Pantry Revisited

Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose Cinnamon Squares for this week's challenge and I am sorry Tracey but I did not get to bake this weekend. Go to Tuesdays with Dorie to check out what the other bakers did. My son was here from Orlando for a quick visit and I got to spend a little time with him. Plus, I am trying to get ready to go on vacation. My stepdaughter is graduating from high school in Connecticut and I will be traveling there on Thursday. If you are from Connecticut and have any suggestions of something fun to do there, please fill me in! I have to leave you with a bit of eye candy too. You probably do not recognize this guy. What can I say? I'm a proud mom! Check back Thursday when I have White Gazpacho Soup to share with you.

Due to time restraints, I will have to once again combine Barefoot Bloggers and CEiMB. Let's start with CEiMB this week. Crispy Fish Fingers was hosted by Anne of Rainforest Recipes . When I read Anne's profile, I was so inspired by her story and her courage. Reading about her life brought back memories of my own, though my brief experience cannot possibly compare to her life. When I was 37 years old, I felt restless and I wanted my life to somehow make a difference. So when my friend Wanda suggested we go to Guyana on a medical mission trip, I immediately said yes. Having led a pretty sheltered life up until that point, it was a huge decision for me to leave my husband and my two teenage boys and just take off with a group of doctors and pharmacists I barely knew to a place I knew nothing about. Of course we all remember the Jim Jones tragedy and because of that incident, the people of Guyana were not very trusting of anyone from the states. It doesn't take more than a ...

One of my favorite bloggers, Kelly, of Baking with the Boys chose this week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe. You can get the recipe off of Kelly's blog here . I couldn't wait to make this because I love any kind of fruited or nut breads! Thank you so much Kelly for a great pick this week! It was easy to mix up and easy to bake. However, my loaf was completely baked in one hour instead of the one and a half hours Dorie suggested on the recipe. It took two mangoes to make the two diced cups. We had breakfast while it was baking. Then, we had a slice of this fabulous bread with some strawberries about thirty minutes after our breakfast. This could be belly fat disaster if I continue eating like this! You do know mangoes are an aphrodisiac fruit, right? I'm just sayin. . . . be careful how many you eat! A very long, long time ago, Rosemary Clooney sang a song named, you guessed it - Mangos Mangos, papaya just nuts from the fire In my house of straw I have so much more Pie f...

First, Barefoot Bloggers. Kate of Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails chose the Tuna Salad from Ina Garten's huge selection of wonderful recipes. Let me just say that I love Kate's blog name! Because tuna seemed to be ridiculously expensive for some reason at the market, I decided to substitute with some salmon fillets. And instead of chopping up the salmon into chunks, I just served it over some green beans with the avocado salsa mixture on top. Somehow, in my mixing up of the sauce, I must have added too much salt. To me, it was just too salty so this was not my favorite recipe. The yankee however, loved it so much he was willing to eat all of his and what was left of mine. I might be tempted to make this again, but I will be more careful on the salt part. I liked that it was easy to prepare and quick. You can find the recipe down below. ******************************** Now for Craving Ellie in My Belly! In our Craving Ellie group, we were hosted this week by Notes from the Tabl...

Babette of Babette Feasts picked Tartest Lemon Tart for our weekly Tuesdays with Dorie challenge. Some people find lemons to be bitter and yucky. I find them to be tart and tasty. Even as a child I loved to eat lemons with salt. My mom always said I was going to ruin the enamel on my teeth if I kept eating them, but so far I still have enamel! I found this tart to be easy to prepare, but I had a little bit of trouble with my crust. I think my tart pan was too big. As you can see from the picture I could not make the crust go up to the top of the pan. Also, I had a bit of trouble with the crust breaking when I cut the pieces. But the crust was tender and delicious nonetheless. The filling was very lemony and tart, as it should be. We loved it. Of course, as luck would have it, the yankee and I started a new diet this morning. The Mediterranean diet. You are supposed to lose four pounds of belly fat in one week!! We are just going to try it for the one week to see if it really works. B...

Our CEiMB was hosted this week by Hosted by Jessica at A Singleton in the Kitchen . Jessica is one of my favorite bloggers! This week we made Ellie Krieger’s Garden Risotto together. I love to eat risotto. I always hesitate to make it though. It is just the “time” thing. You cook, you stir, you cook, you stir, you cook some more. For some reason, it never cooks in the time the recipes say it will cook. If it says 18 minutes, you can bet your bootie it will take me 30 minutes. But if you are thinking you could substitute plain rice for risotto, think again. Risotto has a creamy, smooth taste that rice could never match. Having said that, with a glass of wine in hand, there is something incredibly relaxing about making risotto. Add a little broth, drink a little wine, stir. Add a little more broth, drink more wine, stir. Add wine, drink broth, stir. Taste risotto, slide down on floor where wine spilled, stir. Sir, drnik wine, broth add. Yeah, you can tell I had fun with this one! A ...

I'm sorry, but I did not get around to making the fabulous Tiramisu cake this week. Please forgive me. I'll be back next week for Lemon Tart. I can't wait to see what all you other bakers did with this week's cake challenge!