Happy 70th birthday.

Today my Dad would have been 70, if he was still alive. His last birthday was at the young age of 64. I am totally out of sorts today. A bit bitchy, teary, and just not with it. My Mother always celebrated birthdays, but milestone birthdays were a big event. I remember my Dad's 30th birthday party. I remember him sleeping in a lawn chair towards the end of the night. His 50th birthday party was an extravaganza. His 2 brothers came into town from out of state. That was a very fun party for his kids. I believe one of his kids may have slept in a lawn chair that night. The  60th party was at my house. At the best of our abilities, we tried to surprise him. NO one slept in a lawn chair that night. We did have a good time. We laughed about how old we had all gotten.

Today is a beautiful day. Mid 70's and sunny. Actually kind of cool for the end of July. He would have said it was an excellent day for working. Even on his birthday. He would have kicked it into gear & got a lot done.

So, Sweets by Shayla has been baking up a storm. I did a 300 person wedding last weekend. Cupcakes and Treat trays. It was a tremendous amount of work, but when I was done, I was happy. No second guessing. The bride was also very pleased. And that is the most important person. 

My sister and her family from FLA are in town for a week. We are going to do our own partying and hanging out. We all think about my Dad in so many different ways and have our own special memories. 

My Dad was such a good dad. He had his rules, and they had little bend. BUT everything else in life was fair game. Did he shake his head at us??? YES... Wonder what the Hell we were doing??? YES.. but he totally love us. I am grateful in life for my Dad... AND MOM. They have taught us many differ things. 

Be grateful for what you have, and someone always is worse off than you. WORDS of Wisdom.

Green Peachy Cleanse

I am still drinking my green drinks, but I am starting to modify them. Granny Smith apple are a bit out of season and getting very expensive. SO.... move on to summer fruit. I can remember last winter (who could forget a Polar vortex), coming across recipes with summer fruits and melons. They are all my favorites, so let us commence with the summer recipes.

This recipe still has a green apple in it, but today was the last of the apples. It also contains a peach. I made this recipe twice, once with spinach and once without. (Believe it or not, the grocery shopper sometimes forgets her spinach.) Without the spinach, the color was slightly orange. With the spinach, all GREEN.

The peach gave the drink a bit of thickness. Full flavor. All the things I love

I am also working on drinking more Plain Water

Green Peachy Cleanse
adapted by ME
Ingredients

1 cup water
1 piece fresh ginger
1 peach, pitted and sliced
1 handful fresh spinach
1 green apple, cored and sliced
1 squirt Agave Nectar (Optional)

Directions
Place all ingredients in your Vitamix or high powered blender in the order listed. Blend until smooth.

My normal handful of fruits and veggies

My almost full blender. I just love this machine

This was such a good drink. 

The Peach really amp'd up the flavor

OREO pudding cookies

My husband sometimes ask me why I buy Oreo's. I still love them, and know they come in an assortment of flavors. My Florida sister will say that Grandma's cookies are the best, but I do love an Oreo once in awhile. It is not wrong

This Marshmallow crispy was a very good flavor

Lemon was delightful. I actually used them for a lemon cheesecake bar.
I did eat the apple and orange. They both went into a drink

SO, when I can across this recipe for a Oreo pudding cookie, I was all in. This was a quick cookie to whip up. It is also not a large batch.  22 cookies or so. Great for a group of people. Use Plain old Oreo's.This batter does not spread at all. This cookie needs to be smushed down after baking. When I pull them out of the oven, I immediately take the back of the spatula and smash down. I then let cool in the pan to set up. 

A nice soft cookie with a great flavor

Oreo Pudding Cookies
adapted from Amyshealthybaking.com
Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick) MELTED and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 oz (4 servings) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 Oreo's roughly chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper.

In a separate mixing bowl, add butter and brown sugar together. Mix until creamy. Add eggs, one at time and mix. Add vanilla extract. Mix in pudding mix until blended. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in by hand the Oreo cookie pieces.

Drop cookie dough on prepared sheet pans. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Remove when done, smash down with back of flat spatula and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Then move to a wire rack.

Firm but not hard cookie dough

Lovely perfect circles baking away

Removed from the oven and flattened. Still cooling

Waaa Laaa.. bits of Oreos in all bits. Yummy.
My friends just loved these cookies.
A huge combo factor, eating Oreos in homemade cookies
Kind of like the best of both worlds.

Salted Caramel Scotch Blondies

Holy cow... where have I been. My Dentist asked if I had been on a vacation. NO.. just at home. Working outside, going to the beach and a very few motorcycle rides. I have been busy making very cool cakes, neat cupcakes and the same old delicious cookies. I am still drinking the same types of green drinks. Creature of habit. Hardly outside the box for me. No new recipes.

I have went to a wedding and catered two. Meet some old friends of my Husbands for the first time. I have went to two graduation parties and one birthday party. Good lord. The cash just keeps flying out the window. My weight loss plan has also flown out the window. Party food is so very bad and taste so very good. 

My Husband and I are my wonderful friend Mary's sons wedding.

The bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome as ever.

My Friend Mary was just stunning. Her radiating personality was 

all over the wedding and reception. It was just a lovely event.

So one day I can across this recipe. Salted caramel scotch blondies. They screamed at me.. MAKE ME!!

The only problem I have with blondies, they have a very short shelf life. Brownies will last a few days, not these. By the end of two days, I think they are done. You cannot over mix them, over bake them or not leave them wrapped well. Hockey season is over, you do not want pucks.

These blondies are very good though. NOT diet friendly, but o so delicious. Melt in your mouth, and commingle with flavors. There are several reasons for a wow factor. Brown Butter. Caramel Chips and Butterscotch Chips and last, Sea Salt. WOW. I made them for a party and they were gone. Everyone loved them. I made these for a 9 x 13 pan. You can cut them in half and make an 8 inch pan. They will taste great either way

Salted Caramel Scotch Blondies

adapted from chelseasmessyapron.com

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup caramel chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil. Spray for cooking spray and set aside

Heat your skillet to medium heat. Add butter and watch until melted. The butter will foam, stir regularly, to keep from boiling over. The butter will gradually start to brown. DO NOT let it burn. Or you will be starting over. Yummy brown bits will form, when you smell a nutty flavor, it will be done. 

Pour the brown butter into your mixing bowl. Add your brown sugar and mix. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Slowly add your flour, baking soda and sea salt until just incorporated. 

Spread about two cups of the mixture into your prepared pan. Sprinkle with the caramel chips. Then sprinkle with the butterscotch chips. Gently spread the REMAINING batter over the chips. The mixture will spread. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Until just slightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Cut and serve

The browned butter batter will be a nice light blondie color

Add your caramel chips and then the butterscotch chips next

Cool and cut into pieces. 

The combination of flavors will rock any one's world and melt a sour heart

Soft tidbits of pure heaven.

Green Orange Cleanse

I know, I know, I know.... I was super busy at Memorial day weekend, and last weekend I was all about no side jobs of any kind. I SO thoroughly enjoyed my weekend. A perfect weekend for hanging with friends and sun and fun. There was no baking at all.... and no writing. This week, I have been suffering from a horrible toothache. An old root canal and crown, got terribly infected. I went to the dentist, three prescriptions later and a referral to an Endodists, (expensive) and some soup and ice cream to solve my other problems, I am feeling better. The infection is draining (gross) and my gum is very sore. My teeth are becoming a huge hassle. I clean them better than anything and yet these problems continue on. Probably going to have to change dentists. SIGH>>>>>>>>

Ok, enough complaining. I do not want to read about it. So, since I am not eating salads this week, I have no lettuce in the house. SO, what to do. I tried just green apple, ginger, lime and avocado. Very good, thick and fun. But, as I stood in my refrigerator with the produce drawer open, I had a thought. ADD some carrots. I love carrots, (hard on my teeth currently) they are sweet and have a natural juice. Maybe I can save my eyes. Doubtful. Oh my goodness. Just delicious. I was wondering why I had not added them sooner. Have we heard that phrase before. Hmmmmmmmm

This drink does have one of those colors, that looks murky.

Green  -- orange -- kind of yellow. 

All I will say.... It was delicious

Green Orange Cleanse

made by ME

Ingredients

1 cup of water

1 green apple, cored

1 lime, juiced

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1/2 avocado, peeled and pitted remove

2 dates, pits removed

1 piece of fresh ginger

Directions

Add all ingredients in the order listed above into the blender. Blend until very smooth. If you are drinking immediately, add some ice. 

Nothing crazy on the ingredients. 

I store the ginger in a zip lock bag in the frig, 

it stays good for a very long time

Just all rough chops. 

I cut the ends off the carrots. 

For me, it has been hard to find Medjool Dates. 

They taste really good. If you cannot find them, buy regular dates. 

The sweetness amps up this drink like you would not believe

I totally dig the avocado in this drink. Added a creamy layer, 

and just the right amount of thickness. 

I really like this drink. The carrots are fun.

AND fun is what summer is all about. 

Let me know what you think.

Second Blogiversary

TWO Years.... Wow... Who would think I still had anything to say. Yesterday, was the actual anniversary. I was going to make a pan of bars last night. Test out a new recipe, but I went to yoga instead. By the time we ate dinner, I did some house crap, the night was done. I have three treats trays for Saturday, so maybe tomorrow. I did start my brown butter cookie doughs. I still think if dough can sit overnight, Especially chocolate chip cookies (Featured       ) they have such a more intense flavor. That is why some cookies are just good and others are "delicious."

Today, my feature is Smokey. She is such a pretty little kitty.

We purchased a harness for her. The other two cats would be outside and she would sit by the door and cry. I am such a wimp. I would bring her outside, but then she would get snoopy and wonder to far out. Harness and a lease, she was happy. She was using Apple Jax's lease, so she was stuck inside.

Prowling for bugs and other things to ponce on

Princess of the Rock

Whoa, I need to sit on the patio for a few minutes.

Back prowling for creatures

So, I spend all this time on cat photography, I really need to work on my

photo skills for my food. This will be this year's project

OR maybe when I grow up, I will be an animal photographer. 

Green Cleanse - 9

I have FOUND IT..... I know, I like my green cleanse drinks. I am this freaky creature of habit. But I did something a bit different. THIS is the flavor I have wanted. I may never post another Green Cleanse drink. RIGHT.... until next week.

As we all know, I am a recipe junkie. I hope that someday, when I die, they will pass out my recipes... wait that is what the Internet is for.. I have read lately, that people are saying that Agave Nectar is just sugar. Well, it is and it is not. I am not even going to get into this debate. Crap, I used to use Splenda. I still like some Truvia once in a great while. I cannot bail out on the Agave. We are friends and I have a large bottle to use up first. Using Dates to sweeten and thicken shake and drinks have been part of my repertory for a while. So, I decided to give it a whirl. Why not. I liked everything I was adding to the drink anyway.

A lovely green color with a nice thick foam on top

YUMMY

Green Cleanse - 9 

adapted by ME

Ingredients

1 cup water

1/2 -1 fresh lime, juiced

1-2 cup fresh spinach

1 green apple, cored

4-5 dates

ICE - optional

Directions

Place all ingredients in the blender in the listed order, and blend until smooth 2-3 minutes.

I placed mine in the refrigerator overnight for a good chill, but you could drink immediately.

The Dates are the magical fruit that blow this drink out of the water

I always talk about "in the order listed", better for the blender

Looks fabulous on my table

I revamped my Easter centerpiece

I drank this for my late morning drink. 

Just what I needed.