Summer Recipes: Foodie Friday

When it's too hot to cook, try this simple (and fast) recipe.
Grilled Chicken & Pasta

Chicken breasts

Paprika

Olive oil

sun dried tomatoes

Salt & pepper chicken breasts; sprinkle with paprika. Grill chicken for 3 minutes on each side (high heat). Cool, then slice. Cook pasta according to directions. Add chicken and sun-dried tomatoes to pasta. Salt and pepper to taste. Basil is optional. Serve with salad and baked bread (deli is fine--in fact, preferable, if you are a culinary slob like me).

A gin and tonic is optional.

Farmhouse Gin and Tonic
Tonic water, lime juice, fresh limes, Beefeater gin.

Stir with minimal shaking.

In two days, the Facebook contest for the cherry red Le Creuset pan ends. There's still time to enter.

However, a new Le Creuste contest has begun at Facebook. To enter your name in the contest for

a turquoise 10 1/2" inch grill pan, leave a message and work in the words "Caribbean blue." I have an old pan in hunter green, and when it's raining, I grill indoors. The contest ends Friday, August 13th. You can leave a message on the blog or on Facebook (see the sidebar) for extra chances to win).
Le Creuset doesn't know I exist, but that's okay, I love to share good cookware with my friends.

An imagination is priceless, whether you are blogging or dreaming. Stop by for a vicarious Foodie Friday trip to a Maine

i

seaside mansion in York, Maine for a fictititous getaway. Leigh and Jessica are already THERE. Won't you join us?

If you are participating in this week's recipe exchange,and if you need more information about Foodie Friday, specifically how to post your link, click HERE.

Mr. L. awaits your Foodie Friday recipe:

Portmeirion Give-Away

I love salad servers, but I love my Portmeirion servers to pieces. I've got a few odd bits of the the Botanic Garden pattern, which I mix with my white ironstone.If you're interested in winning a set of salad servers (see below), leave a comment and your name will go into the hat. Contest ends this Monday,July 26th, at midnight.

Sugar Free Cheesecake (the Easy Way)

Once in a while a girl just needs something sweet, even if the sweetness is faux.

I have baked sugar free cheesecakes in the past, but sometimes I need faux sugar this instant


So I bought a tiny sugar free cheesecake at Publix:

and a box of blackberries.

Each gilded slice has 4 net carbs. Naturally you will add carbs for the berries. I never do.


What You Need:

store bought sugar free/low carb cheesecake

blackberries

Crust -- Make your own low-carb crust by chopping (very fine) walnuts, pecans, macadamias and mixing them with Splenda and melted butter; press the nut mix around the chilled, firm cake.

Heavy whipping cream--whipped with Splenda--is a low carb indulgence--or Sugar Free Cool Whip.

Enjoy!

(Reprinted from Designs by Gollum, 2009)

Foodie Friday

There's just something magical about having lunch in the sunshine.

The pottery is "Tangier," made by Tabletops Unlimited.

The red goblets, Fostoria's "Jamestown," were wedding gifts. The napkins are dish towels. And the flatware is "Avalon." The "tablecloth" is actually a throw; and the vase was swiped from the den, complete with fake flowers, which I adore ... and always will.

Don't forget to sign up for the Le Creuset give-way on Facebook. Just leave a message, using the word "cherry."

If you are participating in this week's Foodie Friday, you can find detailed instructions
HERE.
Otherwise, Mr. Linky, awaits your recipe and bloglink.

Foodie Friday: Bird Biscuits plus Le Creuset Skillet Give-away

For a long ago Foodie Friday, I was inspired to make "bird biscuits," using canned biscuits.

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song."
-- Chinese Proverb


"The bluebird carries the sky on his back."
--Henry David Thoreau

"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds."
--Aesop

"Simple Bird Biscuits"

• canned biscuits (I used Pillsbury Grands)
• bird-shaped cookie cutter
• 1/4 stick melted butter
• pastry brush
• chopped parsley
• chocolate dot (for the eyes)

Procedure: Dust a little flour onto a sheet of waxed paper. Use a rolling pin to gently flatten biscuits (roughly the size of your cookie cutter). Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes or when browned.

Remove from oven. Brush biscuits with melted butter. Press chocolate eye into the appropriate spot. Garnish with parsley.

And that's it.


“I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.”
--E. E. Cummings

Aftermath:

"A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen, and this kitchen is delirious."
--Unknown

(Quotes from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/kitchen/
and http://www.foodreference.com/html/qkitchen.html)

Would you like to win a 10 1/4" RED Le Creuset skillet?

To enter, leave a message On FACEBOOKand include the word CHERRY. For more chances to win, you can leave a message on this post, too.

August 1st is the deadline.

If you are participating in this week's recipe exchange, post your information below.

Dairy Queen Cuisine

I haven't been posting much lately because I'm writing. Mostly, though, I'm eating stuff like this.

And my mother wonders why all of us have gained a bit of weight.

I just love Dairy Queen cuisine, even though it's a heart attack in a box.

But that didn't stop us from consuming every last crumb.

Be sure to check out the new Le Creuset give-way over at Facebook. (See the sidebar.)You can enter the contest here, too, by using the word "cherry" in your comment. (The skillet is red).Deadline: August 1st.

To participate in this week's recipe exchange, add your information below:

Foodie Friday

Welcome to Foodie Friday. A mosaic of creations from my kitchen, including gilding storebought items; all recipes can be found on this blog. I'm truly looking forward to finishing my book so I can dive back into blogging--and cooking.(Center: Gilding the bakery cookie; top left to right:crab cakes, onions, low carb finger sandwiches, mushroom tart; center top and bottom, left: playing with puff pastry scraps and cookie cutters; center top and bottom, right: armesan crisps (made in cookie cutters) and Napoleons; Bottom left to right: kielbasa, rosemary, glazed red onions; berries; low cal cream puffs; low carb cheesecake with blackberries.)All photos were taken with a Pentax point-and-shoot.
If you are participating this week, add your info (see below). Check back Sunday to see who won the Le Creuset pan on Facebook and to learn about a new contest.