Seven Layer Dip and then some!

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This is a great dish to take to pot lucks. My sister in law made the first one I ever tasted years ago, and it was so good.

This version, I tweaked (I can never just leave well enough alone lol) and I added guacamole,hot peppers, black beans, and corn expanding it to more than 7 layers. Make two dishes, so you can make one hot for the people who like their Mexican food the way its meant to be...HOT!

You can make it in a bowl also, or a fancy schmancy dish. Below are some serving dish ideas. I am thinking of putting my gigantic margarita glass to good use for my hot and spicy one for my next "partay". And surely, the spider one at Halloween.


Seven Layer Bean Dip

You will need:

refried beans

Whole black beans (opt)

16 oz homemade guacamole

diced olives

shredded cheddar cheese

Corn (opt)

diced tomatoes

diced green onions

1 cup of sour cream

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1 packet of taco seasoning

Shredded Lettuce

diced jalapeno or poblano peppers (opt, I like it hot)

Serve with tortilla chips and have a jar of spicy taco sauce nearby for anyone who might want to top it with that too.


Layer the following ingredients in a 9x9 pan.

1st layer- refried beans and black beans

2nd layer- 1 tub of guacamole

3rd layer-combine 1 cup of sour cream, 1/2 cup of mayonnaise and packet of taco seasoning

4th layer-shredded lettuce

5th layer-diced olives and corn if desired

6th layer-shredded cheddar cheese

7th layer-diced tomatoes, hot peppers

This is a super idea for a Halloween Party! Use a plastic baggie with the tip cut off or an icing piping bag and draw a spider web on it with sour cream...top with olives cut into the shape of spiders.

You can make a big dish or it, or, for a small crew coming over..




Cutsie Patriotic one for Memorial Day, 4th of July or for a party for a Soldier.

Lunch Box fun

Making lunch fun and interesting will help your child, or hubby, or even you own day a little bit better. My kids are homeschooled, but when they did go to school 8 years ago, they always had fun lunches packed. My friends would ask how i got my kids to eat veggies...they just always did...as toddlers, fresh broccoli was little trees. We would bite the top off of the tree, pretending to be a dinosaur. lol....silly but simple things to make eating healthy, fun.

My kids love sushi, yes even the sashimi, raw fish...but of course, taking fish in a lunchbox is not very safe unless you have early enough lunch and/or you have a place to keep it VERY cool,. but making sushi is fun, and really rather easy...and you can make it with just veggies or have tofu in it also. You can get a book on it at the library or just watch on you tube...my family loves to make it, 15.00 worth of sushi grade fish stuffs us all, and a restaurant it would cost that to tease one person. I am sure you could make sushi with fish and keep it cold enough, just be certain not to rely on an ice pack that is too small. It must be kept very cold...I recall the scene in the Breakfast Club where Molly Ringwald takes sushi and Jud Nelson comments on it.

Another alternative is to make basic wraps (lunch meat, even pb and jelly) and cut them into spirals and arrange them to "look like sushi" in a container. I made wraps like that for a picnic and everyone that walked up to the table asked if it was sushi...Its best to make the wrap, and put it in the frige a few hours before you slice it into spirals. It will keep its shape better. I like to flavor cream cheese and use that as the base before I add meats or chicken salad or even just veggies...green pepper, cucumber, spinach, whatever floats your boat. And of course they have tomato and spinach wraps to make it even more interesting. Blt spirals are so yummy and refreshing.

You could put the Sushi or the Spirals in a sandwich container or better yet, a cool bento box. They come in all shapes, sizes and materials they are made with. You can even get stacking stainless steel ones if you do not use plastic...I try not to use alot of plastic, but I pick my battles, sometimes ya just gotta use it!

Also you can put juice or some type of drink in a small canning jar with a lid. I use small canning jars in my cabinets for juice glasses to save space. We dont' use plastic cups or plastic storage containers in our house. Canning jars are my only food storage containers and I have all sizes for big and small storing jobs. The wide mouth small are cute for drinks and you could cushion it in a can huggy in the lunch box or even wrapt it in a cloth napkin, using it as the lunch napkin can help save the planet just a little more.

Another thing my kids love is a twist on the cream cheese sweet bologna spirals. Spread cream cheese (and if you flavor it with spices, even better) on a piece of sweet bologna, put a whole or even spear dill pickle on it and wrap it. Put in frige for about an hour and then slice them into spirals. I am telling you, this is sooo good.

And why not a little treat in the lunchbox. SUSHI CANDY!

Here are some fun sushi pics I found.


And this gives me a brilliant idea!!!!! (the sushi cake)...that is another post!

I totally had this lunch box when I was a kid!

Creating Memories

My grandmother, we called her Dar (short for Doris) and my grandfather, Poppop Henry when they were younger. Aren't they beautiful, they look like a sitcom couple.

One of my fondest memories as a child was playing in grandmom's bathroom medicine cabinet..it was huge...it covered the whole wall over the double or triple sinks they had in the bathroom. She sold Avon and had tons of fun makeup and cold creams and even wigs on top of the cabinet..she was a show girl when she was younger, so she had all of the cool stuff..she was pretty hip as far as grandmoms go! Of course, fond memories cooking with both her and mom, summers at the pool, I just reminisced about with an old friend, and too many other memories to mention here. I would not want to bore you, they are my memories, you probably don't remember doing them lol.

We are always creating great memories and no matter who bad you thought your childhood was, there have to be some warm memories that you just love! I am sure my boys have many fond memories of growing up, unfortunately they weren't hanging at grandma's like we did, my grandparents lived across the street from us growing up so we got to see them every single day.

My nieces came over this morning, to hang out while my sister had something to get done. It was early, we ate cereal and then watched The Bee Movie and while we were watching that, I was thinking...I don't want the memories of Aunt Shannon's house to be watching tv bored...so I got out my jewelry making supplies and had them make an anklet and bracelet. I did not give them any advice, I gave them two trays of supplies to pick out of and design their own jewelry.

Taylor made this adorable anklet (hard to see in the pic) using pink seed beads, little pearls, butterfly shaped metal beads, and a heart charm.


Brianna made this yummy bracelet with multicolored glass beads, metal butterfly beads and also a heart charm...(I told her it looked like edible candy)

Pico de Gallo

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I made Pico de Gallo in less than 5 min from my garden veggies this morning and am now eating it non stop with tortilla chips.

I guess if you serve it on italian bread rounds, you can call it Bruschetta..with one or two adjustments...omit cilantro, replace with olive oil and oregano, basil..

I did not have any fresh cilantro in my garden, so I had to use dried..I better work on that!

Let me start of by raving about my Wolfgang Puck immersion blender..this thing can go in a pot to make soup, or you can use the handy little chopping container it comes with. I use this thing every single day of my life!
I love this thing.
I buy steak and chicken thighs and breasts and chop them myself to make my own ground beef and ground chicken...who knows what is in that stuff they put out at the store...I know what I put in mine...I use it for nuts, and veggies. I could go on and on about how much I love this thing.
I make a brussels sprouts and bacon and shallot hash for a side dish and this does all of the work for me.
You can make Margaritas, or any drink, mayonnaise, and even slushies, the sky is the limit.

I do not make any money on this product, but want to note, every kitchen should have one!



I started off using a bunch of grape tomatoes (they did get big, didn't they?)

Of course, hot peppers...WITH SEEDS...the seeds add heat (we want that!) and they contain alot of nutrients! I leave the seeds in my peppers and tomatoes...nutrients.

Three pulses of the immersion blender stick...and....this is what you get!

Why not, some green peppers.

Gotta have one of these tomato corers! Pampered Chef sells them too, I have one somewhere from them, but I have a few from the restaurant store too..costs about a buck!

quarter them....then chop

Dumping it all into a glass bowl as I go.

Onions

Now before we stir this....


Squeeze the juice of a lime into it...and some cilantro goes in too...I buy my limes in bulk at Sams...because I love lime in my water too...always have lime on hand...I am even growing a key lime tree in my kitchen...I threw a few seeds from a key lime I was cutting, into a pot and plopped it on my kitchen counter...its big now..no limes yet...but its young.

And the finished product!

Swine Flu Vaccine..is it safe

This is a great commentary on the swine flu vaccine and before you give in to getting a vaccine, you may want to listen to this.

It does not need to be tested before it's given in the US and the vaccine company is not going to be held liable for anything.

http://www.naturalnews.com/Dont_Inject_Me_The_Swine_Flu_Vaccine_Song.html

Click the link and pan down slightly and click on the blue box with a speaker and arrow to listen to him talk about the vaccine..educate yourself before you make any decisions...the flu can be prevented with herbs and vitamin d and things like that.

Please educate yourself!

Revisit to Rice Cooker blogpost..new info

I just got my Turquoise Rice Cooker today, thanks again Deb Murray! I am not new to the rice cooker, I have been using my for two years and its still something I use at least once a week.

I cannot tell you enough how this little magic machine makes the best meals..not just rice, but full meals...I updated this blog entry...please see the links at the top...watch this thing in action!!!!

With school sports starting, this thing is a Godsend! You throw in the ingredients and leave the house, come home to a completed meal...or stay home and wait 20 min and viola (wala lol T$)

http://margaritastewart.blogspot.com/2009/08/wolfgang-puck.html

Monkey Trifle (banana)

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I am no photographer and surely not a dessert chef but here is a wonderful trifle I made for my son's 14th birthday party. I quickly snapped a pic, but had no time for caring too much about the pic, I had so much to do...and so little time. There were about 20 crazy teenagers there, all scattered, some inside, some outside. I never got a group pic, which is a bit upsetting..but oh well. Family came to hang out as well.

This is so easy to make! Takes almost no time, and except for a nuke in the micro to melt the "ganache"...(coolwhip and choc chips)...no cooking either.

Monkey's Fav Banana Creme Trifle

18 whole graham crackers

3/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips

1 twelve oz container of Cool Whip,thawed

1 3.4 oz box banana cream instant pudding mix

1 C milk

1/2 lemon (for it's juice)

4 large bananas, sliced

Coursely crumble graham crackers with your hands and set aside

Next, to make the ganache, put chocolate chips and 1 & 1/2 C cool whip into a microwave safe bowl and nuke it for 15 seconds at a time and stir, doing this several times, until it comes together to form a creamy chocolatey fudgelike product (ganache). Put into a ziploc bag and cut off the tip to use as a piping bag.

In another bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until it thickens, and then fold in remaining cool whip.

Drizzle half of the lemon's juice over top of bananas to prevent browning..

To assemble trifle, place 1/2 of the graham crackers on the bottom of the container you will serve it in, a trifle dish or glass bowl. Next place half of the bananas around the dish, sticking them against it all the way around and layer in the middle...you should still have half of the bananas left.

Next, take the piping bag of ganache and pipe it against the glass and drizzle it over the bananas in the center, using only about 1/3 of it.

Next layer half of the banana creme pudding over it, spreading out to the edge of the glass...you are trying to make this look like layers.

Repeat, using remaining graham crackers, remaining bananas, 1/3 of ganache, and remaining banana creme pudding.

Garnish the top with a banana slice or two or however you want, some graham cracker crumbs if you want and drizzle the remaining ganache on top....I did it in a B for my son's birthday.

I assembled this in my Southern Living Trifle dish, that doubles as a candy dish when not in use for trifle.

My son with some of his friends outside skateboarding and goofin off.