Arnold Palmer

Arnold Palmer
is a drink that's
half lemonade
and half sweet tea.
I found the recipe in
Katie Lee Joel's Comfort Table book.
It's pretty good actually.
More lemonadish
than tea-ish.

Recipe:
Lemonade
1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5-6 lemons)
4 cups cold water
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup ice

COmbine the ingredients in a large pitcher,
stirring in the sugar till it melts completely.
Chill.

Sweet Tea
4 tea bags - such as Lipton or Luzianne
1/2 - 1 cup sugar * I like mine really sweet and I put about 3/4 cup sugar.
4 cups boiling water

To make Arnold Palmer,
combine these 2 drinks, add ice and chill.

Shepherd's Pie

I love to make shepherd's pie.
It's a great one pot meal.
Simple to make
and I dont have to make
any side dishes to
go with that.

The weather has been crummy
here in South Florida...
thunderstorms in the afternoon
and evenings.
So, by the time,
I finish cooking
there's not enough lighting to
take a good photo.



I used a recipe on the Food Network.
The only thing I added
is shredded mozarella cheese.
You can never have too much cheese.
:D

Recipe:

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 pounds lean ground beef or lamb
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup beef stock
1 1/2 cups garden peas
1 cup shredded mozarella cheese *optional
Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, recipe follows

Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.
Add butter and oil to a large skillet on medium heat. Saute onions, carrots, celery and garlic until tender for about 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Once the vegetables have softened and start to brown a little add the tomato paste and mix evenly. Add the ground beef and cook until beef is no longer pink about 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce and beef stock. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook and simmer for another 10 minutes. Mix in peas. Transfer mixture to an oven-proof baking dish and spread evenly. Place potato on top of ground beef mixture and spread out evenly, once the top surface has been covered, rake through with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. Place the dish into the preheated oven and cook until browned about 20 minutes. Spoon out the shepherd's pie and serve.


Mashed Potatoes
4 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, quartered
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated mature white Cheddar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fill a large saucepan with cold water and a tablespoon of salt. Add potatoes to the water and bring to a boil. Let potatoes cook until soft about 20 minutes. Once the potatoes are at a desired density, drain the potatoes and place them back into the saucepan for mashing. Add butter and cream and begin to mash potatoes into a semi smooth consistency. Once at desired texture add cheese and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Dirt Cake

Even though I was back
from North Carolina,
about a week or 2 ago,
I haven't been updating this blog much.
I've been cooking...
but just didnt have the time to take photos
and blog!
Managing 4 kids...
(Bradly is here for the summer)
and trying to take food photos
sometimes
just cannot go hand in hand.
Especially now
during the summer holidays.
These kids want their food
and FAST!!!

Anyway,
I did make Dirt Cake.
It's so simple to make.
I first tried this about
6-7 years ago
at my in-laws,
over Thanksgiving.
It's so delicious,
I asked Jeff's aunt, Lisa,
who made it...
for the recipe.
And
I've been making this
eversince.
At least 4-5 times
a year.


Recipe:

Ingredients
1 stick (1/2cup) of unsalted butter - soften
8oz cream cheese - soften
8oz Cool Whip (I use Cool Whip Lite...to reduce the fats. hehehehe)
1 package(3.4oz) Instant Vanilla pudding plus 2 cups cold milk
24 oreo Cookies - crushed

Make the Vanilla pudding by mixing the package mix with 2 cups
cold milk. Let it stand.

Whip the butter and cream cheese together until they
are well blended. Fold in the Cool whip together with the
Vanilla Pudding.

Using a food processor, crush the Oreo cookies to small pieces.
I use 24 pieces of Oreo...you can use more or less.

In a baking dish, layer the crushed Oreo cookies at the bottom,
followed by the pudding mix. Repeat.
End with a layer of crushed Oreos at the top.