Celebrate National Trail Mix Day
September 1, 2010 - Written by Diana
August 31 is National Trail Mix Day – yep, there’s a day for that too. We eat a lot of trail mix, it’s a handy nutritious snack, much better than chips to have on hand.
- My husband likes to take it to work and eat handfuls all day. He also likes to top his yogurt with it.
- We grab a pack when we go hiking to munch on while walking.
- My son packed it for his track meets and band trips in high school.
- I just sent my college daughter some trail mix as a treat when I sent a package to her school. (They will love you for this one.)
- The whole family munches on it at home as a treat when we have a few hunger pangs.
Some fun trail mix trivia:
- Trail mix has been eaten by Native Americans for thousands of years, and originally included buffalo meat.
- Trail mix is featured in Jack Kerouac’s iconic 1958 novel The Dharma Bums.
- Trail mix is the favorite healthy snack of celebrities such as Jessica Biel and Blake Lively.
- Captain Robert Falcon Scott munched trail mix to maintain his energy …
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A Walk Through the Farm Market
August 30, 2010 - Written by Diana
It’s going on towards the end of summer, but the farm markets still have a ton to offer. I’m a loyal fan and frequent visitor to our local farm markets in both Grove City and Pickaway County, plus I will go to markets out of town when I am visiting. My sister in law is on the board of the Ohio Valley Farm Market, and also has her own stand to sell soap and cut flowers (Fine As Frog’s Hair). Her daughter (my niece) has her stand where she sells the most delicious bread (Basic Kneads), though she’s done for the summer since college is starting up again. I haven’t been to visit their market this year yet, but usually I try to leave early when we are visiting with them so that I can visit the farm market first. There’s a lamb guy who sells some great stuff.I’m going to walk you through my Farm Market visit and encourage you to take the plunge. I’ll give you some hints for getting the most out of your visit, and let us know in the comments what your tips and tricks …
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Food Contests – August 2010
August 26, 2010 - Written by DianaNeed some end of the summer cooking excitement? Here are contests that you can enter to help with that. Some require recipes, others you just need to enter. If you win, let me know because I love it when a Cookerati Reader wins something or has some good luck.
- California Strawberry Commission is hosting the “California ‘Everyday Superfruit’ Frozen Strawberry Recipe Contest” for a chance to win a $250 Amazon Gift Card. Submit your own, original recipe in the form AND upload the image with the exact recipe name to the California Strawberry Facebook page . Please include the words “Frozen Strawberry Contest Entry” in your post. The deadline date is Monday, August 31st at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time and all contest rules can be found here.
- Worldwide Video Recipes and Chefs – Enter or Vote in their Amateur / Pro $1,000 Video Recipe Contest. The contest runs from August-17-2010 to October-31-2010. Anyone may enter, amateur or professional chef.
- Mrs. Cubbison’s invites home cooks across the country to share their creative ideas in its “No More Naked Salads” Recipe Sweepstakes. The Grand Prize winner will enjoy …
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Melon Coolers
August 23, 2010 - Written by Diana
Today, working in the kitchen, I decided we all needed something cool and refreshing to drink. I remembered my Watermelon Limeades, and decided to make Melon Coolers. These can be alcohol free, or you can add some white wine, white rum, tequila – light alcohol to it. It’s kind of like a melon slushy, but really nice tasting. If you drink it too fast though you may end up with a cold headache like I did. This is a super simple drink, that takes no time to make.- 1/2 HoneyDew Melon- seeded (substitute other melon as desired)
- Juice of 1 lime
- 1 – 2 cups ice
- 2 tsp agave
Throw everything into a blender. Whirl until slushy like. If you want wine or alcohol, stir it in. Drink. Nothing better than a cool, refreshing drink on a hot summery day. Time to sit by the pool.
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Cool Kitchen Tools
August 20, 2010 - Written by DianaI’ve been using these kitchen tools, and I’m ready to share what I think about them. When I do a review, I usually try to use it for a while to get used to it and to make sure it’s durable. I would hate to talk about something and find out later it was useless, but I recommended it because I didn’t spend enough time with it. In fact, recently I tried out this great looking shiny peppermill. I loved the weight of it, the look of it, but in reality, it’s useless. The kosher salt dropped through the mill without stopping. I thought it would be different for the peppercorns because I knew they wouldn’t fall through. Well, no, they didn’t, but they weren’t ground down either, they spit out in chunks. I am so disappointed. My poor college student daughter who will be moving in to a house with 5 other girls didn’t even want it.
The tools you see on Cookerati, are the ones I recommend, some highly, some are better than good, and others are just good but I won’t recommend something I’ve tried out and didn’t like. Today’s list is pretty good, …
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Smoked Chicken Salad with Herbs
August 19, 2010 - Written by DianaI have a smoker that I’m trying out, and I’m not ready to discuss it yet; however, I did smoke a couple of chickens. We ate one for dinner that night, and then chilled the other in a fridge and tore it up for a salad. I made a nice cold chicken salad for dinner, served in romaine lettuce leaves. The leaves make a cool vessel for the salad, roll it up, slice it across into two and it’s a chicken salad lettuce wrap with hardly any mess. My family loved the chicken salad, with my daughter and husband fighting over the last bits. I liked the smokey taste, but also all the fresh herbs that came straight from the garden. I have a kitchen tool, sort of a knife that I’ve come to like a lot that is perfect for chopping herbs, so I’ve been using big bunches in my recipes when I can. I also chopped and then toasted some almonds in a pan to add into the salad. The toasty almond bits were really delicious when they hit your tongue. I also added a couple of green onions and a little bit of chopped celery,topping it off …
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Clemmy’s Ice Cream – Creamy Taste and Sugar Free
August 16, 2010 - Written by Diana
Jon Gordon came up with Clemmy’s Ice Cream as a way to have his favorite sweet, while trying to combat pre-diabetes. His doctor told him to knock off the sugar, so he came up with a new sugar free ice cream made with xylitol. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol sweetener and doesn’t have the aftertaste that some of the other sugar free ice creams sometimes have and it has a low glycemic index. That doesn’t make Clemmy’s ice cream healthy, but maybe a little healthier for you than eating ice cream with sugar if you are facing diabetes. Clemmy’s ice cream isn’t low fat though, its made with real cream (and tastes like real cream), and it isn’t a diet ice cream. The family had a chance to try out Clemmy’s ice creams and we give it two thumbs up. The kids especially love the Ice Cream – Os, an ice cream novelty shaped like an O and covered with chocolate. Those are so great for grab and go ice cream treats. My favorite flavor pint of ice cream was Toasted Almond - little …
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Wild Rice Salad
August 11, 2010 - Written by Diana
We knew there were going to be vegetarians at my son’s graduation party. I’ve been feeding his vegetarian friends whenever they came to visit. I don’t like picky eaters, people who don’t eat because something looks funny, or because it isn’t made the same way as their mom makes it. However, I do believe in accomodating dietary restrictions, and choices. These kids are not problem children and will find a way to help make things work, but for my son’s party I wanted there to food they would love, because I wanted them to know that they are always welcome and that I was thinking specifically of them. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a hardship, this dish is really an easy to make no fuss dish. I quadrupled and changed up a recipe I found in Cooking Light – Kitchen Secrets for Quick and Easy Meals. This booklet ( thicker than a magazine) is packed with plenty of great tasting and looking dishes. I love the dill, green onion and feta combination, it’s fantastically delicious and fresh.Wild Rice Salad with Chickpeas, Dill and Lemon
- 2 cups cooked wild …
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Walker’s Shortbread Cookies – A Trip Back to Childhood (& Giveaway)
August 6, 2010 - Written by Diana
For my son’s party, we had a platter of Walker’s cookies out for everyone to share. These cookies are timeless, classic cookies, that took me back to being a kid growing up in my grandparent’s house.When we were kids, we lived in my grandparent’s house. There were three floors and each floor was a separate apartment. When we were really small, we had one of the floors, my grandparents another, and my cousins the third. My cousins eventually moved out, but we didn’t share the extra floor, so it stayed empty. My grandmother had a store, and she and my grandfather ate a late dinner every night after they closed the store for the night. They were smart grandparents, they knew that the best way to get visits from the grandchildren was to have dessert out while they ate. There were six of us, and we went to bed at different times. However, we all knew about the desserts, and we all knew that if we went up to say good night to our grandparents, we would get some dessert. Most of the time dessert was cookies and short bread cookies was one …
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How Do You Like Your Corn on the Cob?
August 4, 2010 - Written by Diana
We are smack dab in middle of fresh picked corn on the cob season, one of my favorite times of the year. We were so thrilled this weekend when we picked up some bison, and they told us that they were giving us corn on the cob free because we were such a good customer. We were planning on buying some anyway, but a freebie is always nice, even nicer when it’s just picked summer corn.A few of us online were discussing the best way to cook our corn. Corn on the cob always brings me back to the summer days growing up when we all sat at the table slurping our salted, buttered corn, getting the kernals stuck between our teeth and braces, but oh so worth the cleanup.
Let’s talk about our favorite ways to cook our corn on the cob.
- Boil – We always stripped the husk and the silk, then threw the ears into a big pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes, or until the corn softened enough to poke with a fork. This is a delicious way, though if you cook …
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- Boil – We always stripped the husk and the silk, then threw the ears into a big pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes, or until the corn softened enough to poke with a fork. This is a delicious way, though if you cook …
