Thursday, August 25, 2011

Popsicles


It's about 1 million degrees here so I eat these every day. I got my popsicle molds on clearance for $2.99. They're sailboats. It's cute. 


Ingredients:
Sliced fruit (peaches, kiwi, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, etc.)
Fruit juice




Fill your molds with as much fruit as you can. Pour juice on top. Put the sticks in the middle. Freeze. The hardest part is waiting to eat them. 





Koffee Kubez

The K's and the Z are just a joke. My husband made it up. We had this really great idea (adapted from someone else's great idea) for a coffee shop. You know how when you order an iced coffee they fill the cup almost to the top with ice? So then if you drink it before the ice melts, you get 2 sips and if you don't drink it fast enough, it's all watered down. So I read somewhere (I don't remember where. I'm sorry, stranger, I can't give you credit) that you can freeze extra brewed coffee and put it in your iced coffee so it doesn't water it down. Then we decided that we would have a coffee shop (Koffee Kubez) and we would have cubes of all of our drinks frozen and we would use those instead of frozen water. We're never actually going to open our shop so I'm posting it on the internet. I'm sure in a few years someone else will have come up with it and we'll regret never doing it ourselves. At least I'll know that we had the idea first. 



Directions (I'm sure you can figure it out):


Fill ice cube trays halfway (or all the way) with milk, or half and half, or creamer, or lemonade, or soda, or whatever you want to drink. Freeze about an hour. Pour coffee (room temperature) on top and freeze again. Put your kubes in a glass and pour your drink on top. 



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Roasted Red Potatoes



Ingredients
3 lbs red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
3-4 tablespoons thyme
2 tablespoons minced garlic


Preheat oven to 425. Spread the potatoes out in a 9 x 12 inch baking pan. Pour olive oil, salt and pepper over the top. Toss with your hands until the potatoes are all coated. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with thyme and garlic. Use some sort of utensil (because it's hot) to toss again, until coated. Roast about 30 minutes longer or until the potatoes are brownish and tender. 

Tomato and Pesto Grilled Cheese



I picked some yummy basil and tomatoes from my garden today. No big deal, really. My basil is actually pretty out of control so I've been eating a lot of pesto. On everything. This recipe is adapted from several different recipes. It's also an "ish" recipe so it's never exactly the same but it's always delicious. 




Pesto
Ingredients
2 cups fresh basil leaves 
3/4 cup olive oil
1 cup hazelnuts (or pine nuts but hazelnuts are about half the price)
1-2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2-1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
black pepper to taste


Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. I like mine a little chunkier.






For the sandwich I used pesto, mozzarella and tomato. Obviously you can add any vegetables or use a different type of cheese.




Heat a pan over low heat. Brush one side of a slice of bread with olive oil. Place it olive oil side down on the pan. Add cheese and tomato. Spread pesto on one side of your other slice of bread. Set it pesto side down on your sandwich. Brush the top slice of bread with olive oil and flip your sandwich when it's a nice golden color.