Exaco Ice Cooler - Bottle Chiller

Summertime is all about being outdoors and spending time with friends and neighbors. Whether that means having friends over for dinner, wine and a BBQ or going to someone elses home this is a fun way to dress up your table or bring to your friends house as a hostess gift.



The Exaco Ice Cooler - Bottle Chiller is fun to create and looks great on any table.



Now you can design your own beautiful bottle chiller - no experience required!



Freeze it with ornaments, fruits, food color, flowers or almost anything else you can imagine to make it uniquely your own creation!



Reusable plastic mold allows use for many years and many special occasions



Makes a great gift!



Also makes a great candle holder, combining the mystique of both fire and ice



When you're done using it, put it outside for the dogs to lick. Just like the "ice lick" I posted about last year. Of course if you have it decorated with things that aren't meant for dogs then it should probably go in the sink to melt.



If wine isn't your style then check out Fred Cool Shooters Shot Glass Mold. Think of how much fun you could have with these!

















Just remember to make these at least 24 hours ahead of time so they have plenty of time to freeze.



I think these are a fun idea for the summer and their sure to be a great conversation piece.

Pickled Cucumber Salad

Tomorrow is Father's Day and so many of you will be celebrating the day outdoors at the pool while lighting up the grill.

Here in Missouri the weather is hot and humid and nothing hits the spot better than something nice, cool and refreshing. So to go with your burgers, steaks, chicken, fish or whatever entree' you're preparing it's always nice to have a chilled salad and fresh squeezed lemonade or limeade to go with your meal.

I love cucumbers so I thought I'd share with you a Pickled Cucumber Salad. It's so nice and light plus very refreshing. Perfect on a warm summers day. In addiion don't forget to try out the Ice Cream Casserole that I posted the other day. They're both sure to be a hit at your bbq tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a wonderful time with their dads and grandfather's.

Pickled Cucumber Salad
serves 16

2 large English Cucumbers, thinly sliced (use a mandoline and it will go quickly)
2 teaspoons salt (I use Kosher salt)
1 cup distilled white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped dill or parsley
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced (optional)

Place cucumbers on a rimmed baking sheet; sprinkle with salt. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours. Drain. Whisk vinegar and sugar in a large bowl until the sugar dissolves. Add cucumbers, dill (or parsley) and onion, if desired. Season wth pepper; toss to blend. Place in refrigerator for 2-8 hours for the flavors to meld. Transfer to serving dish.

The photo of the salad above is 1/2 the recipe that's posted.

Father's Day Ice Cream Casserole

This weekend is Father's Day. Many of you will have your families over with generations of dads and grandfather's. So I thought it only right to devote my next few posts to our dads and even those like myself who wish their dad was still around so that we could shower them with lots of hugs and kisses.

Although my dad is no longer living and my husband will be at a biking event I still like to think about all the fun things to cook up and buy for Father's Day. So why not share them with you, my readers, in case you're still trying to come up with a menu, gift or idea of how to celebrate the day.

Thinking back when I was a little girl, Father's Day always started off eating a big breakfast with my dad, mom and 2 sisters. Then we'd hang around the house listening to Big Band music, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Cole Porter among many others, while my sisters and I would take turns dancing with my dad in our family room. We had so much fun. I miss those days and with the 21st anniversary of his passing June 26th, one month prior to the birth of my daughter, it definitely brings tears to my eyes as I go down memory lane.

On the bright side though, he was the greatest dad ever and I feel fortunate to have had so many wonderful years with him.

Father's Day for us was either going out to dinner to The Tenderloin Room at The Chase Park Plaza, a favorite of my dads, or having a simple family BBQ at home with steaks, potatoes, salad and dessert. My dad was definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Most were back in those days before we knew so much about nutrition.

One of the desserts I use to love to make and still do to this day is an Ice Cream Casserole. Although now I use yogurt instead of ice cream. Below is the recipe for you to try. Feel free to doctor it up anyway you choose but this is the version I've made for years. Let's face it everyone loves Oreo's so check out my recipe and give it a try for this Sunday or for dessert any day of the week.

This dessert stores for weeks in the freezer and best of all, if you don't care about being fancy, prepare it in a tupperware container that has a lid. So after serving out portions of the ice cream casserole you can just pop the lid back on and place it in the freezer for the next time. Of course you can also prepare it in a springform pan and show off your luscious frozen treat!

Ice Cream Casserole
Serves 15-20

For crust:

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
20 Oreo cookies processed in food processor or mashed well in plastic bag

For filling:

½ gallon vanilla ice cream, cookies and cream or yogurt
6 heath bars, broken into pieces

For sauce:

¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 (6 ounce) package semi- sweet chocolate chips
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

To prepare pie crust:
Mix melted butter and wafer crumbs together; pat into a 9-by-13-inch pan (Tupperware container with lid works well). Place in freezer until cold.

To prepare filling:
Soften ice cream; mix with Heath bar pieces. Spread softened ice cream mixture over cold crust. Return to freezer.

To prepare sauce:
Melt butter and chocolate chips in saucepan over low heat. Stir in evaporated milk and powdered sugar. Cook, stirring constantly with wire whisk or wooden spoon, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Let cool to room temperature.

When ice cream in pan has hardened, pour cooled sauce over top. Return to freezer. Cut into squares to serve. (If using a springform pan remove the sides and slice into wedges).

Note: Allow ice cream layer to freeze solid before pouring on the sauce.

Unique Father's Day Gift

Father's Day is just 4 days away. Have you purchased a gift for your Dad yet?

There are so many unique food gifts that you can give your dad this year from BBQ to beverages. But, when I saw these "Whisky Stones" at the store the other day I thought they would be the perfect Father's Day gift for the dad that loves Whisky, Bourbon, Scotch or any other fine Whisky.

Talk about “on the rocks”! For those who want to chill their whisky, but not dilute it, whisky stones are the elegant answer. As the blurb reads: These all-natural Vermont soapstone whisky stones are a must-have for lovers of fine whiskies and bourbons. Milled from a very select type of soapstone located only in Vermont, these whisky stones are handcrafted in some of the oldest soapstone workshops in the USA.

Scandinavians have used granite rocks for this same purpose for hundreds of years, but soapstone has superior thermal properties and being mostly composed of talc, won’t scratch your glass.

Whisky stones are perfect for aficionados who enjoy their beverages with a slight chill, but don’t want to water down the perfect balance of flavors in their chosen spirit. (Of course you could try to freeze them in ice cube trays like the "Cool Beans" way but because of the alcohol content they won't get to a hard freeze.)

These stones are nonporous, so they will not impart any flavors or odors to your drink. The perfect cube shape of the stones also forms a solid surface area that allows for a better and more even chilling.

To use, simply store them in your freezer and when needed let the stones stand for five minutes before dropping them into your drink. After use, hand wash stones in water and put back in freezer. Set includes nine stones and a muslin storage bag.

Just think of how grateful your dad will be now that his whisky won't be getting watered down anymore. Of course this is just one of the millions of fun and unique gifts you can get for dad this year.

Want to know where you can find a set of Whisky Stones?

Talk about Scotch on the Rocks! You might need to purchase more than one bag since all those drinking with dad may want some rocks in their whisky too!

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

I'm so happy to be able to make a post tonight since my computer got hacked into yesterday. I was so worried it wouldn't be up and running again for days. But, thanks to our tech guy Will, he had it fixed in no time flat.

So back to what I'm here to tell you about. A few summers ago I spent some time in Italy. If you've had the pleasure of vacationing there before you know how wonderful the food is, the sites, shopping and incredible history.

With the weather getting warm and humid like it has been the past few days I was in the mood for a light cool lunch. Thinking back to my days in Italy I decided to make a simple Mediterranean Tuna Salad something I had often for lunch while vacationing there.

Not in the mood to go to too much trouble to prepare lunch, plus having a million things to do that day, I came up with a simple version of what I had in Italy. Quite frankly they could have prepared it the same way only with their amazing tomatoes instead of the grape tomatoes I used. They were good but not superb like those in Italy.

If you're looking for something quick to toss together for lunch or even for dinner I recommend this salad. My son of course would eat it for breakfast, since he's all about the protein.

Mediterranean Tuna Salad
Serves 4

1 (12oz) can of tuna pack in water, drained and rinsed to remove the sodium. (Italy would use the tuna packed in olive oil)

1 can Cannellini Beans (white italian kidney beans), drained and rinsed
10-12 Pitted Kalamatta Olives (jarred), rinsed and sliced in half
15 grape tomatoes sliced in half
5 basil leaves chiffonade sliced
Salt and Pepper to taste

Balsamic vinegar dressing

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and blend together. Add homemade or store bought Balsamic Vinegar and toss lightly. Serve. Store unused portion in the refrigerator, covered.

If you wanted to jazz this up a bit add some buffalo mozzerella to the salad and serve.

This is delicious, light and best of all easy to put together.

I felt like I was right back in Italy again.

Fregola Sarda with Roasted Vegetables

I guess it must be that my craving for so many veggies lately is the fact that the warm weather is here and I just don't feel like eating anything heavy. I also didn't feel like going grocery shopping since I'd been running all day taking care of business. So when I got home I looked in the refrigerator and saw an abundance of vegetables. I knew if I didn't do something with them soon they would end up going bad. I hated the thought of throwing them away.

So I decided to cut up in cubes and strips most of the veggies I had. They consisted of eggplant, roma tomatoes, asparagus and butternut squash. I also had some Fregola Sarda that I thought would go great with these roasted vegetables.



What is Fregola Sarda? Well,it's toasted breadcrumb-like pasta from the island of Sardinia that is touted for having special health benefits. Plus they say you can indulge in this pasta without the typical carb and calorie overload. Although the carbs appear to be in line with all the others I looked at.

Fregola Sarda has a special kind of dietary fiber called resistant starch that helps maintain blood sugar and improves digestion...plus each serving has 6 grams of protein.

Fregare means "to rub," and this fregola pasta is made by rubbing coarse semolina pasta and water together to create crumbs. The crumbs are then toasted, which imparts a rich, earthy flavor to the pasta. The pasta is cooked a little like rice, with an excessive amount of water that is allowed to evaporate during the cooking process. It's really delicious!

So I cut up my veggies, tossed some extra-virgin olive oil on them and roasted all but the cut tomatoes in a convection oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. I then added my tomatoes to the batch for another 5 minutes.

By this time my Fregola Sarda was done so I drained it, placed some on a plate and covered them with my roasted veggies. Carefully using my microplane I grated some fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano over all. Mmmmm it was heavenly. I love the nutty taste of the Fregola with the vegetables. It was just what I was in the mood for. Light, healthy and delicious!

So if you're in the mood for something and also don't feel like running to the grocery store, just look in your refrigerator and pantry. Be creative and come up with something with the ingredients you have on hand. You might surprise yourself how inventive you are!

Limeade Spritzer

The other day I had a craving for limes. Since it was so hot and humid out I decided to make some Limeade. While making it I noticed I had some Club Soda in my pantry so I decided I'd make what I call a Limeade Spritzer.

On a hot summer day this hits the spot. Add some fresh thin slices of lime to your glass and plenty of ice and it's as cool and refreshing as it looks.

Of course here's the recipe for you to enjoy as well.

Limeade Spritzer

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed lime juice

2 to 2 1/2 cups water


Cooking Instructions:

The key to making perfect limeade is to make a simple syrup which is just water with sugar dissolved in it.

First, start by adding one cup of water and one cup of sugar to a saucepan and bring to a boil. This assures you that the sugar won't just stick to the bottom of the pitcher when making the limeade. While the simple syrup is cooling, juice the limes.

Now to a pitcher add the simple syrup, and the freshly squeezed lime juice. Next, add two to two-and-a-half cups of water depending on the tartness you like. Then add some lime slices and ice cubes.

In a glass add 1/2 Club Soda and 1/2 Limeade with some extra sliced limes to each glass as a garnish.

This Limeade Spritzer is a perfect refreshing summertime drink.

Enjoy!

Light and Healthy Sweet Potato Salad

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Memorial Day.

Over the weekend I BBQ'd like many of you, and decided to make a Sweet Potato Salad to go with our meal. After viewing various recipes I came up with this one that turned out light and delicious. It was a nice twist on what typically is high in fat. I hope you like it.

Light & Healthy Sweet Potato Salad
serves 4-6

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1" cubes
1/3 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1 teaspoon agave nectar
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons fresh basil, chiffonade style*
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

Place sweet potato chunks in a medium saucepan and add cold water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until tender, 8-10 minutes. Drain, run under cold water to cool, and drain again.

In a large bowl combine yogurt, agave nectar, bell pepper, scallions, basil, vinegar,salt and black pepper then blend together. Add sweet potato chunks and mix all ingredients together. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Can be served at room temperature or chilled.

*Chiffonade - to cut the basil chiffonade style, simply layer basil leaves one on top of the other. Then roll like a cigar and slice into thin strips.