Italian Soda

A little annoucement: We will be celebrating ONE YEAR OF Tempt My Tummy Tuesday on July 7th. Woo hoo! One year of wonderful recipes and foodie tips. To Celebrate TMTT's Anniversary, Lisa and I are hosting a giveaway. It will be for our FAVORITE cookbook!! I KNOW you all LOVE cookbooks. So, join us on July 7th to enter for a chance to win!

(today's post is a repeat from last summer... since Lisa is discussing her favorite soda as well!)
Welcome to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday co-hosted by my sis Lisa and myself. If you have a great recipe or foodie idea, share it! Mr. Linky lives at Lisa's site, so be sure to visit after leaving a comment here.

Today I'm going to tell you about my new favorite drink. I had it for the first time last month and I swear to you... I crave it! It is Central Market's Organic Blood Orange Italian Soda.

Frankly, I did not know what Italian soda was, but thought, I'd try. OH MY GOSH... so good, not just good, great. Refreshing, sweet with a hint of tart... such delight.

I know, many of you don't know what Central Market is. Well... it is a foodies dream come true. The best grocery store on the planet with a restaurant, and a cooking school and organic every thing and....oh ...I can't go on...

If you have a chance, try this great drink, or something like it.



picture by ricardo.h on flicr

Necessities and Temptations

A little annoucement: We will be celebrating ONE YEAR OF Tempt My Tummy Tuesday on July 7th. Woo hoo! One year of wonderful recipes and foodie tips. To Celebrate TMTT's Anniversary, Lisa and I are hosting a giveaway. It will be for our FAVORITE cookbook!! I KNOW you all LOVE cookbooks. So, join us on July 7th to enter for a chance to win! Below is a post I made regarding my love for this cookbook!

***This was originally posted Jan. 5, 2009, but thought it was appropriate to re-post due to our Give Away listed above!***

Hello everyone and welcome to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. My sister, Lisa, and I co-host this blog carnival. We share recipes, kitchen and cooking tips, restaurant reviews, and anything food related that you want to share. You know the rule of a blog carnival, please mention the blog or TMTT in your post and link back to us. Don't forget to use Mr. Linky, he lives at Lisa's blog.

Lisa has a great post today featuring our Mother's very old cookbook. It brings back so many memories for me to see those pictures. I hope you enjoy reading about it. It inspired me to tell me about one of my favorite cookbooks. It was given to me by a dear family friend 15 years ago. Actually, it was a wedding gift... that marriage did not last, but the cookbook is still one of my favorites! It is called "Necessities and Temptations" it is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year. It is from The Junior League of Austin.

It not only has great recipes, but it offers variation on many of the best recipes. It also has a fantastic kitchen reference guide. I can not tell you how many times I have gone to it to convert measurements or for things like... "what do you do if you need buttermilk, but do not have buttermilk?" It has all sorts of things like that.

I used it Christmas Eve to make our family favorite Brunch Egg Casserole (on pg 166). I have had a recent request for this recipe (sorry Chrissy for taking so long to post this) so I'm posting a family favorite, I always make this for Christmas morning or whenever I need a great brunch dish.

Brunch Egg Casserole

6 slices white bread, crust removed
1 pound ground sausage
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
2 cups half & half

• Lightly butter each side of bread and place in a 9x13 glass baking dish
• Brown sausage, and drain. Sprinkle sausage over the bread
• sprinkle cheese over sausage
• Beat eggs. Add salt, dry mustard and half & half, beat again
• Pour egg mixture over the bread, sausage and cheese
• Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. At this point you may freeze it until ready to use.
  If you freeze, thaw overnight in refrigerator.
• Remove foil. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until casserole is bubbly and lightly browned on top.
  

Now as I said before, this cookbook offers different variation... and they have two more that go along with this. But, you'll have to get the cookbook to see them :-) BUT the above variation is my all time favorite... I don't like to mess with perfection.

Appetizer Treasure

Well, hello Temp My Tummy Friends! How do you like our new logo for the Summer of '09? I thought a little change would be good. So feel free to use it when linking up your post!

If you are new to our little Foodie Fest, look here for all the guidelines. If you have a great foodie recipe or idea, please share it. Link up at Lisa's blog, and be sure to mention TMTT in your post.

Today I found this great little cookbook in the back of my cookbook shelf. It has so many great appetizers. It is "Southern Living Ultimate Book of Appetizers" I don't know when or how I got it, I just know I have it. You can get one here.

I'm posting one of the recipes today. It reminds me of one of my favorites, "Mexican Layered Dip" This recipe is for "Layered Mediterranean Dip" Sounds good huh? It is on page 13 of this little treasure.

"Layered Mediterranean Dip"

Ingredients:

• 2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained and mashed
• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
  
• 1/2 cup chopped cucumber
• 1/3 cup sliced ripe olives
• 14 cup chopped green onions
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 tsp Greek seasoning
• 1 (4 oz) package tomato-basil feta cheese, crumbled

Spread black beans in a shallow 9 inch dish. Combine tomato and next 5 ingredients, toss gently.
Sprinkle tomato mixture over the beans, top with the crumbled feta. Cover and chill thoroughly. Serve with pita chips.

Punchy Punch

Well, hello Temp My Tummy Friends! How do you like our new logo for the Summer of '09? I thought a little change would be good. So feel free to use it when linking up your post!

If you are new to our little Foodie Fest, look here for all the guidelines. If you have a great foodie recipe or idea, please share it. Link up at Lisa's blog, and be sure to mention TMTT in your post.

This week, My family and Lisa and her little family are all at the beach enjoying some family fun in the sun! So please understand... we will more than likely not be making many if any comments this week. I know you will understand.

As we are preparing for our sunny week I am thinking of cool and refreshing treats. I thought about Punch. Who does not like punch? A fruity, refreshing drink with so many variations. I had an email today to help with a baby shower and that also always makes me think of my favorite drink. So in honor of a hot sunny beach and all those baby showers to come... today I'm posting a classic punch recipe, or as my daughter calls it... Punchy Punch.

• 12 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 small can (6ounces) frozen lemonade concentrate
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 1/2 gallon dry ginger ale (32 ounces)

Mix fruit juices; cover and chill thoroughly in refrigerator. Add cold ginger ale just before serving. Serve fruit punch over crushed ice or freeze about half of the ginger ale all in ice cube trays and add to the punch with remaining ginger ale.

Now... here is something much more decadent... Cappuccino Cooler. A friend of mine makes something similar and I is divine. This recipe came from allrecipes.com.

• 1 1/2 cups cold coffee
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate ice cream
• 1/4 cup chocolate syrup
• crushed ice
• 1 cup whipped cream

In a blender, combing coffee, ice cream and chocolate syrup. Blend until smooth. Pour over crushed ice. Garnish with a dollop of whipped cream and serve.

So... be cool and refreshed ladies. See you next week!


cappuccino punch picture from allrecipes.com