Fun 4th of July Food!

We're getting close to one of my favorite holiday's.  The 4th of July is just a few days away and I've started planning some the fun food I'd like to do for the fam.  I found this awesome idea on Living Locutro (an online blog that I follow) for dipped strawberries and knew they had to be on the menu while we're in Indiana for the festivities.  They are super easy, too.  All you have to do is dip the end of the berry in white chocolate candy melts then dip the tip in blue sugar.

How cute are these "flag" strawberries?!  I can hardly wait to try them.  All you need to do them yourself is:

- Strawberries
- 1 bag of white candy melts (or white chocolate chips or almond bark - follow directions on pkg. for melting).
- Blue sugar (you can make your own colored sugars by putting sugar in a baggie, adding a couple of drops of food coloring, and shaking until all sugar has been colored).

They could also be done in school colors for school parties, pink & blue for baby showers, wedding colors for bridal showers...the possibilities are endless.

Eat, pray, love,

Brigette

Lettuce Storage

Lettuce storage has been a issue of mine for many years.  I eat a salad almost every day, so I buy a lot of lettuce.  But even with eating a lot of salads, I still end up throwing some away that has gone bad.  When lettuce turns, it turns fast and then it's slimy and gross. So I started doing a little research (as most of you know I love to do) and stumbled across a very happy surprise.  Mason jars are the perfect storage devise for lettuce!  How did I not know or not think of that?  I use mason jars for everything...why not lettuce? 

So I decided to give it a try.  I bought some fresh new hearts of romane, cleaned it, chopped it and packed into the jars.  Tonight was the true test...we were having a salad with dinner.  I opened the jars, which had created their own vacuum pack from the lids alone and poured it out...it was still bright and crunchy...like the day it went in the jar.  WooHoo!  I've finally found a way to keep lettuce from going bad before it all gets eaten.  Yay!!!!!

Brigette

Home Grown Tomatoes!

Summer Project #2...grow the tomatoes for Summer Project #1...canning...salsa, marinara, etc.  It has been several years since I have had a garden - 14 to be exact.  There is nothing like the taste of a fresh, just picked tomato.  I used to love to help my Grandpa Schrock pick the "new fancy cherry" tomatoes in his garden. About 1 in every 10 went straight into my mouth.   (He was always trying new plants and seeds.  One year we had green and striped pumpkins - now you have to pay twice as much for one like that - Clifford was so ahead of his time.  He even tried to grow kiwi fruit once - he found out you need a male and a female plant to make that happen - ordering just one didn't work.) 

So this year I decided to try the container garden method, at least for tomatoes.  If it goes well then I will expand next year.  And you my faithful friends & family followers get to go along for the journey.  To the right is a pic of the little guy in his new home just starting out...I'll keep you posted on his progress.  :)

Brigette

The Help...The movie!

I am so excited that they have made the book The Help into a movie.  I loved the book and can't wait to see it come alive on the big screen.  If you haven't read it or are looking for a great read for the summer...check it out.  And I mean literally check it out...I use my library all of the time.  I can access every book they have (and most others in the Chicagoland area) right from my computer.  I put it on hold and they send me an email when it's ready to be picked up.  It's literally the world at your fingertips!

Here's a little bit more about The Help...

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

"At the outset of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, three unique women unite to share the stories of dozens of the city's black servants, who have been kept voiceless for too long. Skeeter is fresh home from college, with big dreams of becoming a journalist, though her mother just wants her to find a husband. Aibileen, a black maid, is the heart and soul of her household, now working on raising her seventeenth white child. Her best friend Minnie, is the best cook in the city, but can not find a job because of her tendency to speak the cold truth. Together, these three unforgettable ladies launch a crusade to collect the stories of the town's silent servants, and try to tear down the unspoken racial barriers that traverse the homes and hearts of everyone in Jackson."

Brigette

Learn To Can!

That is going to be my summer project...I'm going to learn (or re-learn) how to can.  I did it with my Grandma Schrock and my parents as a kid & really didn't care for it.  It was hot and boring, and I always had to do the yucky jobs.  Now I see it very differently though.  I now see how awesome it was to have all of those great summer veggies and fruits and jams and sauces in the winter when I was missing them the most.

So wish me luck...I'm going to do this (at least the hot water method - pressure cookers still scare me to death) this summer and be very grateful this winter.

Brigette

Awesome Cookbook!

Do you have summer parties that you need food ideas for or just for your own dinner ideas for the family?  The Yorkville Jr. Women's Club cookbook has some awesome recipes that are perfect for summer entertaining.  A sample menu from the cookbook would be Lemonade Party Punch (pg. 4), Apple BBQ Pork Loin (pg. 21), Bruschetta Pasta Salad (pg. 9), and Strawberry Cheesecake Triffle (pg. 51).  Yummmmy!

The cookbook is for sale for only $10 and has a ton more recipes to help with all of your dining needs.  To get one for yourself (or as a gift for someone else - they make great gifts) you can go to http://www.yorkvillejwc.com/.  Or contact me directly.  (Note:  I am the current President of the Yorkville Jr. Women's Club and am very biased towards this cookbook, because I happen to have several recipes of my own in it.)  ;)

Brigette

No "S'more" Sticky Fingers!

I love s'mores....love, love, love them...but hate ending up with sticky fingers after the marshmallow oozes out the sides.  And, those of you who know me know that I had to get sticky while I eat.  Yuck!  Well no "s'more" sticky fingers!  Jet Puffed the makers of the new Stacker Mallows have finally come up with a square marshmallow that fits in the borders of the graham cracker & chocolate. 

My prayers have been answered!  (And I'm sure I'm not the only one...they didn't develop a whole new marshmallow just for me...that I know of.  ;)  I can hardly wait to try my first perfect s'more!

Brigette

No more ooozing s'mores  :(

Bridesmaids!

OMG...funniest movie I've seen in a loooooonnnng time!

I went and saw this movie last night with 7 other girlfriends (love my Jr. peeps) and we laughed so hard we were in tears (some even peed a little - shhhh).  It has a cast of incredibly funny women and actually tells a good story.  The premise is bride has an old friend and a new friend...they fight over being her best friend...need I say more.

This is definitely a movie you are going to want to go see with a group of girls.  One of us would start laughing and then the rest of us couldn't stop; however, the group of teenagers in front of us thought we were crazy.  I guess some of it you just have to be older to truly appreciate.  

There are so many RIDICULOUSLY funny parts, but I don't want to ruin it for anyone so I will refrain from telling too much.  All I have to say is..."BEEEELLLLLLLLCH, I would apologize, but I'm not even confident as to what end that came out of!"

I need to go now and get some more tissue, just writing about it is making me laugh until I cry again.

Brigette

Girl's Night Out ~ the movie Bridesmaids ~ a full review to come ~ WooHoo!

Grilled Pizza!?!

It was so hot today and I knew I did not want to turn on the oven…but wanted pizza for dinner.  So, I thought why not sure the grill as the oven.  I use it as an “oven” to make my Apple Pork Tenderloin, why not pizza?  

All I did was heat the grill like normal and then made the pizza on a piece of foil (spray with cooking spray to avoid sticking) on a cookie sheet for easy transport/transfer.  I, of course, made my crust from the fabulously, delicious Wildtree Pizza Crust mix and my sauce from the Wildtree Pizza Sauce mix ahead of time so it was all ready to go when I was ready to “bake” the pizza.  (I sell Wildtree so I’m going to add my own little ad/link here…www.mywildtree.com/brigette…if you haven’t tried it, you should – it is amazing stuff to help make meal time easy & healthy!)  Once I topped it with my toppings, I slid it off the cookie sheet onto the grill, which I turned down to low, and shut the lid.  After 10 mins. I checked it and found this beautiful, bubbly, cheesy pizza ready to be devoured.  I simply pulled the foil off the grill (with tongs) onto the cookie sheet and we were ready to enjoy!



Before



After

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed a pizza without heating up the house with the oven.  We can hardly wait for grilled pizza night again!

Eat, pray, love always!

Brigette

Point to ponder...

Why do firemen smoke?  Wouldn't they be the last people on earth to want to inhale smoke and risk starting a fire?   I started thinking about this after driving by a fire station that had a smoking area with one of those tall containers to dispose of cigarette butts.  It all seemed so odd to me.

Fun & Yummy!

Remember the ice cream push up pops of our youth?  Well, they're making a come back with a twist.  Cupcake Push Up Pops...and they are yummmmy! 

We were recently invited to a graduation party that we offered to do the cakes for (that will be another story, another day), and I wanted to make it fun - it was a high school graduation after all.  So I started doing a little research and found this awesome new cupcake trend.  Cupcake Push Up Pops!!!

It was love at first sight...I knew I had to do them for the party.  Since it's the newest trend in cupcakes, I found that the containers are a little hard to find.  But I did and everyone loved them!  Who knew a couple of mini cupcakes and my favorite Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting could be loved any more!?!  

We are definitely adding them to our cupcake menu at Frosted Sweets & Treats. 

PS:  Congratulations Amanda!

Here we go again...I hope!

Well...I'm going to try this again...I hope! 

I'm going to try to blog about things that interest me, humor me, I love to do, and just about everything that happens in between.  I love to cook, so most of it will be about food.  I also love to travel (but don't get to do it nearly enough), so some of it will be about our adventures.  And...as you could probably guess, a lot of it will be about my family & friends and all of the fun times we have together.

I'm really going to try very, very hard to post each day, but please forgive me if I miss a day or so - I'm only human (a very busy human at that).

So sit back and enjoy the ride!