Serve More Than Just Refreshing Fruits

Summer Ideas for Lunch Simple Serve premixed frozen fruit salad with any lunch or eat a whole peach, nectarine, or plum (look for plain fruit with no added sugars or sauces). Don’t forget the napkins!  Moderate Slice fruit and serve with peanut butter on whole wheat toast. Nectarine or strawberries are fantastic summer options to jelly! Summer Ideas for Snacks   Simple Wash and serve a colorful bowl of stone fruit, berries, or other favorite fruit “as is”.  Moderate Wash and slice a variety of fruits and serve with low fat yogurt for dipping or chunk up melon and stone fruit, serve in martini glasses with a spring of fresh mint or grill melon or pineapple slices and serve up next to any meal as a side or dessert. Freeze berries into 100% juice and serve in ice tea or water. No matter how you like your refreshments served, go for it anyway. After all, it's SUMMER!

Modern Bread Pudding Ideas

If everyone loves bread pudding, then everyone knows of its sweet history as stale bread soaked in milk, sugar, butter, fruits and seasonings then bake to form  luscious bread pudding!  While old-fashioned bread pudding is already making a great come-back along with today's reborn of traditional foods, either of its sweet or savory versions can be easy to make.

Making luscious bread pudding is one of the simplest and easy to prepare desserts even a newbie can cook right away. Since we are now in the modern times, why not make a blend of new ingredients cooked the old-fashioned way?

Here are my new-fangled modern bread pudding recipes:

Fruit Cocktail Bread Pudding 

Ingredients

• 5 cups bread cubes, or torn into pieces
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, not margarine
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 8 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 cans fruit cocktail, drained and cut into tidbits
• chopped nuts, optional
• Whipped cream, optional

Directions

In a mixing bowl, beat together sugar, butter and cinnamon with an electric mixer for 1 minute, or 3 minutes by hand. Add eggs and beat until blended. Fold bread cubes and fruit cocktail tidbits into the creamed mixture then pour into crock pot. Cover and cook on Low for 6 to 7 hours or on High for 3 to 4 hours. You may top with crushed nuts or whipped cream topping if desired. Serve warm or cold.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 loaf bread, cubed or torn into pieces
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/4 cups white-chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups toasted pecans, crushed

Directions

Prepare chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl, set aside. In a saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until simmering. Pour hot cream over the chocolate chips, whisking until the chips dissolve. Whisk sugar into the mixture then the milk, eggs, and vanilla to form a custard base. Add the bread cubes into the bowl, gently mixing to coat bread cubes with the custard base. Set mixture aside to allow the bread to soak for an hour. Toss once in a while so bread is thoroughly soaked into the custard base. For the meantime, heat the oven to 325 degrees, and grease a baking dish.

Toss the pecans into the soaked bread mixture, then pour the mixture into the baking dish. Cover loosely with foil, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove foil and increase the heat to 400 degrees. Continue baking for 10 minutes longer or until the top of pudding has lightly browned. You may top your bread pudding with whipped cream. Serve warm or cold.

Which Peach Cobbler Is Best

If you enjoy peaches, then you are always excited about the National Peach Cobbler Day. I always make sure we have a basket of peaches for that national day so everyone in my house eats peaches.

There has been a question as to which cobbler is best, the American or the English peach cobbler?
This is a question I always have a hard time solving. In the United Kingdom (England), cobbler is usually a meat dish made into a type of casserole and I first tasted this with my English and Irish mother. American cobbler is typically a dessert consisting of fruit filling and batter that when baked, rises into a dumpling. From the way these two famous cobblers are cooked also sounds the way they tastes. Perhaps it depends on your personal preference as to which cobbler is really for you.

For the American cobbler, there are many different types of fruit cobblers. You can make one that includes apple, blackberry, mango, cherry, rhubarb, pear, and of course peach. Well, I wonder if there will someday be an Apple Cobbler Day or a Cherry-Rhubarb Day. Anyway, since I am a sweet lover, my pick is the American cobbler.

Because the pie crust is mostly not homemade and the peaches are usually canned, I find making peach cobblers a lot easier that I can make 6 pans of peach cobbler for National Cobbler Day. There are two types of cobblers that you can enjoy, one with a biscuit crust topping and the second using a pie crust. Since my kids enjoy making biscuits in our Dutch oven, a peach cobbler with a biscuit topping is always our pick. Yes, my kids make peach cobblers.

Although me and my husband prefer the pie crust, we were forced to shift to the biscuit type as there is nothing as enjoyable as eating what your kids make. It really comes down to your own preference or how you were taught to cook cobbler, and we want our kids to know that.

Happy Peach Cobbler Day!

The Yearly Pancake Day

If you look at the Christian datebook, Pancake Day is marked the English name for "Shrove Tuesday" before Ash Wednesday. This passion of pancakes began with the old tradition of a day of pancake distinguished throughout the world beginning in England. It is a day celebrated on different dates in different countries associating the beginning of Lent, a period of fasting and abstinence.

Not just for a religious purpose, pancakes are charming and delicious treats. Since it has a significant day itself related to a religious belief, cooking pancakes at home renders all Pancake days as a perfect day to bond with the whole family. It is a day shared by children and parents everywhere along with all forms of tasty pancakes on the table. With the many pancake cookbooks we have today, every home cook can get as much ideas on how to make her Pancake Day for the whole family a good start for the Lenten season.

Even if you're not so fond of pancakes, poor tasting pancakes does not have to stop you from having a flipping good time every year. The key to perfect pancakes is understanding the science behind them. With the potential combination of right ingredients that you can add to your pancake, you will get that pancake taste that can stimulate your taste buds in your tongue.

Happy Pancake Day!

New England Clam Chowder Day

Today is National New England Clam Chowder Day. My grandmother who used to live in the clam chowder country Massachusetts never missed to call us days before the National New England Clam Chowder day, just to remind us for our bowls of chowder on that day. Perhaps it was how we all got used to the same custom every January 21st, and mind you I truly became a chowder fanatic. If you like cheesy soups, you sure will adore a New England chowder with lots and lots of cheese!

I have been a cheesy chowder admirer myself and I can't remember any National Chowder Day without so much of these dish on the family table. I don't know but perhaps its how the most famous varieties of chowder today originally came from a plain “fish stew”, made of fish and vegetables, that has hooked me up.

Here's my favorite chowder recipe that has been my family's favorite too for as long as I can remember. I first got this recipe at Better Homes online which I modified a bit with more amounts of cheese. You can make one for you too. here we go.

Ingredients:

- 1-1/4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon granules
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/4 cup sliced green onions
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup skim milk
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 6-1/2-ounce cans minced clams
- 1 cup shredded American cheese (4 ounces)

Procedure:

In a 2-quart saucepan combine water, bouillon granules, carrots, peas, green onions, and pepper. Heat and bring to boil. In a separate pan, stir together milk and cornstarch, then mix stir into vegetable mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for one more minute. Stir in undrained clams and the cheese until cheese is melted. If desired, you can add more cheese.

Serve in your favorite white bowls. Makes 4 servings.

Chili-Rubbed Tilapia Fish with Lemon and Asparagus

Do you enjoy foods with chili? I do!

Wow, I even enjoy chili in my corned beef. Perhaps there's not yet a worst recipe for chili I've ever seen to make me say no to it. Believe me, I don't have to make it to know it's gonna be BAD...One star for the fact that it's among my favorite ingredient.

Try this chili-rubbed tilapia (or if you don't find tilapia, buy any white fish).

Ingredients:

- 2 pounds asparagus
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin oil
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 pound Tilapia, or white fish fillets

How to Prepare

Boil water in a saucepan. Add the asparagus and cook for 4 minutes, or until tender-crisp. Set aside to cool. Mix together garlic powder, chili powder and salt in a shallow plate. Rub to coat the mixture on the fish fillets. Heat the oil over medium heat and cook the fish until opaque in the inside. When cooked, divide and arrange the fillets among 4 serving plates and set aside. In a small mixing bowl, combine lemon juice, salt and asparagus and mix well. Cook altogether for 4 minutes, or until asparagus is coated. Serve together with the fish. An elegant serving dish can add glamour to your fish recipe.

Let me know how you rate this recipe. I'd be glad!

Fun and Fantastic Holiday Drinks

We all want new flavors for drinks that can make a difference on our holidays. If you are still so engrossed with the ones you've been used to, perhaps a little change this year will make some difference.

Christmas Snow

- 1 oz. light Puerto Rican rum

- 1/2 oz. Galliano
- 1/4 oz. Rose’s unsweetened lime juice
- 1 oz. heavy cream

Mix all ingredients in a shaker and shake well with ice cubes. Serve in claret or large cocktail glass. Sprinkle chopped pistachio nuts on top, or whatever you like.

Enjoy that snowy Christmas creamy drink!

Irish Cheer

- 2 oz. Irish Whiskey

- 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth

Stir well with ice and serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with lightly cooked cranberries.

Savor that holiday cheers!

Scotch Star

- 1 oz. Scotch
- 1/2 oz. sloe gin
- Dash Angostura Bitters
- Juice of 1/2 lemon

Shake well with cracked ice. Serve in cocktail glass.