Foodie Friday

Happy Foodie Friday everyone!  I am so excited for this weekend because Im going to go see the Hunger Games!!!  Hopefully it wont be so crowded this weekend as it was last weekend, I really hate crowds.  So excited to get my popcorn on...I used to work at a movie theater but man I just can stop loving movie theater popcorn...no butter though that crap is like liquid grease.  I so excited to see Hunger Games I have heard nothing but great things about it, my best friend even said it was as epic as the last Harry Potter...well you cant really compare the 2 but Harry Potter 8 is always a good benchmark for greatness that movie was epic and I cant get enough of it.  Well my BFF loves Harry Potter as much as I do, in fact we saw the last movie together, so if she says its awesome than I totally believe her and cant wait to go see it.

And now for something completely different...I made this sorbet last weekend and thank goodness I did because it has been a life saver through my sore throat days.  Its so smooth and cool but has no dairy so its doesnt bother my stomach.  Oh and the best part its super scoopable so you dont have to defrost this any you can easily scoop from the container...see

It makes those perfect icecream scoops that I love but can usually never get because the icecream is too hard, I think the secret is actually the alcohol since alcohol never really freezes it keeps the icecream from solidifying...probably am going to add a dash of vodka to future icecream to see if that helps with the scoopable-ness (yeah I just made that word up, Im awesome like that).  So not only is this the perfect sorbet for a sore throat, its really an awesome spring/summer sorbet because its so cool and refreshing and doesnt make you feel like you ate a whole creamery when your done.  So what are you waiting for, go try this now!

Grape & Pink Champagne Sorbet

(A Le Delicieux recipe)

Servings: 2qt        Prep time: 5 min           Cook time: 10 min             Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 550g of black seedless grapes
• 1 cup of pink Champagne (or regular Champagne, I used the $4 bottle of extra dry white)
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

Place the grapes, pink Champagne and sugar in a saucepan over a medium low heat. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the skins of the grapes split.

Drain through a fine sieve into a large jug or bowl and use the back of a wooden spoon to press the grapes to release their juices. Extract as much from the grapes as you can. Cover the mixture and refrigerate until completely cold. I usually leave the mixture overnight. **I drained the grapes through a colander and used a mash potato masher to get all the juices out.  I let the pressed grapes sit for a while and drained them again to get all the juices, its ok if some skins get in there you'll just have to eat them in your sorbet :)

Remove the mixture from the refrigerator and add the lemon juice and pour into your ice cream maker and churn according to your manufacturers instructions. The longer you churn the sorbet the lighter in colour it will become.  I forgot to add the lemon juice until it was almost done but I think it just adds a little extra zip to it so its ok if you forget this part.

Notes

Once you have cooked the grapes you will notice the mixture is incredibly dark. Don’t worry because the sorbet will lighten when it is churned in the ice cream maker.

Really easy right?!  I think I was making dinner at the same time as I was making this so you can see how easy it was.  So go try it and let me know how it turns out for you!

Project Housewife Out!

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Fun in the Sun

I think I may be getting sick...but can you get sick from too much sun and mosquito bites?  I think I have about 20 mosquito bites yuck!  I love the weather right now but hate hate hate mosquitoes.  When I lived in Las Vegas that was the BEST thing about being there, hardly any bugs and especially no mosquitoes.  Those bugs were totally designed by satan himself, evil little creatures.  

In between swatting at mosquitoes and basking in the sun we (and I mean my husband) were able to get our yard looking like spring has sprung!  We planted an Orange tree that smells heavenly.  Did you know Orange trees have flowers, and those flowers smell an awful lot like jasmine?  I was so happy I had to get one, and BONUS...it will bear fruit one of these days!  So you cant really see it but the picture below is the Orange tree, its pretty small but dont worry it will get bigger!

 The best thing about spring is it tells you if a plant has lived through the drought and the winter.  My pecan tree was my biggest worry through the whole mess last year, and see above there is a green bud!  I have been watering it like crazy (see the water gator below, its a 10 gallon sack you fill with water and it drips out to water the tree), gave it miracle grow citrus tree food stakes and talk nice to it (totally works) and look its coming back!  I knew it loved me and wanted me to be happy :)

 Even the herbs are sprouting up, and we planted 2 tomato plants because they smell good too and you can always use some tomatoes around the house!  We also make salsa and home made pasta sauce so it will come in handy fo' sho'!

 See the basil!  It was the fastest to come up and there is a lot of it there...I cant wait for it to get more mature.

 Another big YAY from last year is my strawberry patch.  Its a little overgrown because Joe thought these were weeds, thank goodness i stopped him before he started yanking because I have strawberries growing!!  We planted these from little seedlings we got from walmart and I really only expected like 1/2 to survive, but all of them are flowering and have fruit growing.  Really surprised and happy about that!

 See this strawberry plant has some baby strawberries and the pretty flowers growing, so happy to have my own strawberries, they are so tasty.

 And who could forget the front of the house!  We planted 2 yellow rose bushes (yellow rose of Texas anyone?!) and white plant that I dont know what it is but hey it was pretty and a smller multi colored flower thing.  Yes thats the technical name, you can google it! (please dont its not really real I was just kidding!).

All in all I only had 5 plants die from the drought, 3 of which were $5 berry plants from walmart that I kinda thought would die anyway.  The other 2 were a tragedy because they were pretty and purple but I cant find them this spring so we replaced them with a bottle brush plant which I will share pictures of tomorrow.

Im so happy spring is here and even more happy that I can now sit under this beautiful umbrella more now that its a little warmer.  It was dusk and hard to get a great picture but the shape of this umbrella caught my eye and cherry on top the pattern is amazing.  It makes me do a happy dance whenever I see it open :)

Project Housewife Out!

Thankful Thursday

Good Morning everyone!  Today was so hard to get out of bed, I had no motivation to get going just too early today.  Blah.  But on the bright side its Thursday so that means we are over the hump and well on our way to the weekend!  This weekend and next weekend are going to busy weekends for me but filled with fun stuff!  Saturday we are going on a double date to Fogo de Chao, I LOVE that place, but I always eat too much so I have to be careful, all you can eat meat is very dangerous :)  I hope to share with you a recipe for their amazing cheesy bread soon...its so good I want to try and make it at home.  We also have a crawfish boil at our neighborhood and I'm super excited about this.  I have only been to one crawfish boil and it was a lot of fun so I cant wait to hang with the awesome neighbors and eat some crawfish!

(these are still alive, they look nasty but taste really good)

I also hope to get some more yard work done since its going to be a beautiful weekend.  We did do some work last weekend, which I'm going to share with you next week, but there is still more that needs to be done.  With all the rain we have been having its a great opportunity to plant.

(this is from a few years ago, but the bluebonnets are out and they make me so happy)

Which brings me to Thankful Thursday...today I am thankful for all the rain we have been having.  My grass was dead and crunchy, now its (mostly) green and lush.  My poor pitiful pecan tree was all but dead and my husband ready to pull it out of the ground, but now it has green buds sprouting all over it.  I did have a few causalities of the drought last summer (one of the worst in Texas history) but we bought some new plants to replace them with that will hopefully last through the summer.  Perfect timing in getting all the planting done also because we had some great rain on Tuesday.  While I hate being out and driving in the rain, I love what its doing to the landscape all around.  In the winter I miss the green and cant WAIT for it to come back in the spring.

Its also why Im posting all these bluebonnet pics, because without the rain you cant have awesome patches of bluebonnets, which is the Texas state flower by the way.  I love bluebonnets, I tried to plant some in our yard last year but they died because of the drought, but Im trying again this year.  I want to do a professional photo shoot in the bluebonnets one of these days, I just love those pictures and cant wait to have a great one of my little family.   Even Oreo loves being outside, you cant see how pretty green it is because its in black and white but its his happy face so its all good!

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!  Project Housewife Out!

Thankful Thursday

Happy Thursday everyone!!  What are you thankful for today?  This Thursday I am thankful for water...all kinds of water.  I pretty much only drink water all day every day (unless Im at a fast food place then Ill get a soda) because its zero calories, refreshing, and readily available.  I love water because it recharges me after a workout, hydrates me, and cools me down.  I also love water as rain because it keeps my grass and plants hydrated and growing.  I cant wait for spring to be here for the colorful flowers and green grass, without water it would be all sad ugly brown.  Water also boils my pasta, and lets be honest, as an Italian girl I cant live without some pasta!  I dont make it by hand, who has that kind of time, but I do use water to boil my pasta.  I love water for making me clean while taking a shower or for soothing my aching muscles in my bath.  Water is great, and a simple thing I am very thankful for today.  Its something you dont really realize how much you appreciate it until you dont have it.  Man take away my water cooler and I realize how much I miss it!!

And because I cant be thankful without sharing a picture of my Oreo, here he is, at the dog park where he had a blast smelling anything and everything!  Such a pretty puppy!!

Project Housewife Out!