Cook It. Blog It! has moved!

As with everything I start, I had all the best intentions when I founded the Cook It. Blog It! club back in June of this year. I planned on weekly updates, features, contests and what not. But typical me, I bit off more than I could chew (no pun intended... well, kinda!) I got a little busy with fabric design, market preps, post-Market stuff and family and just could not keep it up. Your requests to join the blogroll kept pouring in and I am truly sorry that I have not had the time to add the last few dozen on there.

So, I've enlisted the help of none other than our sponsor, Nikki of Gourmet Momma. Actually, I have more than enlisted her help. I've just plain handed it over to her... she will do a much better job at keeping this club updated than I ever could, believe me. And with her culinary background and kick-butt graphics experience, I just couldn't think of a better person to head up this endeavor!

So, without too much ado, I present to you the new & improved COOK IT. BLOG IT! (drumroll please!)



You can now send your requests over to Nikki and still browse the existing blogroll for lots of yummy recipes (we have about 100 members!!!) She even has a a way for you to grab the code for the sidebar logo... way to go, Nikki (I was never able to figure out how to do that! LOL!)

Oh, and don't forget to add your pictures to our Flickr group!! It is still the same group... I've just added Nikki as an admin.

I just cannot wait to browse your blogs for some yummy Holiday recipes... I'm finally in the mood to cook again! And speaking of cooking, I am totally obsessed with Peppermint Bark, anyone else?


I swiped this amazing photo from The Food Network. I've never made the stuff myself but I just got a bag of it this morning and it's nearly gone! I'm thinking I need to make some. So, is it as simple as it looks? Just melted white chocolate, crushed candy canes & peppermint extract? Or does anyone have a secret to make it extra special?



Ooooh, and check out this dark chocolate version I found on Simply Recipes. Again, not my photo, but I'm totally salivating here!!! Plus, this is one that Jon would actually enjoy, since he HATES white chocolate with a passion (weirdo!)


OK, has anyone had this version from Williams Sonoma with BOTH white and dark chocolate? It looks amazing! And I'm reading TONS of reviews from crazed fans out these saying it's the best thing since sliced bread! GOSH, here I go again, drooling on my keyboard.

Let me know if you have a fave peppermint bark recipe... the little bag I bought this morning is almost all gone!

Cook It. Blog It!
Homemade Vietnamese Spring/Summer Rolls
and Thai Tom Yum Shrimp Soup

I recently discovered this great little Asian store in town, called Shanghai Market. Jon and I are huge fans of all Asian food... Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and of course, Philippino (since Jon is half-Philippino). I spent nearly 1 hr. in there, even though it's just barely bigger than my own kitchen. The owners were delightful to talk to and offered so many words of advice on how to cook the various dishes I was inquiring about. The wife even offered to call me next time she attends an Asian Cooking class... YAY!

I walked away with the following items, plus some yummy fresh herbs & spices, to make 2 of my family's favorite dishes: Vietnamese Spring/Summer Rolls (a.k.a Goi Cuon) and Thai Tom Yum soup.



Vietnamese Summer Rolls
Ingredients:
Spring Roll Skins
Fresh Raw Shrimp (figure around 1.5 per roll)
Vermicelli (one small package)
Vietnamese Pork (comes pre-cooked in a roll)
Fresh Cilantro
Fresh Mint
Fresh Basil

To make your Vietnamese Spring/Summer Rolls the first thing to do is to soak your spring roll skins in warm water until they are softened. In the meantime you can shell & cook some fresh raw shrimp, boil your Vermicelli until soft, thinly slice the Vietnamese pork roll (it comes pre-cooked), and slice up your fresh cilantro, mint & basil.

When you are ready to start rolling your Summer Rolls, it is best to set up your ingredients in assembly-line style so you can move through them rather quickly, because if your skins start to dry up they will break up as you roll them.

In this picture you can see my assembly line... the cooked vermicelli on the bottom right, followed by the thinly sliced pork in the middle bowl, the shelled & deveined shrimp, and finally the fresh cilantro, mint & basil up at the top :



Lay your moist spring roll skin down on a clean flat surface and pile up your ingredients near one end of the skin, in the order show above. Begin to tightly roll the skin around the fillings. You may mess up a couple of times and break the skin, but that is OK... practice makes perfect. I wasted a couple before I figured out just how tightly to roll them without tearing them. The best way to do this is to roll it once just so the fillings are barely covered, then you fold in the sides and then continue rolling it until it is all encompassed.



Refrigerate rolls until ready to serve.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls are not fried. They are commonly served cold as an appetizer with a dipping sauce. For the dipping sauce I mixed equal parts of the ready-made Spring Roll sauce with some Fish Sauce and served the rolls 3 to a plate like this:



Thai Tom Yum Soup
ingredients:
Tom Yum Paste
Canned Straw Mushrooms
Fresh Raw Shrimp
Vermicelli (optional)
Fresh Cilantro
Fresh Lime

Bring 3 cups of water to boil and add 2 spoonfuls of Tom Yum Paste to create your savory broth. As the water is boiling add your raw, shelled & deveined shrimp. Continue boiling for 2 - 3 minutes until the shrimp are pink. Remove from stove and add the straw mushrooms and fresh cilantro to your soup.

Right before serving squeeze about a half fresh lime into the broth and garnish with more fresh cilantro. Voila! Savory Tom Yum Soup:



You can also add cooked vermicelli into this soup (like I did on ours) but the traditional Tom Yum does not have noodles.

If you want to create a milder version for the kiddos, mix your tom yum broth with about equal parts of chicken broth. If your kids (or you) cannot tolerate spicy foods at all, you can always make this with just the chicken broth and add the lime & herbs for flavor.

Enjoy!

The Visit
Part 3 of our 3-Day Weekend in St. Louis

After recovering from our numerous weekend festivities, on Sunday afternoon we headed off to the home of fellow Michael Miller designer, Laura Gunn. Laura was such a doll! We hit it off immediately. We spent a couple hours in her beautiful home, with her lovely family, eating yummy homemade desserts.

I got to take a peek at her new fabric collection, Lantern Bloom, which will be debuting this Fall as well. It is just as gorgeous as her paintings which decorate every inch of her home. We chatted about school, kids, travel, work and even computer games (yes, our husbands were there too!)

For all you Cook It. Blog It! fanatics out there, check out Laura's latest blog posting, where she has shared her recipe for the scrumptious, finger-lickin' good Peach Crisp she served us during our visit (I stole the below picture from her blog... just looking at it makes me drool!)


Thanks for everything, Laura! Can't wait to catch up again at Quilt Market.

I feel good

Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now
I feel good, I knew that I would, now
So good, so good...

OK, so what's with the James Brown reference? I just wanted to jump in here and proclaim to the world that ever since I've been working out regularly and eating better I feel like a million bucks! No more tired episodes for me.

So, what have I been doing, you ask? Well, aside from stretching, doing some light weights and running on the treadmill every day, I have cut sugars completely out of my diet and I can't believe what a change it's made! As I have mentioned before, cutting carbs was completely out of the question for me (I'm Hispanic. I'm pretty sure I'd be disowned!). But I've been satisfying my carbs craving by eating whole grain table crackers & such. I figured that's better than reaching for a half-baguette like I used to, right? eeek!



But back to the sugars, I knew this would be hard for me, being the sweets freak that I am, but something had to give and this was it! I read a few articles on the internet, like this one, to help me out with my choices. My first move was to stop drinking Coca-Cola altogether. I did this way back... probably 8 months or so (I think the last Coke I drank was around X-Mas time). Then I gave up coffee drinks... no more spontaneous trips to Starbucks for my Iced Mocha fix. That was really hard! I switched to drinking unsweetened, unflavored iced tea just to get my caffeine fix while I went through the painful withdrawals. But now, I don't even drink the tea anymore... I just drink water with lemon all day! :)

Next up was to give up desserts. I don't keep sweets in the house anymore... well except for the good kind: fruits! This is how the girls and I satisfy our sweet tooth. And let me tell ya that we don't even miss the ice cream sandwiches or Oreo cookies. A cup of mixed berries or a scrumptious fresh mango are just as satisfying!

So, I thought this would be a great segue to a Cook It. Blog It! segment. I'll share with you my typical meals. I went to the World Gourmet Foods and stocked up on some yummies: I found this "all natural whole grain crispbread" from Norway. They are like large crackers but chock-full of good stuff and they totally satisfy my craving for bread. I also got some Raw Natural Almond Butter (don't even get me started on how much better this is, in every way, than peanut butter!), and some organic Blueberry Honey. Don't you just love it when the ingredients panel only lists 1 thing? Almond Butter's ingredients: raw unblanched almonds. Blueberry Honey's ingredients: blueberry blossom honey. No preservatives, no added sugars or salts or oils. Just plain goodness.



So, for breakfast we've been eating a Kavli cracker, with about a teaspoon of Almond Butter and just barely drizzled with the Blueberry Honey (just for a dash of natural sweetness). I eat mine without the honey, but the girls like it with.



For lunch I got creative with some phillo dough cups. I filled them with albacore white tuna and topped them with fresh cubed tomatoes and a sprig of fresh cilantro. I mixed my tuna with just a dash of mustard and a dash of fat-free Italian dressing (no mayo!) Oh, and of course, I squeezed some fresh lemon on top.



I love this close-up:



The girls (and I) devoured them!



For our mid-afternoon snack we had a fresh mango... my favorite fruit. Sorry, we ate it all up before I remembered to take a picture. LOL!

And for dinner I kinda cheated a little but I figured I deserved to treat myself after being so good all day. I decided to try making this Tortilla Española (kinda like a Spanish Frittata) recipe that I found over on this blog from the Cook It. Blog It! blogroll. I used only Olive Oil, which is actually good for you (MUFA), so I didn't feel too guilty. ;)

Again, it was consumed before I remembered to take pictures, so I borrowed this photo off the Home & Cooking blog (mine looked exactly like this!):


OK, so switching gears a little (well, maybe a lot! LOL!) I just wanted to let you know that I listed 2 large lots of my Baby Gassy Gooma modeling samples last night. As some of you might know, Sydney has been a BGG model for the past 2 years, so from time to time I offer her modeling samples up for sale. Her contract is now over, so I won't be offering these anymore.

These lots are PRICED TO MOVE at waaaaay below wholesale value, so whether you are buying these for your little girl to wear or for resale, you will be getting an amazing deal!!

First off, we have a LARGE LOT of 8 pieces sized 2T from their adorable SPOT & KITTY Line (click the photo or HERE to visit the auction!)



Then we have another LARGE LOT of 8 pieces sized 3T from their beautiful YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS collection. (click the photo or HERE to visit the auction!)



Check out Baby Gassy Gooma's website at http://babygassygooma.com/id110.html for more information on these clothes or to double check retail values and availability!

I also have several items from their upcoming Fall/Winter 2008 Collections but I am not supposed to sell them on eBay until after they have hit the stores, so if anyone is interested please email me and we can "talk." ;) LOL!!

OK, so that is it for this lazy Tuesday afternoon! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that as part of my "I Feel Good" movement, I decided to refresh my blog graphics. I gave them a bit of a Fall/Winter twist, since it's been in the 70's outside here... a very welcome change. Ya like? I think I might mess with the sidebar graphics a bit but other than that, I like. ;)

P.S. Sorry for the super long post. I guess I'm feeling chatty today. Thanks for visiting!

Cook It. Blog It! for the health nuts

I haven't forgotten you guys! I promise. I still peruse your blogs from time to time in search of yummy recipes to tantalize my palate. My family thanks you too! :) So, since it's been a while since I featured you guys on here, I decided to do a healthy installment of Cook It. Blog It! I took a look around today for any low-fat, or low-carb or low-sugar recipes I could find out there, so there should be something on this list to appeal to anyone out there who is trying to lead a healthy lifestyle, no matter what diet plan you follow. ;) Very fitting right now, considering my own diet challenge. My sis' wedding is less than 2 weeks away so I need these more than ever!!!

BTW, did you know we have 52 members right now?! WHOA! Way to go, you guys!

OK, let's see what I found...

If you enjoy a vegetarian lifestyle, Patricia at OneBoyOneGirl Boutique has been cooking up some amazing Black Bean Burgers! She serves them with a side farfalle pasta and zucchini. YUM!

If a refreshing salad is your idea of the perfect warm weather meal, check out this delicious Summer Spinach Salad posted by Laura at Real Mom Kitchen. It has all of my favorite ingredients, so I think I might have to give this one a try. :)

And of course, I can't leave out this Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil salad I found on From Mommy's Kitchen. This is one of my all-time favorite salads and one I make A LOT at home since the whole family will eat it. When I make it at home I always add Balsamic Vinegar on top... it is the perfect combination of flavors, IMO. Will's Kitchen has another twist on this delicious salad, using feta cheese instead of mozzarella... LOVE IT!

If you need to add a bit of protein (and flavor) into your diet, try this Chicken Thighs Braised in White Wine recipe I found over on the Home & Cooking blog. I think what won me over was that picture with all the lemon slices on top of that savory chicken. Have I ever mentioned how much I *heart* lemon?!?! mmmm...



Of course, no matter what diet plan you are following, you can always find something that will fit your needs at The Gourmet Momma blog. Nikki gives you the full nutritional information for every meal she features, including the Weight Watcher points. How great is that? I especially salivated at the Greek Mahi-Mahi recipe she posted a few days ago. The "light & heatly" title got my attention immediately and once I read the ingredients I was SOLD! Of course... it's got both lemon juice AND lemon wedges. DUH! LOL! Check it out here.

And speaking of fish, I couldn't resist posting this amazing recipe for Roasted Salmon With Lemon Relish (don't let the title of the post deceive you) I found on Amii Rob's blog, Ramblings. You guys and your lemon! I am drooling all over my keyboard here!!

To satisfy that sweet tooth, I would recommend a refreshing -- and healthy! -- Strawberry Smoothie like this one I found on Huenu's Blog. Of course, I am a sucker for good photography so Huenu's blog always satisfies that craving for me. :)

And if you are trying to wean your kids (or yourself) off sugars, check out my friend Geeta's newly redesigned Pintuck blog (not like her old one needed any redesigning, IMO). She has shared her sugar-free pancakes tip with us. YUM!

I hope you guys have enjoyed these few features. Thanks to all of you for keeping the Cook It. Blog It! club going even though I've totally slacked off on it lately. I promise to share some recipes of my own soon. I just discovered a new favorite store in my hometown, World Gourmet Foods. I spent nearly an hour today in there and walked away with some amazing new things to play with at home. I'll share soon! :)

baby got back

My sister gets married in less than 4 weeks (August 23rd) and I am the maid of honor. I tried on the bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal and ordered it way back before I went to Quilt Market (sometime in May) and it fit perfectly (well, it was a little tight but I figured if I lost a couple of pounds before the wedding, it would look HOT!) The dress came in the day before we went to on our FL vay-cay. I just picked it up in a huge hurry, didn't try it on and just stuck it in the closet.

Well, you probably know where this is going... Two nights ago, when my mom & sister were here, I put on the dress... or should I say, tried to put on the dress... for my mom to see how cute (NOT!) I looked in it. I couldn't even zip it up!!! (sob). I looked at the tag to see if they had mistakenly given me the wrong size but nope, it was the size I ordered. So I pulled out the scale (I haven't stepped on this thing in weeks!) and I was a good 8-10 lbs. heavier than when I went to Market. (SOB!) What do I do??? I needed to lose 2 lbs. but instead I gained about 10! It is waaaay to late to get the thing exchanged (since they were special-order) and there is no way to alter it (I could take it in but there's no way to let it out!) WAAAAAAA!

On another note, I totally missed my 200th post. It was 2 posts ago, but I guess I was a bit pre-occupied. Oh well! Today is the first day of "back to normalcy" here in the MODKID household. The girls returned from FL last week and my mom stayed with us until yesterday, and in between then & now we've had a flurry of activities, including (but not limited to) a birthday party, a weekend trip to St. Louis, a bridal shower and a visit to the local water park. Oh, and of course, the modgreetings launch, which by the way, thanks so much for all the wonderful comments and your purchases. I have a couple of wholesale inquiries already, plus one more local store that wants to carry them, so that's great news! :)

My mom, my sister and my niece all left yesterday and now it's just the 4 of us... for the first time since, well, June! WOW! Sophie actually asked me last night "So, is it just gonna be us from now on?" heeeheee... KIDS! Gotta love them! :)

So, speaking of the bridal shower, I made these super cute personalized favor boxes for the attendees using one of my Andalucia designs, "Jester" in the Aqua colorway (which just happens to be her wedding color!)



I searched & searched the internet for a good favor box template (and I did download a couple) but they were all too small or just not shaped right, and I wanted to fill these to the brim with chocolates. So I made up my own template. It worked out perfectly. I even made a little sleeve for the Hershey mini's (hmmmm... in hindsight, I probably should have stayed off the Hershey minis and maybe I could still fit into my bridesmaid dress... sigh!)



So, anyway, I will be putting together a sweet little tutorial (with plenty of step-by-step pictures, of course) on how to make these. It will include a PDF download template for the box with or without the Jester pattern. Hope you guys are into that kind of stuff... we had the best time assembling these last week!

So, I will leave you now. If anyone has a great crash diet tip, please leave a comment. Hey, all you Cook It. Blog It! members... please send me links to any low-fat recipes you may have, or some sort of lose-12-pounds-in-4-weeks diet plan or something. I am allergic to exercise but I guess I can make an exception and maybe take some Claritin for this occasion. ;) I promised my sis I would run on the treadmill 1 hr. every night but I already broke my promise once. :(

HELP! I don't wanna be a naked bridesmaid!

What's new on Cook It. Blog It!

First and foremost, we have a sponsor!! WOOHOOO! The fabulous Nikki from The Gourmet Mama Blog emailed me last week right before I went on vacation to pitch this idea to me and I thought it was fantastic. I would have jumped on it right away if I wasn't jumping on a plane instead, but alas, here we are. Better late than never, eh?



Click on the banner above to be taken to The Gourmet Mama's blog where you can find many, many healthy recipes and lots of inspiration even for us novice cooks. What I love about Nikki's blog is that she not only gives you clear instructions about how to prepare these meals but she also gives you the nutritional information for each meal. AWESOME! And check out her sidebar for loads of useful information including Cooking Measurements Conversions and even how to calculate your Weight Watcher points... doubly AWESOME!

Thank you, Nikki, for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us and as if that wasn't enough she has offered to add you to her blogroll if you use one of her recipes and blog about it. YAY!

So, what's going on in Cook It. Blog It! land? Well, we have 30 participants as of now and that is so amazing to me considering I just started this a couple of weeks ago. You guys have been busy cooking while I've been away, so I spent a little time this morning perusing your blogs and found a few favorites.

Today I am featuring SWEETS because I am missing my girls big time and I know how much they love their sweets.

First of all, my friend Eva makes a triumphant return to blogland with none other than a Blueberry Muffin recipe that is to die for. I just want to lick the screen because her pictures are always so amazing. I am dying to make this but I will have to wait until the girls get home or else I will triple my weight in no time! LOL! Thanks for joining us, Eva!

Next, I want to share this wonderful Berry Gallette recipe posted by fellow blogger, Amii. This dessert looks incredibly complicated to make but I don't feel intimidated because she has given us step-by-step photos (LOVE YA FOR THAT!)... and I mean, there are like 200 photos on this blog post... see for yourself! LOL! I need that many photos, though. Like I've mentioned before, I am a visual person, so this is the only way you are gonna get me to try something. ;) I like visiting Amii's blog because she has amazing photography and awesome music. Thanks so much for making me salivate all over my keyboard, Amii.

I can't talk about sweets without throwing some libations in the mix. I luuuurve me some sweet refreshing fruity drinks in the hot Summer months!

My friend Ash, from in.full.bloom, has posted a yummynumptuous Strawberry Margarita recipe, as part of yet another triumphant blogland return. heee heee... I just love how this club is bringing people out of lurkdom! ;) She calls it Love Potion No. 9 ... oooooh, kinky. And it uses one of my favorite flavors... lime. :)

Also, check out Amii's tropical concoction using L&A's Pineapple Coconut juice. YUMMMM! Add a little spiced rum to that mixture and I'm all set. ;) I think I might just walk around with a cup of that stuff for the next couple of weeks. LOL!!!

So, what's my contribution to Cook It. Blog It! ??? Hmmm... not much right now. I haven't been cooking up much since the girls have been gone. I've mostly been trying to find ways to make water appetizing. Yep, you read right. I don't like to drink water. And yes, my mother, and my doctor and my doctor's mother and my mother's doctor have told me all my life how important it is to drink water, but that is not the issue. I know I need to drink water... I just don't like it.

So, Eva told me to try the "cucumbers in water" idea. I think they call it Spa Water ??? It was pretty good... for water. And, yes, I know there's a ton of cucumbers in there, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?

I did drink a couple of glasses of that stuff and it made it taste a little better but I think I enjoyed the Cucumber Sandwich I made even more. LOL! I just took the peel off the cucumbers, sliced them pretty thin, then put them on a couple slices of sourdough bread with some low-fat cream cheese. YUM!


I also tried putting some citrus in my water. I sliced some fresh lemons and limes and dumped them in. But I think I put so many in there, that it was almost a lemon-limeade. Oh well... I'm drinking water and that's what's important, right?!?!

Oh and as I was searching for some links on the internet, I found this recipe for Cucumber-Lemon Water...why didn't I think of that? ARGH! Oh well, tomorrow's another day. ;)

Am I the only weird one around here or do any of you have a water-drinking-problem?

Traveling, pampering & eating

Now, you know that if a post title contains all three of those words, Patty is a happy camper! U-huh! We are leaving for the sunshine state tomorrow morning for some much-needed R&R, but I had to squeeze in one last sewing project.

Speaking of Marimekko, lookie, lookie what I made...



It's a travel pillow & matching eye mask! Made with their gorgeous Unikko stretch twill fabric.



As much as I want to keep them, these are a thank you gift for my mom for volunteering to keep my kids with them for 2 whole weeks while I get some stuff done back at home.



So, mami, if you read this before I see you... just act surprised, K? :)

I'm thinking as soon as I get back, I need to make myself a set. If anyone wants one, just let me know. I have some more of this fabric and I also have a couple yards of the Marimekko raspberry Kivet dots. YUM!

So, on to the pampering. This afternoon, while the last load was in the washer, Sophie & I headed out to get manis & pedis. What a treat! And a wonderful girlie bonding time.



Sophie is so happy with her new pink toenails & fingernails. She can't stop staring at them. And I'm pleased with my travel toes too... hmmm... did I just coin a new term? LOL! I usually get French or a neutral/nude color before traveling, but today I opted for something more cheery and fun. This is OPI's California Raspberry. And Sophie chose Holy Pink Pagoda! :)



Oh, and in case you were wondering... nope, I did not alter these photos. Sophie has really big feet for a 6 year old and I have incredibly small feet for a 37 year old. ;)

And finally on to the eating... my favorite part! Am I the only one who purges her fridge before a long trip or do you all do this too? Every time I go out of town for longer than a couple of days I have to make sure that we either eat or give away anything fresh/perishable (fruit, veggies, milk, bread, etc.) because I can't stand the thought of it going to waste while we're gone.

Today I riffled through the fridge for all said foods and dinner was born. I took all of our cherry tomatoes, halved them, threw them in a bowl, then chopped up all of our fresh basil, then marinated both in balsamic vinegar, olive oil & garlic salt and served them on a bed of fresh spinach. That took care of pretty much all the veggies we had left.



Then I boiled 2 lbs. of fresh shrimp and just served them "as-is" (peel & eat style) with some cocktail sauce on the side.



We had a ton of fruit to take care of too, so I decided to make a citrus punch with the oranges, lemons & limes and then made a pseudo-fruit-salad with the bananas & blueberries. Dinner was tasty, fresh & healthy and now I don't feel guilty about leaving all that food behind to spoil while we're spoiling ourselves.

So this is it! We're off to the sunshine state for a few days. I will try to check in here & there but for the most part I will be vegging out on my parents' backyard hammock. I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day and weekend and I'll see you next week.

Monday Mumblings

It's Monday and guess what? I'm in a mumbling/rambling mood... who knew, eh? VACATION TIME IS FINALLY HERE!!! So, I don't even know how I am finding time to blog or blogsurf because I am crazy busy right now. We leave for St. Louis this afternoon, right after Jon gets home from work (around 5:30 pm or so) and I haven't even started packing. We are only going to be there a couple of days visiting Caty, Asja & Jason and then we head to FL for a week... YAY!

When we return next week, Jon and I will be kidless. And again I have mixed feelings about that. Sometimes I get excited thinking about all the projects that I will be able to complete without the endless interruptions, but then I find myself staring at the girls and getting teary eyed. The longest we've been apart from them is 4 days and now we are making a huge leap to 2 weeks! Will I survive? I know I will be hurting more than they will. They'll be going to the beach, the pool, the park, Disney, etc. Mami & Papi will spoil them rotten. I'll be cooped up at home cleaning, organizing, panting and working. Although I do plan to have some much-needed adult fun (maybe a girls' night out with my buddies and a few date nights with Jon?) :)

Anyway, that's what we're up to but other than that, I have officially started designing my next line of fabric and I am beyond thrilled! Yes, I know, I haven't even received my first strike-offs for Andalucia (although I hope to get them next week!) and I'm already working on my next one. LOL! It's a madness, I tell ya. I seriously cannot be happy unless I have a HUGE project hovering over my head. I tried relaxing the past couple of weeks. Going to the park. Sleeping. But I felt empty. Sad, even. As soon as I decided to start my new collection my mood improved and I felt healthier... I know it's all psychosomatic but hey, it sure beats moping around the house, and I'd say as far as vices are concerned this has got to be one of the healthiest. ;)

I am going completely out of my comfort zone for this line... trying some new things. I am always up for a challenge and this is definitely one. But I am still equally as excited about Andalucia and I even have some smaller side projects in the works to really showcase the designs and give you guys some options for owning coordinating pieces. I can't divulge much right now as it is still in the estimating part of the process but I think you will like them. I am leveraging my graphic designs skills and taking advantage of some special vendors I have gotten to know through the years while I worked as a Creative Director back in Orlando. Exciting stuff! :)






So, what's going on in the Cook It. Blog It! front? Oooooh, lots of yummy stuff, my dears! I perused the blogroll (20 & growing!) this morning and found a few new recipes to share.

Kristen has been making super yummy salads (picture on the left) with her produce delivery from her CSA share. I have to get into that CSA action! Just looking at those pictures of all her fresh veggies & herbs is making me salivate. Check her out!!

ChezMish has been at it again with her awesome Asian recipes. This time she shares with us her mixed tempura dish using seafood and veggies. YUM!

Amii made some hot potatoes on the grill. Her pictures rock! Check her out.


And last, but certainly not least, is this awesome "Cupcakes for Dinner" idea from Andre'a. This one is a definite MUST for me. So creative and fun... and whatever will make the kids actually eat, I'm game for! Thanks for sharing with us, Andre'a!

You girls have been busy out there! And I'll bet your families are lovin' ya! I hope to share a couple simple things of my own on Wednesday before we head down to FL, but only if time permits.

Have a great week, everyone!!!

PS... thanks so much for all the comforting comments regarding Sydney's new do. It's so crazy to see how common this occurrence is! WHOA! We took her to Cookie Cutters and they sorta fixed her up but not really. They were scared to cut off her bangs as short as the shortest ones cause it would have been like 1/2" from her scalp so they just cut the rest about 1" shorter than they were so it will catch up faster... she still looks pretty crazy but not as bad. LOL!

They also cut 5 inches off the back... WHOA! I do like the new length much better and I think she does too. I'll share new pics soon!

Asian Invasion on Cook It. Blog It!

I'm so ecstatic about the incredibly warm reception of Cook It. Blog it! We have 18 participants already (check them out!) in only 2 days of being up and I have spotted our logo all over blogland. YIPPEE!

This is especially exciting to me because it not only gives me new, creative mealtime ideas, but also gives me instant blogging topics even when I don't have anything cool of my own to share. LOL!

So, this morning, as I was perusing through the club members' blogs, I came across 2 recipes that I absolutely MUST try because they look amazingly delicious and also because my family is nuts about Asian food. We eat Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese every chance we get!

First of all, check out this amazing Sukiyaki recipe from new blogger, Michelle of Chez Mish. The dish looks complicated but she assures us that it's easy to make. It has all of my favorite ingredients so I think I might have to try it. Plus, Jon took one look at that picture on my screen and said "I want that for dinner!" Uh-oh! Thanks, Michelle, for sharing your amazing recipe and photos with us. I look forward to learning more from you.

Next, I came across this amazing tempura recipe, courtesy of Katarina from LikeFlowersAndButterflies. She said she combined Jamie Oliver's recipe with her own photos and since I am a total visual person, I was drawn to Katarina's awesome imagery... and salivating all over my keyboard... thanks, girl! She takes you step-by-step through the preparation of her tempura batter, even giving you little tips here & there. I love that because, as I mentioned above, I am a visual person and often times reading about how something is made doesn't actually register until I see it.

I will be featuring your recipes from the Cook It. Blog It! club hopefully every day (unless I'm on vacation or way too busy doing something fabric-design-related), so if you have something new up, please let me know so I can check it out and link to you. My family is gonna LOVE me this Summer thanks to all you guys and your awesome cooking skills! :)

Oh, and a special THANK YOU goes to Lisa of TheMommyDesigner and Pam of SewGracious for promoting our club on their awesome blogs. It was such a delightful surprise seeing our logo up there. Thanks so much, ladies!

If you'd like to participate in our Cook It. Blog It! club, please leave a comment with your URL after this post and I will get you added to the blogroll. Don't forget to grab the logo for your side bar, link to the blogroll so everyone can check you out and join our Flickr group (there's already lots of lovely photos to peruse on there).

Happy Cooking!

Cook It. Blog It! Key Lime Pie
by Patty Young























My family requested ceviche again, so I went to the store in search of regular limes (what they call Persian Limes) but they were fresh out and instead they had bags of Key Limes, so I figured what the heck, right? Well, I had so many of them leftover after making my ceviche and even a citrus punch that I will share on another installment of Cook It. Blog It! that I thought it was about time I learned to make one of our all-time favorite desserts: Key Lime Pie.



Key Lime Pie Recipe

What you need
Key Limes (lots of them!)
One 14-Ounce Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 Large Eggs (yolks only)
Pie Crust (I used a pre-made shortbread crust but generally people use graham cracker crusts, and you can certainly make your own crust if you are feeling extra crafty)



How to make it
The first thing you need to do is grate enough limes to make 2 teaspoons of lime zest. Believe me, it will be easier to grate them before you juice them! I grated about 10 of them to get this amount. Oh, and check out this nifty grater from IKEA. It comes with its own little storage container... lid & all. LOVE IT!



Next, you need 1/2 cup of fresh key lime juice. I squeezed 21 limes to get this amount! If you have a juicer, this will be a much easier, less painful and quicker task, but it took me about 20 minutes by hand.... eeek! Oh, and yes, in that picture, you can see that the pulp and seeds are still in the juice... don't worry, I strained the juice before adding it to the mixture (sometimes I do things out of order for no particular reason!)



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees now.
Next, you need to beat the 3 egg yolks until creamy. I did about 3 - 4 minutes on high. And then add the condensed milk and continue mixing on high for another 3 - 4 minutes. Finally, lower your speed and add the 1/2 cup of lime juice and the 2 teaspoons of lime peel (zest) and mix until even.

Pour mixture onto your pie crust and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.



While the pie was baking, I made some whipped topping with the leftover egg whites and some confectioners sugar. I guess it's more of a meringue, but since this is the kind of thing that needs to be eaten right away (and the pie needs to cool for a long time) I ended up pitching it.



Your key lime pie will need to cool on a rack and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving. If you try to slice it before it's completely chilled, you will end up with a gooey mess... believe me.

Finishing Touches:
I topped mine with a dollop of whipped cream and garnished it with a fresh raspberry for a bit of color pop. I also did a little plate decoration á la expensive French patisserie using this condensed milk in a squeeze bottle (no, I didn't buy this for this purpose... I always keep this at home!) :)

Enjoy! The pie was tart & delicious!



Note: If you are interested in joining our Cook It. Blog It! club, please leave a comment under this post with your blog's URL and I will get you added right away! Don't forget to snag the sidebar logo for your blog and if you Flickr we even have a nifty little group to join as well.