fuzzykitty

Darrell’s co-workers take pretty good care of him so I am always happy to fulfill their special requests for treats.  I found out yesterday that Key Lime Bars would be appreciated so I made my first batch today.   I have never had a Key Lime Bar before but these taste pretty good, kinda sweet and tart little square Key Lime pies!

We went to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival yesterday and bummed around the park for most of the day.  The weather was nice and the food we sampled was tasty but I was hoping for some  chefy events and to learn from the pros.  We actually could not find any competitions or anything food related scheduled for the day we were there.  After Epcot we went to Lush and then headed home.  I hope that we can spend more time in Orlando and visit some friends and some of the other parks!

Last night I made a chocolate ganache yellow cake filled with cheesecake pudding and topped with home made whipped cream.  I had never made ganache or whipped cream before and was surprised by how well they both turned out.  No more store bought whipped cream for me and I can’t wait to fill Ritz crackers with peanut butter, dunk them in a rich ganache and let them set.  Mmm!

Anyway, this cake was inspired by an incredibly talented blogger at “How To Eat A Cupcake“. The cake I made consisted of items I already had in my pantry: yellow cake mix, cheesecake pudding mix, ganache (chocolate chips + heavy cream) and some heavy cream whipped into a tasty swirl.  I have been very bored at home so I thought I’d give this cake a go.  I think that it turned out quite well, reminds me of chocolate covered donuts and makes pretty slices.

I recently bought my first gas grill and have been grilling steadily since.  Besides it is still hot here and I don’t want to turn on the oven unless I have to.  I have grilled shrimp, scallops, cedar planked salmon, chicken, corn, sweet potatoes and now pizza!

About a month ago my friend JimK grilled some pizza. This sounded like a yummy and good idea so I made a simple pizza dough from the new “America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking book” which I recently purchased at Costco and then prepared my toppings (mozzarella, tomatoes & fresh basil for mine and a mixture of bbq sauce, chicken & shredded mozzarella  for my husband’s pizza). The key to successfully make grilled pizza is to be organized. I found that once I placed the thin dough directly on the grill it needed to be turned over about 30 seconds later and topped. This was so tasty and easy we are having grilled pizza again tonight!

One local company that always exceeds my expectations is Extreme Craftsman.  A few months ago they built and installed our beautiful built-in tv stand with lots of storage for our components and dvds.  The space still needed a little something in order to look more complete so they came up with these fantastic floating shelves that can actually hold over 100 lbs of weight each thanks to their French cleats!

When we lived on the other side of the river in Orange Park I had a bad habit of visiting a nearby restaurant for a mint brownie way too often. Sometimes they would have them other times they would be out or them for weeks. They were expensive too at $3.50 each. Today I finally found a recipe that sounded similar to the ones I have craved and made the above which are even better than what I was buying. If you want to make them too you can click here. These puppies are going with Darrell tomorrow to celebrate his first day back to work!

Recently we had some conflicting feline leukemia test results for our cat. One test said she had tested positive and the other said that she was negative. The vet explained this by saying that, while this is very rare, it is possible that she is a carrier for the virus. She is acting perfectly fine and healthy so we are going to have her retested in a month or so to see if the result is positive or not. I was heartbroken when they told me she tested positive last week and have felt like we have been on a roller coaster recently about it.