Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Carnival of the Recipes: International Edition

Maureen at Trinity Prep School has gathered together a great assortment of recipes for this week's Carnival of the Recipes: The International Edition. The Carnival is now up for your culinary enjoyment!  Top of the list for me to try:

• Shawn, a girl after my own heart, offers another recipe for Cinco de Mayo - South of the Border S'Mores.  I only have 1 word for you: lordyhelpmythighs.  And do I have any tortillas in the house?
• Martin the Egoist has a recipe for Langos ,  which I must try. Apparently it's a type of potato bread and he says it goes great with cappuccino, so... I'm there. I'm not sure though, this might be a 3 dot recipe.
• Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry from World Famous Recipes sounds yummy.
• I think the hubs would like this one: Kerikeri Corn Salad, from KeeWee's Corner, is New Zealand dish

There's lots more, I've only skimmed the surface here.  Go have a look see and get cookin'!

Next week will be a special Macaroni and Cheese Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes. Submit your favorite mac-and-cheese recipe  to the form at the CotR page, or send your link to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by 12pm CST Saturday.

Carnival of the Recipes #131

This week's Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing, hosted at Slow Cooker Recipes.  Lots of great crockpot recipes to try!

Next week's Carnival will be hosted at JamiLeigh.  I can't tell if there's a theme or not.  Holler at Jami and ask, and then let me know, wouldja?  Be sure to get your recipes in by Saturday noonish, via email: recipe(dot)carnival(at)gmail(dot)com or use the online form.

Valentine's Day Carnival of the Recipes

Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the Hearts-Full-of-Love Pre-Valentine's Day Carnival of the Recipes

This week for your gustatory pleasure we have a bevy of treats guaranteed to make your heart go pitter pat, whether you to cook, or to eat, or both!

Sweets for Your Sweetie (or your own Sweet Tooth)

Starting with chocolate, which is the staple of love ...

Shawn of Everything and Nothing ensures we won't go into chocolate withdrawal with her recipe for Chocolate Syrup Cake.  This sounds absolutely decadent.

Anne-Marie gives us the ultimate in chocolate desserts: Valentine's Day - Julia Child's chocolate mousse. Anne-Marie suggests adding some coffee or vanilla-flavored liquor. Sounds like a MUST to me!

Kathy of startcooking.com offers up a recipe (with plenty of pictures and destructions) for Home-Made Chocolate Fudge.  Heh, is there any other kind?

And be sure to check out my offering, a story of what went wrong, or the heart tart that never was: Ganache with Panache.

Marsha of A Weight Lifted presents 10 Minute Fresh Berry Dessert with Yogurt & Chocolate, shown in the picture here, giving us all a way to indulge without compromising our healthy living lifestyle. 

Next is a special dessert recipe from KeeWee's Corner for Pavlova.  I've never tried meringue and this recipe makes me wanna try.  The photo sure looks delish.

Poor Stephanie of Stop the Ride! nearly lost her friend's recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake.  Thank goodness she found it, and shared the recipe with us! Now if she loses it again, we can all send her a copy.  :)

Here are some fun sweets, for when your sweeties are kids, or just the kid in your sweetie.  More4kids presents Valentine Recipe Ideas - Heart Cookies, Valentine Pancakes and more.  I love the pancakes!

Ideas for Romantic Meals and Such

For Valentine's Day breakfast, this recipe from Maureen at Trinity Prep School for Raspberry-Cinnamon French Toast Bake sounds LOVERLY! It's not your average french toast nor is it your plain egg bake.

Riannan from In the Headlights offers us a tasty dish: Grouper, Shrimp and Artichokes in Tarragon Cream.  This recipe could serve 6, she says, but I bet you and your sweetie could feast, and then have leftovers at 1am.

Broke and busted?  Make your Valentine's evening special, no matter your budget, by making spaghetti with love, and Cheap Homemadish Spaghetti Sauce from triticale, the wheat/rye guy. 

Something to replenish body and soul, and that of your loved one, is Seriously Good Kevin's recipe for Pastitsio, a Greek meat and pasta pie Kevin refers to as "peasant food".  Whatever it is, it sure sounds good.

DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room has posted a great recipe for "tangy-sweet salad":  Honey-Orange Bean Vegetable Slaw with good explanations and commentary. I love it when folx explain how they used or modified a recipe and why. For one-dot cooks like me, this is so helpful!

Erika over at Tradition offers three recipes in Cold Weather Recipes: Mulligatawny Soup, The World's Best Ever Biscuits, and last but not least, Fudgy Brownie Pudding. Sounds like a warm meal from the heart!

You could really WOW your sweetheart with this recipe for Succulent Lamb Kebabs from Daryl at Authentic Malaysian Cuisine & Food Recipes.  Wonderfully exotic, and yet, so easy!

Party Fare!

Jennifer Miner of Travel Articles says this is The World's Best Artichoke Dip: A great recipe for artichoke dip that'll be the hit of the party. This is a hot dip that Jennifer spruces up by sometimes adding crab, red peppers, and eggplant.

Now here's an idea from Andrea of Wisebread Frugal: Tortillas and Chilaquiles: Romance him with sports bar food?. If you met your hunny in a sports bar, what better way to celebrate the occasion!

The Hermit of The Ziggurat of Doom is whipping up some very special iced coffee.  This is a MUST for after dinner, with a warm desert.  I'm so THERE.

That's all for me on this one folx!  I hope you all have a delicious and love-ly Valentine's Day!  Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Techno Gypsy.  Submit your recipes via email to recipedotcarnivalatgmail.com, or use the Blog Carnival submit form.

Carnival of the Recipes #128

I don't have a lot of time for blogging this week, but I wanted to get a couple of quicky posts in before that big boulder called "work" rolls over me.

Thrifty Mommy has posted this week's Carnival of the Recipes, and WHOOPS, I missed the fact that the theme was Mexican food.  Oh well.  My Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts will make a nice soothing dessert for those spicy meals.  Heheh.  A couple of other notables:

• The hubs will probably like Slow Cooker Mexican Beef Stew from World Famous Recipes. 
• KeeWee's Chicken Mole looks delish.  What's a mole, anyway?  I mean, other than a small brown burrower.
• I wanted to have a look at Peggy Hall's six-layer dip, but the link seems to be dead right now.  I'll leave the link here in case it resuscitates later.
• Here's a great, sooper easy, sooper quick dip recipe from Michele at Meanderings: Super Bowl Taco Dip.  Definitely gonna try this for my next party.
• Boy do these look good: Cocoa Candied Pecans from Men in Aprons.  I wonder how this would taste using cashews?
• Best is last: Triticale - The Wheat/Rye Guy has a recipe for gooey chocolate chip cookies that WILL be tried this week, absolutely, no doubt.

Coming up - I will be hosting the pre-Valentine's Day Carnival right here, so get your favorite Valentine's Day recipes out and post them here or by sending email to recipe(dot)carnival(at)gmail(dot)com by noon CST on Saturday!

Carnival of the Recipes #126

I just realized why I blocked out this last week's Carnival of the Recipes.  It's hosted at Diabetic Recipes, and the theme is, naturally, recipes for diabetics. 

Well, there you go, ain't that just a shiny bit of Freudian lingerie, typical subconscious mental block.  Firstly, I was married to a diabetic, and for years I watched his diet way more diligently than I did my own.  Classic co-dependent behavior, which thankfully I evolved out of.  Secondly, I have no diabetic-safe recipes in my recipe box.  In fact, most of my recipes are guaranteed to KILL a diabetic.  So it's probably best that I didn't post something.  Heh.

Anyway, go have a look-see, there are plenty of recipes to try!  And, interesting, the authors Kathy and Bill were snowed in here in Arizona.  I didn't get to see any of the snow we got - hugely disappointed about that! - but then there was one year (about 12 years ago) when I saw it snow in the wee hours and nobody else saw it.  In some weird way, I guess that evens things out.

Carnival of the Recipes #124

I totally spaced and forgot to mention that this week's Carnival is up for viewing at Elementary Chef.  Lots of good stuff to try, go check it out! 

Two recipes I'm gonna add to my must-try list are Shawn's Frozen Berries with Hot White Chocolate, and Julie's Chocolate Chess Pie.  Julie doesn't say why it's called "chess".  Maybe you can play a game of chess in the time it takes to cook. 

And for a change, a non-chocolate recipe has caught my eye.  I am definitely going to try Meanderings' Mince & Tatties recipe!

Carnival of the Recipes #123

The "Say Goodbye to 2006" edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing at Booklore! 

I don't know if I have time, but I'm wanting to add Start Cooking's  Cranberry Pinwheels to my New Year's menu.  This recipe sounds so good!  Unfortunately, Riannon's Amadeo Chocolate Bomb recipe (ohmigod!!), and KeeWee's pumpkin bars will have to wait for another day.  So many recipes, so little time!

Bernadette has gifted us with a lovely collection of quotes throughout the carnival.  I've often thought books and food go together, as evidenced by the smudges on the pages of some of my favorite books.  Check out this lovely tea quote from Rebecca, one of my all-time favorite books.

Those dripping crumpets, I can see them now. Tiny crisp wedges of toast, and piping-hot, flaky scones. Sandiwches of unknown nature, mysteriously flavoured and quite delectable, and that very special gingerbread. Angel cake, that melted in the mouth, and his rather stodgier companion busting with peel and raisins. There was enough food there to keep a starving family for a week. I never knew what happened to it all, and the waste used to worry me sometimes.

—Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

Isn't that delectable?  delicious?  way mouse-waddling??

Happy New Year everybody!

The (Last Minute) Christmas Carnival of the Recipes

Welcome, welcome to the Last Minute Christmas Carnival of the Recipes, otherwise known as CotR Edition #122.  We have many wonderful dishes for your Christmas cookery and beyond.  To steal a phrase from Triticale the wheat guy, "Dom Eatimus, Eatamus" - which I gather loosely translates to "while we eat, let us eat".  Amen! 

Now, on with the Carnival!!

Christmas Drinks (the best way to start any holiday...):

Maureen of Trinity Prep School presents Christmas Wassail - (shown at the right) a traditional holiday drink that warms the tummy and makes your home smell scrumptious.

Gerry at DiseaseProof presents Shake Some Soy - soy fruit smoothies, so your holidays may be healthy.

Slow Cooker Recipes offers a great recipe for Hot Mulled Cider.

Lionel of Lookin at Cookin gives us the latest coffee tip: Wet or Dry Coffee Milk Foam?

And to round out the holiday beverages - my offering: From Grog to Nog - recipes for Chocolate Orange Coffee Grog, and homemade Chocolate Egg Nog.

Christmas Sweets (jump right to dessert, don't waste time...):

In the too cute category, Shawn Lea of Everything & Nothing racks up mommy-points with Not a Creature Was Lurking ... Except My Chocolate Mice.  Aren't they just too too?

Christmas Recipes presents English Christmas Trifle Recipe. I always wanted to know how to make a trifle.

Riannan of In the Headlights brings us Chocolate-Covered Gingerbread Cake. In a word - YUM!

Jennifer Kelly of Keewee's Corner presents Pineapple Ginger Surprize. "An elegant easy dessert to whip up for your Christmas Eve party"  Yes, indeedy, I'm gonna try this!

Mama Squirrel at Dewey's Treehouse keeps it clean and easy with When it's time to change... Chocolate-Apricot Confections.

Kathy Maister of startcooking.com presents Holiday Cookies. These easy-bake holiday treats should go perfectly with your morning coffee and afternoon tea throughout the festive season. I love the full array of photo destructions.

El Capitan of the Baboon Pirates presents Forgotten Cookies. No, really. You go away and forget them. How cool is that? Just don't forget to turn the oven off.

Appetizers & Salads

World Famous Recipes presents Festive Cranberry-Pineapple Salad and Italian Christmas Seafood Salad. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

Chicken Recipes presents Chicken Rollups.

Main Dishes (make sure to leave room for ... ):

Gillian Polack of Food History presents Chanukah #5 - fried fish. Gillian also offers The strangeness of food history - a few foul anecdotes, "in case everyone has too much Christmas cheer".

Elisson presents his YOU ASKED FOR IT (Peerless Potato Pancakes) Delish.

David Needham of Third World County presents What’s Red and Green and Delicious All Over? Hominy Stew. To tell the truth, I'm not sure what hominy is, but it sure is fun to say. What do I want for Christmas? Peas and hominy for all da world.

muse of me-ander presents Yes, it's true. There is an easy way to make lasagna!. That's very good news indeed, I'll have to try this!

IB of Gluten-Free By The Bay presents Confetti Latkes: Parsnip and Carrot Pancakes shown in the photo here.

cehwiedel of Kneadle Work presents White Bean and Beef Soup - an easy slow-cooker recipe for bean-lovers. This time of year, a crock pot is my best friend!

Triticale the wheat/rye guy presents Fettucini Alfredissimo - the real deal, not the "fred". Bellissimo!

Here's a recipe for Baked Salami With Sweet Mustard Sauce from Deborah of Eat Your History. She says "I got the recipe from Scott Johnson and his wife (Scott Johnson of Power Line). I'm submitting this recipe because it is included in the blogger cookbook I just self-published. The book is called "BLOGALICIOUS" ... and here's how you can discover all the rich, bloggy goodness about it: Blogalicious Cookbook.

Diabetic Recipes presents Roasted Sherry Duck. Wow. I'd love to be able to tell my guests we were serving that!

There you have it.  Hope I didn't forget anybody, but feel free to holler at me if I did. Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Booklore.  Submit your recipes via email to recipedotcarnivalatgmail.com, or use the Blog Carnival submit form.

Enjoy the holidays, everybunny!

Carnival of the Recipes

What number are we on now?  I've lost track.

Anyway, this week's Carnival is up for viewing at The Common Room, and it's chock full of goodies.  I'm not sure I'll have time to try all the recipes I want to try, but these are at the top of my list:

• Mama Squirrel's Chocolate Hazelnut Crescents made my mouse waddle for sure.  Dipped in melted chocolate, rounds or crescents, I might have to try all variations!
• Two delish-sounding "Gramma's bread" recipes that would be great for morning coffee or on an afternoon tea party tray: Virginia Apple Orange Bread from the Headmistress at the Common Room, and our favorite blogdaddy, David Needham of Third World County offers his Grandmother's Date Nut Bread.  Scrummy!
• Chocolate Snowflakes and Thumbprint Cookies - I gotta try the snowflakes, also called chocolate crinkles, from this Geezer's Corner.
• Amish Sugar Cookies from Joe at Mom's Favorites.  Not sure about this one, but I want to try it.  How many recipes do you see that call for oil AND oleo.  Umm, that's margarine, right?

Be sure to have a gander and check out all the recipes.  And next week (which is looming FAST), I'll be hosting the very last minute Christmas edition of the Carnival.  Yep, you heard right, last minute Christmas stuff, get yer recipes out!  Submit to the carnival form, or send by email to recipe.carnival@gmail.com before Saturday noon (CST)

Tonight We Have Chx a la ...

The CHICKEN edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing at Chicken Recipes.  I'm always looking for new chicken recipes, and there's plenty here for chicken fans, plus a bunch of stuff for non-chicken fans too.  Top of my list to try for this week:

• Orange Slice Bars from EclectEcon - Yeegod this sounds good.  Must try with cranberries.
• Hot Fudge Cake from Chocolate Recipes I love.  I have to try this altho the destructions sound kind of strange.  Hot water over all?  Must try and see.
• Wheatless Christmas Blossom Cookies - I don't care about the wheatless part, but it's made with 48 chocolate kisses! 

Carnival of the Recipes

This week's Carnival is up for viewing at World Famous Recipes.  Have a gander at these Christmassy recipes:

• Melt-in-your-mouth Peppermint Meringues - must try these.  They sound delish.
• Deep Dish Apple Pie - mouse waddling!
• Apricot Gelt (Chocolate-Dipped Apricots) - Chocolate is always good for holidays
• Chocolate Spoons - great treat for kids.  Ahh, if only the spoons themselves were edible...
• Wheatless Peanut Butter Dark-Chocolate Kiss Blossom Cookies - made with dark chocolate kisses, how can it go wrong?
• Small Chocolate Cake - from Mama Squirrel

There's much more over at WFR, go have a look!  Next week's carnival will be hosted at Chicken Recipes and will be dedicated to Recipes for Chicken. Submit your favorite chicken recipes by email to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday, or use the Blog Carnival submission form.

Countdown to Christmas

Recipe News!

Before I forget, the Geek Family is hosting this week's Carnival of the Recipes.  Hop on over and check out the lineup of great post-Thanksgiving recipes.  I know, I know, you're too full to think about new recipes yet, but some of these are definitely worth saving for later.  Next week's carnival will be at World Famous Recipes.  Get yer recipes in by Saturday!

I've added the new Blog Carnival widget to my sidebar in hopes that even if I forget, the info about the carnival will be available.  But I'm not sure if I'll keep it.  Something is slowing down my blog, and I'm thinking that might be the culprit. 

More new stuff...  I am actually getting ready for Christmas, cooking-wise.  In an effort to get both home and blog organized, I made a new page for all the recipes I like to keep handy for various holidays: Holiday / Seasonal Recipes.    The recipes can all be found in other categories as well, but this way I can see all my Christmas recipes in one place.  I'll be posting some of the new Christmas recipes I'm trying soon!

Carnival of the Recipes - Brekky/Brunch

I wish I had known this was going to be a breakfast / brunch edition!  That'll teach me to read my emails.  Shoot! Slap me on the butt and call me Frankie. 

This week's Carnival is hosted by Men in Aprons.  And oh boy, oh boy, there are some great recipes to add to my brunch box.  There are so many, I had a hard time choosing just a few to mention.  I wanna try them all!  But top of the list has got to be KeeWee's Bacon & Egg pie.  I kiped her picture, so you can see how delish it looks. 

Pie is really not my thing; I never seem to get the crust right.  But this starts with a "packet of puff or flaky pastry", so me lousing up the "from scratch" part won't be a handicap!

Along similar lines, and second on my list to try, is World Famous Recipe's Country Style Breakfast Casserole.  This sounds delish.  And Shawn of Everything & Nothing has posted a recipe for Cheesy Hashbrown Potatoes that will go great with anything!

Go check out the rest of the great recipes!

Carnival of the Recipes #116

I forgot to mention that the 116th Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing at RDoctor Medical.  Go have a look and see what's on the menu this week.  I totally forgot to submit a recipe last week, and I've been so busy I haven't had time to peruse the recipes on this edition, but I will, soon.  Hopefully tomorrow! 

Carnival of the Recipes Halloween Edition

Welcome to the Halloween Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes, otherwise known as CotR #115. 

With Halloween just around the corner, we have some really scrummy (that's scrumptious AND yummy, in case you're wondering) recipes for you to try in this week's roundup. 

For those of you who don't do Halloween, pardon my zeal, but I won't be decorating the house this year, so this is kind of a blog-substitute.

Now, on with the show!

Seriously Trick or Treat stuff for Serious Halloweenies:

Renata Vincoletto presents Giant Twix. Now THAT's a big treat. Or is it a trick?

More sweets and treats from KeeWee of KeeWee's Corner with a recipe for Witch's Weakness.  I don't know any witch who could resist!

Shawn Lea of Everything and Nothing presents a bunch of stuff for your Halloween party!  This is great fun.  Serve up some Cheesy Goblin Head, Dracula's Eyes (ewwwww!), and try one of these Boo Brew ideas.  For atmosphere, Make spooky glowing water.  After the pumpkin carving, be sure to make some Toasted Pumpkin Seeds.  Sounds like a great party!

In the Pumpkin category:

Audrey - the coffee sage presents Pumpkin Spice Latte ( compare to Starbucks ). YUM, I was hoping somebody would come up with this recipe.

John of EclectEcon presents his special EclectEcon Pumpkin Scones, and Firefly presents a recipe for Pumpkin Ginger Scones. I always say you can never have too many pumpkin scone recipes to try. 

Mama Squirrel from Dewey's Treehouse presents Two pumpkin recipes, one a pie, and one for Pumpkin Gingerbread LoafCakeMuffin. Try 'em both!

And don't miss my very own Pumpkin Spice Dessert.  It'll curl your toes!

Other Fare:

In the soups and starters category -- David at Third World County presents a recipe for his favorite chili - all in one place, thank you very much!  Joel Fuhrman M.D. shares three disease-proof soup recipes.  And Joe Donnachie presents SuperSoup, maximum nutrition in one bowl.

Breads and stuff (to go with the soups of course) -- cehwiedel at Kicking Over My Traces presents a recipe for Oat Bread that sounds really delish.

For main dishes and sides, we have Thelly at Chicken Recipes serves up a delicious recipe for Chicken Breast in Herb Mustard Cream Sauce.

Kevin of Seriously Good is seriously making my mouse waddle with Chicken with 33 Cloves of Garlic. Ohmigod.

Adam of Men in Aprons offers a recipe to go with these chicken dishes, or ... well, almost anything: Spicy Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon and Orange.

Riannon of In the Headlights presents Spaghetti Carbonara, complete with mouthwatering pictures.

Maureen from Trinity Prep School presents Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Triticale - the wheat / rye guy has a recipe for Pizza Meatloaf that I'm sure my hubs would love.

DeputyHeadmistress of The Common Room presents Chile Relleno Quiche. Sounds dangerous! Dangerously delicious!!

Whew!  After all THIS food, be sure to check out the Kosher Cooking Carnival hosted at me-ander

In the non-recipe category: Wenchypoo presents Is A Freezer Right For You? posted at Wisdom from Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.  And from RightWingNation, a great How-To called Stock Basics.  No, not stocks and bonds, silly.  Chicken stock, beef stock ... you get the picture.

Next week's Carnival will be hosted by RDoctor Medical. Send your recipes or links to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday.  If you're interested in hosting a future carnival send a message to the same address with the word host in the subject line.  For a line-up of future Carnivals , visit our Carnival of the Recipes page on Blog Carnival. You can also review all past Carnival of the Recipes there too.

Carnival of the Recipes #114

The 114th edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is up for viewing at NerdFamily.  (Heh, I typo'd Nerfamily, and got an instant visual of a tiny blue family.)  Check out the recipes for this week, some good stuff!

I'm glad I'm not the only one overloading on pumpkin stuff.  Here are a couple more pumpkin people:

• Here's a post from Motherload with a whole lotta pumpkin recipes and destructions for making your own puree.  I've never heard of pumpkin pasta.  Must try that.
• Triticale the wheat guy gives us Jamaican Pumpkin Curry.  Exotic!

And for some healthy stuff:

• KeeWee's Banana Oatmeal Bread - I bet I could turn this into a non-healthy treat right quick.  But it sounds good just as it is.
• A Weight Lifted brings us a healthy recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread.  Mmm, I gotta try that orange glaze.

And basic skrumminess:

• ohmigod does this sound good: Marinated Swine Butt, otherwise known as Cider-Soaked Baked Ham With Honey-Rum Glaze, from the Baboon Pirates.  Definitely goes on the list for holiday recipes.  Maybe I'll volunteer to do the ham this year. 
• D at Third World County has a great slo-cooker recipe for Fast, Super-easy Rice-cooker Omelet.  Easy and flexible too!

Don't forget next week is the Halloween edition of the Carnival, and I'm hosting!  Submit your Recipes de Halloweeny to recipe.carnival@gmail.com or use the submission form at  the Carnival of the Recipes page.

Carnival of the Recipes #113

Boy, oh boy, there are some good recipes on this week's carnival.  Top 'o the list:

• Cranberry Apricot Loaf from Dewey's Treehouse.  This recipe sounds really delish, must must MUST try
• Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes from In the Headlights.  I'm not sure I'm up to this.  Sounds like a 3-dot recipe which, for a 1-dot gal, might be a bit much.  But I do want to try!
• Mocha Fondue from Everything & Nothing.  Yes, yes and YES.  My invitation to this fondue party is in the mail, right?  Shawn?  Right?
• How to Make Apple Pie - from Lookin' at Cookin' - now this is really cool.  A video that shows you how to... it's that technique of making the crust that I need to watch over and over again.

There are plenty of healthy recipes too, if you're into that sort of thing.  Heh.  Cough ... ermm, excuse me while I wipe the chocolate off my hands so I can keep typing. 

Many thanks to our host this week: Peggy at Blabber Heads did a great job.  Oh, and thanks for the tips about the crepes, Peggy!  Next week's Carnival will be hosted by Nerd Mom at Nerd Family. Send your recipes or links to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday, or use the submission form at the Carnival of the Recipes page.

And don't forget, I'll be hosting the week after that.  Yes, that's right, a Halloween edition of Carnival of the Recipes, right here.  So get out your favorite Halloween recipes!

Carnival of the Recipes #112

It's up, it's up!  Go see the great collection of recipes for this week's Carnival, hosted by Cecelia at Kicking Over My Traces.  There are some yummy sounding recipes to try.  I just have one question for Cecelia.  Are those puppies at the end of the post part of a recipe?  Puppy pie?  Eeeewwww!

Sorry.  Sick sense of humor at work on a Monday morning.  I really am an animal lover.  Really!

Next week's Carnival will be hosted by Peggy at blabber-heads. You can send recipes or links to recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday.  Or visit the Carnival of the Recipes page and use the submission form there, where you can also check the line-up of future Carnivals. You can see all past Carnival of the Recipes there too.

Cranberry Harvest Tea

It's finally cooling down enough (although we're still in the triple digits) that I can have my tea in the afternoons again.  Yesterday I gave myself a treat - I pulled out this new rose china cup and saucer and my little tea-for-one teapot that I got from The English Tea Store and made some special, unique, made-to--my-own-taste tea.  I know, you can buy this kind of thing, but I wanted it NOW, and I had the makings on hand, so ... here's my version of the harvest tea:

Christine's Cranberry Harvest Tea

Start with your favorite black tea.  (I used Black Dragon Golden Yunnan the Tea Fairy sent me.)

Add to the infuser:
5-8 dried cranberries (cherry or orange flavored are great!)
Cinnamon stick (how much depends on how big your teapot is.  I used a 1 inch piece)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp orange zest
Steep for 3-4 minutes.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Be sure to visit this week's Harvest Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes, hosted at Booklore, where you'll also find a really cool coffee icon-ette called Pumpkin Spice.  Too cute.

Carnival of the Recipes #110

Nice round number for this week's Carnival, hosted at Men in Aprons.  There are two chicken soup-ish recipes I absolutely must try: KeeWee's chicken & dumpling soup and Stephanie's Creamy Chicken and Broccoli Soup with Wild Mushrooms.  Both made my mouse waddle, it must be getting close to dinner time.  And Audrey the Coffee Sage has a yummy sounding recipe for Hazelnut Choco-Espresso Cookies that I have got to try.

Next week's Carnival will be a Harvest theme, hosted at by Bernadette at Booklore. Get yer Fall-ish recipes in to mailto:recipe.carnival@gmail.com by noon CST on Saturday.

Then... mark the date - Halloween weekend - yours truly will be hosting the Carnival.  So get out your best Halloween recipes, treats or tricks!

Carnival of the Recipes #98

Wow.  It's gettin' close to the Carnival's 100th barfday.  That's pretty cool.  This week's 4th of July "Fireworks" edition is hosted by Caterwauling, and there are some spicy treats to try! 

I'm really not one for spicy foods, but the hubs likes to have smoke coming out his ears, so I may have to serve him up some of the BBQ General's  Shrimp Stuffed Jalapenos.  Note to self: Must have video camera handy.

I really want to try Trinity Prep School's Ice Cream Pie.  Sounds easy and delish.  And for one of our family gatherings, I'm sureThe Common Room's recipe for Pizza Fondue will be a big hit.  In my brandy-new crockpot!  More on that later, with photos!

Next week’s edition will be hosted at Blabber Heads, with a “Life’s a Beach” theme. I gather that means recipes to keep you in bikini-shape.  I don't think I have any recipes like that.  Can you say, carrot sticks?  Heheh.  Just kidding.  Sort of.  To submit your recipe, e-mail recipe.carnival AT gmail.com or use the Carnival Submission Form by noon Central on Saturday, July 8.

Carnival of the Recipes #97

This week's Carnival is up, hosted by Booklore, which is a great little blog for book reviews and such.  The theme was travel - I didn't have time to think of a good travel-friendly recipe, but I'm sure getting some good ideas from the contributions!  Check these out:

• KeeWee's Ham & Cheese Scones - never thought of a scone as travel food?  Well think again!
• Sweet & Spicy Chicken Sandwiches from Men in Aprons.  I'm not too sure about the hot sauce, but the rest of this recipe is right up my alley.
• Marscapone Brownies - These marbled espresso & mascarpone (soft Italian cheese in case you never heard of it) very fudgy brownies from Seriously Good sound seriously good but seriously deadly. 
• The BBQ General serves up a complete Red Truck Picnic, with all the best stuff like deviled eggs and chicken and potato salad.  Gotta go on a picnic with this guy for sure.

Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Caterwauling. Please submit your links to recipes to recipe.carnival@gmail.com before noon Central Standard Time on June the 29th.  I've got just the thing for Independence Day!

Mom's Day Carnival of the Recipes

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope all you moms are relaxing today with a nice hot cuppa whatever tickles your fancy.  Whatever you're drinking, sit back and sip while you read The Special Mother's Day Edition of the Carnival of the Recipes, well-hosted at Everything and Nothing, and well-seasoned with "mom-isms".  They made me smile; some of them made me laugh out loud.  Ahhh, fond memories of mom. 

This week's Carnival has some great stuff I want to try:

• Potato Omelettes, from the Common Room - yum
• Michelle's Great Granny's Tea Cakes - Yum
• KeeWee's Rich ‘n’ Creamy Brownie Bars - YUM

And now I gotta dash.  The fam damily is coming here for Mom's Day, and I'll be serving a full-course of chocolate, starting with fudge (what a great appetizer), chocolate fondue with fruit and donuts for our main course, and chocolate biscotti for dessert, served with mocha-coffee, of course.  Ok, ok, we're also having tacos and salad bar.  But hey, chocolate is too a food group. 

Next week's carnival will be hosted by PractiGal. Submit your recipes here, before Saturday noon.

It's Monday Already!

It came too quick!!  Could we turn back just one day?
News News: The 87th Carnival of the Recipes is up at Grill Maestro. Top o' the list:

• keewee’s Easy Cheesy Meat Loaf -- YUM!  The hubs will love this one
• Riannon's shrimp and pork potstickers - this sounds (and looks) SO good, but I bet it's a 3-PLUS-dot recipe
• Mensa B's Strawberry Protein Drink - I definitely could use this to keep my energy up!
• Easy Breakfast Casserole from A Weight Lifted - easy, can be made ahead, good for entertaining, tasty, what's not to like?

Next week's carnival will be hosted at Everything and Nothing.  Get yer recipes in before Saturday noon! Now my mouse is waddling and my stomach is growling, so it's time for brekky. 

Before I go, this is what I meant to post yesterday:

Sunday Morning Snippets

A bigfat g'morning to all.  I'm slurping my first cuppa, so I'm not entirely coherent yet, but I have a few newsy snippets to share before I go out to play in the yard with my flollies.  I'm treating myself to the last of the fresh roasted beans this morning.  Color me sneaky and selfish - I'm NOT offering to share, and anyway, the hubs is still sleeping, so there.  The early bird gets the good coffee.

Speaking of the hubs, the other day he asked me to make him some of the "good coffee".  I was busy, so I told him to make it himself.  He said he didn't know how, and couldn't use the grinder, whine whine moan moan.  Then he went and stood in the kitchen, staring forlornly at the coffee grinder.  He stood there for a minute before I realized what he was doing.  Just like the dogs when they want to be fed, but having no fingers or thumbs, can't operate the can opener, sit and stare, and wait for somebody to notice that they're hungry.  He made me laugh so hard with this image that I took pity on him and did the deed.  I'm so easy.

ANYway, news, news -

The April Fool's edition of the Carnival of the Recipes is up at Blog o' Ram.  I know, we all thought it was gonna be at Caterwaling.  Heh, April Fool's!  Top o' the list for me to try:

• Mensa Barbie's World's Finest Lemonade.  It's almost hot enough for this now, and it sounds soooo good.
• D, of Third World County's Egg-Potato-Sausage Whatchacallit.  Sounds like another one of those great "feed the hordes" kinds of recipes, good to have on hand when the in-laws show up.
• In the Headlights' Eggstraordinary Eggplant Parmesan - oh my god this sounds good.  For dinner tonight maybe.
• And for dessert, April Fool's Dirt Cake from World Famous Recipes

April Fool's Day
Since I was unable to post yesterday ... ummmm ... trapped under some heavy furniture, yeah that's it, a big chair fell on me and I couldn't get to the computer... I totally missed reminding everybody how April Fool's Day started. Way back in olden days, when I was young, the French used to celebrate the New Year on March 25. The celebration lasts through April 1st, with dinner parties and family gatherings and present exchanges.

People began sending fake gifts on April first which culminated in the grand New Year feast. These gifts were only as a joke on those who previously had received their étrennes or New Year's gifts, on March 25.

Poisson d'avril or April fish is the name the French apply to one who is fooled or mocked on April first. Confectioners' windows display chocolate fish on this day and many friends anonymously send each other humorous postcards imprinted with pictures of fish.

The French adopted the reformed calendar in 1582 which changed the beginning of the New Year from March 25 to January first.

I recommend we all follow the French tradition and send each other chocolate fish!

Feed of the Day
In other news, I somehow made it to Feed of the Day at Feedster!  Isn't that just the coolest?  Well, I think it is.

Carnival of the Recipes #84

Greetings ladeeez and gentlemens!  My name is Christine and I'll be your server this morning/afternoon/evening.  Our chefs have prepared a truly splendid selection for you.  Please take a moment to look through this week's menu of delectable and delightful dishes, gathered for your approval here at the 84th edition of the Carnival of the Recipes.  I'm sure you'll find something to tickle your fancy.  Our special today is ... everything!  Take your time, I'll be back in a moment with your drinks.

Chef Kevin the Technogypsy serves up French Pancakes, otherwise known as crepes, and delicious by any name.

Chef keewee at keewee's corner presents Grape-Peach scones - not just a breakfast food!

Chef Christine (that's me!) offers a recipe for Cheesy Frittata, guaranteed to fill you up.

Chef muse at me-ander presents My latest breakfast, a brief meander through brekky.

Selections for snacks or light lunches:

Chef FrazzleDad Jim offers a delicious recipe for Garlic Salami Crostini.

Chef David of Third World County serves up Easy Tostadas

Chef Shawn Lea of Everything and Nothing brings us Italian Meatball Soup, a filling dish that could be a whole meal in itself.

Chef Romeocat at CatHouse Chat presents Rye and Bean Salad, demonstrating that a good recipe can be made better by a "wing it" chef.

Chef David of Third World County brings us (FLAT) Chicken Enchiladas, made even better by use of the word "thusly".

Chef Marsha at A Weight Lifted honors one of the first famous female chefs in french cuisine with her recipe for Chicken with Truffles.

Chef Triticale the wheat & rye guy serves up Buffalo Pizza.  What's that?  No, ma'am, it's not really buffalo.

For beef entrees we offer these exotic selections:

Chef Anna at bunny? presents Mediterranean meatballs/Kebobs, with your choice of lamb, goat or beef.

Chef David of Glittering Eye presents a Dalmatian dish called Cevapčici (pronounced cheh-vahp-chi-chi)

Chef Brian of Memento Moron serves up Shrimp Campeche, complete with flame-age.

Chef Bryan of Soup Noodles defines (or redefines) "Kung Pao", with his recipe for Kung Pao Shrimp.  Spicy!

Chef Deborah of Eat Your History serves up a wonderful recipe for Pan Seared Scallops With Asparagus and Baby Leeks, which she guarantees is quick and easy.

Chef DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room presents a spicy selection with her recipe for Thai Style Pork Noodle Toss.

Chef Kim C at Life in a Shoe: the methods and madness of one mother of 7 presents Cheesy Pasta - a very easy recipe you'll love!

Chef Riannan of In the Headlights helps us recover from Mardis Gras with Bananas Foster.

Chef Taleena of Sun Comprehending Glass brings us a delicious recipe for Apple Strudel

Chef Kittykait at Seven Silly Southern Sisters presents Kitchen Scrap Cookies, a good recipe for creative cooks!

Chef Kevin of Seriously Good shares some of his creative and experimental cooking with his recipe for Blood Orange Pots de Crème

Chef mensa barbie at Mensa Barbie Welcomes You presents Sorbet de Framboise!, a great recipe for those of us who don't have an ice cream maker!

And that wraps up the menu.  Would you like another minute to browse the selections, or are you ready to order?  A few more minutes?  Not a problem, take your time.  It IS difficult to decide.  But you know, you CAN have one of everything, if you want.

Thanks to Beth, our Founder in Chief and She Who Will Be Obeyed, for making all this possible.  Next week's carnival, the April Fool's edition, will be hosted by Caterwauling.  Post recipes by Saturday noon, either by email to recipe-dot-carnival-at-neversendspam-gmail-dot-c0m, or you can use the Conservative Cat's Carnival Submission Form.

Carnival of the Recipes #83

The Carnival is up for viewing at One for the Road.  Some very scrumptious sounding stuff this week.  A few I MUST try:

* Molten Chocolate Cake- Holy cats.  My Decadent Meter went off the scale when I looked at the photo for this recipe.  Maximum eye-candy.  Err... eye-cake. 
* KeeWee's Pikelets - for brekky or tea!  Or both!
* Chocolate and Guinness Brownies - not too sure about this one, but I've got some Guinness left over from the stew I made, so I think I'll try this out.
* Tuna Cobbler - Even the hubs might like this one.  I might have to try it with shredded chicken.  Sounds good and really easy! 
* And then there's this delish sounding recipe for Irish Soda Bread ... oh wait, that's me.  SNERK!  Didja think I was capable of such a shameless plug? 

Next week's Carnival will be hosted right here.  Don't forget to submit your recipes by Saturday noonish!

Another Coffee Day?

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program of Irish stuff to bring you these important announcements. . .

According to Brady Brewer, Head of North American Starbucks store promotions and coffee brewing, today is National Coffee Day.  What?  Not another one!  Don't panic yet ... I can't find anything about this anywhere on the net, other than the ones I've already posted.  You know what I think?  I think the Head of North American Starbucks is making up holidays for marketing purposes.  But no advertising exec of a big corporation would stoop to such low tactics, would they?  Naaaaah.  I found this little blip on http://www.jimsblog.biz/, but can't seem to get the interview to play, so I'm not sure what the man actually says.  Can anybody listen to this and confirm?

For coffee and tea distributors, roasters and cafes, the Everything 4 Coffee and Tea Festival®, " a two-day event dedicated to the growth and proliferations of the specialty coffee and gourmet tea market place", is being held at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City on July 15th and 16th, 2006 10 am - 7 pm.  Wish I could go, to sample the wares and such! I 'specially want to take the workshop on choosing the best confectionery delights to have with your tea. 
Found via http://cocoajava.com/index.html

Lastly, bad Christine forgot to mention the Carnival of the Recipes.  Brain fart.  Again.  Carnival #82 is up at Dubious Wonder, and man-oh-man what a great selection of recipes this week!  Just to give me something to seque with, there are a few Irish recipes.  There's one for Colcannon from The Glittering Eye, and Smoked Corned Beef Brisket (and cabbage) from the BBQ General.

Thank you for your attention.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Carnival of the Recipes #81

The "Danish" carnival is up at Ego.  That is to say, the Carnival of the Recipes with the Danish theme, and it seems I wasn't the only one cornfuzzled by the theme. 

There are some really interesting tidbits about Danish culture and cooking included along with the great collection of recipes, so go check it out and learn sumfin!

Coffee in Danish & Danish Coffee

Ok, so the theme for this week's Carnival of the Recipes is "Danish".  But I wasn't sure if that meant "recipes for Danish pastry", or "recipes for Danish foods".  I'm easily confused.  So, I bagged out of that path altogether. 

My contribution is a recipe from Fooddownunder.com for:

Danish Coff