Lemonade Pie

I am laughing at my own pictures.  Apparently I did not 'mix' my ice-cream and lemonade very thoroughly.  LOOK!!  You can still see  little pockets of  vanilla ice-cream.   I guess that just gives my pie some character.

This lemonade pie was....wonderful!  It's a great summer pie, and will be going on my list of great summer desserts.  (You know, those ones we love but don't make as often as we would like because we are food bloggers!   See yesterday's post if you don't understand this reference ). It is now one of my top five to make in the summer time.  It's a bit tart---the lemonade flavor really comes thru---so you must like lemon flavor---but also very sweet and it just melts in your mouth.   My friend Brenda says it tastes just like a cold glass of lemonade.  And it does.

And here is where I must confess---once again---I got the recipe from Brenda at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen.  (sigh) But isn't that what good friends are for?  Don't you go to someone's house, enjoy the meal they prepare for you and then ask for the recipe?    I do it all the time.   
I have never actually been to  Brenda's house.  She lives in Toronto, I live in Winnemucca, NV.  But...we have met.  In Las Vegas, last November.   I consider her a friend, so I'm borrowing her recipes.

She's probably laughing, looking at my polk-a-dots.

When I served  this pie to friends, it was on the patio, after dinner and it was dark....no one saw my polk-a-dots.
What they thought, was that  was a good pie.  I didn't just try this out on the Handyman, no I invited guests too.  It was a hit with everybody.
Just the perfect pie to have on a hot  summer evening.  (while the rest of the country is cooling down, heading towards fall, we have been hitting almost 100 lately)
I  made the pie according to the directions with ALL OF  Brenda's variations.  I used a ready made graham cracker crust  (I used the extra big one, so it made a big pie. ) and I used Cool Whip and not real whipping cream.
It was a great dessert.  Super easy with only a few ingredients, whipped up in just a moment.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Pink Lemonade Pie
from Brenda's Canadian Kitchen



CRUST
4 1/2 cups CHEERIOS cereal, finely crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 T sugar


NOTE - I used a ready made graham cracker crust

FILLING
1 quart (1 L) vanilla ice cream, softened
1/2 can (341 ml) frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 cup whipping/heavy cream, whipped
Red food colouring
Lemon or lime wedge, if desired

In small bowl, combine all crust ingredients; mix well. Press mixture in bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate. Chill for 30 minutes before filling.


In large bowl, mix ice cream, lemonade concentrate, whipped cream and a few drops food colouring. Spoon and spread ice-cream mixture into crust.


Freeze until firm, about 4 hours. Let stand at room temperature a few minutes before cutting. Garnish with lime or lemon wedge if desired.


Variations:
If a crispier crust is desired, bake crust at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes.


Spray a metal spoon with non-stick cooking spray, and use the back of the spoon to press the crumb mixture into the pie plate.
1/2 tub (1 L) frozen whipped topping, thawed, can be used instead of whipped cream.


Serves 6-8.

It's Monday,What Are You Reading?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading?--is hosted by Shelia from Book Journey.



She says:
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!




Wow!  I haven't particpate in 'Its Monday' since  June.  The Summer has flown by!!
I felt the need to do a little book talk around here....but I'm not very good at this...on paper.  Set me in the middle of a book club with other book lovers and a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and I can 'book talk' up a storm.
Last week, I had two book clubs back to back.  I enjoyed each of the evenings so much!  And the books too.

I listened on Audio to  "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  I have come to love audio, but only listen to about one book a month.   "Unbroken" was narrated by Edward Herman.  He did an excellent job.  The book was about 14 hours long and I got so engrossed in it, that I kind of quit doing anything but listen.  I brought my Mp3 player to work one day and pretty much just sat there and did nothing but address envelopes.

My daughter in law said:
Wow. This book is incredible. It's heartbreaking and the atrocities of war (on both sides) is presented. Louis is an incredible man, who while flawed (and he's honest about his flaws), figured out how to survive in some of the most horrific conditions.She is right.  I appreciated so much the amount of  research Hillenbrand did for the book, as did everyone in my book club.




We met for dinner and sat around the table as we had dessert and couldn't get enough of the conversation about the book.  While we didn't LOVE  Louis Zamperini's story  (we didn't love that he had been a prisoner of war), we did love the book, and Zamperini's strength of character...and we loved him.  We rooted for him and discussed the atrocities of war  and how war changes people.  How different it is now than it was then, and what makes those differences
We are of the age, where most of us had stories of family members being in WWII, and we discussed them.
We discussed the way Hollywood portrayed WWII, and the way, it portrayed Vietnam.
We wondered if Zamperini's story would make a good movie.  It made for an excellent read.   An amazing man, an amazing life.

As I said, it's hard for me to put into words what we thought of the book....  it got a 13 thumbs up from my group!!

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Hideaway by Dean Koontz was book club #2's book of choice this month.

It was....well, to be honest, I have about  15% left to read  (that's what my Kindle says).  I'm enjoying it, and the people in my book club seemed to enjoy it too.

I have really loved some of Koontz's books in my time,   Watchers,  Strangers,  Odd Thomas.... those are some of my favorite books.

You can rest assured that  good always triumphs over evil in his books.  Sometimes it just scares the crap out of you getting to that point.

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What's up next for my reading week?

Looking for Alaska by John Greene

Death in Blue Folders by Margaret Maron

One Day by David Nicholls

We'll see how I do.

Southwest Burgers

We had Southwest Burgers Friday night, and they were really good.  I'll probably never make them again.

Yes,  you heard me right. Why?  Because I'm a part time food blogger (book blogger, garden blogger, etc) and there is not enough time in the world to make and eat everything I want to.

Do you, as a food blogger, (book bloggers need not reply) ever feel that with some of these great dishes you make, you'll never  'get a chance' to try again, because you are so busy looking for something new for your blog?      Always on the lookout for something new and tasty?   And it's fun and we enjoy it, but sometimes while looking thru my blog, I'll come across something and say,  'that was really good, I should make it again.'  But I don't.  Usually.   I hate that.  And the Handyman hates it more.  He'll sometimes ask about something I made once and say,  "that was really good, why don't we have it again?"
I have no answer for him.  Do you?

    
I said this was a really good burger and they were.  They were a fun, novel, unique kind of burger. 
Everyone liked them and they  were really pretty easy to make.  BUT ---while they were really good,  they weren't really 'great', if you know what I mean.  So, that's another reason I probably won't make  again.
YOU should try them  if:
you love the southwest flavor  (They had a great taco flavor! They really did.)
love french fried onions  (I now have half a can leftover that I don't know what to do with)
are so burger crazy, you feel you must try them all.

I found this in Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade  Best of Summer  magazine and we had our friends, the Milton's to dinner to help do the taste test.  As I said,  everyone did like them, and it was a really fun evening, eating out on the patio, drinking wine and finishing the meal with a  Lemonade Pie  (post tomorrow).
All said, they were a fun burger and a fun evening.


Southwest Burgers

1 pound ground chuck
1 package original taco seasoning mix
4 Colby-Jack cheese slices
2 Tbls butter
8 slices Texas Toast
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup french-fried onion rings
1/2 cup chunky salsa--medium

1.  In a large bowl, combine ground chuck and taco seasoning mix.  Form mixture  into 4 patties.
2. Spray grill rack with nonstick cooking spray.  Preheat grill to med-high heat.
3.  Grill burgers covered with grill lid, for 5 minutes on each side or until desired doneness.  Top each patty with 1 slice cheese and grill, covered with lid until cheese melts, about  1-2 minutes.
4. Spread Butter evenly on both sides of toast.  Grill toast for  1-2 minutes on each side, or until  golden brown.
5.  Spread  2 Tbls sour cream on 4 slices of toast. Top each with 1/4cup fried onions, 1 burger and 2 Tbls salsa.  Cover with remaining 4 toast slices.
Serve immediately.

I love my bookclub #2

I love this book club too!!!
This book club, the Lit Wits, is also a dinner club.  The hostess, chooses the book, and makes a dinner to feed all of us.
It's quite fun as you know I love to eat, and cook, and talk about food, as well as read and talk about books.
It's two, two, two clubs in one!!

We read and discussed "Hideaway" by Dean Koontz.  And of course, no one wanted to look my way when I was taking a picture.     We had a really nice discussion and dinner in Stephanie's back yard.  It got to be late and dark before I remembered my camera.

Notice any books on the table?  No?   We all had Kindle's or Nooks or Audio books this time.   But we had some great book talk going on.

I will be back tomorrow to talk  (maybe review )  about both books from this week's book club.
I just couldn't let the night go by without showing this book club some blog love too.

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I didn't think book club was as boring as it is......

apparently it puts people in trances... to sleep....

OR

I am just really bad at taking pictures (without my glasses)

Tonight:

AND last night:

They will kill me if they ever see this, but ---at least I know they're looking at my blog. 

(they love me, so they'll forgive me)

(I think)

Anyway....It's been a great week for discussing books

and

I REALLY LOVE MY BOOK CLUBS.

I love my bookclub!

Like so many of you, I too, LOVE my book club.

Last night was our annual  'Stonehouse'  meeting for my Totally Lit Book Club.  The Stonehouse is a Bed and Breakfast smack dab in the middle of the Nevada Desert  (Northern Nevada).  It's about 40 miles from Winnemucca, so we do have to drive a bit and have a few designated drivers  (3 of them tonight).

Summer evenings at the Stonehouse are just so relaxing and nice.  Beautiful sunsets, and tonight we saw a Great Horned Owl just sitting on his fence-post.  He was our dinner entertainment.

I will talk about the book later on  (it was 'Unbroken' by Laura Hillenbrand--a great read), but for now,  just a few picks of  my book club friends.

We had a grilled shrimp salad for dinner.  What's nice about having our meeting at the Stonehouse Bed and Breakfast is---we are all alone in the whole house.  No one else was staying there  (It will be full come fall)  and dinner was not rushed.  It is just a really nice low-key, relaxing time.

And the Great Horned Owl. 

Can you see him on the fence post? 

This was outside our dining room window.

There is a Magpie on the ground too.

They must have been waiting for something to come by to eat.

 Before  dinner we sat outside and enjoyed some wine  (or iced tea for the designated driver or 2)

I didn't have my glasses on,  so I just snapped a few.

So....my friends really aren't napping before the book discussion  (they will kill me if they see this),  but I really wanted to get the scenery. 

The mountains and the sagebrush.  

Nevada scenery.

And my book club friends.  I love my book club friends.

(awwwww....what  a good book discussion can do to a person!! It's so good for the soul.)

Tomorrow I have a different book club to go to.

They are like my kids.  I love them both!!

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes and a vist from the Fairy Hobmother!

Lemon and Coconut---2 very strong and controversial flavors.
Yes, I said controversial.  You either  love coconut or you hate it.
For instance:
My friend Shelly said I ruined perfectly good cupcakes and my friend Theresa said the thought (of coconut) makes her almost throw up.

I don't  understand this.  Coconut is so good!!

The Handyman and I were invited to an  'End of Summer' BBQ and movie night last Saturday.  I knew, as soon as I saw them, that I  had to make these cupcakes to take.
For the record?  Shelly and Theresa sat together and shunned my coconut cupcakes!  But just as many people loved them.
It's  one of those wonders of the world--why people don't like coconut.


Also, there was no subtle taste of lemon in these cupcakes....instead there is a POW-PUNCH of lemon.  I think if you didn't like the flavor of lemon, it would actually make you pucker.   It would make your cheeks hurt.  There is 1 cup of  lemonade concentrate and, like I said: WOW LEMON FLAVOR.

They would make a great lemon cupcake with a plain vanilla frosting, if you are one of the weirdos who doesn't like coconut. 

I saw these cupcakes in   "The Best of Summer with Sandra Lee."  A  quarterly cooking magazine that I pick up once in a while.  She has some pretty good recipes in here.
Altho....I didn't put the cream filling inside of these.  I ran out of time, so I just made the lemon cupcake and the coconut frosting.   Still---very good!   Next time I will add the filling, as I'm sure they will be even better with the filling  and I really can't wait to try it.

And  yes, this is "semi"  homemade, so you use boxed mixes,  but I bet you could make it work for your 'all the way' homemade cupcakes.
This was so easy tho.

Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix
1 cup frozen lemonade concentrate-thawed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Coconut filling:
1 3oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1  8oz container of Cool Whip
1/4 tsp coconut extract

in a medium bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add Cool Whip and beat till thick. Add extract and mix.

Frosting:
2 16oz cans fluffy white frosting
1 tsp coconut extract
sweetened flaked coconut
quartered lemon slices

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line 2 (12 cup) muffin pans with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, lemonade concentrate, oil and eggs.  Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Increase mixer speed and beat until smooth.  Stir in sour cream. Spoon batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 2 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

3.  Spoon coconut cream filling into a squeeze bottle with a long narrow tip. Insert tip into center of each cupcake and squeeze  about  1 tablespoon filling into each cupcake. 

4.  In a medium bowl, combine frosting and coconut extract. Spread frosting evenly over each cupcake.    Top each with coconut and a lemon slice.
Store in the fridge.

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Before I go on to show you a few pics of movie night I wanted to tell you that I was visited by the Fairy Hobmother!!
Yes, I was.
It came as quite a surprise to me, since it had been a few weeks since I had commented on Brenda's  blog (Brenda's Canadian Kitchen).
What is a Fairy Hobmother, you ask?  Well, otherwise known as Ian from Appliances online, the Fairy Hobmother visits blogs and leaves gifts.  As I said, I visited Brenda's blog a few weeks ago and left a comment.  Fast forward to  today when I got a message from my Fairy Hobmother and  was left with a  $20 Amazon voucher.  
 Brenda explained on her blog that anyone who left a comment could very well be visited by the Fairy Hobmother  aka Ian from Appliances Online, and might be left with a gift.
It's true!  It happened to me.  When I least expected it.

What a fun day this has turned out to be.
I love surprises.  Good ones, that is.  And this is definitely a good one.

Thanks Ian and Appliances Online!
And Brenda too!

If you want a chance to receive a visit from the Fairy Hobmother, just leave a comment on this post and you never know..... you could have your dreams come true. 
If you don't have a blog, be sure and leave an email address in the comment.

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Movie Night!

It was so much fun.  My friend April hosted--she and her husband cooked chicken and everyone else brought a dish to share.

They had a screen set up on their patio and we all brought lawn chairs, blankets and whatever  we wanted to drink.

They also had a fire-pit with marshmallows and graham crackers and chocolate bars for anyone to go help themselves.

It was such a nice evening.  Thanks April and Doug!

 

Of course early in the evening, everyone gathered by the food.

Some people began to set up their spots for the movie.

You wouldn't want anyone to get the good spot before you!!

As I did a panoramic view of her yard, you can see there are lots of chairs set up...but the people are still by the food.  We all gather round food, don't we?

That little table has the computer which holds the movie to be shown on the screen.

On the far end of the yard, they had set up some yard games:  ladder golf and washers, for anyone to play.

That is my little grandson in the hat, walking by.

As it got darker, right before  they started the 'cartoon'  (just like the olden days---first a cartoon and then the movie), the kids had fun standing in front of the screen dancing and doing shadow puppets.

and then.....

the coconut haters!

and the coconut lovers!

Birthday Weekend, day #2

Some of you who come to find recipes  (which you haven't for a few blog posts lately)  can just skip this---it's mostly for my friends and family who were at my birthday weekend in Wallowa Lake, Oregon.

As I said yesterday,   I had an agenda for people to follow.  But I wrote things like this:
6:00   hike for those who want to.  meet at my cabin
6:00  fishing for those who want to.  you're on your own
6:00  sleeping in for those who want to.

10:00 Mimosas and visiting at my cabin

etc etc etc.

Just FYI---I had some lazy hikers!  The Handyman and I always hike in the morning when we are at the lake, but these guys wanted to sleep in!
On Friday, the 5th, we had 6 hikers and on Saturday, we had 6 hikers.  4 remained the same each day and 2 people changed.

Some of us had lunch at a local Brewery/Pub called  Terminal Gravity.    The food was REALLY good.  Oh yeah, the beer too.
Some of us were horseback riding and some of us were spending time at the beach/lake.
My parents ended up surprising us while at lunch  (I had sent the agenda to everybody.  haha haha   MY agenda included having lunch there at Terminal Gravity )  They arrived in a pickup truck carrying all kinds of patio furniture and some ice-chests.   We didn't recognize them as they drove by and we made fun of the people who came bringing their own chairs.

Hmmm....   my mom and dad.   

It was  a nice setting with really good food.  I suggest you go there if you are ever in Enterprise, OR.   The clams were to die for!!   Beer was good.

Lunch--day#2  of my birthday weekend.

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