Tag Archives: food

Gelatin Pudding Squares

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Last night I made a recipe for Gelatin Pudding Squares by mixing 2 instant desserts: jolly rancher blue raspberry gelatin mix with jello cheesecake pudding mix . Today it was set firm enough that I cut in it to blocks  put them in a fancy glass.  It’s pretty and tasty.

*(I used the sugar free fat free jello cheesecake pudding because it’s what I had on hand, however, next time I make this dessert I’m going to use regular jello cheesecake pudding.)

IMG_2328Gelatin Pudding Squares
1 box flavored gelatin mix
1 box jello cheesecake pudding mix
1 1/4 cups cold milk
3/4 cup milk heated until hot

Pour hot milk into medium size mixing bowl.
Beating at slow speed add flavored gelatin powder.
Mix for 2 minutes.
Add the 1 1/4 cups of cold milk to the mix and continue beating while gradually adding in all of the cheesecake pudding powder.
Beat on medium for 2 minutes.
Pour into an 8 inch cake pan. Or a dish big enough to give a nice flat bottom when the mix sets firm.
Put into the refrigerator for several hours until firm or over night for a good solid set.
When ready to use, cut into squares, place in a dish, garnish and serve.

Wishing you all a sweet weekend!
Happy Cooking!
picgifs-cooking-166988spgrnbgln

Tomato-less Pizza Sauce – Alfredo Spinach Dip Pizza Sauce

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IMG_1039We like to have homemade pizza night where we make our own individual pizzas. It’s quite fun to lay out the ingredients and let each person dress their own pizza. I particularly like dressing my own pizza because unlike most normal folks, I’m not a big fan of tomato pizza sauce and prefer a white sauce.

Recently, I decided to make a pizza topped with fruit cocktail, chopped pepperonis and shredded turkey lunch-meat along with the normal shredded mixed cheeses topping.  I used to make a white sauce with a blend of white cheeses and herbs. My recipe is quite good, but I decided to try something different for my sauce by using equal parts of store-bought Alfredo sauce and Spinach dip.IMG_10301

I’m happy to say, my pizza was delicious. My husband ate a slice of my pizza and was very impressed with it. Matters-a-fact, it was so good that a few days later we indulged on a second pizza night just so we could enjoy the new sauce mix. I didn’t have any fruit to put on it, but the pizza was still mighty tasty.

IMG_19261From now on, I plan to use the mix of Alfredo sauce and Spinach dip for my pizza sauce. It’s so easy to dip each out the store-bought jars and mix it in a bowl and then spread it on a pizza crust.
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Do you have a favorite sauce that’s differs from the traditional ones,
or do you like the traditional ones the best?

Happy cooking!chefspgrnbgln

Lavender herb or flower

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My lavender is blooming. I bought it last year thinking I was going to give using lavender herb a try.

I read a recipe of lavender infused tea. Oh it sounded so lovely and pleasant like it would be refreshing on a hot Summer day.
I was talking to my BFF about the lavender tea. I pondered aloud “I wonder what lavender tastes like.”
My BFF laughed and said, “It probably tastes like purple.” lol

It was a bit late in the season for me to a start seeds, so I decided to buy an already growing plant. I found one at a local plant/fruit stand. It was a lovely little thing. On the way home I imagined myself, lounging on our back porch with an icey glass of lavender infused tea.

After I got the plant home, I looked it up on the internet and discovered there’s different varieties of lavender. The plant stake that came with mine was plastic with a picture of a grown plant and said ‘lavender’, but didn’t say what variety. So, I decided not to try it, since I couldn’t be sure if it was safe to eat or not.

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I gave up on making any lavender recipes. Sadly, I took the little plant and planted it in one of my flower beds. It grew quite a bit over the summer. I figured it would die during the winter, but this Spring it was a nice surprise to see that it survived.

I don’t know if it’s edible, but I plan on letting it grow and survive for as long as it can. I think it gives a bit of character to my flower bed.

I know the photos of this lavender aren’t top quality. But for some reason my camera has struggles trying to focus on it.

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Do you think this variety is edible?

Wishing you all a relaxing weekend.cloudhugspgrnbgln

The Pie of Disappointment

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0-IMG_6518Here’s A Quick overview so you can decide if you want to read my long rambling post or not:
I had this grand idea that a fruit cream pie would be a wonderful rare sweet treat.
The pie looked better than it turned out.
Tastewise it was a big disappointed.
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Read on to learn the rambling details:

I surfed the net and found a recipe that had lots of raves and seemed to be just the pie for me to make. It was a simple pie and best of all was totally made in a blender except for the fruit.

As I began to make the recipe the 2 cups of milk and 4 eggs gave me cause for pause as did the cup of sugar, I thought it way-to-much, but since I was already into the recipe I continued on. I was right, with the other ingredients it was too much liquid for one 10 inch pie plate, so I put some of the mix 2 ramekins… (imo even a deep-dish pie-plate would probably be filled to overflowing.) The mix was so thin, I didn’t see how it could possibly cook thoroughly…IMG_6497

I added some fruit and baked the pie at the recommended 45 minutes. It looked pretty good and so did the ramekins. The ramekin pies were done, but unfortunately the pie wasn’t done, it had to bake 20 minutes longer.IMG_6500

I set the ramekins aside and let them cool during the 20 extra minutes I baked the pie. I decided to give the a ramekin pie a taste, It tasted like scrambled eggs with a ton of sugar in them. Yuck! So I scrapped the pie from the ramekins and tossed it in the trash.

I had higher hopes for the pie as it had the fruit in it. The pie baked up beautifully. It sure looked tasty. Even my husband said it was looked really pretty.IMG_6511

I put it in the fridge to cool overnight. It wasn’t as pretty as it was fresh out of the oven, but I still had hope. It sliced easily and surprisingly came out of the pie-plate in good form. I took some photos and then grabbed a fork to taste it.IMG_6518

Oddly, if it wasn’t for the fruit it would have had no redeeming quality. The fruit was good but the filling around it was rubbery scrambled eggs and way too sugary. I didn’t even finish the slice. Into the trash it went.

All I can say is, I tried. I’m not happy about wasting all the ingredients. But I did learn to better pay attention to my cooking instincts.
Oh yes and also, even if a recipe has good reviews it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth trying,

Well, anyhow, at least the photos turn out pretty.
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Wishing you all a great rest of the week?
chef
spgrnbgln

Under the Influence (Cheese-ball)

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IMG_8886I got a little brainwashed during the days leading up to the super bowl. Normally, I don’t pay commercials any attention. However, after several decades of being exposed to them, one can’t help but experience some influence… and that’s why for the first time ever, I felt the need to make a cheese-ball.

I went in search of a cheese-ball recipe and it was over whelming. I got the general gist of what makes a cheese ball. Cream cheese was a reigning requirement, the majority of recipes called for 2 packs. I don’t usually have cream cheese on hand, but amazingly enough I had one pack left over from the holidays.

Many recipes called for chopping up things like onions, garlic, nuts and peppers to add to it. That’s okay, but I was in no mood to deal with that much work.

Mix everything together. Form into a ball. Refrigerate til firm.

Mix everything together.
Form into a ball.
Refrigerate til firm.
Roll cheese-ball in crushed crackers or crushed nuts.
Serve with crackers

So, I created my own recipe. It’s plain and a bit blandish, but served on Italian Herb Flatbread (crackers), it tastes quite good.IMG_8892

I’ll probably, make my cheese-ball a part of our traditional holiday recipes.
Fortunately, I can add anything I want in it and change it up special for whatever holiday or occasion I make it for.IMG_8904

Happy cooking!
chefspflwrsln