fruited ice water 

Good morning 🙂 
These days when you go to buy water there are soooo many options 

( seriously.. 20 years ago did you think we’d be buying water?) 

Since I personally am trying to drink more water, I’ve started making my own concoctions. And I love them! 

There’s no real recipe here..  Just combos to make water have more flavor and mix it up a bit! 
I am a hug fan of Ball jars and have been as long as I can remember. I use them for cooking, storing, eating and drinking! 
Each morning, I start my tea water and while I’m waiting for it to boil, I use 2 quart-sized jars and place different fruit combos in them 

Then fill with water and/or ice, place cap on and refridgerate! 

( these are also awesome because they are portable!) 

 
Here are some of my favorites..  

Lemon slices, cucumber slices and mint 

  Strawberry-basil! 

Cantelope- mint!  

 I also love apple- cinnamon  

 Pear-vanilla!  

What do you flavor your water with ?  

Related recipes 

Cantelope salad with prosciutto

Balsamic chicken salad with strawberries

Lemon ricotta gnocchi

sweet  pea salad with goat cheese 

Apple of my eye🎶🎶🎶

Howdy, friends!

I love me some sweet peas. ( and classic tunes 😉)

Scott and I picked up some snow peas at the market on Saturday. Usually I just steam them, but after seeing the mint in my yard, I started to get all creative and stuff.

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So I took a bag of these babies…

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And sliced them thinly. Fancy- pants word is julienne, but you can call it slicing thinly 😉

I gathered up some lemon, pine nuts,feta,butter, mint ,sea salt and pepper.
( not pictured… White wine)

And made a purty little plate

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Start by toasting the pine nuts. Set aside.

I melted the butter ( a tablespoon, maybe?) into a cast iron skillet ( my favorite cooking vessel, btw )

Then I added the peas to coat and just start to wilt. I didn’t want to overlook them, a nice crunch was what I was going for .

I added the wine ( 1/4 cup-ish) and let it reduce by half, then added the zest and juice of the lemon, chopped mint , toasted pine nuts and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Right as I was ready to serve I added the crumbled feta ( we bought a local goat feta… Simply amazing!). And garnished with a bit of mint.

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So simple, so tasty,so easy!

It went lovely alongside my linguini with roasted garlic goat cheese and zucchini dish.

( that recipe is coming up soon )

If you come across snow peas.. You should try this!

Oxoxox<!

friday smiles

friday smiles

 

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Prosciutto – cantelope salad

Friends.. If you don’t know by now, I’m obsessed with food. All of it.. Shopping for it , growing , cooking it .

( not so much on the dishes, though )

When I was a J&W we had many classes where we studied flavor profiles . We focused at length on why some foods pair well with others.

As well as why some foods do not pair at all

Have you ever brushed your teeth and then drank orange juice?

I rest my case.

So when cantelope was on sale I knew that I had to pair it with proscuitto

There is something about the sweet, crisp taste of the melon paired with the salty, creaminess of the proscuitto… Well it’s a match made in heaven

Here I’ve made a salad with these ingredients, including fresh mint for zip and toasted pine nuts for crunch

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1/2 cantelope, cut into cubes
3-4 slices of proscuitto , chopped into small pieces
A few sprigs of mint, leaves picked off
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
Sea salt
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

In a serving bowl , add melon. Top with proscuitto, mint, pine nuts and sprinkle with sea salt .

Add vinegar to small sauce pan and heat, until reduced by half. Drizzle over salad, toss and serve .

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Enjoy!

ooey gooey minty bars

That’s what I’m calling them. The official recipe that I found is called midnight mints.. but once I made these & they were on the platter.. I decided hat I would re-mame them ( at least in this house 😉 )

 

Sunday morning, our oldest son, Jason, left  for his 6 month tour of duty in the Persian Gulf… although the emotions around here have been wildly unpredictable& unexplainable , the biggest emotion is by far pride.

We are sooo proud of him…

 

ok.

cookies.

These are a triple layered bar-type cookie with tons of sweetness

you will need:

for layer 1:

1/2 cup butter, softened

5 tablespoons cocoa

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup coconut

for layer 1~

combine butter, cocoa & sugar in a saucepan. slowly bring to a boil. Turn of heat & whisk in egg to thicken & add coconut.

using a spatula, press into the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan

 

Layer 2:

 

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons milk

1/4  teaspoon peppermint extract

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 drops green food coloring

Combine all ingredients in a bowl & using a mixer, mix until have bowl full of minty-greeness. Spread over first layer.

layer 3:

2/3 cup chocolate chips ( I used mint chocolate chips)

2 tablespoons butter.

Melt butter & chips in the microwave, then spread or drizzle over lay 2.

Chill 😉

 

Now I had me quite the time cutting these. I suppose if I ever remember to buy parchment paper,  lining the base of the dish first might make it easier. Either way, there were no complaints about these cookies….

they do need to be refrigerated, or they will freeze, so you need to keep that in mind, they aren’t your typical ‘cookie jar’ cookie ( like cookie jars stay full anyway..)

but they were yummy. Mabye next time I’ll serve some with some grasshopper fudge brownie sundae ice cream.

 

or something like that 😉

 

oh.. and I  finally did a little decorating….

 

 

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