A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Celebrating James' Birthday with Auntie Miranda's Grapefruit Cake

(Photo below: James demonstrating his "Dexter knife skills".)

 

After tweeting one night that grapefruit-flavored cake sounded "awful", as usually happens with my crazy family of foodies, the decision was made that we had to make it, bake it, and try it.  Auntie Miranda volunteered her time and James volunteered his birthday--win/win!

After reading through several recipes, Auntie used her own baking skills to create her own version based on elements from different recipes and her own experience.

Our prounouncement:   Delicious!  Just like orange, lemon, or lime, grapefruit is just a twist, so to speak, on the citrus genre.

Thanks, Auntie, for introducing us to this new dish and for sharing your recipe!

 

 

Note: Please excuse the phone pics--forgot my camera.

Halloween Food: Eyeball Rice Cereal Treats, Devil's Eye Eggs, Blood Clot Cranberry Dip, and I See You Meatballs

Bwahahahaha! Halloween--my very favorite holiday!  And a family favorite as well. No matter how old "our" kids get, this will always be our tradition: get together at Aunt Gonnie and Uncle Gene's house, eat great creepy food, dress up or dress down, take any little ones trick-or-treating the neighborhood and just hang out..

This year our creepy food was all eyeball in theme. We didn't really plan it that way but as the eyeballs piled up we just kept running with them it:  Gummy Eyeball Rice Cereal Treats,  Devil's Eye Eggs,  Blood Clot Cranberry Dip, I See You Meatballs, and just for fun, the un-eye-ball Mexican Villa Cheese Dip and Chips. There was also two crockpots full of chili and a few others goodies on the table like spinach dip, witch's pretzel/candy fingers, etc.    

 

 And now for recipes....

Good & Good For You: Sweet Baked Acorn Squash with Apple Butter

The most simple recipe ever and Gene and I both loved it. That's saying a lot for Gene because he barely tolerates acorn squash...so when he says "Yeah, that'll work" I know I've hit on a great recipe! 

Tropical Fruits: Dragon Fruit

Dragon Fruit is a tropical fruit I'd never tried before. Auntie Miranda brought one over to one of the Dexter dinners for us all to taste.  The name comes from the appearance of the outer peel which does resemble dragon scales a bit. The inside is BRIGHT neon fuschia--there's no color enhancement to the picture. That's how bright the flesh is--beautiful!  The outside texture was firm without being hard and the inside texture and seeding is like that of a kiwi, the taste is a very pleasant combination of kiwi, banana, and mango.  Really yummy! 

 

Auntie's Fruited Salad with Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette

 

Isn't Auntie Miranda's salad for Dexter Dinner Premiere beautiful?  I'll let her tell you in her own words how she did it from the email she sent me explaining the PERFECT dressing:

 

"On the salad dressing - I knew that I was going to put mandarin oranges in the salad - so I did a Rachel Ray trick when I made the dressing (at home).  I started with a couple of tablespoons of orange marmalade and melted it in the microwave.  I added about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I added about a quarter of a cup of EVOO....and here's a trick I learned from Ann the other day.  Rachel always whisks her EVOO in - but I'm like Ann.  When I do that I never get a very good emulsion.  So I put it in the jar and shook it up and it emulsified in no time.

 

You can change out the marmalade to match whatever fruit you're going to put in your salad - strawberry, pineapple, grape, etc.  I just like a little sweetness in the dressing if you're going to put fruit in the salad."

Thanks Auntie!

Review: Peeled Snacks Dehydrated Fruit

 

 www.peeledsnacks.com

 

 I was asked to review a new dehydrated fruit snack called "Peeled Snacks" so at our last Knitting Party I set out two bowls of fruit.  "A", the Peeled Snacks and "B" from a bag of Sun-Maid dried fruit I usually keep on hand,  I marked neither with brand names let people snack on them throughout the evening, along with our normal appetizers and beverages. I only asked that at some point they try fruit from both bowls.

As the party broke up, I asked each of the eight people (plus Gene and myself) what they thought of each.

Good & Good For You: Blood Orange & Lavender Olive Oil Muffins

 

My sweet tooth has been acting up a bit lately. No matter how much I try to feed it broccoli, it screams for sugar. I hate it when it gets cranky, but I will persevere. I'm a firm believer that I can eat healthy AND still satisfy my sugar cravings. My sweet tooth demanded orange: Orange martinis?  Orange jelly candies?  Orange Cake?  What we compromised on, my sweet tooth and I, was a batch of these delicious and good-for-you blood orange and lavender olive oil muffins.  Sweet, but not too sweet, and a treat without being empty calories.  With the addition of the whole wheat pastry flour, these muffins are a little heavier, a little more toothsome than so-called muffins that are really fluffly cupcakes masquerading as breakfast food.  More than breakfast, these are a fruity, flower-scented snack, that also contain a serving of good daily fat, for tea time or any time of the day I need a pretty little pick-me-up. 

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Easter (or Anytime): Apple Crostata

 

After the Easter egg bread fiasco, I still wanted to make a dessert for Gene's and my Easter dinner so I decided to make something so easy, so uncomplicated that surely I couldn't screw it up.  At least that's what I kept praying. 

This apple crostata fit the bill perfectly.  Simple and quick, it was the perfect ending for the richness of our roasted duck.  You can use a sprinkling of cinnamon, cardamon, or allspice if you like, but as I've said a few times here on the blog my personal preference for fruit desserts is to keep the spicing simple so the clear flavor of the fruit shines through. This recipe only contains three ingredients besides the apple and the pie crust:  lemon juice, butter, and sugar. It doesn't get much more simple than that.

Better-than-Sonic Homemade Diet Cherry Limeade

 

Tall, juicy, refreshing, AND GOOD FOR YOU?  You bet!  Each tall water glass, about 12 oz, has only 45 calories and counts as a fruit serving... Yum!  I don't mind drinking water during the day but the evenings are when I miss soda the most and this is a great substitution. I love diet cherry limeades so it doesn't feel like a sub at all and I like knowing that I'm NOT drinking empty calories but something that tastes like dessert while giving me needed vitamins and antioxidants.

Happy Valentine's Day: Banana Crepes with Chocolate Sauce

 

                           
 

Perfect for Valentine's at home:  pretty enough to have come from a restaurant and easy enough for anyone to do at home.  Although we'll be eating out tomorrow night with friends Jenn and Corbin, had we stayed home I might have made this.  As it happened, I created it for one of our Dexter dinners this past fall when Aunti and James gathered with us to eat dinner and watch the "D" man every Sunday night.

Later this week I'll be blogging about all the wonderful cooking Gene's been doing for me this week--sooooooo yummy!