A recent trip to the market yielded me tons of gorgeous strawberries and rhubarb that I knew were destined to be a jam. I wanted something different, though, than a standard strawberry-rhubarb preserves. I ended up choosing a recipe from one of my go-to resources for canning, Food In Jars, that sounded incredibly unique -- a rosewater-scented strawberry-rhubarb jam.
I was craving something sweet one afternoon when I thought back to an episode of Barefoot Contessa that I watched a couple of weeks ago. Ina Garten made homemade granola bars for an episode about breakfast. Her bars featured apricots, cranberries, coconut, and slivered almonds along with oats and a base made out of sugar and honey.
I was inspired to take a look at what I had on-hand in my own kitchen to make a batch of my own. I always have pantry basics, like oats and dried fruit, on-hand for baking. What I ended up making was something that, for granola standards, was really, really tasty. [wprm-recipe-jump text="Get the recipe below."]
If you're like me then you probably love the idea of growing your own vegetables and herbs in an effort to eat more healthfully and save money at the grocery store, but have something of a brown thumb when it comes to making a garden truly grow.
I tend to go pretty gung-ho at the beginning of the season only to end up giving up come the Fourth of July, annoyed by the fact that I have only 1-2 measly cherry tomatoes and half a bell pepper growing for all of my effort. What a pathetic salad that would make...
As I do every year, I planted during my time off over Memorial Day weekend. Steve and I made a trip to Lowes before the crowds of DIY-ers set in to buy things for their own holiday weekend projects. We ended up walking away with vegetable and herb plants; garden soil and topsoil; seed packets of swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, and flowers; and two hanging baskets, which I gifted to my mom. This year, I started off determined to change my tide of bad gardening luck.
It's already half-way through June, a time when I planned to touch-base with an update on my foodie goals for this year to check on my progress.
In case you missed seeing the post on my old blog, foodie resolutions came out of an article on MSN Food & Drink that outlined new things that foodies should try to do in the new year. This is the second year in a row that I've set these goals for myself. Although I didn't complete them in entirety last year, I still had fun writing about them and going through the process. You can read a recap of the goals here.
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Logo from World Gin Day (worldginday.com)[/caption]
Not to turn my back on bourbon, which many know is a favorite spirit of mine, but the Gin and Tonic is one of my absolute favorite drinks. For World Gin Day, I'm excited to share recipes for two gin infusions that are perfect choices to use in my favorite cocktail.
I tend to stick with other herbs and spices or citrus when I infuse gin because it's already herbal to begin with; it's not neutral and open to most ingredients, like its cousin vodka. In this case, cucumber-lime and lemongrass-ginger are two flavor pairings that really work well and I enjoy drinking in a Gin and Tonic.
Logo from World Gin Day (worldginday.com)[/caption]
Not to turn my back on bourbon, which many know is a favorite spirit of mine, but the Gin and Tonic is one of my absolute favorite drinks. For World Gin Day, I'm excited to share recipes for two gin infusions that are perfect choices to use in my favorite cocktail.
I tend to stick with other herbs and spices or citrus when I infuse gin because it's already herbal to begin with; it's not neutral and open to most ingredients, like its cousin vodka. In this case, cucumber-lime and lemongrass-ginger are two flavor pairings that really work well and I enjoy drinking in a Gin and Tonic.
These months are flying by so fast; I can't believe it is already June! I recently celebrated my 6-month anniversary at my now not-so-new job. It has also been nearly a month since I graduated with my MBA. Wow.
Since plans fell through to get away for my graduation weekend on account of the rain, Steve and I decided to take day trips to a few local breweries a few weekends ago, a "bucket list" item that we've had for some time. We had fun visiting the Slyfox Beer and Victory Beer brew pubs on Saturday, and on Sunday took a trip to Hershey, PA, to visit Tröegs Independent Brewing.
Today is National Iced Tea day! Some of my favorite summer memories from when I was a kid included spending time over my grandparent's house, swimming in the pool, and BBQ's and drinking my aunt's homemade sun tea.
Cool down with these iced tea recipes curated from Pinterest and check out these links to find places offering free iced tea today.
