2. In a food processor, puree the blueberries until no more chunks. Place the peaches and puree blueberries in a oven safe dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
3. In a medium size bowl, combine all remaining ingredients. Mix together-- you will have lots of small crumbs, but that's alright, it's what we're shooting for. Sprinkle all the dry ingredients over the fruit mixture.
4. Turn down the oven to 350°F and bake for 45 minutes.
5. Serve hot. It will go great with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!
1. Whisk together milk and eggs and combine all other ingredients. Stir until well blended (a few clumps are ok).
2. Heat a skillet on medium heat. Spray with non stick spray and begin the process of making pancakes. Measure out a 1/4 cup batter per pancake. Cook on both sides for about two minutes or until pancakes are easy to flip. Repeat until all batter is gone.
3. Top each pancake stack with one tablespoon of peanut butter and enjoy them while they are hot.
******REVIEWS*****
I had a guest judge this week. Who do you think it could be? I was really pleased with my guest judge's and husband's response.
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In food processor, combine thawed spinach and cream cheese. Mix until well blended.
3. Mix all other ingredients (minus the breadcrumbs) in a mixing bowl and combine the spinach and cream cheese. Pour into an oven safe dish and bake for 30 minutes.
4. Remove dish from oven and sprinkle bread crumbs and a few sprinkles of shredded mozzarella. Bake for another 5 minutes.
5. Serve hot with your favorite chips.
It's easy to say that we both enjoyed this recipe; we ate the entire dish in one sitting. Brandon enjoyed it until he came across the peppers. Usually he enjoys mildly spicy stuff but the spinach mixed with peppers meant there was going to be some problems later on in the evening, as he told me. This blogger is slowing learning that cheese makes Brandon happy. But still, it's so much fun to watch him eat (or try to eat) stuff I know he won't like. I think this was his favorite thing I've fixed from the blog. I hope you enjoy it too!
1. Boil water for pasta. Cook pasta until tender and drain. Rinse out the pot and use for later.
2. In a food processor, combine spinach and green peas. Process until well blended.
3. After the pasta is drained, pour pasta back into pot along with the spinach and pea mixture, kidney beans, garlic salt, and Italian dressing. Mix all ingredients until the pasta is covered. You can serve warm or cold.
This is a fairly simple recipe but it has some really involved and exciting flavors. Brandon has an opinion about involved and exciting flavors though. I guess I should've known that before preparing this for him. Well, actually, I did. I have a lot of fun cooking this stuff knowing that he has to eat (or should I say try) everything I make.
What's Brandon's opinion you ask? Well, here you go...
Another unsuccessful dish. I guess the key is to keep some kind of cheese in the recipes. It seems I can usually win with the cheeses.
Well, as you can see, we made it back safely from New Orleans. Brandon had the opportunity to attend a library conference in New Orleans last weekend, so I thought I would join him in the big city. Most of Brandon's classes got out early therefore we had more time to explore the French Quarter. When we first arrived at our hotel we realized that parking was going to be too much of a hassle so we stayed around that area (where the hotel and conference was held) all weekend. It was nice to get away for a few days and Brandon and I made some great memories from eating hot Beignets to watching a live street dance at 10pm. I think everyone should visit New Orleans at least once although I was a little disappointed with the foul smells of built up trash in the French Quarter and the constant feeling that you yourself smell like trash.
Our trip started very early on Friday morning. I made a very rigorous and detailed agenda so we got an early start. We arrived on Magazine Street around noon. Now, Magazine Street is filled with unique shops and adorable cafes and it was probably my most favorite place to visit. We grabbed lunch at Cafe Rani and enjoyed our meal under a shady tree. Cafe Rani was voted the best outdoor dining and best hamburger in New Orleans. (Shh...we cheated on the vegetarian diet and shared a delicious burger). And of course, we just had to add feta cheese to the burger when we saw that it was available. The burger was served on a wheat ciabatta bun and that gave the burger a really sweet taste. Also, one dish that Brandon and I can't live without is spinach dip. Cafe Rani's spinach dip was very flavorful, and full of surprises. It seemed like a much healthier version to the ones we've had before though it wasn't as creamy as other dips. It could possibly make our list (Mellow Mushroom has the best).
After walking in the hot sun, we checked into the DoubleTree Hotel and were greeted with a mouth-watering chewy chocolate chip cookie. Two thumbs up for any hotel that gives you a chocolate chip cookie upon arrival. For dinner, we adventured back out to the French Quarter and grabbed a five cheese brick oven pizza from Louisiana Pizza Kitchen. I didn't get any pictures of the pizza, but it was extremely delightful and filling...trust me.
One of my goals was to not get coffee at Starbucks and try local places there. PJ's coffee was started in New Orleans and now it has multiple locations across the states. I enjoyed a strong caramel cappuccino that I thought I might be regretting later, but I slept like a princess on Friday night with hotel air-conditioning blasting out. I hate to admit it but when we're not paying for it, we keep it freezing in the room. Brandon loves sleeping cold.
We woke up early Saturday morning because Brandon had his first class at 8am. It wasn't too hard to get up knowing that I would be eating at the famous Cafe Du Monde very shortly. Brandon got out of his class early, yet again, and we made our way to Cafe Du Monde. It was about 9:30am and there was already a huge line outside. The line didn't seem to be not moving very fast, so we decided to walk around the shops nearby hoping the line would die down. We arrived back in line around 10:30 and it seemed to be moving faster than before. While in line, a gentleman was playing his trumpet to some well known hymns; signature New Orleans. You just have to soak it in because you don't get that anywhere else. When we were seated, our table still had the previous guest's plates covered with powdered sugar - I was so glad I didn't wear black, because it would have been very noticeable where I had been. Brandon, busy taking off his polo shirt in fear of powdered remnants, and I put in our order for six Beignets, Cafe Au Lait, and waters. It was pretty chaotic with the amount of people sitting under one roof, but no one seemed stressed or upset about the wait for the Beignets. Finally, we got the mouth-watering donuts. All I can say is ...wow. You could hardly see the them in the mess of powdered sugar covering them and the plate.
We didn't really eat a lunch on Saturday, so mid-afternoon we began searching for dinner options. Since we didn't have access to our car, we walked everywhere. Italian seem to be what our taste buds were wanting and we heard about an Italian restaurant called Mona Lisa off of Royal Street. The location was at the end of the French Quarter and kind of a hole in the wall. We ordered spinach dip and fettuccine alfredo, of course. But it wasn't the best fettuccine alfredo. The flavors didn't seem to come out; however, the spinach dip had magnificent flavors. This creamy concoction was filled with sour-cream and cream-cheese.
After dinner, we were on a search to find a unique dessert place, but we didn't have luck. While searching, we came across street party with a live band. It was an amazing experience. It made me realize how great life is and it was awesome to see all types of people coming together and having a wonderful time. This is what New Orleans is all about. The street party was a great event to end the night.
On Sunday, Brandon attended his last conference and sadly we realized that our weekend get-away was coming to an end. We checked out of the hotel around 10am and stopped by the New Orleans Museum of Art before heading home. I had done a little bit of research of the museum and I wanted to check out the Sculpture Garden. The garden was very fascinating, because it had numerous unique sculptures in a small area. It was really nice but it was just too hot to stay outside for very long. So we jumped back in the car and made our way home.
Once again, New Orleans was a great place to visit and somewhere everyone should visit at least once or maybe once every ten years. Some people say the trashy-ness is the charm of the city but after unpacking, I found it kind of annoying. It's no wonder this city is ranked number one dirtiest city of the U.S. http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40390415
Oh, by the way, we got to see a newly-wed couple leaving their ceremony venue accompanied by another street band. Check it out!
