Bacon ... on the grill?

My sister had a little get-together and we planned to make rib eye steaks with bacon-wrapped asparagus. Since my boyfriend is the "master griller" he decided it would be a good idea to pre-cook the bacon a bit before wrapping the asparagus -- on the grill! (Don't try this at home!) The project started out ok until bacon grease began dripping onto the coals. It quickly caught fire and engulfed the grill in flames about 4 feet high! (If you're ever trying to light a bonfire for fireplace, just use bacon!) Once we got the fire under control the bacon was charred and black; hillarious! After that experiment gone bad, we decided to broil the bacon-wrapped asparagus in the oven instead and it turned out fantastic! DO try this at home ... maybe with a drizzle of hollandaise sauce - YUM!

Really Old Bread

What To Do With Old Bread

When your stuck with lots of leftover bread that's accumulated over a few weeks (sliced, loaves, buns, waffles, cornbread) here's a great way to use them up. Make bread pudding! It's really versitile, you can go sweet with rasins, fruits, cinnamon and nuts, savory with meats, cheese, vegetables and garlic, or a combination such as bacon pineapple or turkey cranberry. Basic bread pudding is really just the vehicle for whatever flavors you want to give it. Get creative!

I had a half-eaten loaf of French bread and a few end pieces of whole grain sandwich bread stuffed in the back of the refregerator for a few weeks. I try not to be wasteful so I decided to make a sweet bread pudding to use it up. I used a recipe and made sure I had the basic ingredients (eggs, milk and sugar - check!). I also found some apricot preserves and pecans so that became my flavoring. I was on my way.

After it came together, the bread pudding baked for about 55 minutes. When it came out of the oven, it had a crunchy top and tasted amazing! Here's the recipe I used, but you can use pretty much whatever you have available for the style and flavorings. Enjoy this recipe. It would make a great breakfast or brunch dish, or have it for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Yum!

Apricot Pecan Bread Pudding
Serves 8
INGREDIENTS
4 C. Bread, cubed or torn into 1" pieces (French or mixed breads)
4 Eggs
2 C. Milk
1/2 C. Sugar
3 Tbs. Apricot Preserves
1/2 C. plus 1/4 C. Pecans, chopped
1 Tsp. Nutmeg, ground
1 Tsp. Cinnamon, ground
1/2 Tsp. Clove, ground
Apricot Icing
1/2 C. Cream Cheese Frosting (or homemade frosting)
1 Tbs. Apricot Preserves
1/4 C. Heavy Cream (or milk)
METHOD
Bread Pudding:
Pre-heat oven to 350. Place bread cubes into a cassarole dish and set in oven. In a bowl, wisk together eggs, milk, sugar, apricot preserves, 1/2 C. pecans, nutmeg, cinnamon and clove until well combined. Remove cassarole dish from oven and pour liquid mixture over the bread cubes, saturating each one well. Place into oven and bake, uncovered for 55 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let rest for 10 mins.
Icing:
Mix together all ingredients until well combined. Drizzle over top of bread pudding, and sprinkle with additional chopped pecans. Serve warm.
NOTES
Substitutions
Apricot Preserves: Orange Marmalade, Raspberry Preserves
Pecans: Walnuts, Almonds, Cashews

Cup of Limes?

I went to a sports bar one evening and decided to order a nice, cold Bud Light. I know it's more common with Corona or other Mexican beers, but I like the refreshing flavor of light beer with a wedge of lime.

When the bartender came around, I asked if I could get a couple limes - and even made a little squeezing gesture with my fingers. A moment later, I had a rock glass filled to the rim with lime slices. Did she hear me correctly? I only needed a couple limes at most!

After it sunk in it became so funny! She gave me a "cup o' limes" literally - an entire cup! Even today it's worth a good laugh when I ask for lime with beer.

Mojito Cocktails

It just hit the mid-90s in Scottsdale, Arizona so the Mojito is a super light and refreshing mint and lime cocktail for those hot summer days.

What you'll need:

-Limes (roll to release the juices, slice into wedges)
-Fresh Mint Leaves
-Simple Syrup = 1 part sugar, 1 part water (fully dissolved)
-White/Silver Carribean Rum (of your choice)
-Club Soda

In a tall, Collins glass, add the juice from one lime, about 5 mint leaves and 1/2 tsp. sugar. With a muddler, mix until the mint leaves are bruised.

Fill the glass 3/4 full with ice. Add 1.5 oz. white rum, 2 oz. simple syrup and top off with club soda.

Garnish with a wedge of lime and a slice of fresh sugar cane.

HINT!! Prepare a batch of simple syrup in a large water bottle, then mix in the muddled (crushed) mint leaves. Just shake and it's ready to mix for a really fast and flavorful Mojito.

NOTE: If you pre-mix the simple sugar and mint (as mentioned above), simply fill the glass with ice, add rum, add 3 oz. minted simple syrup and top off with soda. Great for quick mixing at parties.

OH, ALSO: Yeah, Baby! The word mojito is derived from the diminutive of the word mojo.^[2]

Halloween Treats Trick Me

My sister hosted a Bunko-ween party and we prepared a delicious array of Halloween appetizers and treats. I decided to make mini pretzels with M & M's in festive orange and black. Cute, tasty and really easy. I carefully laid out each mini pretzel on a baking sheet and placed an M & M in the center, then put them in the oven. After about three minutes at 350 degrees, I checked the treats only to find the M & M's weren't melting! They literally fell right off the pretzels. Then, after 10 minutes I noticed the chocolate burning in the hard candy shells! It was then I realized there MUST be some kind of "glue" or something I was missing. Yes, there was! You're supposed to gently melt a Hershey's Kiss on the mini pretzels, then quickly press the M & M's in the soft chocolate "glue." Duh!! It was truly a Blonde Moment - but a huge hit at the party!

As you can see from the photo, these are great treats for any holiday, or just for fun! Use the various Hershey's Kiss varieties and multi-colored M&M's for any occasion! FYI: it's best to work in smaller batches of 20 or so because the kisses harden quickly.

A Cork Gone Wild!

This is something that happened to my Dad many years ago in Michigan. He used to bartend at a popular restaurant/bar called The Lindenhoff in Bay City. One super busy night, someone came up to the bar and ordered a glass of champagne. In true bartender style, my Dad pulled off the foil and wire wrapper and proceeded to remove the cork. It must have been a loose one because right when he touched it, the cork popped off and went sailing across the room full of people enjoying their dinners! Since it was very crowded, he wasn't quite sure of where it landed and could only hope for the best. It WAS kinda' funny. A few minutes later, a rather disgruntled gentleman approached the bar. My Dad took one look and he just knew … The man was sporting a perfectly-shaped, red cork-bump right in the middle of his forehead. Yep, it hit him – square in the face. This began a chain reaction of laughter and onlookers started cracking up. Ultimately, the man had his steak on the house that night, AND a bottle of bubbly.

Champagne Facts from the Blondes:

• Champagne is a type of sparkling wine which is only grown in the French region of Champagne. America has its own version of Champagne as well, because of a loophole in the patent. However, American brands must mention the region they were produced in, on the bottle label.
  
  
• There are 49 million bubbles in a regular bottle of Champagne. Large bubbles are considered extremely unsightly and are not the mark of good quality Champagne. The tinier the bubble the better. (So size DOES matter!)
  
  
• Marilyn Monroe (the most amazing blonde) once filled up her tub with 350 bottles of Champagne and took a long, luxurious bath in it. It was said that she drank and breathed Champagne as if it were oxygen.
  
  
• A Nebuchadnezzar represents the largest quantity of a Champagne serving. One Nebuchadnezzar is equal to 20 bottles! A Magnum is equal to only two bottles while a Split equals one-forth of a bottle.
  
  
• Champagnes are synonymous with toasts, and a beautiful lady was acknowledged by everyone toasting to her and clanging their glasses. This is why she was known as the toast of the town, in the 1800s. (She was probably a Blonde!)
  

Paint By Chocolate

How does a blonde get the last drops of Hershey's syrup out of the squeeze bottle??

When I'm down to the last drop of anything in a squeeze bottle, I learned a good way to get it out using centrifical force (big words for a blonde). I stand in the middle of the kitchen floor and quickly spin my entire arm around causing the product to be forced toward the opening. I did this once with chocolate syrup, spinning my arm around and around until I heard my Mom scream, "What are you doing!!" When I stopped, I realized that the top had been left open and there were chocolate circles from the floor, to the wall, to the ceiling, to the other wall and back. It was a huge mess! Despite the effort I didn't get the last drop of chocolate - the walls did - but it didn't stop me from using the spinning technique. I just make sure the top is closed!

When Cherries Fly!

By Sharen Husa
(Brandi's Mom)

I spent quite a while making the most amazing cherry pie I could for my handsome husband. When the pie was finished baking and a had beautiful golden brown crust, I placed in on a sheet pan and set it near the window to cool. When my husband came home from work, I was excited to show him what I had accomplished so I rushed over to grab it. I snapped up the sheet pan with my cherry pie and whipped around with a big smile. As I did, the pie went flying off the sheet pan and, like a frisbee, sailed across the kitchen. Gooey cherries and crust streaked the kitchen floor and cabinets. Our mouths dropped and we just stood there looking at each other in disbelief. Looks like I'd have to bake a second cherry pie, and this time it would stay put on the counter for viewing!

... And I'm not even a blonde!