To make fresh limeade, you first need to make a simple syrup.
Juice 8 - 10 limes to make 1 1/2 cups of fresh lime juice. Add fresh lime juice to the strained syrup. Chill. Pour 2 Tablespoons syrup into a glass and fill the rest of the glass with sparkling lime water. This limeade was REALLY good but my son thought is would be even better if we turned it into cherry limeade. Stay cool.
Ciao!
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Birthdays are a big deal in our house. Last month, we celebrated my husband's birthday with some friends at a baseball game. It was a lot of fun but not the most practical place to take a cake. (Not to mention that it was 108 degrees that day.) I decided instead to send birthday cupcakes to work with him so that his coworkers could join in the birthday celebration instead of trying to get cupcakes to a baseball game. One of his favorite desserts in strawberry shortcake but that is also not a very practical dessert to send to the office. I came up with my own cupcake version of strawberry shortcake that would be easier to transport and to share with friends - a strawberry shortcake cupcake. A white cake with a fresh strawberry center and whipped cream frosting. I adapted the white cake recipe from one that I had seen on sugarandsnapshots.com. I loved the idea of adding lemon flavor to the cake to highlight the fresh strawberries. White Cake Cupcakes 2 1/2 c Cake Flour 1 tbsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Salt 1 1/2 c Sugar 1/2 c (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, room temperature 4 egg whites 1 1/4 c buttermilk 2 tsp lemon zest 1/2 tsp lemon juice
Bake each pan for 15-18 minutes. Cool completely before decorating. Once the cupcakes are cool, use a small pairing knife to cut the center out of each cupcake. Cut the top off of a fresh strawberry and push it into the center. Top with fresh whipped cream and half of a fresh strawberry. Not your typical birthday cake and not very manly - but definitely delicious.
Ciao! I decided to come up with my own simple pasta dish to really highlight these fresh tomatoes. I looked in my refrigerator to see what other ingredients I had on hand: great Parmesan cheese, fresh spinach and turkey sausage. In my pantry I found a box of whole wheat penne and a couple cloves of garlic - perfect. I gathered up my ingredients and got to work. Whole Wheat Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes 1 pound whole wheat pasta 1 pound mild turkey sausage, removed from casings 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach 2 cups fresh tomatoes, grape or cherry, sliced in half 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon olive oil
Add garlic, spinach and tomatoes. Cook 5 minutes or until spinach wilts. In serving bowl, grate 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.
Stir in sausage mixture. Top with remaining Parmesan cheese. The pasta was fantastic. The plan was to open a bottle of wine to enjoy with this carbohydrate meal but we were so hungry that there was no time for wine. We dove right in and started eating the pasta and before we knew it, dinner was over. If you've got a garden full of tomatoes (or generous neighbors) you need to give this easy and delicious pasta dish a try.
Ciao! If you missed yesterday's post about our Saturday morning mountain bike ride, you need to check it out. (This post if a follow up to yesterday's blog post.) We had the most excellent picnic following our 2 1/2 hour bike ride in the park. We were all starving and this stuffed sandwich REALLY hit the spot. I found this recipe for a stuffed summer sandwich on the Williams Sonoma website and it just screamed summer picnic to me. I put the entire sandwich together the night before our bike trip and Saturday morning before we left, I took it out and sliced it and packed it into the cooler. I also packed some cherries and our dark chocolate oatmeal bars and we were off for a great adventure in the park. Stuffed Sandwich 1 jar roasted red bell peppers 1 round loaf Italian bread 1 can pitted black olives, drained 1 garlic clove 2 Tbs. olive oil 1/2 lb. thinly sliced baked ham or prosciutto 1 large ripe tomato, thinly sliced 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves or 4 to 6 leaves of red-leaf lettuce Place the bread on a cutting board and, using the tip of a serrated knife, cut a large circle in the top about 1/2 inch deep and 1 inch from the edge. Pull out the circle of crust; remove all of the bread attached to it to make a lid. Pull out all of the bread from the interior of the loaf, leaving a shell 1/2 inch thick. Set the bread shell and lid aside. (Reserve the pulled-out bread for another use.) In a blender or food processor, combine the olives, garlic and olive oil and process until fairly smooth. Using a rubber spatula, spread the olive paste around the inside of the bread shell and on the underside of the bread lid. (Alternatively, mince the olives and garlic, place in a small bowl and stir in the olive oil to make a coarse paste. Spread the olive paste on the bottom of the bread shell.) Line the bread shell with half of the ham.
Cut into wedges and serve. Serves 6. Picnics in the park - that is what summer is all about. The next time you are heading out for a picnic - give this stuffed sandwich a try. You can change it up and make it your own by adding your family's favorites. Ciao!
We headed out for a family mountain biking trip on a recent Saturday morning. It was a fantastic ride through a beautiful park. When I stumbled across this recipe for Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Bars on the Williams Sonoma website a few weeks ago, I was actually searching for a different recipe but the ingredient list for these bars caught my eye - whole wheat flour, oats, walnuts, and dark chocolate. I kept this recipe in the back of my mind, just waiting for a perfect opportunity to make this healthy snack. Opportunity came knocking a few weekends ago when we decided to go on a family bike ride. I am always starving at the end of a long ride and usually craving carbohydrates. I knew that this was the perfect recipe for post workout fuel. Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Bars 2 tsp. plus 12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cup walnut pieces 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour 1 cup rolled oats 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar 3 eggs 1 Tbs. vanilla extract 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 24 bars. I packed mine into a wax paper lined Tupperware container to take on the picnic. The 12 mile bike ride was awesome. (No one popped a tire and there were only minor injuries - mostly on me.) Needless to say we were all tired and hungry from our biking adventure. We quickly found a table in the shade and set up our picnic. We had other things besides the dark chocolate oatmeal bars but you will have to wait until tomorrows blog post to find out what else we ate at our picnic.
I will say that I am not going to make these again for a very long time. These oatmeal bars were so good that I ate nearly 1/2 the batch myself! I'm not sure why they were so addicting but they were so good - especially after our bike ride. I just couldn't stop myself from eating them. Thank goodness that there were a few healthy ingredients in them. If you need a post workout snack to refuel your body, try these dark chocolate oatmeal bars. Just be careful - they're addictive. Ciao! |
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