Friday, July 30, 2010

Apricot fruit leather

My in laws have a couple of apricot trees in their yard.
While visiting them we helped picked apricots
and I learned how to make apricot leather.
Apricot Leather is basically a large fruit roll up.


1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cups pitted and diced fresh apricots
1/2 cup white sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees or the lowest setting you have.
Cut the apricots in half and take out the pits.
Combine lemon juice, apricots and sugar in blender. Blend
until mixture smoothed. Cover a cookie sheet with a
layer of plastic wrap (helpful tip is to tape the sides).
Pour the pureed fruit onto the plastic and spread evenly
to within 1 inch of the edge. Bake for 4 to 6 hours in
the preheated oven, until the puree has dried and is no
longer sticky. Once dry, you can cut it into strips
and wrap in wax paper. Store in an airtight container.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Easy Mandarin Orange Salad

You need...
- your favorite salad greens (I use a spinach & spring mix mix.)
- a can of mandarin oranges (You could use less, but why? They're so yummy!)
- candied almonds (heat a skillet...add slivered "raw" almonds + a bit of sugar & stir until toasted...it only takes a minute or two...cool on wax paper or foil)

You can also add...
- chopped green onion (I usually leave them out.)

Toss toss toss. The orange juice is the dressing, which is what I love most about it. Dressings are always too gloppy, too thick or too tart for me. The orange juice is a perfect dressing.

Recipe and photos from my friend, Natalie, at 100 Percent Cottam

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Recipes for the Grill

Easy Grilled S'mores from Reynolds

4 sheets (8x12-inches each) Reynolds Wrap
Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil
4 graham crackers, broken into halves
2 milk chocolate candy bars, divided in half crosswise
4 large marshmallows

Preheat grill to medium
For each S′more, top one graham cracker square with one
candy bar half, one marshmallow and another graham
cracker square. Repeat with remaining graham crackers,
candy and marshmallows.
Center one S′more on each sheet of Reynolds
Wrap Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil.
Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and ends to
seal packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside.
Repeat to make four packets.
Grill 4 to 5 minutes in covered grill

Banana Boats from Taste of Home

Click here to get recipe

Friday, July 2, 2010

4th of July Centerpieces

Make these super cute and easy centerpieces
for your 4th of July table.
For this centerpiece visit Makes and Takes for
the instructions.
I love this centerpiece. Just add any red,
white and blue candy to a dish and top with red
licorice for fireworks. Now you have a cute
centerpiece you can eat. Idea from