Cassie-b

Blogging Families

Anyone know of any 3 generation blogging families?  Besides our family, that is.

As you might know since Buzz let the cat out of the bag a while back, I am the third generation Blogger in our family.  I’m guessing that’ pretty unique

Snippet

Snippet - What a great word.  I have just recently begun to overuse this word, and decided I should look it up in the dictionary and find out what “snippet” really means.

I was hoping for more.  The description was so short and insignificant that I looked it up in several places.  Here are the results:

Pronunciation: ‘sni-p&t or (sn p t)

A bit, scrap, or morsel: “sparkling black bass ... strewn with snippets of coriander and basil” (Gael Greene).

Informal - A small or mischievous person.

Function - noun - Date: 1664

a small part, piece, or thing; especially : a brief quotable passage

snippet - noun [C] INFORMAL

a small and often interesting piece of news, information or conversation:
I heard an interesting snippet on the radio this morning.
I love listening to snippets of conversation in restaurants.

Or, you can create your own snippet

I do believe that I shall continue to overuse the word.  It’s so cute.

Oscar

–when we go for our evening walks (very healthy) we visit with a beautiful 17-year old black and white cat whose name is Oscar, who lives at the end of our street.  He’s much friendlier to us than our own cat. 

The other day when we had wine and shrimp out on the deck, I saved a shrimp for Oscar.  He was very happy with the offering.

Until now, we have always had to call Oscar, and he’d come lolly-gagging out from under one of the trucks in his driveway to greet us.  The day after his mini shrimp-fest, he was sitting at attention in the yard waiting for us!  I guess all cats love shrimp.

Now I suppose we have to have shrimp every day - Drat!

Food Trivia

Seems like most everyone in our family likes to cook.

When I saw this food relatedTrivia game, I thought it might be fun. 

Turns out I don’t know much.

But I still think I’m a good cook.

Blueberry Season

Hope you had as nice a 4th of July as we did.

Thanks, Pat and David, for the great picnic. 

I’m always glad to see the blueberries at the grocery store and in season.  We eat them year round on our cereal.  We freeze about 40 pints, and I make blueberry jam.  A lot of work, but ever so good. We also try to make a few favorite recipes with the fresh blueberries.

Here’s a recipe to try if you become inspired:  (I’ve made it, and it is really good)

Blueberry Quick Bread
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Beat eggs and sugar together. Add milk and oil.  Mix

Sift together dry ingredients and combine with other mixture stirring only until blended. Fold in blueberries and nuts.

Pour into 2 greased loaf pan Bake at 350 degrees 60 minutes. Cool about 15 minutes, and remove from pans.

Enjoy

Vegetarian Fare - Asparagus

We seem to go to a lot of picnics this time of year.  One last weekend, and two this weekend, for example. 

Our families celebrate a lot of happenings this time of year - what with birthdays, graduations, weddings, house warmings, first communions and the like.  And most of them are celebrated with food and often in picnic form.  The feature food is always some great - or maybe not so great - meat.  That’s super.  And I love it.

But if you happen to be a veggie lover like me, then this should be a real treat for you.  This is a good time of year to try this, ‘cause asparagus is plentiful just now.

Easy to fix, of course.

Stir Fried Asparagus & Mushrooms
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 bouillon cube
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme (dried if you don’t have an herb garden)
1 sun dried tomato snipped
1 pound fresh asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms

In small bowl, stir water, cornstarch, bouillon , tyme and tomato. Set aside. 
Stir fry asparagus 4 minutes.  Add mushrooms stir fry 1- 1/2 minutes.  Add cornstarch mix. Stir fry 2 minutes more.  Serve.

Enjoy!

Fresh Broccoli Salad

We went to a rainy-windy (moved indoors) picnic to celebrate a high school graduation.  There were about 100 people coming and going, and amazing amounts of wonderful food.

My personal favorite was the Fresh Broccoli Salad.  Another easy, but totally enjoyable salad.

Fresh Broccoli Salad

2 bunches broccoli
10 slices bacon - cooked and crumbled
2/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar

Mix ingredients. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, tossing occassionally.

Chicken Artichoke Dip

Straight from the Empress - Wonderful fall and winter appetizer!

Serve with thin crackers. Prep Time: approx. 20 Minutes.

Cook Time: approx. 25 Minutes. Makes 36 servings. 

I haven’t tried this yet, but the source is extremely reliable.

1 (5 ounce) can chunk chicken, drained and flaked
1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix *(I used Good Season’s Italian mix)
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup Havarti cheese **(I bought a square of Havarti and then shredded it myself)
1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2 In a medium bowl, blend chicken, artichoke, Italian-style dressing mix, sour cream, mayonnaise, 1/2 cup Havarti, and Parmesan. Transfer to a small baking dish. Top with remaining Havarti and almonds.
3 Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Vidalia Onion Dip- Southern Style

Our Dinner group had a Southern theme dinner and everyone supplied a dish.

My friend Dolores brought the appetizers.  She brought a hot onion dip that was the hit of the evening.  It’s unbelievably good, and very easy to make.

I’ve made it several times since to take to parties, and it’s always the first to go.

1 Vidalia onion - chopped
1 cup real mayonnaise
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Mix all ingredients well and put into a small casserole dish lightly sprayed with a non-stick spray. Sprinkle lightly with Paprika. Bake for 25 mintues at 350 degrees. Let cool slightly and enjoy with chips or veggies.

You can substitute lowfat mayonnaise, and it’s still good.

More comfort food

Well, the first entry (yesterday) wasn’t so painful.  Maybe I’ll try this again. 

As a working wife, I like to do a lot of cooking in my crock pot on the weekends.  It’s fast, easy, and you can eat great food with little effort during the work week.  We happen to like to have homemade soup often.  This is probably my favorite (and also one of the the easiest) of all my recipes.  If you start the crock pot in the morning, you have a great soup by dinner time.