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Posts Tagged ‘Savvy Entertaining’

Stuffed Strawberries

Posted in Desserts, Easy Recipes, Entertaining Ideas, Fast Recipes, Recipes, tagged , , , on April 20, 2012| 3 Comments »

Captain Cavedweller brought home some delicious strawberries the other day. They were big, plump, juicy and ripe. They actually tasted like strawberries  – not like the somewhat bland picked-green variety we usually find in the stores this time of year.

Since I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to stuff a few berries for fun. That was a tasty decision.

This is a fast and easy way to make your berries look super fancy and divine.

You'll need berries, whipped cream cheese, powdered sugar and chocolate for dipping. Chocolate is optional. Unless you're me. Then it is mandatory and necessary.

Cut the tops off the berries and hull. Mix together cream cheese and powdered sugar and then use a teaspoon to stuff filling into berries. I got involved with the stuffing and forgot to take pictures. Sorry!

You can melt some chocolate and dip the ends of your berries in it. You can also melt chocolate and make some fancy little swirlies to top the berries. All that is completely optional.

Or you can eat them plain and enjoy!

She Who Loves Fresh Berries

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Reason #347 Why I Love Captain Cavedweller

Posted in Captain Cavedweller, Entertaining at Home, Home and Garden, Home Decor, Musings, tagged , , , on April 19, 2012| 3 Comments »

A few weeks ago I was lamenting the fact that I wish I had purchased more new clothes hangers to Captain Cavedweller.

(Aren’t you jealous of the intense, completely stimulating conversations that take place at my house?)

Anyway, having a strong dislike for my closet full of plastic hangers that have seen better days, I bought a package of the new slim flocked hangers I’ve seen everywhere.

I love them. As in LOVE THEM!

If you haven’t tried them yet, they are, like, totally awesome, dude!

They have this great flocked coating which means your clothes cling to the hanger instead of slithering off as they tend to do with the plastic hangers. They are also super slim which means I can get about three of them in the space of one plastic hanger.

Not sure that I would like these hangers, I bought one package to give them a whirl. They whirled quite wonderfully and I wish I had purchased several packages.

I was completely surprised the other day when Captain Cavedweller came home from a trip to the city packing an entire case of these hangers.

“What’s this?” I asked, wondering why he bought the hangers.

“You said you wished you had more of them,” he said with a shrug and went back out to finish unloading the car.

When I finally scooped my melted self up off the floor, I quickly changed out all the hangers in our closet, realizing that not only do I have one of the best husbands ever, I now have a lot more room in my closet for more clothes. I see a shopping trip in my near future…

She Who Loves CC

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Banana Ice Cream

Posted in Desserts, Entertaining at Home, Puddings and Custards, Recipes, tagged , , , on April 13, 2012| 2 Comments »

When I was a kid, on random and rare occasions my sister-in-law Debbie would treat us to homemade banana ice cream. It was smooth, creamy bliss in a bowl on a hot summer day.  A bit of a banana fan, I absolutely loved this ice cream and eagerly looked forward to the times she made it. (Which wasn’t nearly often enough).

My mom tried to make it a few times, but it never tasted the same because she refused to use the raw eggs required by the recipe. So if you don’t consume raw eggs, please skip today’s post and come back next week when I don’t have to issue any food warnings.

Consider this your warning – consuming raw eggs may increase your chance of food borne illness. Use fresh eggs that aren’t cracked, please, if you plan to make this ice cream.

Which, if you like ice cream and like bananas, you will want to do as quickly as possible.

It has been years (decades) since I’ve had this ice cream and it was just as yummy as I remember. I finally begged Debbie to share her recipe and I am forever grateful that she did.

Captain Cavedweller had never enjoyed the experience of banana ice cream before and I thought I was going to have to find a stick to beat him off  just so I could get a bowl of it.

Yeah, it was that good.

It is really easy to make and this recipe will fill a four-quart ice cream freezer easily. If you have one of the one and a half quart freezers, I’d cut this down to a one-third recipe.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Beat eggs until foamy.

Add sugar and beat until dissolved.

Add cream, salt, flavorings and milk to get this foamy, beautiful bowl of goodness.

Mash bananas and add to mix.

Pour into your ice cream freezer and freeze according to machine directions.

A whimsically fun bowl may slightly enhance the flavor, unless you are Captain Cavedweller.

Serve with a garnish of banana slices dipped in chocolate and mint, if you so desire. CC desired a shortbread cookie with his.

Banana Ice Cream

5 eggs
2 1/2 cups sugar
4cups whipping cream
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. banana flavoring
4 cups milk
4 ripe bananas, mashed
* Warning! Consuming raw eggs may increase your risk of food borne illness.   If you do decide to make this and use the raw eggs, please choose eggs that are fresh with no cracks in the shell.
Start by beating the eggs until they are foamy and light. I let mine go about six minutes. Add in sugar and continue mixing. Slow the speed on the mixer and add in the cream followed by the salt, vanilla and banana flavoring. Continue mixing and add in the milk, blending in the bananas last. Pour into your ice cream freezer and freeze according to machine directions.

Serve and enjoy! I dipped a few banana slices in chocolate and added a garnish of mint, just for fun. Captain Cavedweller preferred his plain, of course.

She Who LOVES Banana Ice Cream

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The Goose

Posted in Musings, Pets, tagged , , , , on April 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »

We started out with just this obnoxious feline – The Heinous Cat.

After he sent out open invitations to every other cat in the neighborhood to drop by his house for a good time, we ended up with this cat:

Maizy – also known as The Interloper – came to visit and still hasn’t left. After a year, I think she’s staying. At first, her presence greatly disturbed The Heinous Cat. He didn’t like her horning in on things. He wanted all the food, all the attention, all the space in my lawn chair for himself.

Despite his hissy fits, repeated attempts to lure her across the road and threats to her well-being, she continued to hang out in our backyard.

They seem to have reached an understanding, of sorts. Tolerating each other and not getting into a cat fight every time they get within spitting distance is new. Part of that may have been due to the fact The Heinous Cat was lost for twelve days and when he came home he was so glad to be there, he accepted The Interloper as part of the package.

She really enjoyed him being gone. The kingdom belonged to her without some annoying cat ridden by glandular issues smacking at her all the time.

“Mama, why did you let him come back? Wasn’t I good enough for you?”

Poor kitty.

I think the real reason they are getting along so well is in their joint efforts to shut out the latest addition to our backyard, The Mongoose.

A month or so ago, we were overrun with cats. As in there were eight of them in our backyard and I was not going to stand for it. After running them off repeatedly, this little guy kept sneaking back.

He’s terrified of everything, half-starved and completely pathetic. What were we to do? Especially since he looks like the love child of The Heinous Cat and The Interloper.

We named him Mongoose – Goose for short  – because of the way he bobs his head, lurks around corners and dashes around grabbing bites of food when he thinks no one is watching.

I would, however, like to issue this statement: The Hatfield Cat Farm is no longer accepting any new boarders, tenants or stow-aways.  If you have a feline, please ask them to pass this news along. We are full-up, at maximum cat capacity, and I will not willing take on another one. Nope. All done.

She who is Still a Dog Person, Not A Cat Person

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