She wins Again!

I PROMISE! Random.org chose the winning number...3. It just happens to be my daughter. Stephanie, I'll treat you to a Jamba Juice if you come by my house while you are here in Utah. Please keep trying everyone. Next month's will be yummy, and I'll tell my immediate family "Too bad, too sad, you can't enter." =-)
Here's Nadine and her friends doing a short (okay, very short) happy dance to celebrate her win.

I Love You Franck

Well, at least I love his food. It's delectable.

Our love affair started back in February when Paul and I went to the french restaurant, Franck's. It was a heavenly culinary experience! The next month Fox 13 had $50 certificates to Franck's for $25...we bought two. Last night we used our last one. I'm going to go through withdrawals.

You'll pay more than an average restaurant, but what you get is so divine and sooo worth it! Last night we started with mussels for an appetizer. They came with pommes frites (french fries). I've never had mussels, and Franck's were delicious! On our first visit Paul persuaded me to have escargot. They came in a basil sauce with puff pastry and as long as I didn't think about what I was eating, they were very tasty.

We always choose the soup over the salad. Franck's soups are phenomenal! Last night's soup was a berry horseradish soup. How does he come up with these combinations? That's one thing I need to learn - to know what flavors would compliment each other. These two did in a most amazing way. You'd taste the berry first and then get a warm touch at the end from the horseradish. I've tried to recreate his soups but they elude me. Urggh!

For my entre'e I had strawberry glazed chicken and lobster with tender baby carrots and marinaded peaches. Delicious! (My good friend Paul Budd would say, "Oh, you mean chicken and vegetables." lol) We were quite full, but decided to finish the meal with Franck's handmade butterscotch hazelnut ice cream. Superb.

Ahh, a night dreams are made of. How will I survive until we go again?

Check out his website: http://francksfood.com/indexSWF.html

A Toast to Summer

I can't believe that summer is almost over! The children go back to school on Monday. I will actually miss them. A great way to toast a wonderful season is to sip a cool drink. So here are tips for yummy drinks: freeze fruit, throw it in a blender with a small container of berry yogurt, 8-10 ice cubes (more or less) and 2 cups of apple juice and wah-la, yumminess in a glass.

Or make hot chocolate before bed, freeze half in an ice cube try and put the other the refrigerator. The next day put them both in the blender with 8-10 ice cubes and a little milk if needed, and frozen "hot" chocolate!

I LOVE frozen drinks! Sooooo.....

For an end of summer give-away, tell me your favorite summer drink and you'll be entered to win a $10 Jamba Juice gift card!! What a great way to end the season!

(drawing held Aug. 27th @ 1pm)

Soooo Slimey

I was cleaning out the flower beds last week and I came across what looked like insect eggs at first glance. I wasn't quite sure what type they were. Spider? Hmmm. I scooped them up and got out the camera. In the process of trying to get a shot, I lost some. Hmmm, they must have been bumped and fell. Upon closer inspection, no, they weren't bumped, they crawled! I suppose you could say they slimed away, because they were baby snails! No way! No wonder my plants are getting chomped to pieces! (They are the white egglike circles in the photo. Blech! and yet, so amazing.)

Winning Recipe

Since I can't make my fabulous pie for everyone (though I like Angie's idea of a "pie and tea" party), I decided to post the recipe. If you want a superb crust recipe, let me know. I'll send you one. I know how busy everyone is, so you can just use a Marie Callender's frozen pie crust; it's tasty too. Now, keep in mind that this is the "start" recipe. If you want to make it just like the winning pie, don't add the lemon juice (though I would add at least 1/2 a Tbsp., and for the filling use 3 white peaches, 2 nectarines, and a can of peach pie filling. Yes, it's one of my crazy recipes. Why can't I just follow directions, eh? With local peaches coming on, this is the perfect time for peach pie. Enjoy!!

Cobbled Peach Pie
For Filling:
6 lg. peaches, peeled and cut into small
pieces, can be frozen (thaw if frozen)
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. cornstarch
For cobbler topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 stick of cold butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup boiling water
1 pie crust
Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place pie crust in pie pan.
For filling: Toss peaches with sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch in microwaveable bowl. Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir. Heat for 1 more minute. Remove and stir. Pour peaches over pie crust. (For a thicker filling when using frozen peaches, prepare using 1 bag of frozen peaches and add a can of peach pie filling to the mixture.)
For Topping: Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In food processor, mix dry ingredients and butter on pulse setting. Or mix butter in with your fingers. Stir in water until just combined. Drop by spoonfuls over peaches until covering them. I usually have some left over, because I don't like a heavy top. Cover edge of pie crust with foil to prevent over browning. Bake pie in oven for 35-45 minutes, or until topping is done. Let sit for 1 hour before serving.
Number Of Servings:8 to 10
Preparation Time:15 minutes if crust is already made, plus cooking time

"Will you take me to the Faire"

All growing up, the county fair was part of our summer. My mom was wonderful to help us finish our projects (that were usually started a day or two before they were due). For a few years Nadine had entries in the fair through her 4-H club. Then last year we skipped the fair completely. I missed it. So this year I decided to enter something. I haven't done that since a teenager. I was excited!

I decided to enter some cookies and flowers. And it was my younger years all over again, as I am making the cookies the night before - gotta have them fresh, right? I made my friend Rachel's Lemon Oatmeal Cookies, with a few changes. I always make changes, even to my own recipes. I had to pass on the flowers, because after the severe wind storm we had, all my flowers were, well, pathetic.

On Thursday I took all the family to the Fair to see how I did. And Whoo-hoo!! I got a blue and a high blue ribbon! (High blue means you are considered for a Sweepstakes ribbon in your category.) I gave a cheer and did my own happy dance when I saw my ribbons.

Since the flowers were a no-go, I decided to enter the Mayor's Pie Contest on Friday. Thursday night at 9pm I got home from the store with the ingredients to make a spectacular pie. I of course had to create my own recipe. You see, Paul and I had just been to the Cheesecake factory a few days before, and it gave me ideas. I made a Grasshopper Cheesecake Pie. It actually is tasty. I finished the mint cheesecake layer at 11:30pm and decided it would be a wise idea to look up the rules for the contest to make certain I wasn't supposed to pre-register. I didn't have to pre-register, but...only PEACH PIE entries would be accepted! What!!! Urgh. I've never been good at getting the instructions first.

Soooo.....The next morning I get home from the store at 10 am to start making my peach pie. Luckily I already had a recipe typed up for a pie class I taught last year. I made Cobbled Peach Pie. It's a yummy one if I do say so myself. My fab friend Maghann came over to give Paul some treats for watching her dog. We chatted while I was making the pie. An hour later, I'm racing to the fair with my slightly sad looking pie (my crusts always taste great, they don't always look so good). I look down to make sure I brought the recipe, and I realize I forgot an ingredient! I should never try to do two things at once! Oh well, too late now. I didn't put in the lemon juice, so the pie would be a little bland. I just laughed at myself. This was turning out so typical "Teresa".

There were 10 adult entries. I was nervous and excited as we waited for the Mayor and Fair Royalty to decide. My pie was numbered "1". As they met to discuss the winner, I saw the mayor say "definitely number 1" and the others shook their heads yes!! Now I was ready to hyper-ventilate! After all the disasters, was my pie going to actually win? Yes! I won! I was happy and laughing at myself at the same time. I got a large, gorgeous ribbon and some kitchen towels that say "Harvest Peach". I couldn't believe it, but then again, like I said earlier, it's a really tasty pie.