JoJo's Frozen Limeade Pie

My "good/better/best" friend John called the other night, and said his 9-year old daughter wanted to make a pie from "one of those cooking shows you watch on TV". He and JoJo went to the store, and she picked out her ingredients. He was a bit skeptical, but they brought home their supplies and she went to work on her dessert... with no recipe! His skepticism subsided when he took his first bite of her frozen masterpiece. It was delicious!

In honor of JoJo and her culinary efforts, I'm deeming her recipe a "child friendly" project, as it involves no cooking or baking. Way to go, JoJo!

JO-JO'S AMAZING FROZEN LIMEADE PIE
Ingredients:
1 graham cracker crust
6 oz. frozen limeade concentrate (thawed)
12 oz. container of thawed whipped topping (Cool Whip)
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 lime, zested and separated into two equal portions

Combine limeade, whipped topping, condensed milk, and half the zest. Pour into crust. Put in freezer and alow to set until firm (about 2 hours). Garnish with the remaining zest and enjoy.

Doesn't this sound like a quick and easy recipe your kids can make this summer?

Hugs and blessings~
~~~Anne

Can you believe I wove this Easter Basket?

Happy Easter!

CREAM PUFFS - Inexpensive, elegant, and easy!

Want to look like you spent hours making a fancy dessert? These amazing CREAM PUFFS look like a really challenging project, right? NO!!! It's a super easy, quick , inexpensive recipe that has a huge WOW factor. Here's the recipe:

ANNE'S "DON'T TELL ANYONE HOW EASY THEY ARE" CREAM PUFFS

(Makes 5-6 big puffs, but the recipe can be easily doubled.)

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup flour

dash salt

1/4 tsp. sugar

2 eggs

1 pkg. French Vanilla Jell-O Pudding, prepared and refrigerated

Powdered sugar (for decoration)

Melt butter in boiling water. Add flour, salt and sugar all at once and stir until thouroughly mixed. Cook over meduim heat, stirring constantly, until mixture forms a ball. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat with a hand-mixer until mixture is smooth.

Drop mixture in heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet, about 3" apart. (Don't worry! They'll puff when they bake!)

Bake at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes (a little less for smaller puffs). Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 15-25 minutes until puffs are golden. Check on them often, so they don't burn. Cook time depends on your oven and the size of your puffs :-)

Remove from oven, and split puffs in half. Put puffs back on cookie sheet and return to oven to dry. MAKE SURE OVEN IS OFF!!! The drying process takes about 20 minutes.
Spoon prepared filling or custard into tops and bottoms of puffs. Reassemble, and sift powdered sugar over the tops. Put on serving plate and enjoy. Easy, right? Enjoy!
Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Super Simple Pesto Pasta Salad Recipe

I was so excited about making CREAM PUFFS for "Ladies Night" tonight, that I completely forgot I had volunteered to also bring a salad! Time for some quick thinking and some creativity. Since I found frozen artichoke hearts (bonus!), this was my starting point. Also having flour tortillas, I was leaning toward an artichoke dip with tortilla "points". Alas, none of the cheeses or spinach were to be found, so I had to travel a different direction.
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So... Here's my "use whaterever you find" recipe for PESTO PASTA SALAD:

Ingredients
7-8 oz. uncooked pasta (I used mini penne)
Fresh or frozen veggies (whatever you can find)
Sliced Black Olives (I didn't have any, but if I did, I'd have tossed 'em in!)
1/2 cup Salad Dressing (Miracle Whip)
7 0z. jar of prepared pesto
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and pepper, to taste
Diced tomatoes for garnish

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions and rinse with cold water, drain, and set aside.
2. Put your veggies in a bowl. (I used artichoke hearts, broccoli, peas, and some diced onion.)
3. Stir together salad dressing, pesto, Parmesan, salt, and pepper in bowl.
4. Put cooled pasta in large serving bowl. Add pesto mixture and stir to coat. Add veggies and mix gently until all ingredients are evenly coated.
5. Garnish with tomatoes. Cover and chill for at least one hour before serving.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

A tisket, a tasket... An adorable springtime basket!

I finally made time to get some weaving done on Sunday. (I feel much better now that I've gotten my "fix", thank you very much!) Above is the amazingly cute springtime basket I made for Aunt Suzie. It is loosely based on the pattern "Springtime Wine Basket" by Sandra Lyons. I did not use the handle called for in her basket, and I chose to make my flowers in different colors (Aunt Suzie is a rather colorful lady!), rather than all pink. I also used "regular" flat reed for the flowers instead of the "paper thin maple" noted in Sandra's materials list.

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Random thought: The pattern calls this a "wine basket". Hmmm. I put a standard wine bottle in it, just to see how it would look. It "floated" in the basket. Then I tried a 2-liter soda bottle. Better, but who puts soda in a basket? Really, at about 6" in diameter and 7" tall, this would make a pretty container to store cooking utensils on your kitchen counter.

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Other news... I signed up for my first "Basket Swap" through the Yahoo Group "Weavers Words". My swap partner's name is Diane and she lives is Michigan. She has been weaving for 25+ years and works in a basket shop. I think that I'll have to substitute creativity for basket weaving skills on this one, so... My thought is to make a Southwestern version of my ribbon basket for her. I'll stain the basket and then, instead of ribbon, I'll weave lengths of turquose and silver beads (or maybe I'll use leather cording, we'll see). Instead of a bow, I'll finish off the basket with a concho or other SW type bobble. Into the basket will go a jar of "pickly pear" jelly or other New Mexcian goody. If anyone has any suggestions for this basket, I'd love to hear from you.

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Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

I Think I'm Suffering from Basket Weaving Withdrawal!

It's been a few weeks since I've attended a basket weaving class. I find myself sorting through my collection of reed and surfing for basket patterns on the internet when I should be working! Yikes... Am I already and addict? "Hello. My name is Anne and I'm a weaving addict." Nice.
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Anyway, the picture above is the first weaving project I tackled on my own, at home, without the help of Nancy ("The Basketmaster"). I did this one a couple of weekends ago, but I have to admit I will be weaving again tomorrow. Dave's wonderful Aunt Suzie is coming to town next week, so I think I'll try making a basket decorated with tulips for her. I found the pattern here: http://www.justpatterns.com/weavers/patterns/springwine_basket.html . Cute, right? I'll post a picture if the project goes well. (OK. I'll post even if it doesn't! )

Aunt Suzie is rather crafty and artistic, herself. She made this beautiful pot, which we have proudly displayed in the living room. I'm very much looking forward to her visit, and am excited about presenting her with one of my "woven with love" baskets.

Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne

Bittersweet Mocha Cake: A Tale of a Good Recipe Gone Bad... And Then Good, Again!

OK. We all have at least one story of a good recipe gone bad. My FLOURLESS BITTERSWEET MOCHA CAKE started out good, then took a very unfortunate turn down the "road of badness", but I was able to rescue it and guide it to "chocolate bliss"! Below is my recipe and tutorial (bad pictures and all...)
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Ingredients:
20 oz. bittersweet chocolate (5 4 oz. bars)
6 Tbs. butter
1/2 cup Kahlua (coffee liqueur), plus extra for drinking... I mean drizzling!
6 eggs, separated and at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In double boiler, over medium heat, melt 3 chocolate bars, butter, and Kahlua. Cook and stir until melted. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. In bowl of electric mixer on high speed, beat egg yolks and sugar for 3 minutes, or until light yellow and thickened. Fold in cooled chocolate mixture.
3. In separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites about 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. In batches, fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.

4. Pour batter into 9" cake pan coated with flour-based cooking spray. (Notice how full the pan is. This should have been a warning to me, but NOOOO!)

5. Bake 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

~Here's a picture of the "bad" cake I took out of the oven. Notice the burned edges rising up and over the edge of the pan. YIKES! Not at all the result I wanted.~

~Here's my cake "post surgery". Things are looking up!~

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6. Allow cake to cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan, turn upside down, and allow to cool completely on cake rack.

7. If desired, brush or drizzle extra Kahlua on top and sides of cake. (This was a "must" for me, as my cake was a little dried out and a tad burned. The extra Kahlua aided tremendously in my cake's recovery process!)

8. In bowl, combine 1/2 cup boiling water and remaining chocolate. Let sit 2 minutes and stir until smooth. Let cool for 2 minutes. Pour chocolate over cake to coat.

9. Chill completely.

10. Garnish with fruit and serve This rich dessert goes great with a cup of good, strong coffee or a glass of deep port. Truly a slice of "Chocolate Heaven"!

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Hugs and blessings~

~~~Anne