Kisses Free Printable: August 2013

Fried Corn Zucchini Medley

One of the best things about summer is getting to eat fresh corn- on-the-cob. The next best thing is having leftovers, so I can cut the corn off the cob and made Fried Corn. (And when I cook corn-on-the-cob, I always make extra for leftovers.) Sometimes I just fry the corn by itself, sometimes I add other veggies. It depends on my mood. Since I still have zucchini to use up, I chose to make Fried Corn Zucchini Medley, a mixture of corn, onion, red pepper and zucchini. Diced fresh tomatoes, celery, green beans, peas and other vegetables can be added or substituted. Use what your family likes.

There is nothing earth shattering about this dish, but it is so very good. There is a crispness about cooked, fresh corn cut off the cob that simply cannot be duplicated with either canned or frozen corn.

I used some crisp fried bacon as a garnish, but more could be used to make it part of the dish. This could be turned into a main dish with the addition of some cooked meat or poultry. Omit the bacon and use olive oil, and this would be a tasty vegetarian dish.

This is so pretty that I don’t care that hubby won't eat this. I will just make it for myself and enjoy every bite.

This is a very fast recipe to make, taking only about 15 minutes including preparing the vegetables.

F
Fried Corn Zucchini Medley
2 T. butter or olive oil
1 medium zucchini, cut into about 1/4-inch dice (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 c. onion, cut in about 1/4-inch dice
1/2 c. red pepper, cut in about 1/4-inch dice
2 to 3 medium ears cooked corn-on-the-cob
1 slice bacon, crisp cooked and crumbled for garnish, optional
1 t. or so of your favorite seasoned salt or spice blend

Melt butter or heat olive oil in a medium to large skillet. Stir in zucchini, onion and red pepper. Cook over medium heat until crisp-tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. While vegetables are cooking, cut the corn kernels from the corn-on-the-cob. Add corn kernels and seasoned salt or spice blend to the vegetables, stir and cook until the corn is heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat, place in a serving dish and garnish with the bacon. Makes about 4 servings or a big one just for me.

Linking to these great parties:
Weekend Potluck
Full Plate Thursday
Thursday's Treasures
Fantastic Thursday
Showcase Your Talent Thursday
Catch a Glimpse Party

Potato Zucchini Meat Loaf Roll

Good Monday, all. Welcome to my new followers. As always many thanks to those who take time from their busy lives to stop and read this blog. You are much appreciated, and I hope that what you find here is useful to you.

Still getting zucchini from my daughter, still trying to find ways to use it. As I said last week, hubby really doesn’t care for zucchini except in sweets, but this is a dish that I dreamed up that passed muster with him. He actually said that it was very good and ate the leftovers for his dinners last week until it was gone.

It wasn’t all that creative, I just decided to use my go-to meat loaf recipe, roll it out and spread it with a filling of shredded potato, zucchini, diced red pepper and onion bound together with an egg, add some grated cheese, roll it up and bake it.

Now I would like to say that everything went smoothly, but I did have a little trouble with the meat roll separating a bit in the middle. There are two things that I will do differently the next time I make this. I will salt the zucchini and potato. put it in a sieve and press some of the moisture out. I will not pat the meat loaf mixture out as thinly as I did this time.

This is more what I had hoped the entire roll would look like.

I omitted the onion in my meat loaf since I was putting it in the filling. I used a Lucerne (Safeway) product called Mac and Cheese Blend grated cheese which melted very nicely in this. I made a simple gravy to serve with the meat roll using a can of beef broth, 1/4 c. flour, 2 t. Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of garlic powder and a bit of coarse ground pepper. Ketchup or tomato sauce could also be spread over the top of the roll before putting it in the oven.

Zucchini, Potato Meat Loaf Roll
1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 c. dried bread crumbs
1 t. salt
1/2 t. rubbed sage
1/4 t. pepper
2/3 c. milk
1 egg
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 c. grated potatoes, about 2 medium potatoes, peeled
1 c. grated zucchini
1/2 c. finely chopped red pepper
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
1 egg, beaten
1 c. shredded cheese, flavor of choice

Place ground beef in a large mixing bowl. Add bread crumbs, salt, sage and pepper. Mix lightly to combine ingredients. Measure milk into a glass measuring cup. Add egg and Worcestershire sauce and beat well with a fork or whisk. Add to meat mixture and mix lightly until well blended. Spread a length of foil (about 15 inches long) out on baking sheet. Turn meat mixture out onto foil and press out to about a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Place potato and zucchini in a sieve and salt lightly. Let sit for a few minutes over a bowl. Press vegetables with the back of a spoon to remove excess moisture. Place in a medium bowl and add red pepper and onion. Add beaten egg and mix until all the potato and zucchini is moistened. Spread the vegetable mixture in an even layer over the meat mixture. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the vegetable mixture. Using both ends of the foil to assist, roll up as for a jelly roll. Leave foil under meat loaf and place baking pan in oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven, bring ends of foil over meat loaf and let sit 10 minutes before serving. Cut into slices and serve. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Linking to these great parties:
What'd You Do This Weekend
Make the Scene Monday
Mix It Up Monday
Made by You Monday
Monday Funday
Recipe Sharing Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Marvelous Monday
Busy Monday
Inspiration Monday
Tuesday Trivia
Tasty Tuesday
Tasteful Tuesday
Totally Tasty Tuesday
Show Me What You Got
Two Cup Tuesday
Show Me What Ya Got
Time to Sparkle

Coconut Pecan Drops-Saturday Sweet

Instead of calling these Coconut Pecan Drops, I almost called them Accident Cookies, but that is not very SEO friendly. I wanted to do that because, the cookies came about because I misread the directions for a cookie recipe I was trying.

I mixed the coconut pecan frosting in with the rest of the ingredients, but that was not what I was supposed to do. The frosting was to just be used as an icing. After I realized what I had done, I had two choices: throw everything out or go ahead and bake the dough and see what happened.

I chose to bake the dough. What I ended up with was a nice, soft cakey cookie. The cake mix flavor can be varied to make several different flavors. I used yellow cake mix, but I think butter pecan flavor would be great if you can find it in your area. Of course, German chocolate or any chocolate cake flavor would be good also.

Have you ever made a mistake with a recipe that turned out to be OK in the end?

Coconut Pecan Drops
1 box (18 oz.) cake mix with pudding in the mix, your choice of flavor
1 can coconut pecan frosting
1 c. plain or vanilla yogurt (I used Greek)
1 egg
1/2 c. toasted coconut
1/2 c. chopped, toasted pecans

Place the cake mix in a large mixing bowl. Add frosting and mix until very well combined. Measure yogurt in a glass measuring cup. Add egg and mix with a whisk until well blended. Stir yogurt into cake mixture and stir until well blended. Stir in coconut and pecans. Drop by teaspoonsful onto greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown on the bottom. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Cookies will remain moist so store in a container with waxed paper between the layers. Makes about 5 to 6 dozen cookies.

Linking to these great parties:
Freaking Awesome Friday
Weekend Potluck
Strut Your Stuff
Weekend Bloggy Reading
I'm Lovin' It
Link Party Palooza
Party Junk
Saturday Spotlight

Deviled Egg Pasta Salad

I like deviled eggs, and I like pasta salad. The other day I was thinking about making a pasta salad to eat for lunch the rest of the week. I also was thinking about deviled eggs. I decided to see if I could make a pasta salad with the flavor of deviled eggs. So Deviled Egg Pasta Salad was born.

I finally got brave and turned my camera so it would take a more vertical picture. These are better for Pinterest so they say. I also tried putting text on my photos for the first time. There is hope that this old grandma can get in the groove yet. Now if I can just get brave enough to actually use my DSLR.

When I am making a salad just for me, I always use ingredients that I like. Change or sub ingredients to fit your tastes. I had green onions that needed to be used up, other wise I would have used another variety of finely chopped onion.

Since pasta seems to absorb dressing, it may be necessary to add a little more mayonnaise or some sour cream after the salad has set for awhile.

Deviled Egg Pasta Salad
2 c. small shell pasta or other small pasta
6 eggs, hard cooked
1/2 c. thinly sliced green onion or 1/3 c. finely diced yellow, white or red onion
1/3 c. finely diced red pepper
2 ribs celery, cut in half vertically and thinly sliced on the diagonal
10 black olives, cut into eighths
1 medium dill pickle, finely chopped
2/3 c. mayonnaise
1 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. white wine vinegar
1/4 t. coarse ground pepper

Cook pasta in boiling water according to package directions. Drain. Cool with cold water and thoroughly drain again. Pour into large mixing bowl. Peel eggs and cut in half. Remove yolks and put in a small mixing bowl. Chop the egg whites and add to the pasta. Add onion, red pepper, celery, black olives and dill pickle. Stir to combine ingredients. Using a fork, mash the yolks until very smooth. Add mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, vinegar and pepper to the egg yolks. Beat until well combined. Spoon dressing over the pasta and mix until pasta and vegetables are thoroughly coated. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Makes 4 generous servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Full Plate Thursday
Thursday's Treasures
Fantastic Thursday
Tasty Thursday
Showcase Your Talent
Catch a Glimpse Party

Apple Cinnamon Zucchini Bars

I am still getting lots of zucchini from my daughter so there will be at least a few more zucchini recipes posted here. Truth be told, hubby does not like zucchini except in sweets so that is what I use the zucchini in most often.

For some time now I have been wanting to use Smucker's Apple Cinnamon Topping in a cookie recipe. I had been giving it a lot of thought and sort of knew what I wanted to do. At the last minute, I decided that I would add some grated zucchini to the recipe. Using grated zucchini is a wonderful way to hide it. With the apple and the cinnamon, I am not sure you can not even taste the zucchini in these.

I am going to try this recipe using pineapple ice cream topping and zucchini next.

Apple Cinnamon Zucchini Bars
2 1/4 c. flour
3/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 c. butter
1/2 t. cinnamon
2/3 c. quick oats
1/2 c. finely chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
1 jar (12 oz.) Smuckers Apple Cinnamon Topping
1 1/2 c. grated zucchini
1/4 c. flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Pat 3 c. of mixture evenly into the bottom of a foil-lined 9x13-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, let cool 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile add cinnamon, quick oats and nuts to the remaining flour mixture. Set aside. In a medium bowl combine apple cinnamon topping, the grated zucchini and the flour. Mix well. Spread mixture over the slightly cooled, baked crust. Sprinkle flour/oats/nut mixture evenly over the apple/zucchini filling. Pat down gently with your hand. Place in oven and bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Place on wire rack and let cool completely before cutting into bars. Makes about 36

Linking to these great parties:
Create and Share Party
Cast Party Wednesday
Show and Share Wednesday
What's Cookin' Wednesday
What's in Your Kitchen Wednesday
Whimsy Wednesday
Wow Me Wednesday at Gingersnap Crafts
Wow Me Wednesday at Polkadots on Parade

Discover Ways To Prepare Creative Home-Made Cupcakes, Desserts, Home Decorations and Fashioned Stuff

Discover new ways on preparing home and self-stuffs artistically online! Baking cupcakes, cooking delicious recipes and creating artistic home decorations and even jiving to new trends of fashion stuffs like of nail arts and hair styles can be very easy for you with the help of this site. This site will be your helpmate to do out of this world creative creation. Also, offers a step-by-step tutorial demonstration of activities. It would be very helpful for you to have varieties of creations. The LIKE IT SHORT site has its updated advertisements of new recipes and trends which will definitely help you discover and try new possessions. Moreover, this site will teach you on how to be creative, resourceful and initiative in many ways that could make complex ideas of arts from scratch.And, will lead you not to be dependent on ready-mades instead let yourself to be the one to create and design. So let's get started!

When talk about foods and desserts! Creative evolution of cooking recipes and baking cakes dominates the nation rapidly. We can see and appreciate those stuffs at parties like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and more. Through this site, you don't need to hire caterers or even buy expensive ready-made foods and desserts for party servings;you can now make it by yourselfdeliciously and creatively. This site offers you a detailed ways on how to prepare cupcakes, healthy dishes and more from ingredients up to plating.

What about having gifts and souvenirs? There is no need to buy expensive ready-made gifts and souvenirs because you can actually have it home-made. You can now customize simple presents to make extraordinary offerings. Even a simple thing can become complex with the use of imaginative skills. Try to check out some available wedding souvenirs and birthday gifts in this site and you can have it in your most creative and convenient way. Remember that hand-made is greatly appreciable. However, following this site will teach you new ideas of inspired gifts.

How to make house a sweet home? Hmmmm...You may think that having an attractive house is expensive, you may think it wrong. Other than having luxurious furniture and decorations, make your own styles to make home utensils attractive and appreciable in to the eyes of others. Make use of old stuffs that can revamp a new one. This site has various challenging ways that will make you fun while altering the old ones.

Lastly, Be on the trend! Indeed, fashion moves rapidly. Affording the new trends every after another might be a ridiculous to have. This site will help you to have customized yet elegant bracelets, necklace, bags and other fashion stuffs. You don't need to spend more time and money to get out and buy new fashioned trends, with the available tutorials that this site offers, you can have it all.

Just follow the steps that the site offers and you'll be experiencing a simple yet creative masterpiece and feel like a master. There's no need for you to contact experts or even spend big money to be on trend. Try to check out every new updates that this site have and you'll be having a standout of arts that you never thought. It's never too late to start, so why start now? THINK, DISCOVER, FOLLOW and creativity will follow.

Lucy Handler Photo

Click Here for more exciting blogs and recipes. Do not miss the chance to visit the website. You can also share it to your friends. So check it out now.
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Oriental Fried Ramen-Starving Student’s Survival

My granddaughter calls Oriental Fried Ramen Starving Student’s Survival. That is because this recipe can feed four people for less than $2.00, and she is a starving student in California. It is a "go-to" recipe for her.

I like to have fried rice as a side dish when I make something Oriental. Since hubby doesn’t really care for rice, I often make this dish instead. Use your favorite ramen noodle flavor in this.

Like all recipes for fried rice, you can use whatever veggies that you want in this dish or whatever you happen to have in the fridge. I rarely make this exactly the same way twice in a row. I do almost always use onion and red pepper. This particular time I used carrots and snow peas. I also sometimes add chopped nuts.

Although I include eggs when I make this, they can be left out, and almost any kind of cooked meat (even bacon) can be used to make it more of a main dish.

The recipe is loosely based on a recipe I found at - http://busycooks.About.com a number of years ago.

Oriental Fried Ramen
2 pkgs. Ramen noodles, flavor of choice
3 c. boiling water
1 T. vegetable oil
1 t. sesame oil (optional)
1/2 c. chopped onion (regular or green)
1/2 c. chopped red pepper
1/2 c. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch matchsticks
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c. frozen peas (or chopped snow peas or sugar snap peas)
2 T. soy sauce
2 eggs, beaten
1 to 2 c. chopped cooked meat or poultry

Break ramen noodles into six or eight pieces and place in a medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the contents of the seasoning packets. Pour boiling water over noodles and let set while preparing rest of ingredients. Heat vegetable oil and sesame oil in a medium skillet. Add onion, red pepper, carrots and garlic. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until tender crisp, about 7 minutes. Drain noodles well and add to skillet. Add soy sauce and mix until well blended. Cook and stir noodles 1 or 2 minutes. Push noodles to the side of the skillet and pour eggs into the center. Cook eggs, scrambling and cutting into small pieces as the eggs cook. Mix eggs with noodles. Add meat or poultry if using and heat through. Serve as a side or main dish as desired. Makes 4 servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Tuesday Trivia
Tasteful Tuesday
Totally Tasteful Tuesday
Show Me What You Got
Two Cup Tuesday
Show Me What Ya Got
Tasty Tuesday
Time to Sparkle

Pork Stew with Dill Dumplings

Happy Monday. Welcome to my new followers. Thank you all for stopping by my blog and reading my posts. It is so nice to have you here. Hope that you find the information I post useful.

Although it is still warm here, I recently was hungry for stew. Pork is more tender than beef so it cooks more quickly. This makes it a good choice for making stew in the summer. Pork Stew with Dill Dumplings fits the bill.

Either pork shoulder or loin may be used, but the shoulder will be slightly more flavorful. As wthl all stews, the vegetables can be changed to suit personal preferences. Although I usually use frozen peas for this dish, the stew in the photos has drained, canned peas in it. I had some of those left over in the fridge that needed to be used up.

Pork Stew with Dill Dumplings
1 to 1 1 /2 lbs. boneless pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 c. flour
1 t. paprika
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper, coarse ground if possible
2 T. or more vegetable oil
3 medium/large potatoes (about 1 1/2 lb.) peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 c. coarsely chopped onion
2-3 medium carrots (1 c.) cut into 1x1/4-inch matchstick pieces
1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch bias slices
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (14 oz.) low-sodium chicken broth
1 c. frozen peas
Dumplings
1 c. flour
2 t. sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. dried dill weed
1/3 c. milk
2 T. vegetable oil
1 egg

Place flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a plastic bag and shake to combine. Add pork cubes and shake until the cubes are coated. Heat the vegetable oil in a Dutch oven. Add pork cubes, but do not let them touch. (You may need to do this in two batches.) Brown cubes on all sides. Remove and set aside. Continue until all cubes are brown, adding more oil if necessary. Return pork to Dutch oven and add potatoes, onion, carrots, red pepper, celery, bay leaf and garlic. Stir in remaining flour. Pour in chicken broth and stir well. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 30 minutes. While stew is cooking, prepare dumplings. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and dill weed. Stir to mix well. Combine milk, vegetable oil and egg in a small bowl. Add to flour mixture and stir just to moisten dry ingredients. Add peas to stew and bring back to a low boil. Drop dumpling mixture by tablespoonsful into hot stew. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and serve. Makes 6 servings. Store dumplings and stew separately if there are leftovers.

Linking to these great parties:
What'd You Do This Weekend
Make the Scene Monday
Monday Funday
Mix It Up Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Marvelous Monday
Inspiration Monday
Made by You Monday
Busy Monday

Savvy Treats Delivering & Catering to DC, VA, MD

At Savvy Treats we strive to make your day as sweet as possible with our deliciously made cupcakes. No longer do you have to walk all the way over to a store or a bakery and go to the hassle getting your order carefully back home in one piece. We'll do it for you! Savvy Treats is now delivering cupcakes to your doorstep anywhere in DC, MD or VA. We offer you a wide variety of flavours to choose from:

Carrot Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese FrostingRed Velvet Devils Food with Whipped Cream Cheese FrostingVanilla Bean Cake with Vanilla Bean FrostingGerman Chocolate with Chocolate FrostingSalty Caramel with Salted Caramel Butter Cream FrostingLemon Cake with Lemon FrostingChocolate Cake with GanachePeanut Butter BlossomPumpkin Cake with Apple Butter FrostingToffee CrunchChocolate MochaCupcake of the Month: Pink Lemonade

You can order any of the above in any assortment with a minimum order of 12. A new addition to our shop is the mini-cupcake which is available in the same flavours as mentioned with a minimum order of 24.

Savvy Treats at Your Event

No matter what event you are hosting, be it a birthday, a wedding, a Bar Mitzvah or any other festivity, we will make sure that our cupcakes are delivered safely to you. We will gladly accept your calls and messages for the details, and if you are unable to do so we also have an online order form which you can fill out in a jiffy.

Apart from that we also provide you with the service of catering at your party. You can contact us and tell us what it is that you require from our existing menu or have it customized especially for you. So whichever event that you are planning, let us make it a little more delightful.

Party Favor Fun

With our new party favors, you can have your guests go home with their own Savvy Treats. Choose from our variety of cupcakes or mini-cupcakes and add your own touch with a personal message. Include them in your order as a perfect way to thank your friends for being a part of your special day. Please keep in mind that currently our catering and delivery system is limited to the DC, MD and VA metropolitan area.

Savvy Treats knows that quality products are very important to the consumer today. We delivered Wedding Cakes DC in Washington.
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Free Teacher Coloring Candy Bar Wrapper Printable

After the successful (no argument) afternoon when we made our Coloring Personalized Notebooks, I was in a hurry to try again, so we designed up a Teacher gift for the kids' first day of school.

We designed this coloring candy bar wrapper for the kids to color and wrap around a 1.5 ounce Hershey candy bar.

It's as simple as printing the candy bar wrapper and cutting it out.

Enjoy coloring away...

I used some aluminum foil to wrap my Hershey bar so the brown ends aren't shown, then wrapped my candy bar with the printable.

If you aren't in the mood to color, I've also included a printable for you with the original colors. Because going back to school, doesn't have to be any harder than it already is!

With color...

Without.

Chocolate and Vanilla Waffle Cookies-Improv Challenge

I am back with my post for the other challenge I participate in. The ingredients Kristen, from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker, chose for this month's Improv Challenge were chocolate and vanilla.

There is chocolate and vanilla in many recipes, but I decided that I would play the combination up a bit by adapting a Chocolate Waffle Cookie recipe to be a two-tone cookie with one side being vanilla flavored. Although the baking process is a bit time consuming, waffle cookies are a great treat to make in summer time when it is hot, and you don't want to use the oven. Waffle cookies make a more cookie-like cookie than many no-bake recipes. These cookies are soft and cake-like. My waffle iron makes 4 cookies at a time. If you have a family-size waffle iron, you can probably make 8 at a time.

Chocolate and Vanilla Waffle Cookies
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. butter, softened
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 t. vanilla, divided
1 1/2 c. flour plus 3 T.
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. milk
3 T cocoa powder
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)
1 c. sifted powdered sugar
3 T. water or milk

In large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter and beat until creamy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 of flour mixture to sugar/egg mixture mix well. Add 1/2 of the milk and beat well. Continue adding flour mixture and milk in this manner ending with the flour mixture. Divide dough, placing half of it in a small mixing bowl. Add cocoa powder to one of the bowls of dough mixing until well blended. Add 1 t.vanilla and the 3 T. flour to the other half of the dough and mix well. Add chopped nuts, if using, dividing them evenly between dough halves. Heat waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Drop a teaspoon of chocolate dough into two opposite corners of each waffle grid. Drop a teaspoon of white dough next to the chocolate dough. Close lid and cook until the waffle iron indicates cookies are done. Gently remove the cookies with a fork and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Combine powdered sugar and water to make a smooth glaze. Brush glaze over the cookies. Let set. Transfer to a zip top bag to store. Makes about 3 dozen.

September's Improv ingredients are pasta and cheese. If you would like to join in the fun, you can find all the details on Kristen's Improv Page.

To see what other bloggers have made with chocolate and vanilla, check out the links below.

Linking to these great parties:
Friday Flair
Freaking Awesome Friday
Strut Your Stuff
Weekend Potluck
Weekend Bloggy Reading
I'm Lovin' It
Link Party Palooza
Saturday Spotlight
Share Your Creativity
Party Junk

Dilly Red Onions and a Salad Idea-Eating the Alphabet

This is a month when the 15th and the third Thursday occur on the same day, so I am posting for each of the challenges I participate in. We are up to the letters M, N and O in the Eat the Alphabet Challenge hosted by Brenda from Meal Planning Magic. Since I love onions, I jumped right past M and N and went to O.

I also like dill so Dilly Red Onions are "right down my alley" as they say. Although I did use red onions because they are so pretty, regular yellow or white onions can be used, and sweet onions, such a Walla Walla Sweets, are great in this recipe.

Although they need to chill a few hours, these are very easy to make and very versatile. Use the onions in salads, as a topping for hamburgers and sandwiches, and I love to just eat them on their own. The onions do become a bit soft so are best eaten within a day or two.

Cut the onions into rings if you prefer. I just find it easier to cut the onion in half.

Dilly Red Onions
1 large red onion, cut in half and sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices
1/3 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. dried dill weed
1/4 c. water

Place sliced onions in a medium bowl that has a lid. Combine sugar, salt, dill weed and water. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Pour over onions. Cover and refrigerate at least 5 hours, stirring every half hour or so. Drain onions with a slotted spoon. Use in salads, on hamburgers and sandwich or just enjoy eating as is.

One of my favorite things to do with the onions (other than just eating them like popcorn) is to combine them with red pepper rings and sugar snap peas and serve them on a bed of lettuce with a simple dressing of mayonnaise and dill weed.

Dilly Red Onion, Red Pepper and Sugar Snap Pea Salad (ingredients for a salad for one person, increase accordingly if serving more)
1 or 2 head lettuce leaves
3 or 4 slices red pepper rings
handful of sugar snap peas
big spoon full of drained Dilly Red Onions
a couple tablespoons mayonnaise (may use sour cream or yogurt instead, if desired)
dash of dried dill weed

Arrange the lettuce leaves on a salad plate. Combine the red pepper rings, sugar snap peas and Dilly Red Onions in a small bowl. Mix together the mayonnaise and dash of dill weed and stir well. Add mayonnaise to the vegetables and mix until vegetables are covered with dressing . Fish out the red pepper rings and place on the lettuce. Do the same things with the sugar snap peas. Top red peppers and peas with the onions. Makes one serving.

There is still time to join the Eating the Alphabet Challenge. Brenda has all the details in this post.

To see what other bloggers in the challenge have made with M, N and O, check out the links below.

Now that you have been good and eaten your salad, come back later for Chocolate and Vanilla Waffle Cookies.

Linking to these great parties:

Thursday's Treasures

Fantastic Thursday

Full Plate Thursday

Showcase Your Talent

Catch a Glimpse Party

Coloring Book Personalized Notebooks for School

It's the Most Wonderful Time Of The Year....Back to school time.

I think I get a strange kind of "high" about this time each year. I think it's a combination of the cheap school supplies on sale as well as knowing my kids will be going starting a whole new year with new experiences and going to school all day, really excites me. I love it.

But have you noticed how kids all seem to want the themed notebooks and supplies? The ones that AREN'T on sale? And it's like the stores raise the prices on the New Direction, Princess, and Superhero notebooks to make up for the prices on the other supplies. YIKES!

So we decided to make our own personalized notebooks this year for school. That way, my kids can get any theme they want as well as an afternoon of coloring.

We started by purchasing a few of the cheap notebooks at Walmart. Most of the other supplies we had on hand since this is a project I do quite often for gifts. You might not have these, so you'll need

Fiskars Hand Punch, 1/8-Inch, Circle
Xyron XRN900 9-Inch Creative Station Multi-Function Crafting System (or other laminator)

Xyron XRN900 Lamination Refill for 9-Inch Creative Station, 40-Feet

2 Binder Clips

Now go ahead and google search for a coloring page with the theme that your kids want.

We did one with M&M characters, one with Eeyore, and one with a fun geometric design.

Print out your color page to whatever size that your notebooks are. Mine were 8 x 10 1/2 inches. But double check because you don't want it too small.

Go ahead and let your kids color their page. This should keep them busy for a while, especially if you have a yummy snack to eat while working. I LOVED having an hour or so of no fighting.

While the kids are quietly coloring, you may want to do this next part, because trust me...it's not something you want to tackle while the kids are underfoot. It can be a bit frustrating depending upon your type of notebook.

You need to remove the spiral from the paper and notebook. To do this, you need to unlatch the spiral at the top and bottom of the notebook. Then slowly "unroll" the spiral up and out of the notebook. It's easiest if you try to rebend it so it just flows, but not all notebooks are created equal in the ease of this.

By the time you are doing un-spiraling all your notebooks, your kids will probably be done coloring. Using your laminator (I LOVE my Xyron XRN900 for this with the Lamination Refill.It's a craft essential I couldn't live without), laminate your coloring page. This will keep them waterproof and semi-durable. (With my kids NOTHING is completely durable!)

Now go ahead and cut out along the edge of the coloring page so the laminate is only on the page.

Now if you have a son that likes to doodle in class or doesn't finish his elaborate design, you can decide not to laminate it and just continue. This will allow your kids to color their notebook later at their own pace.

Using the front of the original notebook, line up the top with the laminated coloring page underneath. I like to use binder clips to secure the pages so they don't move around while I'm working. It's not fun to have to keep re centering your pages.

Using your 1/8-Inch, Circle hole punch, punch holes through the coloring page using the notebook front as a guide.

Remove your binder clips and discard the original notebook front. Using the coloring page as your new notebook front, line the pages all back up and re-thread the spiral through the front, paper, and back of your notebook. This is usually a little easier than un-spiraling.

Now you have new themed personalized notebooks for your kids at a cost that won't kill the Back to School mood.

Photo Cakes - An Emerging Trend to Glorify Your Celebration

There are some special occasions in the lives of each and every one of us. We all wish to celebrate those occasions with our dear ones in a unique and decent style. We all look for some kinds of activities/arrangement which could help us make those joyous moments with our relatives and friends unforgettable. We all hope to include some elements which others have not seen before to make the celebrations more attractive and enjoyable.

Photo Cake is a new, divine full and incredible way to celebrate the gracious occasions of your life. Photo Cakes as the name suggests is a variety of cakes with a picture printed on its top. A snap is printed on the top of the cake which is edible and non harmful to health. Picture is printed only by using edible ingredients and is placed on corn paper which can be eaten without any effect on body, except active salivary glands and watering mouth. In India where most of the people belong to hindu community and do not prefer eating cakes on occasion just because they think that it contains egg. But that is not true. Cakes can be available in both egg and eggless variety which provides some sort of relief of people belongs to hindu religion.

Photo cakes in Delhi are getting pace with its popularity amongst the delhities of all age group. In this 21st century era we all hope to celebrate our relationship and bonds with a grand party and cutting ceremony has become an indispensable part of celebration.

When we hear about some special occasion like someone's birthday, anniversary, wedding, engagements get together etc. Our heart starts pounding and we start going over past date and recollect special events date. Our mind starts anticipating the celebration of the event. We think of making the event glorious. We think about the gifts that we can provide to loving ones.

Now a day's traditional gifts and celebrations do not work well. Everyone wants to see his/her beloved one extremely happy. Probably photo cakes are the best option to put a glorious smile on someone's face.

Photo cakes in Noida have got an edge over other traditional gifts. In this concept the client provides the soft copy of snap to the dealer and dealer bakes the delicious creamy cake for client. I myself have been a part of many parties and have witnessed this trend empowering. I would say probably half of the parties had a cake cutting ceremony and that has a photo cake. I would not be exaggerating by saying that his trend has become divine of parties.

We like to celebrate versatile events ranging from birthday, anniversary, and festivals, get together award winning events etc, and now a day no party is complete without a cake cutting ceremony.

Now this trend is giving pace in metropolitan cities of India. In this concept you get the cake personalized as per requirement. Different sizes, designs remain available. Chocolate, black forrest, butter scotch, Choco chips, fruit gel, truffle, tutti-fruity etc are some of the most popular flavours of customized cakes.

Cake cutting ceremony used to be an exceptional part of celebrations a few years back but now almost every celebration keeps some space for this trait. You can order a cake for your own birthday, reunion etc, and also you can use it as a customized gift for your dear ones. Every human being on this earth feels happy when treated differently by his/her relatives/friends. It puts the never ending smile on the face of your beloved ones. The unforgettable tastes delightful creamy architecture can make your loving ones happy and yours forever. This heartfelt gift creates a rejuvenated and energetic bonding with your beloved ones.

Hitesh Aggarwal writes article for cakes and its appropriate category like photo cakes in Delhi, photo cakes in Ghaziabad, photo cakes in Noida, designer cakes, anniversary cakes, cartoon cakes, customized cakes and more. For more info just visit

Different Ways to Prepare Dream Cake

While you plan to bake a perfect dream cake, you need to follow certain guidelines to get it right. Whenever you bake a cake, it is always advisable to use the baking tin size as mentioned in the recipe. And, most importantly, you need to line it well. Baking parchment is a good choice for lining because it is non-stick. Oil dusted flour or softened butter dusted flour could be used as alternatives. However, make sure that you do not use too much fat as it might end up frying the sides of the cake. Below mentioned are a few recipes to bake a lovely dream cake.

Recipe 1

Ingredients required to prepare this dream cake are:

Bottom layer:

All purpose flour - 1 ½ cPacked brown sugar - ¾ cButter - ¾ c

Top layer:

Sweetened condensed milk - 11 ozVanilla - ½ tspChopped walnuts - ½ cChopped glace cherries - 1/3 cShredded coconut - 1 ½ c

Preparation: Mix the sugar and flour together to make the bottom layer. Cut in the butter and combine it till it is crumbly. Pack into an ungreased pan of size 9"x13". Bake for 10 minutes or till it turns golden in color in the oven at 350 degrees F.

To make the top layer, in a bowl stir all the five ingredients together. Spoon this mixture over the bottom layer and spread it. Bake for 30 minutes or till it turns golden in color in the oven at 350 degrees F. Before serving, cool the cake.

Recipe 2

Ingredients required to prepare this dream cake are:

Yellow cake mix - 1Eggs - 4Oil - ¾ cCrushed pineapple - 20 oz, with half the juice

Coconut pineapple icing:

Crushed pineapple with the juice - 20 ouncesMargarine - 1 stickPowdered sugar - 16 ouncesCoconut - 1 can

Preparation of the icing: Heat together margarine and pineapple. Boil for 2 minutes. Add the coconut and the powdered sugar. Keep it aside and do ensure to keep it warm.

Cake: Beat together all the ingredients for the cake with a mixer for 4 minutes. Pour the batter into the greased and floured baking pan of size 9x13 inch. Bake the mixture in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean after inserting it into the middle. Cool it and spread the icing over the cake.

Recipe 3

Ingredients required to prepare this dream cake are:

White cake mix - 1 regular-size packageCherry gelatin - 3 ozBoiling water - 1 ½ cSoftened cream cheese - 8 ozWhipped topping - 2 cCherry pie filling - 21 oz

Preparation: According to the package instructions, prepare the cake mix using a greased pan of size 13x9 inch. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. In boiling water, dissolve the gelatin. Cool the cake for 5 minutes on a wire rack. With a wooden skewer, poke holes in the cake and slowly pour the gelatin over the cake. Cool it for a few minutes. Cover and keep it in the fridge for at least half an hour.

The Danish term for dream cake is drømmekage . You can get some amazing recipes for dream cake at one of the finest Danish websites - Femina .

BLT Salad with a little O

I rarely repost a recipe from another blog, but sometimes I really have to. A couple of weeks ago, Lynn from Happier than a Pig in Mud posted the most delicious-looking tomato salad recipe. I knew that I would have to give it a try.

Just that day, I got called into work during my vacation. Since I had to drive to town, I stopped at our local produce stand and purchased the very first local tomatoes of the season. We had been waiting impatiently for them. All I could think about at work was that tomato salad, but I really wanted a bacon, lettuce and tomato salad also. So, when I got home from work, I made a BLT salad and used the dressing from Lynn’s recipe. I cannot begin to tell you how good this was. There is nothing quite as good as fresh, local tomatoes.

I halved Lynn’s dressing recipe using rice vinegar instead of cider vinegar. I needed to use only half of the dressing for a salad for one. The dressing kept well, and I had another salad a day or two later. Thanks, Lynn, for a great new dressing recipe.

About the “O”, I had some red onion that I needed to use up, and I like onion in my salad, so the addition of “O” it was. Use freshly cooked bacon in this salad. It makes a world of difference.

The ingredients listed are for a salad for one. If it is being made for more people, increase accordingly.

B L T Salad with a Little O
2 slices bacon
1 1 /2 c. lettuce cut into chunks
1 medium fresh tomato
1/4 c. chopped red onion
some croutons to top salad

Lynn’s Dressing (This is half of her recipe and I only used half of this for the salad.)
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 T. sugar
1/2 T. vinegar (your choice)
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/8 t. onion powder
1/8 t. dried dill weed
salt and pepper to taste

Cook bacon until very crisp. Drain, cool and crumble into large pieces. While bacon is cooking, stir together the sour cream, sugar, vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, dill weed, salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside. Chop and measure lettuce and place in a large individual salad dish. Slice and chop tomato and add to lettuce. Add chopped onion and bacon. Stir to blend. Pour half of dressing over the salad and mix till salad ingredients are well coated. Scatter some croutons over the top of the salad, eat and enjoy. Serves 1. Place remaining dressing in a small, covered container and refrigerate to enjoy with another salad in a day or so.

Linking to these great parties:

Tasteful Tuesday

Totally Tasteful Tuesday

Show Me What You Got

Two Cup Tuesday

Show Me What Ya Got

Cast Party Wednesday

Show and Share Wednesday

What's Cookin' Wednesday

What'sIn Your Kitchen Wednesday

Whimsy Wednesday

Create and Share Wednesday

Wicked Good Wednesday

Get Delicious Birthday Cookie Cakes Online

If you're looking for a most fascinating way to quench your thirst for cakes or satisfy a sweet tooth or celebrate a special occasion, you will certainly find what you are looking for online. You can browse online witness a lineup and a wide array of gourmet cakes, cake pops, mini cakes, tarts and even sugar freecakes to please even the most discerning sweet specialist.

A number of stores offer custom-designed party and birthday cakes to make a number of occasions extra-special. Each of these delicious cakes are cooked and created using only the best and highest-quality, fresh and quality ingredients, including vanilla, pure butter, chocolate and whipped cream and frosting. Custom decorated by the bakery's specialists right in the store these cakes are the perfect way to sweeten, brighten and enhance the celebration of any occasion.

Cake, cookie, and chocolate lovers can now rejoice. The most renowned and award-winning cookiecakes are decadent, rich, and delicious chewy. They help you perfectly celebrate a birthday or perfect a mouth watering afternoon treat or can serve as a delectable dessert. Birthday cookie cakes are made with all natural ingredients and contain no artificial preservatives, flavors, Trans fats, or artificial colors. Make your child's birthday special with these mouthwatering and lip smacking cakes which look attractive enough to please and attract the attention of each child. With a wide range of variety and flavors to choose from you will certainly agree that these are the best birthday cookie cakes available in the market.

Moist, yummy and chewy these birthday cookiecakes are made with whole egg, real butter, and pure vanilla. You can eat your cookie cake with a fork or fingers. On plates, with napkins, or right out of the box eat it the way you enjoy the most. However, the cake tastes so delicious that you certainly will not wait for longer. You can slice it the way you want this is because these jaw-dropping and lip smacking birthday Cookie Cakes are an absolute delight to celebrate each occasion.

The best of the bakeries have the websites online. Pictorial representation, price specification, and ingredients list will help you choose better. Log in to find the best birthdaycake at reasonable rates online!

This article is written by Stephen Pazyra. He is associated with 1-800-Bakery.com . 1-800-Bakery.com is the top place on the web for online birthday cake and cookie bouquet deliveries. They have a variety of classic cookies - lots of scrumptious chocolate chip cookies, even sugar free chocolate chip cookies, as well as a lot of option for birthday cakes and many more. Rate this Article

Get Delicious Birthday Cookie Cakes OnlineNot Rated Yet

Daniel Moses has published 51 articles. Article submitted on August 02, 2013. Word count: 370

Birthday parties have been traditionally celebrated with none other than a birthday cake and a candle to top it all. This has been the ideal birthday set - up of natal day every seen the time that cake was used to be offered to the goddess of the moon in the ancient Greece.

Written by: Wayne Nusbaum

Cooking house made biscuits is a joy and positive hobby the scent of them cooking is truly fantastic it generates a excellent way to spend time with the family and they assemble simple and easy gifts.

Written by: Lee May

The celebration of New Year is a special occasion and one can always enjoy it with the family members no matter what part of world he/she is. Thanks to the technology today one can get the in touch with his or her family member even without traveling.

Written by: Aashish Kumar

In the past, decorating cakes was primarily done for special occasions such as birthdays, weddings, graduations, and anniversaries.

Written by: Chickie Maxwell

Panko Crusted Pork Cutlets with Go-To Dry Rub for Pork-Secret Recipe Club

Secret Recipe Club

My assigned blog for August’s Secret Recipe Club was Fit Mama Real Food. Heather has been blogging since 2009. It turns out that she lives in the same state that I do. I am, of course, probably old enough to be her grandmother.

Heather's emphasis is on a healthy life style and cooking. As always I found a number of recipes that went on my "to make" list: Carne Asada Dry Rub, Irresistible Chocolate Brownie Cake or Muffins, Homemade Whole Wheat Dry Pancake Mix, and 4-Ingredient Tuna Cakes.

Because I had some pork tenderloin I planned to slice and cook for dinner, I decided to use Heather's Go-To Dry Rub for Pork recipe. She had used it on grilled pork chops, but I figured that it would work with what I was making. I was intrigued by the use of the allspice and cloves. These are not spices that I would have thought to use with pork.

Although I can never seem to get nice round pieces of pork when I pound out my tenderloin, the cutlets were very good. They were nice and crispy on the outside and very moist inside. I think that the flour in the rub helped the egg and panko to adhere to the cutlets. I added the dry rub that was left over from rubbing the pork to the panko crumbs. This helped to make the meat very flavorful. This recipe will be going in the regular rotation of recipes for making pork tenderloin, and I will also be using the rub with pork chops. Thanks, Heather. This is a great one.

Panko Crusted Pork Cutlets with
Go-To Dry Rub for Pork

Go -To Dry Rub for Pork
2 T. flour white or whole wheat
2 t. dried oregano
2 t. thyme, crushed
3/4 t. pepper, coarse ground if possible
1/2 t. sea salt
1/4 t. allspice
1/8 t. cloves

3/4 lb. pork tenderloin
1 egg
1 T. lemon juice
2/3 c. panko crumbs
2 T. butter
1 T. olive oil

Cut pork tenderloin into 4 slices. Place between two sheets of waxed paper and pound until 1/4-inch thick. In a small bowl combine flour, oregano, thyme, pepper, salt, allspice and cloves. Mix well. Rub spice mixture on both sides of pork slices and set aside. (You will not need quite all of the rub.) Beat egg and lemon juice together in a shallow container until well blended. In another shallow container, mix panko crumbs and any remaining rub mixture until well blended. Dip pork slices in egg mixture and then into panko mixture. Place on a plate until all slices have been coated. In a medium frying pan, heat butter and olive oil until hot. Add pork slices and cook 3-4 minutes until well browned, turn and cook another 2 to 3 minutes until second side is well browned. Drain on paper towels. Makes 4 slices.

You can find all the information about joining in the fun of Secret Recipe Club here.

Linking to these great parties:

Inspiration Monday

Marvelous Monday

Melt in Your Mouth Monday

Mix It Up Monday

Made by You Monday

Make the Scene Monday