not just busy with fireworks and family but also in the kitchen! I had some extra time while the kids were entertained by daddy and various pyrotechnics so I took advantage and made a few fun things.
The first thing came about because we were out of syrup for our waffles and I recalled seeing a recipe for some strawberry syrup in the cookbook that came with our blender. Well, I changed it up a bit and came up with something really yummy. Not only is it great on waffles but it can take the place of jelly on toast or pb&j's and is delicious on top of vanilla ice cream. I'll just call it berry sauce. Here it is-
Berry Sauce1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
Cook in a saucepan until boiling then add fruit. I used approx-
1 cup strawberries
2 cups blueberries
continue to cook until the liquid boils down and everything gets mushy and syrupy looking. Let it cool then blend about half of it in the blender. You can blend more depending on how chunky you want the finished product to be.
Here it is cooking:
And here it is on a waffle:
I know that's a sad-looking waffle, it was the tail end of the batch.
I'm going to try making it with different kinds of fruit to see how it turns out. I got some apples today so I'm anxious to try to make kind of a cinnamon-y apple spread. And I think peaches would be really good too. The possibilities are endless! I just love it because it's yummy and fruity but not overly sweet.
Okay, next up is these pickled carrots:
Not much to look at but they turned out surprisingly good! Recipe is from
Snack Girl but I didn't use parsley since I had none. At first I thought these were weird and not very good, but the longer they sat in their 'brine' the better they got. Pouring the boiling mixture on them cooks them just slightly so their softer than fresh but still crunchy. I think is the term is 'parboil' and this would be my first time parboiling anything. They were especially good the next day and coincidentally were gone by the next day. I'll be making more soon.
And, I don't have a picture but I finally used the eggplant I bought last week and whipped up some baba ghanoush. It was hard to find a recipe for this since I had no idea how to spell it. Google helped me out and I ended up using
THIS recipe. It turned out great. Baba ghanoush has a unique flavor that I really like. I didn't have any pita chips to dip in it, I used tortilla chips and that combo tasted great.
And finally, I've saved the best for last. We had our fireworks party on Sunday night and I wanted to make a good dessert for everyone to eat pre-fireworks. I made a Pampered Chef brownie pizza recipe a few years ago for the 4th and decided that would be fun to make again. I found
THIS recipe from Paula Deen and followed it for the most part. I decided to be sneaky and make the brownie crust black bean brownies instead of just from a mix. I figured any hint of a bean taste would be easily disguised with all the other toppings and flavors. So,
THIS is my brownie crust recipe. I made it in a 9X13 inch pan. Then I mixed the cream cheese and crushed pineapple for the 'sauce' then arranged bananas, strawberries and blueberries on top, drizzled with chocolate syrup and sprinkled with walnuts. It was so good and everyone was surprised when I told them there were beans in it. I waited till they were all finished to tell them of course. Hubby said he could taste them but he's got an especially low bean tolerance. The great thing is, I think it turned into pretty healthy dessert since I used light cream cheese and tried to go somewhat light on the chocolate syrup. I'm going to make it again soon, there was none leftover :(
Here it is, my patriotic brownie pizza-
Hope you all had a nice, safe 4th of July. My son is still mourning the fact that firework season is over. I on the other hand, am enjoying the peace and quiet.
