Friday Treat #6

Happy New Year! I think I'm just excited because we get married this year! Woot!

Friday Treat this week has to call upon tradition. We'll be having black-eyed peas for luck, cabbage for wealth, and positively no poultry! The black-eyed peas are going to be spiced with hot sauce and perhaps a little okra to make a truly southern side. The cabbage will come in the form of sauerkraut crusted pork loin roast. That's so simple. Just crust the roast in said kraut sprinkle with a little sugar and cider vinegar (or whatever you have, red wine vinegar works well too) seal with foil and cook at 325 for a few hours...until the thermometer says done. Tender and moist every time.

Cheers to you at the start of this new decade!

Friday Treat #5

This Friday, I’m going with a classic for my betrothed and I….something simple and simply delicious! We’ve got hummus from Sabra, multigrain pita chips from Stacy’s, and bagel crisps from New York Style. I absolutely love the creamy nuttiness of hummus. We got roasted garlic this time (and I wish I was devouring it right NOW!). Of course, if you’re feeling ambitious, all of this can be made at home. With Christmas just a few days away though, I think I’ll leave the ambition to finishing up presents and starting on the table decorations for the wedding.

Happy Friday! Enjoy!

And as a side note: Colts won again last night. That’s right….it’s 14-0, baby!

Photo from myrecipes.com....for the ambitious.

Friday Treat #4

We get to have one of my favorite party offerings tonight for Friday Treat.....and this time it's for a party of two. I'm making baked brie. If you haven't made this, let me tell you how awesomely simple it is!

For a basic no-nonsense version, arrange crescent rolls so that the bases of the triangles meet up. It will look like an eight-pointed star. Place your brie in the middle of the star, and wrap the points around the brie. Bake at whatever the package of rolls said until it's golden. Pretty darn simple, huh?

Of course, there are way fancier methods, like this one by Rachael Ray. It looks to die for.

This stuff is fantastic on crackers or apples slices. But to be perfectly frank, I like cutting it into wedges and eating it all by itself....letting nothing get between me and the ooey-gooey goodness!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Photo from rachaelraymag.com.

Friday Treat #3

Sorry this is so late! So....I thought perhaps I'd entice you to stop and pick some yummy goodness up for Saturday morning! I love breakfast on Saturday. It's usually so very decadent. And this recipe for french toast casserole looks right up my alley! I'd never eat it during the week, but I certainly would it on a Saturday morning with lots of coffee!

Bon Appetit!

Photo and recipe from myrecipes.com.

Friday Treat #2

For those of you like me that have a ton of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing in their fridge, I offer left-over recipes! Here are some that look fantastic:

Shepherd's Pie
Sweet Potato Pancakes (maybe tomorrow)
Spicy Turkey Soup (I'll be making a tortilla version of this)
Turkey Quesadillas (which I did last night, but a different version with smoked cheddar)
Curried Turkey Salad (okay so this is chicken, but it would work with turkey)
Turkey and Spinach Quiche

I am making the quiche for breakfast, but a different version with smoked jack, ricotta, and plain spinach instead of spinach souffle.

I intend to enjoy every last bit of our left overs this weekend, and I hope you do the same!

Sweet potato pancake picture from Recipes.com.

Friday Treat #1

It’s FRIDAY! And do you know what that means?! Friday Treat! Well, I thought I was being a greedy bugger by not treating those who have been so gracious as to read what I’m driveling on about day after day. Google Analytics says there are a few of you out there reading (and not just me visiting the site), which has me over the moon! You have no idea how flattered I am, and I sincerely hope that you all continue to come back (maybe even let me know if I’m writing about anything of interest?)

So, as your very first Friday Treat, I give you my all-time, hands-down favorite treat beer: Delirium Tremens. There are a few things you can guarantee that I will love: Renaissance festivals (only made better by good friends dressed as “goofy” as I am and good beer in lovely handmade mugs), Irish pubs (again….made better by good friends and lots of Irish beer in tall, frosty pints), and wheat beers (especially the Belgian variety – which make the fact that I am to be wed to someone born in Belgium all the more delightful). Delirium Tremens comes in lovely ceramic-style bottles with a champagne-like cork. They offer it in an individual size and a “sharable” size that is very much akin to champagne. My preference is always for the larger, sharable size……because good beer is always better shared.

I actually have a wonderful memory of when my betrothed and I were still just courting. We picked up the large bottle of Tremens and of its brethren Delirium Nocturnum on the weekend when we had nowhere to be. We headed to my little cabin out in the woods and proceeded to share both bottles while snacking on cheese and crackers and watching the better part of Dexter Season One on disc on my tiny TV on my tiny loveseat with the cats trying to fit on it as well. I think that might have been the start of what we now call “beer and baby time”, and it’s a delightful tradition for us still.

Here’s to the weekend! You can find this lovely treat at most specialty beer-related establishments.

Photo from the Delirium site.