Is There Anybody Out There? AND - Let Me Tell You About.....

What is the deal? Isn't anyone cooking or baking anything these days??

Well, in small limited amounts. This time of year, we spend a lot of time just grilling steaks, hamburgers, chicken, etc. It's quick and easy. We are quite lucky here, actually. Our grill is hooked up to the house gas line and right outside the back door - so really, we grill all year long. Here in Colorado, we have so much sunshine and great weather that it's very easy to work that out.

We tried out some great recipes at our Girls' Weekend in Montana and I think we'd love to share some of those with you. For example - Chicken Scallopine. Thin, lightly breaded chicken on linguine with a creamy, lemony sauce - mushrooms, capers. It's fabulous. Or how about steak bites? Take that steak, cut it into bite size pieces, sear it quickly to medium doneness (is this a word?) in browned butter and serve. It's hard to stop popping those little nuggets of savory goodness in your mouth.

Perhaps you'd like to try something a little sweeter? Two words: CAKE BALLS. I'm having a lot of fun with these sweet little treats. This is a terrible picture, snapped quickly with my phone. I'd been working on these for a while and I was tired. It's hard to see, but each of these little balls are stuck on a lollipop stick.

Where are we getting all of these fabulous recipes? The Pioneer Woman. Have you heard of her? I want to give her proper credit. One of my blogging BFF's got into a little hot water after copying and pasting someone else's article on her blog (even though she very plainly listed who had written it, etc.). So, in honor of PW and all that I love about her, I will give her the 'props' and provide adequate link-age to her site. She is everything I will never be. Gorgeous, living out on some ranch loving her life, cooking and taking pictures like a pro., homeschooling her kids... Please don't take this the wrong way. I salute her. I envy most of it. Not the homeschooling thing, tho.

My Savory Sis introduced me to PW and it took me several weeks to finally go to her website. After I looked around a little while, I was kicking myself for not going sooner.

I love that she cooks manly food. My husband loves manly food. I love that she makes awesome impressive desserts. I LOVE making things like that - and they are surprisingly easy and totally do-able. Like the Cake Balls. The first batch I made was a larger ball. I used my large scoop. White cake, dipped in white candy coating, gently dusted with edible 'pearls' and sparklies. They looked like mini little wedding cakes. Oh, the joy. For the 4th of July, I made them with my little scoop and put them on sticks so they looked like lollipops. So much festivity and edible red, white and blue. Giddiness, I tell you. Just plain giddy! I see lovely things in my cake ball future. Eyeballs for Halloween. Snowmen for Christmas, or red and green edible cake ball ornaments (uh...no, not for the tree. You have to eat them). Pink and blue 'rattles' for baby showers. Cake balls for the kids birthday treats at school. I know you're excited now too.

P.S. -- you can also make the best little balls out of a bag of oreos.
Toss the whole thing in your food processor and grind it up. Add a block of room temp cream cheese.
Really. Form balls, refridge until solid and dip to your hearts content.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm! Can you imagine and oreo/peanut butter ball? Srsly!!!

Anyway, sorry about the lack of attention to this lovely yummy food-site. Stop by in a week or so. We'll have some great stuff up for you to try. I've got the best chicken and pasta salad. So good for summer and potlucks. So healthy. And so very colorful. I promise.

Keep on cooking!! I'll be blogging at you soon!