Monday, August 20, 2018

Pieathalon 2018!

It's time once again for the Pieathalon, where bloggers from all over simultaneously make the world a better place through the magic of pie! We all submit a recipe that is assigned to someone else and we have a pie assigned to us. This year I got Cheese Pie, from 1973's Woman's Own 365 Menu Cookbook.


Turns out Woman's Own, which bills itself as "The best women's weekly magazine in the UK!" is still being published and even still has recipes. This one stands the test of time, although I'm not sure I consider it a pie per se - more of a casserole, really. No matter, it was perfect for me right now, since I'm swamped this week and can't wrap my mind around the idea of baking. If you like veggies and cheese (And who doesn't like cheese?), here's an easy comfort food dinner that requires no skill whatsoever!


The most labor intensive part of this recipe is the chopping of the vegetables. I added the peas at the last minute, since mine were frozen, and I didn't add the corn to the water at all, since they were from a can.




Next comes the fun part: cream and cheese. I added some spices to mine, too - salt (which is a mineral, but you get it), pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper. Mid-century recipes tend to be pretty bland for our tastes.




Then, into the pie plate! 


I had to make a couple of adjustments to my version. The recipe says to separate out some vegetables to use on top, but the plate was so full I couldn't even use them (they'll be used for something else). Also, it says to "brown under a hot grill," which I assume means a broiler, but our broiler is useless so I put it in the oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees, which worked like a charm!


We paired it with a lovely Malbec and have lots left over for lunches! It may not be much of a "pie," but it's a great inexpensive vegetarian dinner. What's not to love?

Be sure to visit these fabulous blogs for even more Pieathalon goodness!




Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Happy Birthday, Paul! Join us for a cocktail!



It's Paul's birthday and we're celebrating with one of our favorite movie monsters! Join us for a lovely libation and toast to the birthday boy!

Monday, August 6, 2018

Mocktail Monday: Swimmer's Punch



It's Mocktail Monday and today's lovely libation is perfect for summertime pool parties! I hope you'll be attending at least one this week. ;) Cheers!

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Hawaiian Hop Party Prep

There are just certain cookbooks that keep on giving and one of my favorites is 1964's The Seventeen Cookbook. This particular volume was published before I was born, but I loved Seventeen Magazine as a teenager. This was before there were approximately 85 gajillion YouTube channels and websites aimed at teens, so Seventeen was where I learned about things like clothes and makeup and read about teen models like Whitney Houston, whose lives seemed a lot more glamorous than mine. 

No, I'm not sure I CAN deal with jealousy

The Seventeen Cookbook features not just recipes, but tips for parties, dates, family get-togethers and so much more. The nation was a little Hawaii-obsessed at the time, so that theme features prominently, including plans for a Hawaiian prom. The Hawaiian Hop looks like a lot of work, but they do instruct young prom planners to enlist a lot of help. I would love to see this actualized. Maybe we'll rent a gym and try it one day. If you'd like to in the meantime, here's all you need to know to create the Polynesian prom of your dreams!





Fill that punch bowl with Islander's Punch. If you're not serving it to actual teens you can switch out that lemon-lime for chilled prosecco and throw in a little amber rum.


Take it from Seventeen - "It's going to be a marvelous evening!"