Sangria

Ingredients:
1 bottle dry red wine (750 ml is standard bottle size) (I used a cheap red table wine)
2 c gingerale
1 c orange juice
1/2 c brandy (you can use cheapo stuff for this recipe)
1/2 c cointreau (triple sec is also fine, I just had cointreau on hand)
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
2 limes, sliced
1 big, glass pitcher (so you can see the pretty citrus slices!)

The sliced citrus fruit is mainly for decoration - just slice it with the skin on (make sure to wash first and peel off any stickers), throw away the very ends, and toss all those pretty cross-sections into your pitcher.
Add the rest of the liquid ingredients.
Stir well.
Pop it in the fridge, and serve it cold! Over ice or straight.
One tip: I know from puting whole citrus fruit into tea that you don't want to make it way ahead of time, or the skin on the fruit will end up making the whole thing taste bitter. It takes a while for this to happen, so it will still taste great for your whole party, but if you want to make it ahead of time just don't add the fruit until the end. Better to refrigerate all the ingredients separately and then throw it together right before you serve it. It won't last long, trust me. This stuff goes down WAY too easy.

I've loved Sangria for a year or so, and was reminded how easy it would be to make myself when I went to my cousin's baby shower. Her mother-in-law makes some REALLY delicious sangria. I may or may not have had two full cups, in those BIG plastic party cups. YUM.

I was having a little gathering recently and decided to make it for myself, so I looked at a few recipes for it on allrecipes.com, and just kind of cobbled together what sounded good to me. I decided to go with all citrus and no apples or strawberries etc. just for the look of it, but other recipes call for additional fruit as well. I did NOT use simple syrup or sugar (I know the baby shower sangria had simple syrup in it) because I like the dry red wine still discernable, plus I figured there was plenty of sweetness already being added from the liquor, OJ, and gingerale. I was right. So I say NO to adding additional sugar!

I still want to get a hold of my cousin's mother-in-law's recipe, which I believe was simpler, but this was DELISH and I would make it again in a heartbeat. It was a really big hit at the party too - even the two pregnant ladies each had to try a teensy sip!

Was the recipe easy to follow? Heck yes! You just measure, pour, and stir.

Did it taste good? Way too good for my own good! Luckily at this party I was playing the hostess, so I only ended up having one small-ish glass because I wanted everyone else to be able to enjoy it! Next time I'll buy a double bottle of wine and make twice as much.

Would I make it again? I think I've answered this question already, don't you? I might even make it again tonight, all for myself.

Lemon Cornmeal Cake

I don't have my own picture to post because we've already eaten it all up. So yummy!

My new favorite thing is lemon and lime desserts. They're so refreshing! I love a few bites of a rich, chocolate dessert, but it doesn't have the staying power of a tart, sweet, citrucy lemon cake.

This was so easy and pretty, I highly recommend it for your next brunch. I used the leftover crushed blueberry sauce in my oatmeal all this week, too.

Without further ado, I give you Lemon Cornmeal Cake!

I followed the recipe exactly (one exception: I had white cornmeal, not yellow, but it's the same thing, and the barely-yellow color in the resulting cake was so pretty that I'd even recommend white cornmeal if you have it!), although next time I would use less sugar all around, and I'd make less glaze and thin it out more with additional lemon juice.

I recommend juicing an entire two lemons into a bowl, after zesting them both to get the full tablespoon of zest you need for the cake, plus some more for the sauce. Then whatever juice you have leftover from the cake and glaze (I used more than it called for already, and would use even more next time with less sugar for a thinner glaze), just dump the rest into the blueberries and cook it until you have the consistency you want.

The blueberry sauce does great in the fridge for a week, and probably more, but here's betting it won't last that long! Using brown sugar with the blueberries is inspired. And the dark purple texture of the blueberry sauce against the barely-yellow cake and white glaze is so pretty! But not quite too pretty to eat. YUM!

Salmon & Rice Casserole

Tonight I was in charge of dinner, and I was in the mood for rice.  We also had a can of salmon in the cupboard, so I typed in both ingredients and came up with this. I thought that sounded a little boring, so I planned to add some dill and lemon juice, and then when I got home and peeked in the cupboard for the salmon, I spotted a can of 98% fat free cream of celery soup, so I grabbed it. Here's what I ended up with:

1 cup uncooked rice
1 can salmon
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can skim milk (using the empty soup can)
juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs
pepper, dill, and parmesan cheese (1/8 or 1/4 cup at the most) to taste

Cook the rice according to package directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Grease a small casserole dish (or use a non-stick dish like the cool ones my aunt got for me)

While rice cooks, mix soup, milk (measured using soup can), eggs (slightly beaten), and lemon juice, and mix well. Add seasoning to taste. I didn't add any salt at all because the soup and the salmon were both already quite salty, and I didn't regret it - the dish was just right in the salt department, so unless you have low sodium everything else, I would highly recommend NOT adding any additional salt. I thought I had used a lot of pepper, but I would have liked even more. I could have left out the parmesan cheese and probably would have been just as happy with it, but it was good. I used a lot of dried dill, and I'm not sure if it made a difference or not, but dill goes very well with salmon so I wouldn't leave it out.

Once rice is cooked, spread 1/3 of the rice on the bottom of the casserole. Follow with a layer of 1/2 of the salmon, then another 1/3 of the rice, the rest of the salmon, and top with the remaining rice. Pour the soup/milk/egg/lemon juice mix over the whole thing, letting it soak in. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese if desired.

Bake uncovered at 300 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until it's all set and the top has started to brown nicely. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This would be really great with a simple mixed green salad, or broccoli, or green beans. It was quite yummy! Also, you could leave out the parmesan cheese and use an egg substitute to easily make this low-fat and still just as delish. As it was, I don't think it was too fatty, just enough to make a good, hearty, satisfying dinner.

So I think this blog will mainly be food and not so much books, and I'm sure it will only be very occasional. Also, I'm far too lazy to take pictures, so I doubt you'll get many - you'll just have to imagine. But this evening I actually made something new, and it came out well, and I thought I would share! If you ever try it, let me know how it works out.

Happy eating!