I’ve been such a bad blogger these days but I love my readers because you guys are so supportive. I knew the day would come when I wouldn’t be posting every day or 6 days a week but for some reason, I feel like part of me is missing when I don’t make the time to update my blog.
My very first alcoholic cocktail was cranberry and vodka. It was strong and it crept up on me so fast, I was in awe. I liked it because it was simple, refreshing and did the job! From that point on, I’ve always been as vodka girl. I tend to shy away from dark liquors. Anything “white”, I can drink and drink and drink, sleep it off and wake up feeling brand new the next day. Dark liquors though? Two drinks and I’m guaranteed a headache the morning after. Lately, I’ve been making my own cocktails (as in following no recipe(s)). I’ve just been adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that and ending up with some realllllyyyyyyy good drinks. I’ll have to share two of them with you guys soon. Maybe you will help me name them. One has 7 ingredients and the other has 8 so the people who are going to make these drinks will need to have a stocked bar. Anywhoos, in all my concocting, I craved something familiar and simple. Hence, this cranberry and vodka with lime came to life. This is modified from a classic drink (Cape Codder) and man is it a thirst quencher. So necessary in the summery days ahead!
First off, let me say that if it were not for The Wishful Chef, this omelette may not have graced my plate. In my last My Weekend In Food post, I made salmon and oven roasted potatoes for dinner on Friday. There were three pieces of salmon, so my PIC had one, I had one and alone stood the last one. For some reason, hubby is not a fan of salmon so I knew there would be no fights over this last piece…BUT…I didn’t just want to eat it this way. I wanted to jazz it up. So the next morning, thanks to the recipe I found on Barbie’s site, I was able to make this awesomely tasty omelette.
This past weekend was a relaxing one, I suppose. We went out to run some errands Saturday midday but other than that, we were in the house. We decided to do spring cleaning. Man, did the place feel lighter and looked so much cleaner afterwards. On Saturday evening up until Sunday when I went to bed, I was having some terrible terrible sinus headaches. My head felt like it was constantly being tasered (taser – gun – electro-shock). They were, at times, crippling. I would literally scream out in pain. My poor PIC stood around looking worried, confused and helpless. I eventually went to bed at 7pm. I just couldn’t bear being awake any longer. And that basically was my weekend. Nothing exciting at all. Here’s the round up ladies and gentlemen. As usual, we begin with Friday night. We had a delicious herbed salmon with oven roasted potatoes. Truly yummy.
Ah milkshakes. So delicious and so comforting. I remember last summer (and the summer before that) (and come to think of it, the summer before that as well), when I lived in New York, there was a Baskin Robins one block (one street) from my house and every week, I would religiously go there and order a milkshake. The things were THAT good. I would mix it up every now and again but for the most part, I stuck with my Jamoca (coffee-flavored) ice cream, chocolate ice cream, Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream (vanilla and chocolate marbled with a swirl of caramel running through it) and old fashioned Butter Pecan ice cream. Mannnnn, when I say heavenly, I do not exaggerate. But recently, I got to thinking “Milkshakes don’t always have to be made with ice cream, right?” and realized that no where it says milkshakes have to be made with ice cream. So I came up with this concoction using sherbet instead of ice cream and must say that I was truly pleased!
I love having extracts in my pantry but a lot of the times they are expensive to keep buying. A little bottle of Mccormick vanilla extract runs me about $5 and it doesn’t last very long. It was only expected that soon something had to be done. I decided to take matters into my own hands by making my own. On January 13th, for the first time, I started my own batch of vanilla extract. I finally “cracked the seal” this past week and I can confidently say I won’t be looking back.
If you’re looking for a flavorful, hearty and simple meal, this is the one for you. It’s delicious and the use of the campanelle pasta gave this dish added dimension. I had first thought of using bow ties (farfalle) or rotini but I had some campanelle sitting in the pantry for some time and decided to use this instead. I had a small plateful but hubby was the one who ate most of it. I must say that this is going into the “Go-To” list when I’m stumped for something scrumptious and easy.
Warning: This is a super long post but it’s a good one!
Birthdays are a huge deal for me. If you’re close to me, I cannot just let any birthday go by with just a “Happy Birthday” and let that be it. If it’s my birthday, I usually want a trip, a party, a dinner or a night out on the town partying. My last birthday was dry as we had just moved to these parts and I just wanted to throw myself a party at home for me and my PIC. But now I know more about our city and its neighbors, I decided that I was going to make my PIC’s (recently passed) birthday special. I spent about two weeks planning and decided to surprise him. His birthday was on a Saturday so on the Friday morning before it, I woke him up and told him to pack his bags for a weekend away. I told him after work, we were going away but I didn’t tell him where or what the plans were.
My first taste of this classic was 5 years ago. A friend of mine ordered it for me and when I tried it, I thought it was the best [alcoholic] drink ever. I am a huge lime fan. Limeade (or lime juice) is one of my favorite drinks so the taste of it mixed with this wonderful almond liqueur made for a very lovely and delicious drink. Yum.
When I made this lovely cornbread, I was craving Chili (which luckily for me I had a container in the freezer) so I heated that up and decided to whip up a simple cornbread. Alas, there was no cornmeal but there were boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix in the pantry so I decided to spruce things up by doctoring up the mix to make this lovely cheddar and peppers cornbread. Between this and my Go Hard Or Go Home Chili, I was in heaven on earth!
