chocolate is a premium chocolate with a special ingredient. You won’t taste it. You can’t smell it. There’s no way to see it. You feel it.

The ingredient is intention.

Think of how your favorite home cook adds healing properties in chicken soup. You may call it a “thought”, a “prayer”, or a “blessing”. We call it intention.

How it Works
In Madison, Wisconsin, experienced meditators – some who have trained with the Dalai Lama – project the positive intention into a device developed by HESA and licensed to Intentional Chocolate™ designed to capture, hold, and then transfer the intention into food products.

The intention projected by the monks into our chocolate through this revolutionary transfer technology is this:

“Whoever consumes this chocolate will manifest optimal health and functioning at physical, emotional and mental levels, and in particular will enjoy an increased sense of energy, vigor and well-being for the benefit of all beings.”

What It Does:
Consuming one ounce of Intentional Chocolate™ per day for three days increases well-being, vigor and energy. Those who ate Intentional Chocolate™ received the following benefits:
Decreased stress
Increased energy
Less fatigue
Greater calmness
Enhanced focus
Improved general well-being

The chocolates come in a variety of flavors which are stunning to look at. I truly enjoyed the flavor of the dark chocolate, it was rich, not too sweet, definitely calming. I have tried the 3 day suggested taste test and I must say I do feel some peace. I feel enlightened. Chocolate does that to me anyway but this seems different. I feel like I want to do some good for others. That is why I am featuring this review. In addition to the chocolate line they also sell:
Beverages
Gift Boxes
Greeting Cards
Gift Certificates
Jewelry with Intention
Clothing and Accessories

Giving Back
Intentional Chocolate™ donates 50 percent of its net profits to organizations committed to the benefit of humankind.

As a chocolate lover I believed I could find inner peace with chocolate. Intentional Chocolate knew it all along.

It's my Birthday! Cake and Ice Cream please!

Today is my birthday. I am 40 something, something. To celebrate I am going to Disneyland today. I am still in my childhood. So let's have cake and ice cream.

I picked out a cake at foodnetwork.com called Old Fashioned Root Beer Float Cake. Yum! This sounds like the perfect cake to go with ice cream. I love root beer and this recipe is made with root beer extract. It is perfect for my cake today.

I found the ice cream at Spork or Foon blog called Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream. Decadent, sweet caramel flavor in an ice cream treat. This one is a must make for me.

Happy Birthday to me. Now where did I put those Mickey Ears?

Corazonas Heart Healthy Snacks - Review

In the month of July there is one week with 3 birthdays in my family. We all celebrate together one big Happy Birthday. For our party I was able to bring Corazonas Heart Healthy snacks in several different flavors to sample. The good people at Corazonas sent me a bag of each of their potato chip and tortilla chip flavors to taste.

Corazonas is committed to raising awareness and education about heart health. Heart disease is the number one cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Maintaining proper cholesterol levels is just one part of an overall heart healthy approach to life. All of their chips contain plant sterols which are a key component of a heart healthy diet. Clinical studies indicate that, when consumed as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, plant sterols can help inhibit the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine by up to 50%, which in turn can lower LDL blood cholesterol by up to 15%. Many flavors also contain oatmeal, another important grain known to have cholesterol lowering properties.

I am impressed with the flavors of the chips. The whole grain tortilla chips come in Squeeze of Lime and Lightly Salted. The whole oat tortilla chips come in Original, Margarita Lime. Baja Bean Dip and Salsa Picante. The potato chips have the most varieties. The flavors are Slightly Salted, Italiano 4 cheese, Mediterranean Garlic & Herb, Pacific Rim BBQ and Spicy Rio Habanero. Enough flavors to please any chip lover.

Our taste test revealed the favorite flavor of my family is the Italiano 4 Cheese potato chip. They are delicious. The crunch of the chip combined with the cheesy flavor made us empty the bag very quickly. My favorite tortilla chip flavor is the Baja Bean Dip. It was like a chip and dip all in one. We had mixed reviews on the Spicy Habanero as some thought it was too spicy to eat while others (who like hot stuff) loved them. I was a little disappointed in the Pacific Rim BBQ. It needed more BBQ flavor and less ginger flavor for my taste. Overall the chips were so fantastic they have now become the must buy chips for our household.

Corazonas chips can be purchased nationwide at Safeway stores including Vons, Pavilions, Carrs, Dominick's, Randalls, Tom Thumb and Genuardi's, and Kroger stores including Ralphs, King Soopers, QFC, Fry's, Smith's, and Dillon's. If you can't find them at your local store they can also be purchased online from Amazon.com and direct from Corazonas webstore. Give these Corazonas Heart Healthy snacks a try. Your heart and tastebuds will thank you.

Winner of See's Candies Gift Card - Congratulations

I see everyone loves See's Candies. I had an astounding 351 comments. The winner chosen by random.org was #67. clynsg said... I would buy an assortment, but make certain that it included some truffles, peppermints and dark chocolate. Since there is a store in Tulsa, I could go and drool while picking them out!

The winner has been contacted by email. Congratulations and enjoy the chocolates.

Interesting recipe for today - Blueberry Ketchup

I featured the strawberry yesterday so today I found a recipe for the super food, the blueberry. On the blog site Crabby Cook, there is a Blueberry Ketchup recipe courtesy of Chef Jim LaPerriere via the Detroit Free Press. There are several more blueberry recipes from Chef Jim LaPerriere here. The ketchup sauce is made from fresh blueberries which are in most farmers markets in abundance right now. Per Chef Jim this sweet, tangy dipping sauce goes well with meats, cheeses and vegetables; try it as a glaze for barbecued pork tenderloin. Very interesting idea.

Love the Sweet Summer Strawberry

Here in California we have many strawberry fields with little wooden stands selling the sweet fresh-picked strawberries. There is one stand I am fond of with a wooden cut out of a strawberry man that just makes me smile every time I drive past it. I was searching on my favorite site foodgawker this morning and found some interesting strawberry recipes.

Crumb City blog has a Strawberry Margarita Pie made with a pretzel crust, sweetened condensed milk, strawberries and Tequila. Yes Tequila. This is not a pie for the kiddies. I love in the recipe it states tequila to taste. This is a frozen pie recipe which would be so cooling in the summer heat.


Snippets blog created a cold Strawberry and Spice Soup from a Taste of Home recipe. It contains cinnamon and cloves paired with the strawberries. I love the photos of the soup presentation. Very refreshing looking soup.


Interesting recipe for today: Spaghetti with Strawberries. cookthink has a very simple recipe using strawberries, pasta, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and pecorino cheese to create this intriguing dish. Apparently the balsamic vinegar takes away some sweetness of the strawberry making it a more complex flavor. This dish is served warm.

Try a taste of summer sweetness today.

Weinermobile crashed into home. Oh! -s-c-a-r

Honey there is a hot dog in our living room! Here is the full news story at Fox6now.

Is it just me that thinks the house looks ketchup colored? I relish any comments!

Interesting recipe for today - Zucchini Strudel

Being a wife of an avid home gardener, I understand the amounts of vegies that can come all at once. Here is a recipe I spotted making use of a zucchini harvest. The blog is Gotta Little Space and she made Zucchini Strudel. I love that she states If you don't know it's zucchini, you'll think it's apples. Guaranteed. This is a recipe to come in handy for all overloaded zucchini growers. My vegetable issue - tomatoes. He just went out to pick some more. How many batches of pasta sauce can I stuff in my freezer?

Bacon Brownies and Avocado Chocolate Cake? Say what?

I am very mystified by all the ways bacon has been showing up as ingredients in the weirdest taste combinations. I love bacon by itself and it will be interesting to try some of these recipes. I found a recipe this morning for Bacon Brownies at the examiner.com. The recipe features a slideshow of the baking process too. It seems simple enough with the use of a brownie mix. The recipe is on my list to try.

Here is another bacon recipe for French Toast and Bacon cupcakes with Maple buttercream frosting from the Busty Baker. These sound delish. Like having breakfast in a cupcake. I definitely will try this recipe.

The strangest combination I have seen so far does not involve bacon but it does contain avocado. I read about this vegan recipe featured at Joy the baker. Are you ready? It is for a Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake. Yes avocado in the cake and the frosting is avocado buttercream. You have to see it to believe it. Any vegans out there willing to try this one? I have no more words for this recipe.

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies?

I posted recently about Bacon Caramels. It intrigues me how many different ways bacon has been showing up in the oddest recipe combinations. It must be the sweet and salty taste sensation. In an email I read this morning from the FoodieView Blog there is a recipe for Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe is featured on pete bakes blog found here. Pete also shows a few photos of his cookie creation steps. Sounds like something you might try? I am not sure. Hubby says does not sound good but he would like to try it. If you try the recipe please comment and let me know how they taste.

See's Candies Gift Card Giveaway

****Update! Contest closed, awaiting response from chosen winner****

My favorite candy of all time is See's Candies. I am fortunate to live where See's shops have many locations. It is a must to give the chocolate variety boxes for holidays, birthdays and just because days. The first piece I choose out of the box every time is the Scotchmallow followed by the Walnut Square. It is a treat to enter one of the stores and be handed a sample while shopping. The chocolate smell is so inviting. Right now See's is offering summer varieties which include a Summer Berries assortment. I am also fond of the Lollypops which come in an assortment of flavors. If you have a See's close by, stop in for a little piece of chocolate decadence.

Here's your chance to win a $40.00 gift card to See's Candies (provided by myself). The card is good in the stores or on the Sees.com website.

Mandatory entry:
Visit Sees.com and let me know in a comment what you would purchase with your gift card. (1 entry)

Extra Entries: (optional - after Mandatory entry above)
Leave a separate comment for each entry
1. Follow my blog (left column)
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (please leave link)
3. Grab my button (please leave link)
4. Tell me what chocolate is your all-time favorite.

You have 5 chances to enter!

End date July 20th at 9:00 PM Pacific time. Open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be chosen by random.org and contacted by email on July 21st. Winner must reply within 72 hours or a new winner will be chosen. Please make sure to include your email address if not accessible in your blog profile.

Independent review and giveaway. No compensation from See's.

Bacon Caramels?

I admit I am a big fan of the Food Network. I love to watch all the cooking competitions. I recently found Foodgawker which is now one of my favorite sites to visit several times daily because it updates frequently. This morning there is a recipe for Bacon Caramels from a blog called Not Without Salt. My curiosity lead me to investigate further. The story about the creation as well as pictures plus the recipe can be found here. I must say the idea is not so far fetched. I know that bacon has made its way into many chocolates. This candy is for the person who craves the sweet with savory. It seems simple enough to make. I just might try this today.