Strawberries 'N' Cream

It's June (almost July) and that means Strawberry Season!

Strawberries are so versatile and delicious. They're in my top five fave fruits.

You can put them in salads, jams, pies, cakes, ice cream, white meat marinades, smoothies, just about anything.

And they're pretty!

This is one of my favorite summertime desserts and its really pretty simple to make and inexpensive.

Whats better than cheap and easy?

Cheap, easy and TASTY!
Grilled Strawberries with Custard
makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

16 medium to large strawberries, washed and de-stemmed
cinnamon and sugar
wooden skewers

While strawberries are still wet, roll them in cinnamon sugar and place 4 deep on a skewer. Grill on medium heat for 45-60 seconds each side.

Custard Ingredients:

2 cups vanilla ice cream
4 egg yolks

Heat ice cream in saucepan on stove until hot. Beat egg yolks. Slowly temper egg yolks with ice cream. Return to saucepan and cook over medium-low heat (about a 4) until thickened.
**NOTE** if you cook it too hot it turns into vanilla scrambled eggs. not good. if you temper it too fast it turns into vanilla scrambled eggs. not good.

Pop strawberries off skewers into bowls and ladle custard on top. I like to sprinkle a little nutmeg on top for "prettiness".




♥ K8

Cookie Fail {and win}

Tonight I made cookies to contribute to the Father's Day gifts for the guys at church tomorrow.

I found a recipe on AllRecipes.com that sounded simple and had 4 1/2 stars out of 5 with almost 1,800 reviews.

Dream come true, right?

Wrong.

Enter The Cookie Fail:

This is what happened when I tried to scrape them off the pan

I think these are crackers...

Not excited about this recipe

Then I turned to my "Cookie Bible" I got as a wedding gift for a classic PB cookie recipe that can't go wrong.

Ingredients:
1 cup {2 sticks} butter, softened
1 cup peanut butter {can use crunchy or creamy}
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Beat butter, peanut butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in eggs. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into batter until blended. Refrigerate for an hour. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheets {don't need to grease or use non stick spray, they come right off}. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a criss cross pattern. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Much better.

{this is a gross picture of me, but when you have 2 kids and you just wasted half an hour on a useless recipe, you look a little tired}

Cookie Bible saves the day and the men of the BYU-Idaho 81st Married Student ward.

♥ K8

Tacos Ole

I found a recipe for shredded pork for tacos probably about a month or two ago and have since been wanting to make them and have a
FIESTA

I'm talkin' sombreros, pinata, fake mustaches.

But I got too antsy for the tacos and made them for some friends who came over for dinner last night.

They were pretty darn good!!!

Once again, the credit goes to AllRecipes.com for this wonderful meal

Pork Tacos

Ingredients:

4 pounds pork shoulder roast {I used a 2 lb pork loin from Sam's Club}
2 {4 oz} cans green chilies
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 packet taco seasoning
2 tsp minced garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup orange juice {optional}

In a small bowl, combine green chilies, chili powder, oregano, taco seasoning, and garlic. Rub onto the roast and place in crock pot. Here I poured on the orange juice, but you don't have to do it. Cover and cook on high for about 5 hours. Shred pork with 2 forks, pulling opposite directions, stir and cook another hour on low. Before serving, you can squeeze some lime juice onto the meat.

Here's where you can get creative. You can put the meat on:

soft flour tortillas
lightly fried corn tortillas
salad
sandwiches
or
plain

We had it with lightly fried corn tortillas. Heat about 2 Tbsp oil in a skillet. Fry tortilla for a few seconds on each side, fold in half and let it drain on a paper towel while you fry up the rest. I served it up with some Pico de Gallo {diced onions, tomatoes, and cilantro with some lime juice all mixed up} and lime wedges, black beans and Spanish rice {from a box...I cheat}.

{The blog debut of Husband}



{The tacos were well received}

OLE!

♥ K8

Chicken Salad

When its summer time,
it's hot.
{well it's supposed to be}

The last thing I want to do when it's hot is stand over a hot stove, with hot food, and hot steam.

Chicken Salad
{makes about 2 sandwiches}

Ingredients:

1 large can chicken (you can also cook your own chicken breast, but this is easier and less HEAT)
1 handful grapes, quartered
1/2 apple chopped {you can make the pieces as big or small as you want}
3 spoonfuls mayo {a larger cereal spoon, the kind guys use to shovel food in their mouths as fast as possible}
Salt and Peppa
1 Tbsp dried dill

Throw everything into a bowl and mix it up. You can eat it plain, over some lettuce or spinach, or on a sandwich.

A cool, no stove lunch for summer {if it ever gets here}

♥ K8

Dressing Room

You get a two-fer today.
{again, no pictures}

We had a BBQ with our neighbors on Sunday and I made a nice salad to go along with our chicken.

The only salad dressing we had was this creamy cucumber stuff, which is good.

But not what I wanted.

I decided to turn to my secret lab and concoct a dressing of my own!

{well, not of my own invention, but I made it myself}

Raspberry Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp white vinegar

Heat jam in a small sauce pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until melted. Remove from heat and add olive oil. Whisk together until well mixed. Add vinegar and whisk again. Give it a taste to see if you want it a little more vinegar-y. Allow it to cool completely in the fridge. You can either pour it over your fave salad, or stick it in a gladware for another day.

I like it on:

Romaine or green leaf lettuce, shredded
Handful of Craisins
Mandarin orange segments

Toss it all together. BAM salad.

♥ K8

Italia Bella

I lost my SD card last week {I think it was stolen personally, but don't see how} so there's no pictures for this post. Next time I make it, I'll put the pictures on here.

I made a dinner for a girl in our ward who just had a baby and decided to make a bunch of it and we would have it for dinner too!

I felt clever.

Well this girl has a toddler about the same age as my little girl so I was thinking of something that would be kid friendly.

What kid doesn't like spaghetti?

But spaghetti would be hard to transport seeing as all my gladware was dirty or in use.

So I did Baked Ziti instead.

Only I don't know how to make Baked Ziti...so I kind of made it up as I went along.

Ingredients:

Penne pasta cooked
Spaghetti sauce {can do with meat or without, I used about 3 cups}
Mozzarella cheese {one of the pre-shredded bags}

Pour 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Toss 1/3 of the cooked pasta with spaghetti sauce and put in the casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Repeat with the remaining pasta. On the last layer, add a layer of sauce before the last layer of cheese. Bake {covered} at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

♥ K8

A Meal Not My Own

I didn't cook dinner tonight.

Tuesday is our 3 year anniversary so my husband and I went out for dinner!

There's a restaurant in Rigby called Stockmans...They feature all you can eat steak for $16.00. It's good steak too! We heard a rumor it was gone. Closed. No more. A quick drive by proved this rumor to be true. I died inside a little. It was our anniversary place. And it was...gone.

When my husband said we were going someplace new in Idaho Falls, I figured it was either the Thai place downtown or The Sandpiper by the green belt.

Wrong.

We pulled into Snake River Landing and into the parking lot of...

STOCKMANS!

IT LIVES ON!

{Cue the Titanic music}

If you're ever in Southeast Idaho, please please PLEASE go check this place out. When you order the all you can eat steak, they start you out with a 16 oz {yeah FULL POUND} sirloin cooked to perfection. You also get a salad and your choice of baked, mashed, french fries, or sweet potato fries all for $16.00!

Tonight Husband decided to box up the sweet potato fries, the salad, the roll, and his half of our peel and eat shrimp appetizer and just eat beef.

He packed away 36 ounces of steak...just typing that sentence makes me feel sick.

Happy Anniversary Husband! Thank you for three wonderful years and two wonderful children!

♥ K8

About a boy and a grill

My husband loves to grill.

Maybe it's the fire.

Any sunny day he wants to grill for dinner.

Today was sunny, so he grilled.

You get a triple header tonight (well sorta) and two of the three pieces of dinner are from AllRecipes.com

{i told you i ♥ that site}

Up first...

Grilled Salmon

Ingredients:

2 lbs salmon filets {I get the Ocean Eclipse because they're individually frozen and pretty cheap. Fresh is always best unless you're landlocked like I am}
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice {can also use lime}
3 Tbsp fresh parsley chopped
1 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary {I used dried}
Salt and Peppa to taste

Mix the oil, lemon, herbs and spices together in a shallow baking dish {like 9x13} and add salmon filets. Get 'em niiiiiice and coated in the marinade and let it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, longer if you've got the time. Heat the grill to medium and cook salmon, skin side down, for 15-20 minutes or until it flakes easily with a fork. Retain 1/4 cup of the marinade for extra basting during grilling.

Part Deux...

Grilled Asparagus

Ingredients:

1 lb asparagus
roughly 3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Peppa

Trim ends of the asparagus {don't know what that means? I had to look it up too}, lightly coat with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and peppa to taste. Grill on High heat for 2-3 minutes.

Numero Tres...

Cheddar Garlic Potatoes

Ingredients:

Instant mashed potatoes {i'm a cheater!}
1 tsp Garlic powder {or 2 cloves fresh minced}
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

While you're heating up the milk, water and butter for your instant mashed potatoes, toss in the garlic. After the potatoes are all mixed and ready to roll, stir in the cheese until its melted. What's that you ask? Of course you can do real potatoes! Just add the garlic the same time you add the cheese.

A perfect summer meal! Well, aside from hot dogs at a baseball game...

♥ K8

BTNBS

Beefy Tomato Noodle Bake Stuff

its good, I promise.

I don't have a story to go along with this one...just know that while it looks like barf, it doesn't taste like barf.


Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (can also turkey)
1 onion chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can RoTel (or off brand equivalent)
8 oz wide egg noodles
some cheddar cheese (of course)

Cook beef and onion until browned, add soup and RoTel and stir until its all mixed up and coated in soupy goodness. Boil noodles until they're done, drain and return to pot. Grate cheddar cheese. Combine beef mixture with noodles and, yup, give it a stir until noodles are well coated. Transfer to a casserole dish and sprinkle cheese on top. Cover and bake at 350 for 10 minutes, uncover and bake 10 more minutes. I whip up either garlic toast or cornbread to go with it.

If you don't like the spice too much, you can do plain diced tomatoes in place of the RoTel.

♥ K8