Saturday

Saturday.
What can be said about Saturdays?
They are for relaxing after a long work week.
They are for getting house work done.
They are for new adventures.
All of these things are true for what should be done on Saturdays.

I woke up Saturday with the thought of being productive. I had quite a few things on my To - Do list. I proceeded to get up and get ready. I put the final touches on my grocery list, did some dishes and thought of lunch. Today would be the perfect day to try out some recipes. I recently just finished reading Julie and Julia. You all know how I love Julia Child, so with the thought of lunch and Julia in my mind I grabbed my Mastering the Art of French Cooking of the shelf. I opened to the page for Hollindaise Sauce and for poached eggs. It was decided!

First stop was to Pat Catan's for art and craft supplies. I needed to get more colored pencils for my new coloring book. And a few other things for craft projects I've got laying around. Now the weather this Saturday was cold and gloomy it felt like a perfect fall day. I love this kid of weather and I had missed it terribly. My productivity level was slowly dropping. This was the perfect weather for a snuggle in bed with a good movie list in your jammies with junk food. With this being said my next stop was the grocery store. Not only was the weather gloomy I started to feel terrible. By this time the thought of being productive was gone. I was on my way to the store when peach pie came to mind, so of course I decided I was going to make a peach pie.

By the time I got home I was not feeling any better. I was actually probably feeling worse. I was still going to cook, no matter how I was feeling. I still needed to eat and was starting to get hungry. I read through each recipe and got all my ingredients together.

I started with the Hollindaise Sauce.

Then I poached my egg. It came out almost perfect the first time. At the same time I cooked up some kale in butter and lemon. I cut up some avocado to put on top of the kale, topped it with salt, my poached egg and hollindaise.

I ate my brunch. It was delicious.
I don't eat out much anymore.
Who could blame me?
With food like this.

I had been prepping my ingredients for my peach pie in between cooking hollindaise, kale, and poached eggs. But first I needed a break.

After my break I came back prepped my peaches some more and let them sit for an hour.
In that hour I watched Hocus Pocus.
I mixed all of the ingredients in a sauce pan until it was a gooey, bubbly mixture.
Poured all of that into my pie dough.
Put the top crust on.
Topped that with cut out pieces of extra dough.
And it was ready for the oven.

Baked that sucker for 50 minutes and it came out golden and flakey.

I let it cool for about 10 minutes and then couldn't wait any longer. I dug in. I topped the pie with some banana strawberry "ice cream" that I whipped up earlier.
That was a damn good delicious pie.

xo

*Shine like Glitter*
I pretty much laid in bed all day.
With The Twilight Zone playing.
I made some hot cider, which helped my sore, dry throat.
I ate more pie than I should have.
It was a wonderful day.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

People Who Love to Eat

... are always the best people. A quote by the famous foodie Julia Child or as known in her time gastronome, the study of food and culture, focusing particularly on gourmet cuisine which is exactly what Julia did with her love of French food.

If you have been reading my blog for awhile then you know I love Julia Child. She is an inspiration and she changed the way of cooking forever. I did not use one of her recipes today *sigh* But I did watch Julie and Julia. The first time I saw this movie I fell in love with it. A tale between two women from two different time periods. Julie connects with Julia and makes her a part of her life. Julie's life is then changed forever. I have seen this movie more times than I can count and each time it gives me the same feeling I felt when I first watched it. It touches my heart and makes me happy.

In a recent interview I was asked if I could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would I choose. At the interview I really could not think of someone. I just listed off a couple of people. If I were asked that question now I would choose Julia Child. And I would leave the cooking up to her *wink*



*Pho taken from the web

Another thing you know if you've been reading my blog for awhile is that that I love guacamole. It is packed with flavor and some pretty good health benefits, such as healthy fats and vitamin E. Today I am putting it on tacos, shrimp tacos to be exact. Tacos are one of my favorite foods and I could eat them any time. My favorites are from Jimmy Hulas and Tijuana Flats. But today I whipped up some fresh guacamole and put together some shrimp tacos.

They were so good; I wish I could share them with you. I won't judge you if you tried to grab them through the screen. I mixed the shrimp with Frank's Red Hot Sweet Chili sauce. I love me some sweet chili sauce. Then I topped with shrimp with my fresh guacamole, a tomato and jalapeno mixture with garlic, sour cream and lettuce. A little yet yummy dinner.

xo

*Shine like Glitter*
Julia is such an inspiration to me.
Her life was something most of us dream about.
She did not want to be a stay at home wife, like so many women she saw in France. Instead she went out and made her dreams a reality. And did things beyond her dreams... like her own TV show.
I have been working on making my own dreams a reality.
I know I still have a ways to go, but it feels good to be working on them.
I hope you all do the same.
How was your Saturday? What did you do? Share with me in the comments

Taste of Maitland

Monday night in Maitland there was something fun going on. It is known as the Taste of Maitland. Local restaurants come together around Lake Lily with their booths and their best food. Patrons pay $20 and get all of the food they can eat. I invited Ashley to come along with me to stuff ourselves with local foods and drink. The foods were delicious and I was stuffed to the gills by the end of the night.

I mean just look at this pumpkin bagel and snicker doodle from Einstein Bagels. YUM

This summer salad and butternut squash soup is from Crispers, kind of like Panera. I love the butternut squash soup from Crispers and I was happy to see that they had brought some samples with them.

Yum Jeremiah's... I had pumpkin pie and Ashley enjoyed cookies and cream!

The downside of the night was that there was only one booth selling alcoholic beverages *sigh*  I  hope the next time they put this event on they have more booths selling beverages.

However this "mojito" was yummy. It was not a traditional mojito it was made with Champagne rather than rum... but it still had that minty flavor just not as strong.

After engorging ourselves with so much food Ashley and I decided to take a walk around Lake Lily to walk off all of the food we just downed. The lake is beautiful and a nice place to walk and chat.

The night was coming to an end and the booths were starting to pack up. Ashley and I walked back to my car still stuffed. What a fun night with a good friend.

These kind of events are popping up every where around central Florida. I know Apopka is having their Taste of Apopka on November 13. If you are interested check out your town and be sure to send me an invite. *wink*

xo

*My Thoughts*
They need more booths with beverages.
And to be honest they did not have a lot of restaurants who came out.
Overall it was a good night though and I ate so much!!

Poulets Grilles a la Diable

You all know my love for Julia Child well...

The other night I whipped up a dinner for N and I. I knew which sides I wanted to have but I needed a good chicken recipe to try out so I turned to my trusty Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. I found a recipe for a mustard, herb and bread crumb crusted chicken that didn't look too hard. *wink*

The recipe: Poulets Grilles a la Diable or Chicken Broiled with Mustards, Herbs, and Bread Crumbs. The recipe was really easy to follow just the way Julia wanted it to be. I whipped up the sauce in no time. And in the mean time the chicken was in cooking away in the broiler.

The sauce was delicious!!

I spread that all over both sides of the chicken and then coated them in bread crumbs.

Then I baked them for a little longer.

I mean just look at how this dinner turned out. Yum.

Julia Child is truly an inspiration. I love her for putting so much work into her book and never giving up even when times got tough. She really wanted to see a change in the way America cooks. This will not be the last recipe I share with you from her book so look out for more *wink*

xo

*My Thoughts*
Anyone can cook.
I love having Julia's cookbook around.
Anytime I am looking for a really good recipe I turn to it.
Buy the book here.

Recipe: Shrimp Lettuce Wraps

It is such a beautiful, sunny summer day out today in Florida so I decided to do this post out in the yard whilst laying on my blanket I use for yoga with a big cup of water.

Yesterday I made a yummy light flavorful lunch in praise of summer!

Shrimp lettuce wraps with a mango salsa and a sweet chili sauce. They were delish, full of flavor and easy to make.

Now let's get onto it already then...

Yummy! Just look at all of that color.


What you'll need:

Package of cooked shrimp (I used the smaller ones since they were going into small lettuce leaves.)
1 mango
a couple of radishes, finely chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 avocado, chopped
Juice from one lime
Cilantro
Lettuce leaves
Sauce of choice... I have been on this sweet chili sauce kick lately so I was glad to find that Frank's Red Hot sauce had a sweet chili sauce available

First I took some of the shrimp, not all because I was only making them for myself, into a strainer and rinsed them with cold water until they were thawed.

Then I transferred the shrimp to a bowl and added enough sauce to coat the little buggers.

*this sauce is amazing, I suggest giving it a try on anything, if you happen to not be a shrimp person

Once you have the desired amount of sauce place the shrimp in the refrigerator to marinade for at least 30 minutes and at this time you can prep your veggies.

Next step is to chop up all of the veggies...

 
Don't forget the mango

Toss all of the veggies into a separate bowl

Then squeeze the juice of one lime into the bowl and mix it all together... and then breathe in that yummy smell and try not to eat it all before you make your wraps.

Once the veggies and juice are mixed chop up some cilantro leaves and mix that in with the veggies and lime juice.

After all of that is done place the veggies in the refrigerator right next to those delicious looking shrimp. I left mine in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, only because I was not to eat them yet. They only need about 30 minutes. I like my veggie mix cold and I did not want them to spoil.

Once I was ready to eat I assembled my lettuce wraps.

Put some of the shrimp mixture into each of the lettuce wraps and then top that with some of the veggie mixture.

Don't those just look yummy?! If you want to lick the screen I will not judge but if there are other people around you they might judge you *wink*  I know I am getting hungry looking at these wraps.

I topped the wraps with a little of the sweet chili sauce just to add that little extra because honestly I just can't get enough.

Now it is time to dig in... make sure you have a napkin near by and possibly a sink because not only are they mouth watering they are a bit messy.

I paired mine with a pear and grape salad.

Okay now that I am good and hungry I am going to go eat...

xo

*My Thoughts*

These wraps are light and delicious as is but feel free to get creative and make your own creations.

If you do make sure to let me know. I am always looking for new creations to make.

Use the hash tag #shrimpwraps or #itskelly7 or go on send me a tweet or leave a comment down below.

Twitter name: itskelly7

Have a wonderful weekend!!