2009 December — A Southern Fairytale

Marinated Chilled Potato and Green Bean Salad

4:39 PM ByRachelFiled UnderMouthwatering Monday, Side Dishes, Videos

potato and green bean salad 2

Can I get a glory, glory Hallelujah!!! Please?

I FINALLY have the Tastemaker Challenge 2 recipe and video ready to share with y’all! This video has been almost comical with the issues it’s had. Lost camera, video software crashing, things deleting, hiccuping and flat out disappearing on me.

BUT, it’s ready!

This month’s Tastemaker 2K10 challenge was nutrition on a budget. We were each given $10 and told to create a healthy, nutritious and delicious meal for under $10. Another Challenge for the Challenge.. keep it as close to the potatoes natural healthy state as possible.

So… without further ado… I present my “TONGUEGASMIC”

Tonguegasmic Apron

Tastemaker Challenge 2 Recipe & Video

please click through and watch the video and rate it using the star system! THANK YOU!

Chilled Potato and Green Bean Salad

1 bag Red Potatoes
1 lb fresh green beans, washed and snapped into 1″ pieces
3/4 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
juice of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 C extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp minced shallot (mine was a healthy 1 Tbsp)
salt and pepper to taste

Mince the shallot and whisk together in a glass bowl: lemon juice, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper, olive oil shallot. Cover and refrigerate.

Wash and snap green beans into roughly 1″ pieces.

Wash the potatoes and quarter

Steam the green beans to snappy crisp tender, remove from steamer and run cold water over them to cease the cooking process.

green beans being rinsed

Drizzle about 2 tsp of vinaigrette over the green beans and refrigerate.

Steam the potatoes until fork tender. Remove and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process.

Add the potatoes to the green beans.

When you’re ready to serve them, toss with the vinaigrette. I had some vinaigrette left over. I didn’t want it to be too saturated.

This recipe was served at our practice Thanksgiving meal and my entire family gave it huge thumbs up. I will definitely make this again and I *might* have snacked on the leftovers for the next day. YUM.

You can see more about the #Tastemaker 2K10 challenge on the Mom’s Dinner Helper website.

If you’re linking up to the Mouthwatering Monday Tonguegasmic Linky, Thank you for your patience!!!!

Make sure to link directly to your recipe URL, leave a comment saying Hi, introducing yourself.. whatever, link back in your post and visit some of the other participants!

Thanks y’all!

Taggedcold salad, green beans, potatoes, salad, tastemakers, veggies 12 Comments

A Look at Notes from a Garage Sale

5:57 PM ByRachelFiled UnderEverything Else

I’m having a garage sale tomorrow. I planned it two weeks ago, when we were still wearing shorts and t-shirts and the weather was typical Corpus. I am having a garage sale tomorrow and today, today it sleeted in Corpus. Let’s say that again. Sleet. South Texas. These two don’t go together very often. The low tonight is predicted to be 29. TWENTY NINE degrees Farenheit. People.. my son is 3 years old and it hasn’t been that cold here his entire life.

Murphy, you and I… not so much with the friendship.

My darling husband is currently out getting me a heater from a friend of ours. That heater is going to be my saving grace tomorrow.

Preparing for tomorrow’s garage sale got me thinking about the garage sale that I had last year with two of my friends. It was an interesting experience, to say the least…

I thought that in honor of my apparent insanity (doing the same thing and expecting a different result) I would share my garage sale post from last year with y’all.

I hope you enjoy and I sincerely hope that my experience this year… is better than last year.

Dear Garage Sale attendees:

* It is considered rude, tacky and unbelievably obnoxious to ring a person’s doorbell at 8PM two nights before the actual sale to ask for a preview.

* It is tasteless, obnoxious and terribly inconsiderate to ring someone’s doorbell at 8AM the day before the actual sale, especially if you are the same person who rang the doorbell the night before.

* It is even more obnoxious after doing the previous two bullet points, to then NOT EVEN show up at the garage sale.

* It is perfectly acceptable to haggle and try to bargain on prices, it’s even kind of fun. It is not, however, okay to STEAL Courtney’s favorite lace up jeans because you didn’t like the price she quoted you. That is just WRONG!

* If there should happen to be a trailer full of the garage sale holder’s trash on the other side of the driveway, it is very polite to ask them if you can take stuff off of there. It is, however, extraordinarily rude to STEAL a person’s laundry basket, fill it with stuff from the trailer and take off with it.

* If the garage sale notices say 8AM to Noon, it does not mean that you can come by at 12:45, knock on the door and ask if you can have all the leftovers for $1.
Yes, really.

* Please do not bring a bag full of dimes and pennies, buy $8 worth of stuff and then count each individual coin out. If you drive a $30,000 car, you can afford more than one plastic bag, possibly even the coin wrappers.

* To all who hold garage sales and post signs in the neighborhood. It is very tacky to leave your garage sale signs up for days and even weeks after your garage sale has occurred. You live here, take pride in your neighborhood people.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Rachel

11 Comments

Rainbow Cupcakes

12:47 AM ByRachelFiled UnderBirthdays, Desserts, Princess

also known as Disco Groovy Tie Dye Cupcakes

rainbow cupcakes

These are the rainbow, colorful, tie dye cupcakes that I made for Princess’ 6th birthday and took up to her school and to her Daisy Scout Meeting. These rainbow colorful cupcakes are quite simple to make. They take a bit more time than regular cupcakes but trust me, as you can see from the picture… they are more than worth it.

These are deceptively simple and insanely delicious and rich and tonguegasmically flavorful.

1 box Betty Crocker Butter Yellow Recipe Cake Mix (this is the richest, most flavorful and moist cake mix.. in my experience)

Follow the instructions on the box for making the cake batter (eggs, butter.. please use real butter, it makes a difference)

Divide the batter into 4 or 5 clear glass or white bowls ( I got mine at the Dollar Tree and love them) use food coloring to dye each bowl of batter to your desired shade

bowls of colored batter

Using table spoons place the batter in whichever pattern you prefer. I placed one color in the base of the cupcake liner and then dropped a spoon-full of batter in the cupcake liner in a clockwise pattern until each cup was 3/4 full.

cupcake batter ready to bake

Bake and cool according to the instructions on the box.

Be careful these cupcakes smell delicious enough to tempt even the strongest will and the bursts of color are enough to bring even the most stoic abstainer to their knees

rainbow cupcake insides

For the icing.. yet another cheat. I’ve made many a buttercream and many a cream cheese but, when I’m in a hurry and I want absolute tonguegasmic frosting without a worry… this is where I turn.

1 buttercream icing

1 cream cheese icing

1/2 stick room temp butter

1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, room temp

1/2 to 1 C powdered sugar

1 to 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Empty both frosting containers into a mixer, add in butter, cream cheese and 1 tsp vanilla… add powdered sugar both to taste and to stiffness.

Once you’ve achieved your desired texture and taste (plenty of tastings are required to achieve the perfect balance… trust me *wink wink*) DO NOT put this into a baggie and snip off the end to “pipe” onto the cupcakes.. this just looks like a mass of poo.

Spend the $6 at the grocery store/Hobby Lobby/whatever and buy the bag/tip combo. Use the medium tip and pipe a swirl just in the center of the cupcake.. this allows the artistry of your beautiful tie dyed rainbow cupcake to show through and your cupcakes aren’t overwhelmed by frosting

cupcakes