Banana Rum Fritters

I love fritters of all kinds! Sweet or savory!  I've tried onion fritters, corn fritters, and apple fritters, along with these banana rum fritters! Fruit fritters are even better when you pair them with ice cream! But adding rum just steps it up a notch! And don't worry, you can feed these to children because the alcohol burns off during the frying process.

Cheesy Thumbprint Cookies with Hot Pepper Jelly

Recently I blogged about an easy and perfectly delicious way to make stove top hot pepper jelly without having to use canning methods. You can see that post **Here**

Then I stumbled onto a unique way to serve the hot pepper jelly by adding them to these savory, cheesy, thumbprint cookies! The cookies are very tasty all by themselves. They remind me of big, soft, 'Cheez-It' crackers. So adding the hot pepper jelly just made it twice as tasty! The thumbprint cookies are so very easy to make! They're just 3 ingredients...sharp cheddar cheese, butter and flour. And they bake up in less than 20 minutes. This makes a great little appetizer!

Here is the link to the cheesy thumbprint cookies...**Link**

Easy Crockpot Thai Pork

Easy crockpot recipes just make life so much simpler! And I love these crockpot liners because they make crockpot cooking twice as easy! I know it says 'SlowCooker' on the box, but it's all the same to me. I never use my crockpot/slowcooker without them. If you can't find them in your local food store ask the store to order them. King Kullen grocery stores and Ace Hardware stores sell them. I always buy them from Ace in large quantities!

 Try this wonderful Thai dish in your crockpot or slowcooker. Easy to make and so delicious!

Microwave Teriyaki Potatoes

This is one of my favorite potato side dishes! It was posted on a cooking site called GroupRecipes by a cook known as Chefmeow. I first tried this recipe about 2 years ago and have made it many times since then. This microwave recipe takes only about 20 minutes to make from start to finish!

Party Popcorn!

I think I can eat popcorn all day everyday and never get tired of it as long as I have a variety of flavors to choose from! And I have tried MANY flavors in my lifetime! Blueberry is still my #1 favorite flavor but I don't like having a blue tongue, fingers and lips from eating it!

This one looked and sounded tasty...and who doesn't like anything with the word 'Party' in the title?

Eggs in Heaven

This is a recipe I created while trying to find new ways to prepare eggs! In my house we like to have breakfast for dinner once a week. It's fast, cheap and everyone likes eggs, so there's no whining!

Fried Stuffed Olives

I first saw this recipe on Pinterest.
There are actually lots of recipes on Pinterest for Fried Stuffed Olives.
So I decided to try this one from a food blog named Bell Allimento.

I didn't follow her recipe for the stuffing mixture because
 I didn't have some of the ingredients needed.

My filling ingredients were...

Vinegar Pie?

What the heck is a 'Vinegar Pie'? It doesn't sound very appetizing! That's exactly what ran through my head when I saw this recipe! But it sounded so unique that I had to find out! So I got brave and gave it a whirl!

Corn Flake Coconut Macaroons

I'm a macaroon fiend! I eat them like potato chips! Oh, I just got an idea...how about Potato Chip Coconut Macaroons? I bet those would be amazing! I'll try that next time!

But these are very cool too!

Fachamatta Potatoes

Don't they look so tasty! Look at all that thick tomato sauce! And under that tomato sauce is lots of melted mozzarella and pan fried potatoes and grated parmesan cheese! 

Cream Cheese Sweet Almond Wheat Bread

I'm always on the look out for new foods to have with my morning coffee. I get bored eating the same thing every morning. But I want something that's on the healthy side. I usually eat cereal and yogurt or granola with a cup of decaf coffee. It needs to be low fat but filling. 

Shot Glass Desserts

Lately the new fad in dining are these cute little shot glass desserts. I order them whenever I see them on the menu in restaurants because they're the perfect dessert amount for when you're just too full for a regular sized dessert!

Grilled Romaine Lettuce

I know this sounds like a strange way to prepare lettuce but it's delicious! The first time I tried this was at a BBQ at my sisters house. She asked me if I wanted to taste it and I said 'no way'...but my sister and I have similar taste in food and she LOVED this, so I decided to take a little taste. Well, I ended up eating LOTS of this!

I Love These Beverage Dispensers!!!

                                                   
I just received this one yesterday as a free gift in a giveaway from this blog site...Dine and Dish...you can read about it there! It's a fun blogsite written by a freelance writer and mother named Kristen! She's also a very talented photographer...her food photos always make me drool! Check out her blog for lots of great recipes and giveaways! 

This is a very nice dispenser because it's glass and holds 1.6 gallons! It's from OverStock.com and you can get it at a very reasonable price!

When my 2 girls were young, I would fill these kinds of dispensers with lemonade for their 'Lemonade Stand'! They would sit outside selling lemonade for HOURS!!! They made some pretty good money too! 

Now I think I'll be getting lots of use out of this for my new favorite drink...Smooth Sweet Tea! Check it out in this post I did recently...'Seis de Mayo'...or maybe I can fill it with my favorite homemade cocktail...'Red Apple Martinis'!

Thank you so much Kristen, from Dine and Dish!
I know I'll be getting lots of use out of my prize!

Thank You Allrecipes.com

We were greeted with this banner as we stepped out of the elevator!

I had such an amazing and fun filled 2 days at the Allrecipes.com 15th Anniversary Party in Seattle on July 26th and 27th! They were generous enough to send their 'Brand Ambassador's out to their headquarters for an all expense paid anniversary celebration! 70 of us were flown there from all parts of the country! It was epic!

We all had gorgeous rooms at the Washington Athletic Club in downtown Seattle.

The view from my room!

Most of us were meeting in person for the first time! We usually only know each from chatting on the Allrecipes website. So this was a dream come true to be able to talk face to face! And we talked...and talked...and talked! The time flew by way too quickly! But we all have great memories to last a lifetime! This is the kind of event that you never forget!

The food was first class all the way! Prepared by an on site chef in the Allrecipes kitchen. I just LOVE that kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 

 And look at this custom designed ice fountain!

The drinks flowed freely the entire time!

I even had a little fun at Pike Place Market!

One of my favorite places in downtown Seattle!

It's a foodie paradise!

Thank you so very much to all the employees at Allrecipes.com who worked so hard to organize the enormous event!

Handy Dandy Giveaway!

I have a couple of helpful kitchen products to giveaway to one of my wonderful readers!

A Spontaneous and Perfect Outing!

Don't you just love it when you do something spontaneous and everything works out perfectly! Well that's what happened on this day! The stars were aligned and all was good with the world!

After dinner, my hubby asked me if I wanted to go see the sunset at our favorite beach. We do this often on nice days in the spring and summer. We didn't have much time though because it was 6 pm and we would have to leave the house by 7 pm if we wanted to get there in time to sit and relax as the sun went down! So now the rush was on!

Sauteed Radishes Taste Nothing Like Raw Radishes

I'm not a big fan of raw radishes because of their spiciness. Well, when I sliced them and sauteed them with butter and garlic, the radishes were transformed into these lovely mauve medallions of flavorful tenderness! It was like magic! They tasted nothing like raw radishes. The taste was very similar to sauteed cauliflower.

Saturday Morning Syrup

Saturday Morning Syrup


INGREDIENTS;
1 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 cup of your favorite liquor

DIRECTIONS;
Heat sugar and corn syrup til dissolved.
Add liquor. Allow to simmer at least 3 minutes.
For a thinner syrup add more liquor.
For a thicker syrup add more sugar or cook longer.
Cool mixture in fridge to thicken.

Recipe from GroupRecipes.com

You will wish every morning was Saturday morning with this syrup on the table!

 I never thought to make a breakfast syrup with liquor until I saw this recipe! Any liquor of your choice can be used. For my syrup I used cream sherry. And I served it over strawberry waffles...so VERY good! And so easy to make!

I found this recipe on the GroupRecipes cooking site, posted by a cook known as Reecespieces.

She's made this many different ways by using Irish Cream, Coffee Liquor, Amaretto or Hazelnut Liquor. 
This is not only used on breakfast foods, it's drizzled on dessert cakes as well.     

Cute and Delicious Cucumber Snacks

I love cucumbers! And I love finding new ways to serve them. They're crunchy, refreshing and a healthy snack.

I recently started using cucumbers to make my own pickles from leftover jarred pickle brine. I mentioned how easy it is to do that in this post...'Recycle Your Pickle Brine'

So now I was hungry for new cucumber recipes and came across these next two ideas.


Cucumber Cream Cheese Bites