175. Almond Macaroons, the cookie

I had a batch of these delicious cookies at a party I attended last month.  I could not get them out of my head and decided that I would attempt to make them myself.

I was pleasantly surprised to find they were and are easy to make.

For a cookie that only has 4 ingredients…they sure did taste perfect to me.  The outside has a bit of a crispy texture while the inside is airy and soft.  If you enjoy the flavor of almond  then this cookie is for you.

The almond flavor shines through and is pronounced further with the almonds baked on top.  To spruce up the cookie, I sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

I made one batch and they were gone in a matter of minutes.  This is an expensive cookie to make because it takes a whole tube of almond paste.  I now know why they are so expensive to buy when I go to a bakery.

If you can find the almond paste on sale, buy it and horde it…LOL  

Recipe:  Almond Macaroons, the cookie
recipe adapted from Odense Almond Paste

1-7 oz. tube of almond paste, grated
2/3 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup egg whites, this should be one large egg
slivered almonds for the top
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Combine grated almond paste and sugar.  Beat until the texture resembles crumbs.

Slowly add the egg white and beat until well combined.

Beat on high for 3 minutes.  A creamy paste will start to form.  Scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.

Using a cookie scoop, place dough balls two inches apart.

Add the almond slivers to the top of each cookei.

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

Cool completely on baking sheet.  If you try to remove them before they are cool you will scrape the whole bottom of the cookie and create a hallow cookie.

Makes 20 cookies.

Shish Kabobs

Shish Kabobs have long been a family favorite of ours when hosting parties.  Especially if kids are involved.

We will have a variety of meats, veggies and marinades available for our family and friends to create their own version of what sounds, taste and looks delicious to them.

I love to make my own marinades by using what I have in my fridge.  Sometimes they turn out okay and other times they turn out excellent.  It's always a new adventure.

Store bought marinades are a great way to save time and try new flavors.  We use them on rare occasions when we are in a hurry or going camping.

There is not much of a recipe to follow for making the shish kabobs.  You can buy wooden skewers or metal ones.  I like the metal ones because we can reuse them.  The kids have an easier time piercing the veggies and meat because they also seem a bit sharper.

Don't be afraid to have an interesting assortment of veggies and fruits too.  The thing to remind guest is when making their kabob to try and remember cook times for their meat and match the accompanying veggies and fruits.

You could end up with some charred pineapple if you want your steak well done.  Tomatoes are another veggie that taste great on a kabob but cooks fast and can get mushy.  

Have your BBQ nice and hot and ready to go.  The kabobs don't take long to cook.

If you are only sharing one type of meat, then you can marinade it longer in the refrigerator before your guest get there.  This is simple to do.  Cut your meat into smaller pieces and cover with marinade.  The smaller pieces are better because then more of the meat is marinating.  If you use one large piece of chicken or beef then the surface that is being marinaded is much smaller and the flavor may not shine through.

Types of meat to use:

Beef
Chicken
Shrimp
Swordfish
Bacon


Types of Veggies to use:

Onion
Bell Pepper
Yellow Squash
Broccoli
Zucchini
Mushrooms
Cherry Tomatoes

Types of fruit to use:

Pineapple
Pitter Cherries
Grilled Peaches

Here are a couple of marinades that we have used before.  I found them on the Food Network Site.

Dijon-Rosemary Steak:

1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, stemmed
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons balsami vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound sirloin steak , cut into 1-inch cubes

Citrus-Tarragon Chicken:

1 orange, zested, then juiced, remainder discarded
1 lemon, zested, then juiced, remainder discarded
1 lime, zested, then juiced, remainder discarded
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes


The marinades are prepared the same.  Combine all of the ingredients, except the meat, and combine well.

Cut the meat into 1 inch cubes and add to the marinade.

Let meat marinade a minimum of 15 minutes, longer is preferred.  I would not recommend marinading the 1 inch cubes over night though.  You may end up with very strong cubes.

Recipe shared over at Amee's Savory Dish for Fit and Fabulous Friday.

Jalapeno Popper Dip

2020 UPDATE:  This recipe has been visited over 4 million times!  Thank you for the love!!!

Read the comments--lots of people love it as is, but some have made changes, like preparing it in a crockpot. Great idea!

Game day!  That's right, it has become a huge deal in our home to sit and watch football. It only took my husband 44 years to finally decide that he likes football.  I should rephrase that, that he likes to sit and watch football.  He is no longer content to read the sports page and sip his coffee.  He wants to see every play first hand.

I thought I was one of the few wives left on earth that was lucky enough to not have my Sundays and Mondays ruled by a football schedule.

It is a schedule because the NFL has the gall to play more than two teams on any given day…LOL

I am saying this all in tongue and cheek because I love football.  I grew up watching it with my grandfather.  That was back in the day when the Chicago Bears had the Refrigerator (a player).

I have enjoyed having the time to spend with my hubby and with our kids.  We make yummy food, choose teams and wear our favorite colors.  This season we hope to be wearing a lot of PURPLE…go RAVENS!

This dip is popular throughout the web and can be found on numerous blogs, Pinterest accounts, and feeds.  It's not that hard to throw together but it is still so dang good.

The dip can be made up the night before and the topping can be ready to go in a baggie.  It's a great traveler to take to friends and family that are having game day parties.  You can alter the temperature of the dip based on the jalapeno's used and whether you decide to have seeds or no seeds.

Recipe:  Jalapeno Popper Dip

6-8 slices of bacon, diced and cooked crispy

2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, soft

1 cup of mayonnaise

4-6 jalapeno's, chopped and deseeded.  The seeds will make it fiery hot.

1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/4 cup diced green onion

Topping:

1 cup of crushed crackers ( I used Ritz)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 stick of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all of the ingredients into a medium bowl.  Stir well.

Transfer to an oven proof dish. The size of the dish depends on how thick the dip is.  The thicker the dip the longer it may need to warm up.  I used this stoneware dish that is round and measures 12 inches across.  My dip is usually about an inch thick.

Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle all over the top of the dip.

Bake the dip for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly.

2020 Update: 

I'm still writing on my blog. I don't share many new recipes but I am working on updating the recipes I have here on my blog.

I went to school and got my degree. I had another baby. We moved.  Lots of new things in my life.

Add your email to keep up to date (enter on the home page on the top right).

Visit my HOME page to see my latest post!

Enjoy your day.

Sherron

    

181. Ham and Potatoes on the BBQ

BBQ season is slowly coming to an end as we are almost to September and the weather will soon be getting much cooler.

I can't say we don't BBQ in the Fall but it is definitely not as often.

This was a dish that I threw together because I wanted to see if I could use my grill like my oven.  I already had the ham in the refrigerator and tossed in some potatoes, carrots, onions, salt and pepper.

I used a cake pan, covered it with foil and cooked them on the BBQ for 30 minutes.  The temperature was set to 350.

I removed the foil and added some cheese…tadah…dinner was served!

It also made great leftovers and a wonderful breakfast the next morning.

Simple.  I like that.

187. Lemon Pound Cake with Cherries

I remember the first time that we gave Isabella a slice of lemon.  We had gone to the zoo with a group of friends in Salt Lake City, UT.  Isabella was about 1.5 years old and at that curious age of being a toddler.

I can see us all sitting around the table at Red Robin chatting about our adventures and encounters of lion, tigers and bears (OH MY).  

Many of my friends enjoy having lemon with their Diet Coke.  If you have ever had teenagers while at the same time having a toddler, then you know that they master mind together.  Drake and Rye could not wait to see their baby sister enjoy a lemon slice.

We had brought our cam corder and so we were set to see the puckers, lip smacking and shrills of delight coming from Isabella.

She did not disappoint.  I told her it was sour and that she may not like it, she still reached for the slice of yellow flesh I held in my hand.

OH boy was it cute.  She did all of the right facial expressions and we laughed uncontrollably for an hour, in fact we still reflect on this memory.

To this day Isabella loves the slices of lemon that we get in our ice teas.  

I, on the other hand, don't think to make a lemony treat when I bake.  I am more of a chocolate and peanut butter kind of gal.  On this day I was desiring something new and light.

I had these cherries in the fridge and I was afraid they would go bad.  We love the Washington Cherry's but the season for those is short.  I then go for the red cherries and my family does not eat them.  I don't know why this is.

I love the colors  red and yellow together.  I pair these two colors together often when I quilt or decorate so it was an easy marriage of the two: lemon and cherry.

My oldest daughter loves pound cake.   In searching for a recipe I found this recipe on The Food Network.  The reviews were good and this led me to try it for the first time.

Delicious!  

 I used my mini bundt pan that  Cory and the kids had given to me for Mother's Day.  They were so dang cute in the palm of my hand.  There it sat, all alone, pretty pale yellow and ready to be dressed up.

The cherry compote was a success too.  I had never boiled down fresh fruit for a dessert topping before.  I started with a little of this and a little of that and came up with this easy recipe.

Lemons and Cherry work together.  They compliment each other on a white plate.  They create a nice balance of sour and sweet. 

Simply put, it was a real treat that was different for my family and one that they enjoyed.  To add the gourmet touch to these cute little cakes, I dusted them with powdered sugar, topped them with whip cream and found the perfect cherry to go on top.

Recipe:  Lemon Pound Cake with Cherry Compote
Makes one bread loaf pound cake or 18-20 mini bundt cakes


1 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

Attach the paddle to your Kitchenaid, in the bowl cream the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.  Add the vanilla.

Add the lemon juice and dry ingredients alternately until well combined.

If using a bread pan,  line it with parchment paper.  If using a mini bundt pan, use Pam to spray the pan well.  If using a cupcake pan, use liners.

The bake times for each will vary:

Bread pan- 1 hour and 15 minutes
Mini Bundt Pan-15-18 minutes
Cup Cake Pan- 15-18 minutes

Let cake cool completely on a wire rack.

Serve with your favorite glaze, compote or topping.

Recipe:  Cherry Compote, makes 1.5 cups

1 teaspoon of lemon zest
juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 cups of pitted cherries
1/2 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4-1/2 cup of sugar, use the minimum amount if you don't want it too sweet

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan.  

Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil.

Boil for 15 minutes, reduce heat and let simmer until the cherry compote reduces and gets thick.

Serve warm or store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

186. Curry and Chicken Rice

Dinner tonight was a hit.  I made curry and chicken rice.  I made a huge batch and we barely had any leftovers for tomorrow.  I love when that happens.

My recipe for Curry and Chicken Rice can be found on Recipe Lion or HERE.

*A few of my recipes are shared on their site first for a few months before they are displayed in full on my blog.  

Sifting Through Life: Wings and Pretzels

Pretzel recipe can be found here.

It's Friday morning and I am sitting at my MAC thinking…

"I have had an interesting week, do I talk about it or not?"

In a nutshell it went like this:

Friday-photo shoot
Saturday-pack for trip, leave on trip, car catches on fire, return home
Sunday-great day, book store, shopping, day at the park
Monday-work
Tuesday-work, adjuster declines claim on car
Wednesday-find out damage of $3500 for said car
Thursday-buy new car and have lunch at The Tilted Kilt, all hell breaks loose for 15 minutes
Friday-recovering from long week

Where to start is a good question.  If you know me well then it's not a surprise that my red hair and Irish  spirit comes out every so often.  I am the first to admit, in my younger days, it was pretty much a daily episode until I learned to harness my attitude and personality into something more approachable and manageable.  I became a lady and not a rogue.  LOL

To say I was high strung, unrealistic at times and high maintenance might be an understatement.  I was raised to believe that I was the cream of the crop and therefore there was a sense of entitlement that was bestowed upon me at an early age.

Through the years, and a lot of miles into my life, the struggles and triumphs made me change.  I wanted to change.  I did not like that person more times than not.

So when I have a moment when I wig out…and I did…it is unsettling to me.  Let me explain.  If you are familiar with Hooters (wings) and the Tilted Kilt (pretzels) then you may understand why I wigged out.

Having an old car with issues was such a no brainer to me, it was old and we expected the mechanical part of the car to not last forever.  I was cool, calm and collected.  We made a decision to go and buy a new car.  Keep in mind that we have not had a car payment in 8 years.  We have always tried to pay cash for our vehicles and run them into the ground…basically use them until we have no other options.

We did this with our Volvo, our last truck and the two vehicles before that.  I believe we both felt that our time of driving old cars and worrying about problems had come to an end.  We needed and wanted peace of mind while driving our family around Maryland.

I dread going to the car dealership.  Our last experience was a joke. We were very honest with the dealership about our credit and the amount of money we could put down.  We test drove a few cars, went through a few sales people and finally settled on something we liked.  Keep in mind, we did not love it but we needed a car and we were willing to settle.  As we entered the financial part of the office and found a comfy spot on the couch, the deal was preposterous.  They failed to listen to our situation, to how much money we were willing to put down and how much we needed our payment to be each month.  Without batting an eye and seeing red…we left.  I was furious that they had wasted our time.

This was our last experience and this is why the thought of going through this again was causing my nerves to bristle with anticipation at the thought of wasting another whole day sitting inside a small waiting room while 4 men decided if we could buy a car.

In preparing to go to our dealership, Cory did all of the paper work in advance.  This was awesome!  We new what we could afford, he had told David about our experience with the last dealership and we were set to go.

We arrived, he showed us some cars, we nodded our head, test drove some, agreed on how much money we would be putting down….done deal in 2 hours!   Now folks, in my opinion that is how it should be done.

Straight forward.  I was so happy!  Our week went from uncertainty to problem solved in less than two hours.  Happy dance!

In the process of buying the vehicle we opted for the warranty and this would require the car to be in the shop for an hour or so to have the paint sealed.  By this time we were starving and decided to go have lunch while the car was being taken care of.  We lived almost two hours from the dealership and this would be easier than driving back to White Marsh next week.

David told us where we could get something to eat.  This is where the wings and pretzels part of the story get really juicy and frankly a bit messy.

We found this lovely outdoor mall with a ton of places to eat.  As we pulled in from the road we could see some familiar restaurants , we thought, this is good.  We were hungry.

Walking through the mall we had a tough time deciding, I will admit at times finding a place for us to eat wheat free is hard but there is always or usually a salad option.  As we approached the center of the mall I notice a restaurant named The Tilted Kilt.  They had outside eating.  I LOVE to eat outside.

In my mind this is what I am thinking:

--oh, we can eat outside…bonus
--kilt, that word makes me think of Scotland, and that makes me think of Scotch Eggs..YUM

I love scotch eggs!

My husband says to me,  "This is so and so's favorite place to eat."  Keep in mind he has a strange smile on his face, but I am so focused on scotch eggs that my WIFE DETECTOR does not go off.

As we open the door and we are greeted by 5 lovely pairs of perky breast in little red plaid bra's and the shortest kilts I have ever seen…it's all starting to come together.

Oh our waitress was so cute and perky and did the best job.  The girls were all quite pleasant.  I have eaten at Hooters a few times, hell, I have been to Vegas multiple times and loved every minute of it.

To see girls in their underwear was not the issue for me.  The fact that my husband knew what type of establishment this was and did not warn me set me on fire.

Our day together to this point was wonderful.  We were laughing, hugging and having a great time.

BUT…and this was the issue for me….when I walked into this restaurant with no warning as to what I would find greeting us at the front door, he immediately put a wedge between us.  I felt out of place.

I was wearing no makeup, a top knot.  I looked frumpy.  I was not on my A game.  I felt that if we are going to this type of restaurant then let me look my best so that I don't feel like a mother hen.

Honestly, I felt a bit ambushed.

Do you know that look that Victoria Beckham has all the time…the glassy eyed glare…well, that was me through the whole lunch.

My husband knew he had made a mistake.

When we sat down to eat (outside) he mentioned how good their pretzels were (oh, so he had been here before). NICE.

When I hear these words, "Hooters has the best wings".  It makes me angry.  WINGS?  REALLY?

Just like here, "They have really good PRETZELS"…..news flash,  I make really good wings and pretzels too.

To make a long story short, we ate our lunch, paid our bill and walked across the street to spend a few minutes in the book store.

I opted to sit on a park bench out front.  I was fuming!  In my mind I am thinking what is wrong with me.  I am 45 years old, been married for 25 years and all of a sudden I am jealous!

What the heck?  I was upset, but I was really trying to get a handle on what was setting me off at the moment.  Was I having a pre-menopausal fit?  Did I really feel threatened by these young girls?

I would have been fine, if I could have just sat there on my little park bench and had a few minutes to my self.

My hubby new he had messed up and I should have kept my mouth shut.

I should have, but I did not.  Every Irish, red head vein in my body came unglued.  When I get upset, and I know this may surprise a few, but I turn into sailor Bob.

My mouth opened and out came the foulest words that a diginified lady should never ever say.  I am pretty sure that was the longest 3 minutes my husband has had in a while.

He says he loves my honesty, well he got some and then some more.  Lets just say that fudge and freckle were not the f words I chose to use.

I stormed off and walked back to the car and cried.

He felt horrible and I believe that he did.  He had no idea of knowing that one decision to eat at this type of restaurant would set me off.  I had no idea either.

He apologized and we had a good talk.  His attempt at having a burger and beer turned into an emotional roller coaster ride for me.

So where was my emotion coming from?  Fear.

I have had a hard time aging.  My husband just keeps getting more and more handsome as he starts to age.  The silver is coming in perfectly.  His body is not changing shape.  He is not having mood swings every other week.  He is pretty much the same guy I married 25 years ago.

On the other hand, I am not having the same experience and so I do fear that he might get tired of me.  This is not how he feels, this is my mind playing crazy games with my head.  I exercise every day, watch what I eat and try to stay sane.  Some days are better than others but it's a daily job that I must keep up on.

It is the fear of being alone, of loosing my best friend.

Yes, wings and pretzels are good, they are fun to have, even to look at but I don't take my husband to restaurants with hoagies and six packs (good looking men) and I don't want him to take me out for wings and pretzels anymore.

I really am not a fuddy duddy but I have come to a place in my life that I don't want to sit and look at girls that are my daughters age flirt with men my husbands age while I am trying to enjoy my salad.

Am I the only one with a pretzel and wings story to tell?  I would love to hear your story and how you handled the situation.


NOTE:  My husband proof read this entire article and we had a good laugh this morning.