Cooking Baking Eating

Holy crap, can you believe this heat? Here in the Pacific North West we are having one of the hottest heat waves in years. I guess this is the other half of the balancing act of the earth since we got snowed in with over two feet of snow this past winter. I just hope this winter is much more mild.

But what do you do when it is so blasted hot outside that you don’t even want to go near your kitchen? Ok, that’s almost a lie. I want to go near my kitchen. I want to be in it and bake cup cakes and get ready for my friends party, I want to bake bread, make soup, make veggie rolls! Alas, in this heat it is not even a sane consideration.

Though there is one thing I love having this time of year: salad. Its nice and cold, easy to prepare in a hot house.

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Whenever I think of ice cream lately, I want to run around the house singing a la Eddie Murphy’s Delirious. Especially since I have been on a ice cream kick lately, I’ve had that in my head.

The last batch I’ve made was my Mixed Berry. I like to use frozen berries because they have great flavor but at the same time you don’t have to worry about spending a whole bunch of money on fresh berries.

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I think my dog is bored with the same old treats every day. Who wouldn’t be bored eating the same things?

In actuality I think I just got bored and wanted to try something different. So what might dogs like? Bacon! I have a few other flavors planned such as blueberry, banana, cheese, and something else if I can think of it. Maybe carrot. I’m not sure if our dog likes carrots though.

But I now know for a fact that she likes the bacon ones.

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I truly believe that there only a few things that men need in life.

Women.

Beer.

And bacon.

And I’m really not quite sure about the order of that list either. Especially since I asked him if all he needs are boobs, beer and bacon. His answer was “You’re all I’ll ever need” and then gazed longingly at the bacon as it cooked in the pan and gave me a kiss on the shoulder.

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I love the grill. I love grilled food. Steaks, chicken, fish (when I wasn’t allergic to it), all sorts of meats and even sometimes the occasional grilled portabello. But there is one very strange and sad thing about it.

I’m afraid of the grill.

I think it stems from my parents gas BBQ. It had a lever to push and light it, but it was so loud that I was convinced that it would cause it to explode. I only had lit it a few times and each time I would shut my eyes and try to get as far away as I could from the grill and still push the lever. I always was afraid to blow myself up. It was pretty darn strange.

Now I leave the grilling up to the Husband and I stick with creating new marinades and different things for the grill. He can deal with the heat and exploding grill, I’ll hide in the house. (No it never has blown up, but that doesn’t stop me from being afraid still.)

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Sometimes when you’ve had a rough time of it, you just need a little inspiration to get yourself motivated to do something. Try something new. Just DO anything.

That’s happened to me this past week. I’ve been stressing out severely about getting my blood drawn for the first time in 8 years. Now to normal people this isn’t a big deal, but to a needle-phobic… It’s a huge and terrifying thing. Too many bad, bad experiences…

So while I was trying to get through the neurotic stress of waiting for the time to come where my schedule will allow for it, I found other ways to occupy myself.

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I love my friends. They do things like throw birthday parties for their dogs.

And then ask me if I would make the food.

This makes me incredibly excited. I’ve never actually done food for a party. The most I’ve done for a party is make salad. And not even a fun salad. Bagged salad opened into a bowl. Sad.

I’m not much of a party girl, but this could be really great. Part of me hopes that this goes well and could even make me want to start doing catering or something.

I think I just need a change from my current job, something that will let me do something I love. I love food.

I’ll post more about the party and the accompanying food as it comes closer and things get a little bit more concrete.

Ah summer.

I loathe the heat of summer. Why can’t it just be WARM and not BOILING outside? My poor fair skin needs to hide from the sun and avoid it unless wearing a strong SPF.

But the heat is also the BEST time to make the ice cream. Home made ice cream. Minty fresh ice cream with bits of lovely dark chocolate nestled through it.

Now THAT is summer.
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Thats right. Dark chocolate salted caramel cupcakes. Have you ever heard of anything that just makes your insides just start dancing, anticipating the sugar high that is about to ensue? This causes it.
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Its hotter than hell outside. Summer has definitely made her appearance this year and I just wasn’t ready for it. I’m not ready to take my pale skin outside into the scorching heat and risking a sunburn or heat stroke.

I’m being over dramatic about the heat stroke, but not about the sunburns. My skin will blind you if I go into the light.

But this incredibly hot weather is definitely good for one thing.

Ice cream! Its time for me to break out the machine again and start making my husband his favorite ice creams. I’m also wanting to start getting into the world of frozen yogurt. Now I just have to find the perfect recipe!