Kristen – Page 16 – Food Follies

Safeway Organics Blood Orange Italian Soda

If you’re a fan of orange soda, but don’t like the fake orange, high-fructose corn syrup stuff, you’ll be needing to try Safeway Organics Blood Orange Italian Soda. It’s fantabulous! Really orangey, really tangy, and has great ingredients: carbonated water, organic blood orange juice from concentrate, organic sugar, citric acid, natural blood orange flavor, black carrot juice (for color, which is a little weird perhaps since the soda is like a pinky-orange color, not ORANGE-orange), and natural orange flavor. (Contains 12% juice) And you can honestly say it’s Italian because it’s imported from Italy – LOL.

So anyway, if you love orange soda, go pick up a four-pack of these beauties and revel in the flavor!!

[Tags: organic, italian soda, juice, cane sugar, food]

Easy Tomato Soup Florentine

This isn’t a ‘cooking from scratch’ sort of thing, but that doesn’t make it any less delicious!

We cooked up half a pound of mini-raviolis (Trader Joe’s brand) and then added them to the carton of Creamy Tomato Soup (also Trader Joe’s brand) that was already in our small crock pot. I also added more water and a good amount of black pepper and some finely grated parmesan too. It simmered on low for hours and hours. About 45 minutes to an hour before we were going to eat, I chopped up a bunch (as much as you like, as it tends to shrink up and disappear somewhat, just don’t overdo it) of organic baby spinach leaves and added them to the soup.

It was fantastic and very hearty!

We also had some leftover French bread and so I made buttery garlic bread to go with it, which was a fantastic match up.

A funny aside: We have limited counter space so I keep putting the crock pot away in its box when we’re done with it, but I keep having to pull it out again every other day since we’re having so much fun making stuff in it!

Also, we have a recipe for a completely from scratch Tomato Soup Florentine recipe in our archives for those that want to go for broke.
[Tags: food, soup, tomato soup florentine, recipe, spinach]

Ring in Fudge

Just a little happy story about a woman who lost her ring while making fudge and got it back. 😉 Click here to read full story.

Happy 2008 Everyone!

[Tags: fudge, happy ending]

Raining Donuts

Or doughnuts, if you want to go for the classical spelling! Yes, it’s an homage to our favorite donut eater Homer and his illustrious wife Marge, and a certain Halloween episode with the time-traveling toaster. (I love that episode – my favorite line is “This is gonna cost me.”) But anyway – now you can celebrate donuts (or doughnuts) raining down from heaven with t-shirts (including kids sizes), sweatshirts, pinned buttons, stickers, and more crazy stuff. Click the t-shirt to see more stuff! [/end announcer mode]

[Tags: donut, doughnut, simpsons, humor, funny, tshirt, t-shirt]

Best Chicken Noodle Soup Ever!

We made chicken soup from scratch the other day – first time ever – and it was, if I may say so, fantastic!! We already had leftover cooked chicken and chicken stock. We shredded the chicken and put that in the crock pot with the broth. Then, we chopped onions, carrots, and celery and saute’d them in a frying pan. I took a picture of the raw carrots and celery because it looked so neat…

Then, we added the veggies to the crock pot and set that to cooking. A few hours before we were going to eat, I made some homemade noodles with our hand-crank pasta machine and the wavy wheel cutter. Here’s a photo of the noodles drying out a bit on a rack.

About an hour or so before we were going to eat I added the noodles. Not surprisingly, the noodles plumped up a LOT more than I expected – LOL – and so we had a LOT of noodle content in there. Just before we were going to eat, we chopped some green onions and added them to the soup and WAH-LAH! Best homemade chicken noodle soup ever!!

[Tags: food, soup, chicken noodle soup, homemade]

Cheesy Puffs!

We were just sitting around, eating Trader Joe’s cheese puffs and I joked about making a cheese puffs t-shirt design. Before I knew it, I’d opened photoshop and bam!

You can get your cheesy puffs design on all kinds of t-shirts and sweatshirts, even kid’s sizes! (They may not be the ones officially endorsed by Cartman on South Park, but they’re just as orange!)

After I did that, I realized I needed to make a ‘powered by’ version of the design too….

… available on all kinds of apparel too, plus bumper stickers and buttons, etc.

“I like cheesy puffs!” If you know someone who’s always got their hand in a bag, or has perpetually orange fingertips, they probably love cheesy puffs too – heh.
[Tags: food, cheese, cheese puffs, cheese doodles, t-shirt, humor, funny]

Beam Me Up White Zinfandel

On his way home from work John often stops at the store for extra groceries, and sometimes shows up home with a little something extra. This time it was a bottle of “Beam Me Up” brand Zinfandel.

I know the ‘wine elite’ usually turn up their noses at white zinfandel, but 1.) sometimes you just want a mild, light wine experience and 2.) how could you NOT buy a wine with that wacky name? and 3.) look at the picture on the label! Look at it! LOL. (Those, of course, being the three things most wine professionals look for in a fine vintage.) Anyway, it was just the right wine for the evening – nice, easy, and tasty… and obviously appealing to the geeky target demographic.
[Tags: wine, zinfandel, food]

Happy Halloween Popcorn Balls

John and I live WAY out in the country, and down a private road behind a locked cattle gate so the only Trick-or-Treaters we’d get out this way would be the raccoons, what with their masks and all. Anyway, since we aren’t do anything particularly interesting this year for Halloween, I thought I’d pass along a recipe and photos from a friend of mine, Jen Goode

In her own words…

A fun project for any age. My preschooler had a great time molding the balls, it’s much like playing with play dough.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

What You’ll Need:
2 standard pouches of microwave popcorn (approx 6-8 cups popped)
1 package chocolate marshmallows
1/4 butter or margarine
1/2 package chocolate chips
1/2 package peanut butter chips
1 large cooking pot
Standard (non zipper) sandwich bags or plastic wrap

note: no chocolate marshmallows? replace with 1 package regular marshmallows and 1/2 package chocolate chips – melted together

How to make it:

Over medium heat, melt butter. While the butter is melting, pop popcorn andset aside. Stir in marshmallows and continue stirring until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat. Stir in popcorn until thoroughly mixed.

Pour into a big mixing bowl so the mix will cool quicker. Let cool for 5-10 minutes. Gently stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips.

Mold handfuls of mix into ball shapes. Make sure to compact the balls gently but firmly so that they stick together well. It’s ok to “squish” them a little.

Tip: Use plastic wrap or plastic sandwich bags to prevent too much sticking to your hands.

Place each ball in a plastic sandwich bag and tie with a bow. Enjoy!

Halloween deliciousness brought to you by Jen Goode.

[Tags: food, halloween, recipe, popcorn, popcorn balls]

Spider Eggs for Halloween

Check out these Spider Eggs for Halloween – they look completely creepy. And that’s not even counting the fact that I don’t like olives! But that tidbit aside, I thought this was a really creative use of everyday food. Happy Halloween!
[Tags: halloween, appetizer, food, spider, spooky]

Phil’s Frittata

When we go to Flap Jack’s Cafe we always leave filled to the gills with amazing food. And our last venture out was no exception, but since we’ve already done a few reviews of Flap Jack’s we thought we’d just post a photo of the humungous and delicious sausage and veggie frittata that John ordered, and almost completely finished – heh – complete with home fries and fresh orange slices.

Hungry yet?

[Tags: food, eggs, diner, frittata, breakfast]