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Rally for Real Pizza!

8 Mar By 32 Comments

I can tell you two things about my eating habits:

First, I eat balanced meals…some healthy, some not so healthy, but I would say balanced. Recently my friend Lynsey said to me “I don’t think I have ever seen you eat junk food..do you eat junk food?” I guess not. But I also don’t consider myself organic. I cook. I enjoy cooking actually. Baking..well, that is a whole other battle. Ill leave that to Cat.

Secondly, I don’t do frozen meals. There are very few things you find in my freezer. I have vegis to steam, I keep extra bread in there, powdered sugar (don’t ask), waffles, meats (Kim makes me do organic on chicken and beef), and of course pizza.

Pizza. Yum.

The all American (well, Italian? Who knows.) go to meal.

Pizza is one thing that I absolutely do NOT make from scratch. Actually, anything that involves dough is out for me. I burn sliced french bread and nothing I create rises. Like I said, I don’t bake. Ironically, while I dont love frozen foods, I LOVE frozen pizzas. If I am having a down night where I don’t want to cook, its my “go to” meal.

In fact, I keep at least one pizza in my freezer at all times for such a night.

That being said, just because its frozen and just because its packaged, doesn’t mean it has to be BAD for my family.

Which is why I am so excited to share Freschetta Brick Oven pizzas with my audience. While Freschetta has quite a few lines of pizza (and the ones I have tried are ultra tasty), their Brick Oven line is made with flash frozen vegis, sea salt and olive oil, and not only taste great, they are better for you than traditional pizzas!

At Freschetta®, we continue to be committed to making every pizza taste as if you made it at home – with minimal processing; special-recipe meats; crispy, yet tender crusts; and home-spun recipes like our new Brick Oven sauce featuring sea salt & olive oil.

Let me just show you…(please watch, Charlotte and I worked hard for this minute video..we hope you enjoy!)

Now the good stuff!

Wanna win pizza for a YEAR?

Of course you do~

CLICK TO ADD YOUR PHOTO!

Just add your photo to our BOYCOTT BLAH mosaic and you are entered!

Do you have a pizza night in your house?

~Trisha

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paid Rally For Real Pizza spokesblogger

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9 Ways to Enjoy Apples

12 Dec By 46 Comments

I am (not) going to apologize for making your mouth water with jealousy right now as I am enjoying this chocolatey, caramelly, green apple goodness that is so clearly made with….chocolatey and caramelly appley goodness.

Have a look:

Look closer:

I am not sure about you, but adding chocolate and apples is so much better than chocolate and strawberries. In either case though, doctoring up some fruit with anything regarding sugar is a fantastic idea. It’s like fruit with the guilt. Perfect.

Cause its the holidays and these pounds don’t count. My dad told me that.

Now meet Mrs. Prindable’s, a company that enjoys the precise vision of the decadent:

Mrs. Prindable’s invented the “Gourmet Caramel Apple” as we know it today. It started with the thought of creating the most unique hand made confection indulgence using the nostalgic tradition of a caramel apple. Since unique was the premise, no small apple would do. It had to be the biggest and best apple available. Next, the caramel had to be the most decadent and luscious. So the recipe required the freshest cream, butter, pure cane sugar and natural vanilla. Finally, we topped off our creation with the highest quality chocolates, nutmeats or candies.

To really dress it up as the hostess gift of choice, a hand tied bow was applied which could be ordered with a special ornament, to compliment the celebration or sentiment.

This uniqueness continues 25 years later. Each year new creations and ornaments allow the gift giver to surprise their recipients.

Enjoying Apples in My House

Let me introduce you to the 9 ways (and then some) that I am enjoying apples this season:

(these are my actual apples!)

From first taste, the crunchy chocolate and velvet layer of caramel that swaddles the apple makes you realize that you lost the battle of wills already.

Gift Giving:

Ready for all holiday occasions like Hanukkah and Christmas, to special events like weddings and new baby welcomes, to just day to day fantastic treats, you can give a gift basket fitting nearly every taste bud and any budget.

Starting at only $30, you can give a quality and heartfelt gift to someone on your nice (or naughty) list without leaving the comfort of your own home. Which is my absolute FAVORITE kind of shopping.

Would you like some of mine?

Find more amazing apple gift baskets and get your last minute shopping done by visiting Mrs. Prindable’s today!

~Trisha

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*apples provided to facilitate article, but opinions are my own

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Fortune Cookie Quotes

30 Sep By 3 Comments

Fortune Cookie Quotes to live by!

 

 

Like these quotes? Try Starbucks Cup Quotes!

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Win $250 Gift Card by Guessing my Jelly Beans! CLOSED (winner emailed)

7 Sep By

Yum.

Food.

There is nothing more important in a house then the food that it has. Of course the food is only as good as what its in and keeping it fresh is definitely something important to a family and a mom. In my house just keeping it STOCKED can be a challenge and having the right room to add everything that I need to cut down the visits is not just a plus, but a need.

Enter LG Super-Capacity French-Door Refrigerator:

(image courtesy of Accidental Mommies)

Yowza.

Double Yowza.

Could you imagine a fridge this beautiful in your kitchen? It would put my entire kitchen to shame!

Ooh, la la on the French Doors, the lowered freezer, the pull out drawers. For the holidays, the ability to add the deviled eggs, cake, and turkey into the 31 cubic square feet is a dream!

With the largest 31 cu. ft. capacity*, this LG Super Capacity refrigerator not only has the features to help keep your food fresh, it’s got the room to store it all. Smart Cooling Plus technology is designed to keep temperature and humidity right where it’s best for your food, and a Fresh Air Filter helps keep the air around your food from getting stale. And with the Smart Pull™ Handle and 3-Tier Organization™ Freezer, keeping everything organized is a breeze.

  • Unrivaled Capacity – Offers a spacious 31 cubic feet of capacity – the largest in its class – with six more cubic feet of space than standard models of the same footprint.
  • Most Shelf Space – Offers an uncluttered interior with Slim Space-Plus™, which relocates the ice system inside the door, providing the most shelf space* and makes way for additional usable door bins.
  • Energy Savings – LG’s patented Linear Compressor drives the system efficiently from its core. With fewer moving parts and thereby less friction, the Linear Compressor regulates temperature with less noise and far less energy use, surpassing ENERGY STAR standards by 20 percent. LG confidently backs the motor with a 10-year warranty.
  • Keeps Food Fresher, Longer – LG’s Smart Cooling Plus System is designed to maintain superior humidity and temperature levels to help keep food fresher, longer. Digital sensors constantly monitor conditions within the refrigerator, while LG’s Linear Compressor and Dual Evaporator react quickly to help keep humidity and temperature at a level that’s best to keep your food fresh.
  • 4-Compartment Crisper System – Provides easy access and more ways to organize and store fruits, vegetables and beverages in one of two humidity-controlled crisper drawers designed to help keep produce at optimal temperature levels, helping to extend shelf life

JELLY BEAN CONTEST for the LG Super-Capacity French-Door Refrigerator

In fact, LG wants you to really get a concept of how much this fridge can hold and have found a fun and unique way of doing it.

You could win top of the line LG appliances including this fridge, a double range oven, a steam dishwasher, and an over the range microwave. Plus just by playing you are entered to win a $100 American Express gift card!

Win $250 Giftcard with Momdot

To kick off the fun, in collaboration with LG to celebrate this LG Super-Capacity French-Door Refrigerator, we are giving away a $250 American Express Giftcard!! WOO HOO!!!

To Win:

Guess how many Jelly Beans I have in my Jelly Bean Jar! It wont do you any good to figure out this jar and Google it. I ate more of my share first.

Just leave me your guess in the comments below. The person with the closest number without going over will win!

Extra Entries (optional)

While winner is determined based on the closest number guess, if there is a TIE, the extra entries by random draw will determine the winner.

Must complete required entry in order to qualify for extra entries.

  • Tweet the following or something similar – 1 EXTRA PER DAY

You can fit a lot of jelly beans in LG super-capacity fr-door fridge: check it out enter to win a $250 GC @momdot  http://bit.ly/mOSE1O

  • Share this giveaway on your Facebook wall – 1 EXTRA PER DAY

~Trisha

———————–

Contest ends on 9/21/11. Sponsor reserves the right to limit wins to one per household and may end or extend contest at will. US only. MomDot received a gift card to facilitate this post. Winner has 48 hours to respond via email before a new winner is picked.

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Salsa Soup Recipe, Yum, Yum

19 Aug By 3 Comments

Every month I get the Martha Stewart Everyday Food cookbook and I usually glance in there at all the pretty pics, tear out a few “maybe” recipes and then toss the book on my counter. Honestly a lot of recipe books carry foods or spices I don’t regularly keep on hand so unless I plan something specifically, they become useless.

But the other day I got the September issue and decided to try out a recipe, with my own alterations of course, because I had everything in the house for it and it sounded easy. I was absolutely 100% pleased with the outcome, so I am passing on for a quick and easy meal, for just you or for a whole family!

Salsa Soup

  • Original Recipe from Martha Stewart

1) Preheat oven to 400 and place 1  corn tortilla, cut into thin strips, on a baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden about 8 minutes

2) Meanwhile, combine 2 cups salsa and 1 3/4 cups chicken broth in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Transfer to a blender and add 2 tbls heavy cream and blend until smooth, seasoning with course salt and ground pepper. Top with cheese, fresh cilantro and avocado.

My Altered Salsa Soup Recipe

  • The recipe I made and shown in my picture

1) Preheat oven to 400 and place 1  corn tortilla, cut into strips, on a baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden about 8 minutes. I dont do little tiny ones because I enjoy dipping them and eating it.

2) Meanwhile, add 1 jar Old El Paso Thick and Chunky Medium salsa (16 oz) and 1 can of chicken broth (14 oz) in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

3) Because I wanted something more hearty, I cooked up about a half a pound of hamburger meat and once cooked properly, put directly into the soup.

4) Stir in about 1 tbls of sour cream..now I believe the other recipe used a blender because creamy milk based in a hot liquid can curdle. I just whisked in with no issues. I also added a splash of milk and a small spoonful of butter, salt, pepper, and cilantro right in the saucepan.  Re-brought back to a boil, kept stirring, and then changed to low to simmer till I was ready to eat.

5) Once I put in bowl to serve, I added cheese and sour cream to taste and the crunchy tortilla strips I had made.

Because the salsa already had the perfect blend of spices, the soup was on par with an exact Mexican meal with little to no work. The entire process took maybe 15 minutes, with frying up the meat taking the longest, and I had enough for 2 bowls.

~Trisha

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Ugly Cake Recipe

3 Jun By 27 Comments

I can’t bake. I can’t bake. I can’t bake.

Ok, I take that back just a tiny bit. I can bake a very ugly cake that tastes divine. This is an original recipe, so if you try it and your mouth waters, come back and tell me. I should also disclose that I was not having a good camera day and everything was off for me, and so these pictures pretty much represent how messy and disorganized this cake really was. Do not, under any circumstances, let it persuade you from the yummy sugary goodness.

I am going to name this my:

UGLY CAKE RECIPE

(aka Strawberries and Cream Cake)

Growing up, my mom would always ask me what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday and I almost always picked strawberry. I mean, everyone would go for chocolate or vanilla with sprinkles, so I had to be different. This was the one time of the year we all got some strawberry. So around my birthday earlier this week, considering I am the only one who will actually make me a cake, I decided to bring it back to old school strawberry with a little twist…more of a strawberries and cream.

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1 box strawberry cake mix
  • carton of strawberries

Cream Frosting

  • 3 sticks of butter (1.5 cups)
  • 4 cups powdered sugah (that is how we say it down south)
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 ts vanilla

optional: Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips/Chilled

Step 1: Make your cake as directed on the box and let it cool COMPLETELY. I know it’s tempting to right now pull it out in 15 minutes and slather it with frosting, but don’t. It will melt and be even uglier then the job I did. Plus, it will all drip to the pan instead of on the cake where it should be.

Now since this is a layered cake, if you are a fancy cook you probably already have several round or baking pans. Feel free to either make some even layers in 3 separate pans (remember, only one box, divide by 3) and round probably works best. I only have one baking pan, so I made it and cut it into 3rds, which also works, but becomes extremely messy; especially with a moist cake. I had to slice the top off of my cake to help it lay more flat. Or flat enough.

Step 2 : Cup up strawberries in little bite sized pieces..maybe a cup or so would be fine. I also sliced some for the outside so I could lay them flat on the cake all around it. This helps cover all the insane looking frosting with crumbs everywhere.

I also suppose this part depends on how much strawberry you enjoy, but I say kill a carton or two on it. Go hard or go home!

Step 3: Once the cake is completely cool and you have either pulled them out of your 3 pans and put them on wax paper or cut your 1 cake into 3 pieces and laid on wax paper, you can start assembling frosting.

Step 4: Frosting Directions: Put butter into the bowl and whip on high speed for a few minutes. Then add two cups powdered sugar and blend in..once that is done, add the remaining cups. Next, add your milk and vanilla and run for 2-3 minutes so its all fluffy.

Step 5: Assembly of cake. This part is where I totally #Fail. Put your bottom layer on a cake pan, frost generously, and cover with your bite sized strawberries. Layer cake, frost, strawberries. Last layer on top, frost the entire cake and then use strawberry slices around it. If you like chocolate with your strawberries, feel free to make the top layer with some cut up semi-sweet chips or chunks (i prefer chunks) but they need to be COLD. Chill them first.

(PS the last shot of the cake finished I took today…its now like 8 days old…I guess I got so excited I put it right in the fridge and forgot, so thats why its all smashed. My cake lid was too small. HA!)

Step 6: You MUST put this cake inside the fridge. I know you want a piece, but this frosting is best served COLD and wont have the same affect otherwise. It hardens to a very sweet and breakable chunk that really makes the cake different from a regular frosted out of the jar cake. I put mine in for about 2-4 hours before we tried it. It was AWESOME.

There you have it…Ugly Cake, Perfected Goodness.

I hope one of my baking friends can redo this cake in all its glory.

~Trisha

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Easy Butter Pound Cake Recipe

19 Apr By 29 Comments

I always tell everyone I cant bake. The truth is I nearly burned my house to oblivion in a cooking accident,  but thus far I have only just managed to burn bakery items. In all honesty, I can bake, I can cook, but I have a horrible time concentrating on the end result.

Translation: I walk out of the kitchen way too much.

I go to the Internet, I go to the TV, I talk with my family, I just get distracted in general. I can cook up a recipe to a “T”, I can create, I can alter, but after something goes in the oven, my brain goes numb. Its like I need an assistant. So last night when I went to bake a pound cake, I was bound and determined NOT to ruin it via burned toppings and sides.

For the record, I almost always set my timer…I just don’t always hear it….unless its a fire alarm-which isn’t good usage of letting you know something is “done”.

However if you have no issues taking your baking items OUT of the oven, here is a lovely recipe I managed to make from beginning to end last night and still leave the kitchen standing.

Pound cake is obviously one of those things that can be made a million ways. You can really up the sugar in it, change out some ingredients to include cream cheese as a base, or add all sorts of extracts for flavors you love, but overall its a very rich, thick tasting “cake” that is best served as an addition to something else (atleast in my taste buds view).

Here is a good start:

[Read more...]

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Charlotte the Chef!

22 Mar By 18 Comments

I am big on copycat recipes.

I love the salad dressings at restaurants, the special sauces, the breads, the dipping, and all the fresh spices! I am a decent cook (not so much in the baking department) but I can cook up a mean piece of chicken if I feel like it.

The other night I wanted a salad, but wanted it to taste like it came from Olive Garden – minus the drive over there.  With gas prices the way they are, we have to figure out how to cut corners without cutting our tastebuds out of the equation. So I scoured the web for copy cat recipes regarding Olive Gardens Italian dressing and there were plenty to choose from! Most looked the same so it was a guess on which one would get the closest. We dove right in according to the ingredients we had on hand.

Here is the recipe we used, but with our own alterations:

Olive Garden Copy Cat Recipe Salad Dressing

  • 1/2  cup  mayonnaise
  • 1/3  cup  white vinegar
  • 1  teaspoon  vegetable oil
  • 2  tablespoons  Parmesan cheese
  • 2  tablespoons  Romano cheese
  • 1/4  teaspoon  garlic salt
  • 1/2  teaspoon  Italian seasoning
  • 1/2  teaspoon  dried parsley
  • 1  tablespoon  lemon juice

We actually found this recipe was super runny and tad too tart to be enjoyable long term, so in our house, I ended up adding a lot more Hellmans. It made the dressing creamier, probably a bit closer to a Carrabba’s House Dressing over Olive Gardens Italian. I ended up changing the 1/2  cup mayo to a full cup and then let chill in the fridge for atleast an hour. I also added some sugar to counteract the vinegar flavor, which really helped tone it down.

Make sure you seal off or cover the dressing. The smells have a way of overpowering the fridge.

Charlotte was the Chef for this occasion and did all the hard work:

(as you can see, Charlotte is um…dressing herself lately..they both have purple so apparently they match)

I did the dishes for her.

Other versions of this Olive Garden Salad Dressing Recipe to check out:

Food.com

CopyKat

Flora’s Recipe Hideout

CDKitchen

Sun Sentinel

Group Recipes

 

~Trisha

Guess that Celebrity Smile!

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