Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Iced Coffee Frappe

Boy was this a treat!  Sydney Mike at food.com, inspired me to make this iced coffee frappe.  The original recipe states to use double strength brewed coffee, but I opt to make this with an instant coffee.




Iced Coffee Frappe 

2 Tablespoons instant coffee 

8-ounces cold water

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 Tablespoon chocolate syrup

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 cup ice cubes (I used 16 mini ice cubes)

Reddi Wip Dairy Whipped Topping, to garnish the coffee

Additional chocolate syrup, to garnish the coffee
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1.)  Add water and instant coffee to a coffee cup.  Place coffee cup in the microwave, and microwave until coffee is heated through.


2.)  Place heated coffee in the refrigerator, to chill the coffee.  
(I found the coffee was chilled within 1 hour).


3.)  Add the chilled coffee, whipping cream, 1 Tablespoon of chocolate syrup, 2 Tablespoons of sugar, and the ice cubes into a blender; process until smooth (for about 1 minute).


4.)  Pour iced coffee into a large beverage glass (or 2 small glasses). Top the iced coffee(s) with a generous dollop of the Reddi Wip, and drizzle on a bit of chocolate syrup, and serve.


5.)  Yields: 2-1/2 cups of iced coffee frappe


6.) Note: When making this coffee, you could substitute a double strength, already brewed, chilled coffee, for the 8 ounces of "instant" chilled coffee.  Also, you can substitute 3 individual packets of Splenda, for the 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar.

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Cherry Lemonade πŸ’πŸ‹

Marg (CaymanDesigns) at Food.com, inspired me to make this Cherry Lemonade.  The maraschino cherry juice gave this lemonade a lovely shade of pink and a hint of cherry flavor. πŸ’πŸ‹



Cherry Lemonade

1-1/4 cups lemon juice, bottled or fresh

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice

4 cups cold water

crushed ice, or ice cubes

lemon slices, to garnish beverage

maraschino cherries, to garnish beverage


1.)  In a pitcher, add the lemon juice and sugar; stir to combine.

2.)  Add the cherry juice and water; stirring briskly to mix.

3.)  Add crushed ice or ice cubes to a beverage glass.

4.)  Add cherry lemonade to the glass filled with ice.

5.)  Garnish each glass with a lemon slice and a maraschino cherry.

6.)  Yields: 1-1/2 quarts (48-ounces)



Saturday, July 23, 2011

🫐 Chilled Blueberry Soup

I prepared this delectable soup one day in advance, and thoroughly enjoyed it the next day for lunch. I never thought a chilled blueberry soup could be quite refreshing!



Chilled Blueberry Soup

1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2-3/4 cups water
3 cups fresh blueberries
1 (4-inch) cinnamon stick
3 Tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate
Garnish: Reddi Wip (or) Cool Whip
Garnish: fresh mint leaves (optional)

1.)  In a large 3-quart size saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch.  Gradually stir in the water until smooth.  Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir the mixture for 2-3 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

2.)  Add the blueberries and cinnamon stick, return to a boil.  After mixture comes to a boil, remove pan from the heat, and stir in 3 tablespoons of the frozen orange juice concentrate; stir until the juice had melted completely.

3.)  Place pan back on the stove, cook mixture over low heat for 10-12 minutes; stirring continuously until mixture has thickened up a bit more.

4.)  Remove pan from heat, discard the cinnamon stick, cover the pan, and set the pan aside for 30 minutes, so the mixture has time to cool down.

5.)  Strain the blueberry mixture through a fine wire mesh strainer, into a heat proof glass bowl, and using the back of a spoon to press out the berry mixture.  Be sure to scrape the berry mixture off the back side of the mesh strainer as you go along, and adding it to the bowl.  After straining the berry mixture into the bowl, I then covered the bowl with plastic wrap, and placed the bowl in the refrigerator.

6.)  Be sure to thoroughly chill the soup (covered) in the refrigerator before serving it.  (I refrigerated the soup overnight, and served it the next day.)

7.)  Garnish soup with a dollop of Cool Whip (or with Reddi Wip) and fresh mint leaves.

8.)  Yields: 3 cups, or 3 servings (1-cup each per serving)

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Old-Fashioned Pink Lemonade

I came across this recipe at 2 separate recipe websites... Allrecipes and Recipezazz.  I did modify the recipe to suit my taste.  When making the lemonade, I used a bottled lemon juice, as price-wise, it's cheaper, and it still tastes good.  Also, for this recipe, you could use cranberry juice, but I used raspberry cranberry juice, and I added a bit more than what the recipe called for.  It was a taste preference on my part.  Adding less cranberry juice, will make a light pink lemonade.  I found this lemonade to be quite refreshing!


Old-Fashioned Pink Lemonade

1 cup of sugar
4-1/2 cups cold water
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 to 3/4 cup raspberry-cranberry juice, chilled
crushed ice (or) ice cubes

1.)  In a large pitcher combine the sugar, water, lemon juice, and cranberry juice; stir to dissolve the sugar completely.

2.)  Pour the lemonade in glasses filled with ice and serve.

3.)  Yields: 56 ounces of lemonade

4.) Note: For this recipe, I substituted bottled lemon juice for the fresh lemon juice, plus I added a 3/4 cup of the raspberry-cranberry juice.


Monday, April 25, 2011

Venison Stroganoff

This stroganoff is made with canned tomato sauce rather than with a can of mushroom soup, which was a nice change, and still just as good!!



Venison Stroganoff 

1-1/2 lbs. venison, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

5 Tablespoons flour

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

7 Tablespoons diced onion

2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper, plus 1/8 teaspoon of pepper

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 (4 ounce) cans sliced mushrooms, well drained

8 ounces sour cream, plus 1 Tablespoon of sour cream

extra wide egg noodles, uncooked (about 16 ounces)

dried parsley flakes, to garnish the stroganoff


1.)  Place venison in a bowl.  Add the flour, and toss to coat the cubed meat.  Once coated, add venison to the skillet, and brown according to the following directions below.


2.)  In a 10-inch skillet, over medium heat, add the vegetable oil. Cook and stir the venison until it's cooked about 3/4's of the way done; stirring often so the meat doesn't stick to the skillet.  Now add the diced onion, and continue cooking the meat until it's browned evenly.  Once the venison is browned, cover the skillet, and remove skillet from the heat.


3.)  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.


4.)  In a 2-1/2 quart casserole baking dish, add the tomato sauce, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and the Worcestershire sauce; stir to mix.


5.)  Add the cooked venison to the casserole dish; stir to coat the meat in the tomato sauce.  Cover the casserole dish; place dish in the oven, and cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes, but be sure to stir the meat mixture after the first 30 minutes of cooking time.


6.)  After 60 minutes of cooking time, remove casserole from the oven, add the sliced mushrooms and the sour cream, and stir.  Cover, and place the casserole back in the oven to cook for another 30 minutes.


7.)  About 15 minutes before the meat mixture is done cooking, cook the egg noodles according to package directions.  (I cooked mine with a bit of vegetable oil, and with out any salt, for exactly 9 minutes.) Once I drained off the water, I stirred in a bit of butter, so the noodles wouldn't stick together.


8.)  Once the noodles are cooked, and the meat is cooked, add desired amount of noodles to each dinner plate, and top with the stroganoff. Sprinkle each plate with a bit of the dried parsley, and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.


9.)  Yields: About 5-6 servings

πŸ‘½ Alien Cookies πŸ‘½

Look at the cute Alien Cookies that my sister Kim had made for my daughter  Wendy, to give me as a delicious gift for this past Mother's...