Cranberry Granitas

Since the weather outside has already gotten (in my mind) ridiculously HOT, I thought I'd share this granita recipe I got from Giada on Food Network back when we had cable. I made it this week and it is YUMMY! You can of course make a kid (and preggers) friendly version without the vodka and even trick them by calling it an ice cream treat. But I'm a big fan of vodka...

Ingredients

• 2 cups cranberry juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup vodka
• 6 fresh cranberries, for garnish

Directions

Whisk the cranberry juice and sugar in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves. Pour the cranberry mixture into a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Cool completely. Whisk in the lime juice and vodka. Freeze until the granita becomes slushy, about 2 hours. Using fork, stir to blend. Continue freezing the granita until frozen, stirring every hour to form crystals, at least 5 hours or overnight.

Divide the granita among 6 dessert glasses. Garnish with fresh cranberries, if desired, and serve.

Easy Week Night Pasta

We've had this twice in the past week and 1/2. It's easy and really good! And, it makes enough to have leftovers for lunch. ;)

Ingredients:

1 lb. fusilli pasta

1/4 extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 big bag spinach

1 can quartered artichokes

1/2 lb. cooked shrimp, or chicken, or turkey, or go meatless.....

Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheese blend from Kraft or your own shredded Asiago cheese

Boil water and cook 1 lb. fusilli (corkscrew kind) pasta- I used multi-grain, but can use whole wheat or regular pasta.

Heat on medium low 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.
Add 2 cloves garlic (minced) when hot. Make sure not to burn the oil.
When garlic starts to brown a little, add 1 big bag spinach and whatever else you would like to put in the pasta. The recipe I saw used cherry tomatoes. I used a can of quartered artichokes (drained) and 1/2 lb. of already cooked shrimp. Salt and pepper to taste.

When pasta is done, drain and add to spinach mixture. Add 1/4 cup (or more) of cheese. Mix and serve. Yum!

Kara learns about Blogging

Today was so fun, I got to share with Kara the world of blogging.

I'm currently showing her how to post!

4 square margaritas

This is my favorite margarita recipe. We made them for Cinco de Mayo, they never disappoint! 

12 oz. of Limeade

12 oz. of Fresca

12 oz. of Corona (light)

12 oz. of tequila

we served them on the rocks, if you blend them watch out the foam from the beer and Fresca is out of control. A lesson from last year. 

How to Post to a Blog

1. Go to a blog or www.blogger.com

2. Click sign in.

3. Sign in with your blogger username/email.

4. Your dashboard should show up if you signed in through blogger. Otherwise, just click "New Post" in the top right corner.

5. Click "New Post"

6. Write your post!

Add a picture by clicking on the little icon that looks like a mountain scene.

7. Add labels at the bottom so it will show up in our categories.

8. Don't forget to click PUBLISH POST at the bottom!

* Don't worry if you publish it and need to make changes. Just go back in like you were going to add a new post and click on the edit post tab and change away. Just don't forget to publish your changes.

The easiest/friendliest tab to write it in is the "Compose" tab. See them on the top right? If you click "Edit Html" you won't get the icon options for fonts and adding pictures. Use this tab (Edit Html) when adding code for a you tube video or something created on the internet like a slideshow that you want posted on the blog. More on this later!

Wordless Wednesday