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The Perfect Mojito

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

I am often inspired by my travels to create dishes and drinks that replicate the flavors of some of my favorite vacations. If there is one drink that simply screams, “VACATION,” it is the Mojito.

I indulged in a poolside mojito this summer and it was a deliciously minty lime indulgence that I couldn’t wait to replicate. The price tag for this delicious poolside drink was a whopping eighteen dollars! The price tag on my version is a mere two or three in supplies per drink and will make you feel like you are on vacation…even when you are only in your own backyard.

The trick to creating a great mojito is all in using the freshest ingredients, selecting a great white rum, and taking the time to prepare a simple sugar syrup that you can have on hand for all of your drinks.  Having a few fun straws or paper umbrellas can up the wow-factor on this and will let your whole family know that you will be on vacation for the evening.

The Perfect Mojito
Recipe Type: Drink
Author: Amy Allen Clark
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 10 mins
Serves: 1
An overabundance of mint in the garden is the perfect excuse to make these perfect mojios!
Ingredients
  • 10 fresh mint leaves
  • 1 lime cut into wedges
  • 3 tablespoons of prepared simple syrup (see directions below)
  • 1 cup ice cubes
  • 2 ounces white rum
  • 1/2 cup club soda
Instructions
  1. Place mint leaves and 2 lime wedges into a sturdy glass jar.
  2. Use a muddler to crush the mint and lime to release the mint oils and lime juice. If you don’t have a muddler like me, just use the end of a wooden spoon.
  3. Add 2 more lime wedges and your prepared sugar syrup, and muddle again to release the lime juice. Do not strain the mixture.
  4. Fill the glass almost to the top with ice.
  5. Pour the rum over the ice, and fill the glass with carbonated water.
  6. Stir, taste, and add more prepared sugar syrup, if desired.

How to Prepare Your Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar
1 cup water

In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the peppermint extract. Cool to room temperature and store in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to three months. This same syrup is great with a little peppermint added for my infamous peppermint mochas.

 

Find this and many other fun recipes & ideas in the summer issue of Splendidly Homemade Magazine!

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Posted in Drinks | 6 Comments »

Ice Cream Sundae Bar Party

Monday, July 16th, 2012


This week you will find me over at the Snackpicks site sharing about a food that I am sure we are all passionate about…ice cream. Visit this article for tips and strategies for throwing your very own ice cream party. I am sharing everything from shortcuts to make the party process easier to creating your very own ice cream sundae topping bar.

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Posted in Celebrations, Desserts | 1 Comment »

Chocolate Almond Cake With Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Monday, July 9th, 2012

It has become a birthday tradition in our family to let the birthday girl or boy select their own cake from my modest cookbook collection. When my son spied this Chocolate Almond Cake, he begged for me to make it for his special day. I will be honest and say that Chocolate Almond Cake would have been last on my list of culinary delights at the age of ten, so it surprised me a lot he would select it. Chocolate Almond Cake seemed a rather sophisticated birthday cake choice, but it made me happy to hear that this was the special cake that he wanted and proud of his smart little palate.

Chocolate and almond do make the perfect pairing and the flavors are laced not only through the entire richly moist cake, but it is also throughout the delicate chocolate cream cheese frosting that it is topped with. This cake was a huge hit at our party especially among the chocolate lovers in the group. The cake itself is rich, but the lighter chocolate frosting really pulls the cake together.

I decided to make two of these cakes so we had enough cake for all of our guests and ended up using three of the layers (shown here) for a fuller cake for our family. The last layer that I made was tucked into the freezer for my son & his friends who are coming this week for a birthday get together.

I prefer to make my cakes in a two day process and the best part about this cake is that the flavors seem to meld better if they are allowed a day to set.  I went ahead and wrapped the cooled cake layers in plastic wrap and then covered them in foil.  When the cake is frozen it is much easier to decorate and I have a lot less crumbs to have to work around.  That little tip came courtesy of a Michael’s cake decorating course I took and has served me well over the years of making and decorating special occasion cakes.

I am looking forward to sharing more about his birthday party in the upcoming weeks and hope these ideas will offer some party planning inspiration for your family!

Chocolate Almond Cake With Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: The Cake Mix Doctor
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 package (18.25 ounces) devil’s food cake mix
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
  • 1 package (8 ounces) low-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon pure almond extract (for your frosting)
  • 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 9-inch cake round pans by generously greasing them with vegetable shortening and then dusting them with flour. Set your pans aside.
  2. Heat the chopped chocolate and water in a a saucepan over low heat until melted, stirring constantly. Set the pan aside to cool for ten minutes.
  3. Place the cake mix, buttermilk, oil, eggs, almond extract, and melted chocolate mixture in a large mixing bowl. Blend your cake mixture until thoroughly combined.
  4. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans, smoothing with a rubber spatula.
  5. Bake the cakes for 28-30 minutes.
  6. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for five minutes. Take cakes out of the pans and allow them to cool on the wire rack for thirty minutes.
  7. Place the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Blend well until combined.
  8. Add cocoa powder, almond extract, and confectioners’ sugar and blend until the frosting is fluffy.
  9. Frost your cake.
  10. Place the cake uncovered in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, approximately 20 minutes.
  11. Cover the cake with waxed paper and store in your refrigerator for up to one week.
  12. To freeze the cake, wrap it in aluminum foil, for up to six months.
  13. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.


Looking for other fun cake choices? Here are a few of our favorites!

Darn Good Chocolate Cake

Blueberry Muffin Cake

Barbie Cake

Classic Orange Chiffon Cake

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Warm Lemon Curd

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Posted in Celebrations, Desserts, Kid Eats | 7 Comments »

Summer Dinner Inspiration: Roasted Shrimp Pasta, Cinnamon Whole Wheat Waffles, & Grilled Chicken Tenders

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Looking for summer dinner inspiration? Look no further than these Monday posts for dinners that will inspire your kitchen table. This summer I am taking a few mobile pictures to help inspire your summer meals. I will try to share three great dishes to enjoy each week around the dinner table. 

We went on vacation last week so the dishes I am sharing all had to be easy and be able to be prepared with limited pots & pans to create them. The first dish that I created was to kick off our vacation and it is this Roasted Shrimp With Rosemary & Thyme. I served it over a platter of angel hair pasta and we did our favorite lemon roasted green beans for a side dish.

If you haven’t tried this roasted shrimp before, I cannot recommend it enough. These are great served over your favorite pasta, can be served with a great brown rice side, or served alone with your favorite summer veggies. I make this almost every week and it never disappoints!

One of our favorite summertime dishes is these Cracker Barrel Chicken Fingers. I served these with these roasted fingerling potatoes, roasted asparagus, and fresh strawberries from a cute little market in the town.

The tenders were particularly yummy since I created the marinade before we left for our trip and had the chicken marinating for a couple of days before we actually ate them. I also love that the marinade only has three ingredients, making it an easy marinade to pull together!

I have become a huge fan of those disposable containers for marinating foods because they are so easy to transport out to our grill and are easy to stack, especially if you are headed out for a picnic. It may also be because I have had  a few too many leaky bags in my fridge so I find these to be a great option for me!

I love to stick these, marinade and all, in the freezer and prep a few different marinades in one afternoon. Most marinades have similar base ingredients (dressings, olive oil, vinegars, salt, pepper, seasonings, Worcestershire sauce, etc..) and it is so much easier to do this all at once rather than getting them out each time. What a time saver!

I had berries leftover from our meal the night before and decided to dice them with blueberries to top our Cinnamon Wheat Waffles that we devoured for our brunch. I make a double batch of these almost every week and my son loves to eat the leftover frozen waffles for his breakfast each morning. I love that these are packed with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, no sugar, and very little fat in them. It is a great way to start a day and a fun summer brunch.

What is on your summer dinner menus this week?

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Posted in Main Dishes | 5 Comments »

Homemade Butterbeer Lattes

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

My son and I have been happily reading away at the Harry Potter books for a couple of years now. Although we have been reading the books, we have yet to dive into the movies and a recent dreary day seemed the perfect movie day excuse. To really round out the movie though, we wanted to try the infamous Butterbeer that Harry and his friends seem to enjoy so much in the books.

I had the kids help me in the kitchen to create these together. They loved helping with the scooping, measuring, and stirring. It only took a few minutes to create this easy and delicious afternoon treat.

The Butterbeer Lattes were absolutely out of this world and the kids said that they think they love this as much as our favorite homemade cocoa and chai tea recipe. These tasted a lot like butterscotch and a little bit like a cookie.

Want to create your own Butterbeer Latte. Snag the recipe over here!

Gain some summer inspiration on our Pinterest 100 days of summer (’12) edition where you can get another amazing round-up of 100 ideas to inspire your summer bucket list. 

This list has everything from making homemade butterbeer drinks for those Harry Potter enthusiasts, to making homemade shrinky dinks, to getting back to the basics with great dinner discussions with great family conversation starters.

There is something for everyone on here- boys and girls of all ages and craft levels. The best part is that they are ALL budget-friendly and will cost you very little in supplies.

If you are on Instagram, you can join in on the fun by taking pictures and sharing all of your summer adventures through there. Let’s use the hashtag #100summerdays. My username is momadvice and I am happy to have you follow our adventures and follow along with yours!  

By tagging your photos, it will make it easy to find each other in the group and share the projects we are tackling together. You can add the tags to your caption or you can add them as a comment later. In either scenario, the tag will pull it into our summer group.

Happy summer to each of you!

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Posted in Desserts, Drinks, Kid Eats | 5 Comments »

Summer Dinner Inspiration

Monday, June 18th, 2012

I love planning summer meals because they are so easy to execute. I am hoping to provide a few ideas for summer dinner inspiration from recipes we have available on our site. I believe though that if you have a grill and you have a slow cooker, you have all the tools you need in the world to get a great dinner on the table without a lot of effort in the summertime.

This summer I am taking a few mobile pictures to help inspire your summer meals. I will try to share three great dishes to enjoy each week around the dinner table. 

I love a good Sunday dinner and one of our family’s favorite dishes is roast chicken. There are a million ways to roast a chicken, but absolute favorite is this Roast Chicken Cooked in Milk. Once I found this recipe, I have never cooked my chicken any other way. It is a fun flavor combination of sage, cinnamon, lemon, and milk. The sauce is heavenly. I served this with crusty bread with dipping sauce (pesto with a generous drizzle of olive oil) and roasted fingerling potatoes.

The potatoes were cooked at 375 for 45 minutes. They were tossed with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and kosher salt. These were golden and crunchy. We dipped those in our pesto dipping sauce too.

There is pasta and there is summertime pasta. My Rotini with Turkey Meatballs is one of those deliciously light dishes that you just can’t stop eating. If you have cherry tomatoes and herbs in your garden, you have the makings for a really great sauce for this dish. We served it with the leftover bread from our meal and my favorite roasted green beans. To drink, I have become addicted to Tazo Passion Fruit Tea. I mixed this with some lemonade and it was so delicious and refreshing.

Breakfast for dinner is always a hit around our house. Thanks to using the Cooks Illustrated guide to freezing my blueberries last summer, I still enjoying the last of our fabulous blueberries for our dishes.

Nothing screams summer to me more than a pile of these blueberry pancakes. If you have some blueberries on hand in your house, I highly recommend visiting my list of eight great recipes to try with your blueberries this year.

 

 

 

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Posted in Main Dishes | 12 Comments »

DIY Salad Bar For Summer

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Healthy eating should always be a priority, but making it a priority in the summer seems to be more challenging because we seem to always be eating on the go. I decided to create an easy DIY salad bar that you can create on your grocery day and enjoy all week long. This DIY salad bar can be on hand in your fridge and I wanted to show off an easy way you can enjoy this DIY salad bar on the go too!

All of the supplies can be found at your local Walmart store. You will need a Freezer Storage Basket (found in the same aisle as the plastic containers in the housewares section of the store, $5.97), three Fresh Take Arm & Hammer 5 cup containers ($2.87), and 1 Sterlite Ultra Latch 12.5 cups container ($5.47).

Chop up your favorite salad ingredients and organize them in your containers like this. The largest container does not sit firmly flat, but it still wedges in there nicely so that you can place all of these neatly in this wire organizer.

Don’t you just love summer? I love having such fresh ingredients on hand to choose form and creating a salad bar couldn’t be easier with the fantastic selection we have of fresh fruits and vegetables. Pictured here are just a few of the basics I love in my salad. You could definitely fill your produce drawer up with a few other great salad add-ins!

Ingredients for a Great Salad Bar

Lettuce
Spinach
Kale
Egg
Tomato
Cucumber
Bell pepper
Sunflower Seeds
Croutons
Cheese
Mushrooms
Carrots
Corn Kernels
Onions (none for me please!)
Beans
Artichoke Hearts
Apples
Avocado
Broccoli
Shrimp
Steak
Homemade Dressings

One ingredient I always have on hand in the summer for quick summer salads and wraps is roasted chicken. I don’t keep a lot of fresh chicken around and prefer to buy the frozen chicken breasts instead. There is money to be saved in buying and preparing whole chickens, but my family only likes white meat  so for convenience sake (and to get them to eat it), we stick to the chicken breasts.

I buy the 3 pound bag of chicken  cook and slice all of the chicken for the week. The chicken is then ready to go to be made into wrap sandwiches, fast paninis, a protein addition to my salads for lunch, and it helps me save a step for our dinners for the week.

It is a matter of preference how you like to cook your chicken, but I will share my favorite way that I do weekly!

Roasted Chicken Breasts for Bulk Cooking

Preheat the oven for 375 degrees. Spread the frozen chicken breasts out over one or two cookie sheets. Drizzle a little olive oil over the chicken breasts and then sprinkle with kosher salt and fresh black pepper. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Allow the chicken to rest ten to fifteen minutes (to allow the juices to redistribute within the meat). Dice, slice, or shred for your recipes for the week.

Here is my beautiful salad bar on full display! Isn’t she pretty? It makes me really happy to have all of our fruit and vegetables chopped and ready to go for our week. It is something I vow to try to do regularly for our family so that we can, literally, enjoy the fruits of our labor all summer long.

Since we are a family on the go, I wanted to show you a fun way to enjoy your salads while you are out and about.

Over by the other food storage containers were these cute Salad Break Bowls. The set came with two complete sets and cost $3.97 total! I picked up this collapsible basket (in the same aisle) for $6.97. Inside I placed our outdoor blanket, salads, fresh cut fruit, and homemade iced tea for an afternoon picnic. I plan to use these a lot this summer and think it will be a great way to encourage healthy eating wherever we might be.

I am a part of the Walmart Moms program, and Walmart has provided me with compensation for these posts. My participation is voluntary and opinions are always my own.

 

I hope this inspires you to make healthy eating a family priority this summer and would love to hear what summer shortcuts you use to achieve healthy in the summer months in your house?

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Posted in DIY, Frugal, Main Dishes, Money & Finance, My Work, Organizing | 12 Comments »

Basic Vinaigrette for Salads

Monday, June 11th, 2012

If there is one thing I love to eat in the summers, it is a delicious fresh salad. Making homemade salad dressing is easier than you think and this basic vinaigrette is the recipe I rely upon for dressing all of my salads. The best part about making your own salad dressing is that you can control the quality of the ingredients that go into it and how much sodium is in your dressing.

I prepare all of my dressings in a mason jar that I keep in my pantry for my salad dressing. Just a quick measure of ingredients, putting the lid back on, and giving the jar a shake will yield a perfect dressing every single time. No need to mix it in a bowl with a whisk, the shaking helps pull the dressing together quickly and easily, with minimal effort.

How long your dressings will last depends simply upon the ingredients that are used in your dressing. This dressing has vinegar and oil in it as its main components. This dressing can last for up to three months easily. A dressing that incorporates mayonnaise (like my Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad) though will last, at most, just three days in your fridge. Since this dressing lasts forever, I always use this one as my go-to and switch it up with different vinegar choices to personalize it for my salads.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! Tomorrow I am sharing a great way to make salads part of your summer eating routine, that I think you will really love!

Basic Vinaigrette for Salads
Author: Amy Clark
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Once you know the secrets to making your own dressing, you will never buy the bottled stuff again!
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup good vinegar (you can use sherry, balsamic, red, or white wine vinegar)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more if needed
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Freshly ground black pepper & salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Add all of the ingredients to a mason jar.
  2. Shake, shake, shake
  3. Taste to adjust salt and add more oil or vinegar if needed.
  4. Store in the fridge
  5. Bring back to room temperature before using.

Want to make this for a salad for one? Combine 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon mustard, and 3 to 4 tablespoons oil.  Add pepper, then taste and add more vinegar, salt, or oil as necessary.

Adapted from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman (this is an affiliate link).

Have a favorite homemade recipe? Feel free to share your recipe or a link to one on your own blogs that you love to use on your summer salads?

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Splendidly Homemade: The Perfect Mojito

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

Today I am looking forward to sharing my recipe with you for the perfect mojito that I have created.  Splendidly Homemade Magazine is a beautifully designed magazine filled with great tutorials and pictures showcasing some amazing bloggers crafting and sharing their recipes for the perfect summer.

I had a blast contributing to their last issue with my Peppermint Cheesecakes in a Jar for the holiday season. When I was asked to create a fun summer drink, I knew the perfect drink to share with their readers. After all, what says summer more than sipping a mojito?

The inspiration for this issue happened to come from a trip to Miami I got to do in May with ALDI Supermarket. After working and networking throughout the day, I could not wait to plop into a chair and sip a mojito in the sunshine. When I received the tab for my first mojito of the afternoon, I almost fell over at the $18 bill. You can bet, I made the most of my drink and kept thinking how I couldn’t wait to replicate this drink on my frugal budget.

As soon as I got home, I set to creating the perfect mojito that you can enjoy right in your very own backyard. If you have a garden, these mojitos are the perfect way to use up some of your mint. It also happens to be the perfect summer drink to entertain with and cost pennies to create at home!

There is so much in this issue including how to dress your home up with Hampton style on a thrift store budget, how to create the perfect s’more push pop, make black raspberry chocolate chunk ice cream, and create a fun summer sewing project.

To view my recipe for the perfect mojito, head on over to take a peek at the latest issue of Splendidly Homemade! It is available for free online and a Kindle version of this is available for a mere, $.99 cents.  Give them a Like on Facebook and follow their latest news on Twitter.

 

 

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Posted in Drinks, My Work | 10 Comments »

The World’s Greatest Homemade Bubbles Recipe

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Three years ago I decided to make our family a batch of homemade bubbles after discovering how easy it was to make these at home. Our homemade bubbles, literally, attracted the neighbors due to their sheer volume and and staying power that they had. Ever since that day, making the first batch of bubbles just screams, “IT’S SUMMER!” to me.

The trick to creating the world’s greatest bubbles is the addition of a little glycerin to every batch. You can find the glycerin over by the first aid supplies or you can ask the pharmacist if they have a bottle of it behind the counter. It is a small bottle of liquid that helps give your bubbles real staying power. After reading up on the science of it, I discovered that glycerin added to the soap solution slows evaporation so the soap film stays intact longer. I can’t argue with the science behind it and neither will you after you make these.

This year we put our bubbles in an iced tea container that I found over in the summer housewares, to help make pouring and filling our bubbles easier. The very first day, my daughter refilled it forty-five times then tipped the entire thing over and dumped all the bubbles out. You have been warned. Pouring bubbles out of a dispenser like this allows for unlimited refills and that spout happens to be irresistible.

We made pipe cleaner bubble wands together and spelled out our name and phrases with wooden beads I found in the craft department. Such a simple idea, but endless possibilities for shapes and designs.

Our school ends on Thursday and we can’t wait to start sharing our summer with you! We are looking forward to our carefree summer days and sharing those with you through the blog.

Have you joined in on our 100 days of summer fun? I am still adding daily to our 2012 board ideas, inspiration, and even ways to craft out that summer list as a family.

If you are on Instagram, you can join in on the fun by taking pictures and sharing all of your summer adventures through there. Let’s use the hashtag #100summerdays. Unfortunately, the hashtag that sounds like the event has been taken by Yelp so this is the best I could do!  My username is momadvice and I am happy to have you follow our adventures and follow along with yours!  

By tagging your photos, it will make it easy to find each other in the group and share the projects we are tackling together. You can add the tags to your caption or you can add them as a comment later. In either scenario, the tag will pull it into our summer group.

Looking forward to spending the summer with you, friends!

 

The World’s Greatest Homemade Bubbles Recipe
Recipe Type: Kid’s Craft
Prep time: 3 mins
Total time: 3 mins
Serves: 1 busy toddler
Make a batch of what we like to call, “the world’s greatest bubbles.” You be the judge!
Ingredients
  • 1 gallon water
  • 2/3 cup dishwashing soap
  • 2-3 tbsp. glycerin
Instructions
  1. Mix all of the ingredients in a container.
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