Cajun Potatoes

The past week has just been so busy, but packed with lots of festivities!  With Valentine's Day and all of the beautiful flowers and cute crafts, Mardi Gras was kind of lost in the mix.  So I just wanted to take a day, and revisit this year's Fat Tuesday celebration!

Of course we had another family dinner,  a smaller one, but still a get together that gave us a chance to sit down, relax and enjoy the day.  We went for a somewhat southern menu, since we were on a short timetable, we settled for BBQ sandwiches, coleslaw, cornbread, cajun potatoes and hushpuppies!  I tried a new recipe with the potatoes, and while they were still crispy and delicious, if I'd had a little more time they might have looked at little better!

After all the food was on the table and place settings were made, everyone took their place at the table, even Einstein had his own chair and behaved so well I could barely stand how cute he was.  He wasn't even interested in the food (he doesn't like BBQ after he tried a bite), he just wanted to be part of the family!  He even looked at whoever was talking like he was paying the upmost attention!

Here's the recipe I used for the Cajun Potatoes and my how-to photos below, if you were interested in trying it too!  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Crispy Cajun Potato Wedges:

Prep: 15 mins                 Bake: 45 mins                      Yeilds: 2 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 4-1/2 teaspoons ranch salad dressing mix
• 3/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, divided
• 3/4 cup crushed cornflakes
• 2 medium russet potatoes

Directions

• In a shallow bowl, combine the milk, mayonnaise, dressing mix and 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning. In another shallow bowl, combine cornflakes and remaining Cajun seasoning. Cut each potato into eight wedges; dip in mayonnaise mixture, then coat with crumbs.
• Arrange in a single layer in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 45-50 minutes or until tender and lightly browned, turning once. Yield: 2 servings.
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15

Fancy Drinks #2

Valentine's Lemonade

Mocktail:

2 parts raspberry lemonade (or regular pink lemonade)

1 part cranberry juice

add a little grenadine for sweetening

and a strawberry on top for garnish  

option: add a sugar rim to make it even fancier!

Cocktail:

2 parts raspberry lemonade (or regular pink lemonade)

1 part cranberry juice

1 part champagne (or white wine if you prefer)

add a little grenadine

and a strawberry on top

plus a sugar rim

I love how festive a deep pink drink with a little sparkling sugar can be this time of year!  This sweet, fruity cocktail is perfect for any Valentine's occasion!  I must say, that while the color pink and anything heart-shaped isn't really my thing, the grocery store sugar cookies at Valentine's day are my weakness!  I've probably been through three boxes, single-handedly, since they first arrived on display in January!  Happy Valentine's Day everyone and I hope these Valentine's Lemonades can make your holiday a little sweeter, sweetheart or not!

Behind the Scenes:   A little love note from Einstein!

Fancy Drinks

This year I've been looking forward to starting something new here at Thirsty World, but with work, snow, and other events, it's taken me a few weeks to get it started!  But now I'm pleased to introduce Cocktails & Mocktails, which will be a monthly post presenting a fancy and festive, seasonal drink for you to try out!  

I also hope you can enjoy some of the other small changes I've made to Thirsty World, including a new pages sidebar and BRAND NEW buttons, which you can find on the Sponsors & Buttons page!  I have several more new things to add to my lovely corner of the web and am excited to share them with you soon!

I'm certainly not a bartender, but since I was younger, I've been mixing different drinks to see what they would taste like together.  This fascination may have all began with the Witch Doctor, a hometown favorite that consists of several different sodas, cherry flavoring and three round pickle slices.  Yes, I know, it sounds slightly disturbing, but I can promise you it's tastes amazing (given you like pickles)!  In eighth grade, my old friend Lyndsey and I, of course at a sleep over, stayed up past midnight (it was eighth grade, so that way past our bedtime) and made concoctions of cranberry juice, sparkling fruit juice and cherry seven up (when that first arrived on grocery store shelves).  We even put it into pretty glasses and took pictures of our homemade mocktail!  We were so proud!  Ever since then, I've been mixing drinks from soda machines, adding fruit to beverages and gladly making holiday punches! So now I've decided to share some of my favorite experiments with you!  And as always, I can't wait to hear what you think!

So without further ado, I give you 

The Byzantium Grape!

Mocktail:

1 part grape juice

1 part pomegranate juice

add a little club soda for some bubbles

and throw in a few blackberries for garnish  

Cocktail:

1 part grape juice

1 part pomegranate juice

1 part red wine (I prefer burgundy)

and still adding in a few blackberries for garnish  

I love this as a winter choice because it's a little heavier than other citrus options and a little wine will deepen the grape juice and warm the whole drink.  The sweet grape juice with a hint of bitterness from the pomegranate and blackberries adds just a little contrast to make this simple drink a little more festive!  So keep warm this January and enjoy The Byzantium Grape!

Christmas Cupcakes

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  As this Christmas season comes to a close, it brings a time when all the presents are wrapped and the bows are tied and we can simply relax with our family and enjoy the holiday!

If anyone else has a baking tradition in their family, here's a festive dessert to try!  During the winter, my vice has always been candy canes, I eat them throughout the day and put them in hot chocolate at night!  Cupcakes are such a classic dessert, but I love them because there are endless ways to decorate them, and I really wanted to incorporate them into my cupcakes, so I added red food coloring to the white cake batter to give the inside a marbled candy cane effect, and I hand-crushed miniature candy canes into various sizes to use as sprinkles on top!

They turned out so pretty and were perfect for the holiday week with family and friends!  I hope you're having a relaxing day and are with the people you love the most!  Merry Christmas!

Cranberries and Turkey

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving filled with family, fun, and a bit of relaxation!  In the spirit of the festivities, here's a bit of my Thanksgiving celebrations!  There's only three of us, so we enjoy spending the weekend together, watching movies, telling stories and playing with our animals.  My Dad's favorite part of the feast is always the cranberry sauce, and with the holiday season just beginning here's a recipe to share, from my family to all of yours!

Mom's Cranberry Sauce

1 cup Apple Juice

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1 package (12oz) Frozen Cranberries

2 Granny Smith Apples (cored and coarsely chopped)

1/2 cup Golden Raisins

2 tbs. Crystallized Ginger, chopped

1/2 tsp. Allspice

In saucepan over medium-high heat, bring apple juice and sugar to a boil.  Add cranberries; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until berries pop.  Stir in remaining ingredients; cook 5 minutes or until apples are tender.  Chill and Enjoy!

Gourmet Girl's Night

          Girl's nights with Jenna are usually homemade, saving us money and letting us experiment with new recipes.  Plus, nothing beats an evening of catching up over good food and white wine!

          Jenna's a far better cook than I, so I took over the dessert menu while she whipped up the other two courses of the meal.  For an appetizer we mixed fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocados dressed with balsamic vinegar.   As our main course, we had chicken breast with rosemary and a side of squash and red onions baked in olive oil with garlic and pepper.

          Next it was my turn, with limited ingredients (no milk being especially limiting) I choose to make simple peanut butter cookies!  Fast and easy, these crisp cookies are perfect for an after dinner dessert, and the best part is they are only need 4 ingredients!

Summer Heat

Summertime Popsicles

          For not being the most handy in the kitchen I own interesting gadgets, my favorite is my new popsicle mold!  With all my fresh fruit, from grocery shopping this week, it was the perfect time to try it out!  On one side I used strawberries and kiwis in white grape juice, and on the other, I added pieces of mango in pineapple juice.  So far I've only tried the strawberry ones, but I can't wait to taste the sweet mango ones!

Pasta Salad

          Since I've lived on my own, I've been trying to learn how to make new dishes, or at least occasionally try, but the one thing that I think I have mastered is the pasta salad (I prefer an oil based recipe).  It's probably one of my favorite things to make, through the entire process. I love going to the grocery store, or during the right season, the farmer's market, and roaming though stands of colorful produce.  

          Browsing over the various options of vegetable varieties, I generally pick ones with the brightest color.  Sometimes my choices in vegetables change depending on if there's a particular craving I have, or a unique vegetable available to try. 

         Making pasta salad is like painting, selecting a palette of veggies, choosing texture in your pasta and adding detail with feta cheese on top! 

This Week's Recipe Ingredients:

-Colorful Spiral Pasta

-Cucumber

-Tomato

-Green Bell Pepper

-Italian Dressing

-Apple Cider Vinegar

-Salt and Pepper

-Feta Cheese