BBQ Deviled eggs with Bacon.

When I was a young child my Mom only made deviled eggs on Easter Sunday. Well this tradition has come and gone since my mother passed away. For a while we had Easter holidays with family. However, it just is not the same with my Mother being gone. So my hubby and I have created our own traditions. We take Miss J to the annual Eater Egg Hunt at The Disneyland Hotel and they do not hide hard boiled eggs. With Easter being tomorow, I thought it was time to recreate the deviled egg my way.

When I was a kid my Mom added mayonnaise, curry powder and a dash of dry mustard. I wanted a bolder and more unusual flavor so here is my creation of BBQ Deviled eggs with a dash of Bacon.

BBQ Deviled eggs with Bacon Ingredients.
6 eggs Hard boiled
2 Tablespoons Brown Mustard
3 slices of Bacon Crumbled
2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Hickory Smoked BBQ Sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika for garnish (optional)

Tip of the Day: Making Hard boiled eggs is not a science experiment:)  Here's my quick and easy way to get the perfect hard boiled egg. Take eggs place in Sauce Pan cover with cold water. Bring to a boil then shut off! Let sit in water on stove for 20 minutes. 

Remove all egg shells

Chop bacon

Slice in half horizontal

Remove yolks

Add mustard, Mayonnaise, BBQ Sauce, Salt and Pepper and mix together.

Place in yolk mixture  in Eggs and sprinkle with Paprika

Enjoy-

Sheila Fretz

Strawberry Raspberry Spiked Lemonade

So the other day I noticed a big box at my front door and what had been delivered to me was a great big box of a variety of the new Seagram Wine Coolers. So I quickly placed them in the refrigerator and a couple days had passed and I noticed these after a hard days work and that's when I started to create. I like this idea of only having half of the wine cooler and stretching it out because its not as many calories this way.

Strawberry Raspberry Spiked Lemonade Ingredients
4 ounces Strawberry Lemonade
4 ounces Seagram Raspberry Wine Coolers
4 ounces of Ice
Strawberries optional  for decoration

 Poor 4 ounces of Strawberry Lemonade in to a Glass half full of ice.

 Poor 4 ounces of Seagram Raspberry Wine Coolers

Stir and serve, makes 1 cocktail.

Enjoy


Sheila Fretz

Blueberry Banana Bread made with Home Made Oat Flour

 Since trying a variety of  products that are gluten free and sold in super markets  I have been inspired more to bake cookies, breads and all sorts of goodies. However, as I explained to you in my last post It is very expensive to bake and or buy Gluten Free Products . After having such a great success with the Oat flour I decided to  make you a great new recipe.

Now on to my Recipe for Blueberry Banana Bread made with Home Made Oat Flour.

Makes 2 large Loafs and 2 small loaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Blueberry Banana Bread made with Home Made Oat Flour Ingredients
8 Bananas the older the better
2 ½ cups of Granulated Sugar
1/2  pound melted butter
4 eggs
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup all purpose gluten free  flour
3 cups oat flour.
2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
Cooking spray

EquipmentCoffee Grinder
Measuring cups
2 large loaf pans.+2 small pans

Beat bananas and sugar at high speed for 3 minutes until turns into liquid.

Add eggs and vanilla and melted butter and beat again.

Last add Baking Soda, Baking powder, GF Flour and Oat Flour

Spray cooking pans with cooking spray.

Poor batter in Pan 3/4 full.

Sprinkle the top with Blueberries frozen or Fresh

Bake in oven at 350 for 1 hour.


Enjoy and Bon Appetite


Sheila Fretz

Santa Barbara Inn

The Santa Barabara Inn

The other week I had the privilege of staying at the Santa Barbara Inn while on business. There are many reasons why I picked this fabulous place to stay. The Rooms are spacious.  The views are spectacular and the serenity of this beautiful inn. The santa Barbara Inn is located at 901 East Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara, CA and is situated right across from the beach. I had an Ocean View Room with a view of the pool also. It was a beautiful room with complimentary wireless internet access and it was a great place to stay the night.

The Santa Barbara Inn has spacious hotel guest rooms and suites each feature a private balcony or patio, including some with an ocean view, and all the comforts of home in Santa Barbara, CA.
They have high quality linens, including 500-thread count sheets, down comforters and down pillows assure you of a comfortable night’s sleep. Each guest room includes a 42-inch LG flat screen television, mini-refrigerator, hair dryer, iron and ironing board, complimentary bottled water and luxurious terry robes. All Standard and Deluxe Ocean View Guest Rooms feature either queen-queen or king beds.

The best part of my stay at the Santa Barbara Inn was the complimentary continental breakfast, me being a true foodie.  It’s all about  the many gluten free options. Such as a variety of gluten free cereals, fresh fruit, yogurt. There was also a separate table that had various pastries and bread that were not gluten free, but as I said before, it was a separate table for those who were not gluten free.

I understand they also have a restaurant on the third floor which I did not have the pleasure to eat at however, and I have heard many great things about this restaurant. Many of my friends and readers have written me and told me that this restaurant has fabulous gluten free options and I really need to try it. Because, I was only there one night and my co worker had made other dinner arrangement at The Wine Cask in Santa Barbara we were unable to visit The Santa Barbara Inn’s restaurant.

Well the next time you go to Santa Barbara if your looking for a place to stay that will cater to your families Gluten Free Lifestyle my suggestion is, that you stay here at the santa barbara Inn. The rooms start at $179.00 per night and go up from there. However, it is well worth the price.

Kahlua Coffee Corned Beef with an hint of Mango honey and Tamari with Roasted Vegetables

So as you know I just had my annual St. Patrick's day party which was a huge hit we had a variety of different Irish dishes. Including Irish Soda Bread, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Root Vegetables, and my signature cocktail of the evening The Irish Sparkler, which I posted in my last post plus for dessert we had the yummy Deep Dish Pear Pie with a Almond Cookie crust a drizzle of caramel and some vanilla  cream..  It was so much fun and the food and company was fabulous as usual.

So as promised I am going to share my recipe for Kahlua Coffee Corned Beef with an hint of Mango honey and Tamari this is a quick to assemble recipe however you cook it low and slow so either cook at while out and about or while you are sleeping because the smell alone is intoxicating. I gad quite the crowd so I figured a pound a person. We made 20 lbs of Corned beef a baked at 250 for 7 hours so yummy and tasty.

Kahlua Coffee Corned Beef with an hint of Mango honey and Tamari Ingredients:
Corned Beef
Seasonings from Corned Beef
2 cups of coffee
1 cup of Kahlua
1 cup of Mango Honey
1/4 cup Tamari Sauce
2 cups of water

Roasted Vegetables Ingredients:
Carrots and potatoes
1/2 cup Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Equipment
1 Dutch oven with a lid
1 rack to elevate meat I used my cookie drying rack

1 Cookie for Roasted Vegetables
1 Spatula

Take meat and let sit out until room temperature. could take up to 2 hours.

Next Mix Kahlua Bath in a large measuring cup add Kahlua, Coffee, Honey, and Tamari and whisk together.

 Poor Kahlua Bath over meat.

Now take the seasoning packet and sprinkle over meat. Then add 2 cups of water to bath but dont poor over meat.

Cover meat and cook for 7 hours at 250 degrees.

 About an hour before dinner clean root vegetable and cut potatoes into cubes and toss in oil salt and pepper cook at 350 degrees in separate oven  turning every 15 minutes

 until golden like this.

Serve with Corned Beef.

Enjoy,


Sheila Fretz

The Irish Sparkler at My St. Patrick's party

So as at lot of you know I had my annual St. Patrick's Dinner party. 

It was so much fun and we had a variety of Irish foods and desserts from Corned Beef  slow roasted in a steam bath of Kahlua, Coffee and Mango Honey with a touch of Tamari which I will post on Friday. Then we had Irish soda bread roasted vegetables .

I set my table with my St. Patrick's day theme with the Gold and the Shamrocks.

Then for Desert we had a Deep Dish Pear pie with a Almond Cookie Crust it was amazing. 

Last but not least we started off the evening with a signature cocktail which I created  served .

 The Irish Sparkler Ingredients
1/2 cup of Seagram's Lemon lime Melon wine cooler
1 cup sour apple schnapps
2 cups of Prosecco Sparkling Wine.

In a large pitcher poor Wine cooler, apple Schnapps,  and Prosdecco gently stir and serve in a champange glass.










Enjoy  and I hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day just like we did.

Sheila Fretz-

St. Joseph's day on a Meatless Monday Lemon Asparagus tomato Pasta

With St. Joseph’s day today and it being meatless Monday also. I thought I would share with you a recipe for St. Joseph’s day and a meatless one and here are some other St. Joseph's Day recipes if you don't want a meatless one. I love to create recipes that are using what ever you have in the refrigerator. I have had many a meal that I have gotten home from work and both husband and daughter are very hungry and its Monday night and my farmers market is not until Tuesday night. So by then the vegetables are not as fresh as I will by tomorrow. So I looked in my refrigerator and I had a basket of organic cherry tomatoes a half of bunch of asparagus a lemon and some Parmesan cheese. So with two hungry bodies I started to boil my water for the pasta.

Lemon Asparagus Tomato Pasta
2 Cups of Cherry or Grape Tomatoes.
20 stalks of Asparagus
1/4 cup Olive oil
1 lemon for juice
2 cups of Parmesan Cheese shredded
Salt and Pepper to taste
Garlic
Gluten Free Pasta


Boil Pasta in water with a couple cloves of garlic..

Tip of Day: In order to have a great Gluten Free Pasta here’s my secret, I either flavor water with salt or a bullion cube and if I want that extra garlic flavor I will boil a couple of cloves of garlic.
The best way to make gluten free pasta is to boil water first add pasta and flavoring then constantly stir for 7 minutes so it does not stick together. Then let it sit in water with no heat for 3 minutes. Then rinse thoroughly in hot water so pasta gets the starch off of it. Gluten free pasta is a little bit soupy when you cook this way but once you rinse you will see the difference.

Chop Asparagus in 2 to 3 inch strips. On a large Cookie sheet place Asparagus and Tomato

After pasta is cooked add the juice of a lemon.

Next add vegetables

Then Cheese toss and serve.



Enjoy and Bon Appetit-


Sheila Fretz