Suzanne Calling

Dole contacted me recently to see if I wanted to host a smoothie party and create some recipes using their frozen fruit products. I jumped at the chance, one because who doesn't love smoothies? and 2. I really like Dole's fruit products. Tonight, the boys and I planned to take a test run of one of the ideas I had. Insert a public service announcement here: do not, I repeat, DO NOT, store your blender in a hot garage in Florida. The piece that spins the blade in my KA blender MELTED in the heat of the garage. Fall back plan: Make them in the food processor. That worked nicely. See? So the recipe: 1 bag DOLE frozen Mango chunks 1 6 oz Yoplait custard style Strawberry yogurt 8 oz ginger ale 8-12 oz water It was smooth, it was creamy and both boys inhaled these glasses of goodness so quick I was worried they would get a brain freeze. If you're following Weight Watchers (as a friend is), each serving, using regular ginger ale, is 3.7 points. There will be more recipes an...

The plan for today was to make some chicken. Was. I got a text from Meghan, asking if we wanted to meet up with her family over at Romeo's. Heck, you don't have to ask me twice. Chef and I shared a Romeo's salad, which is a lot like our current ABC salad (walnuts instead of pecans). I'd told the boys we were splitting a pizza as soon as I knew we were going-Game Teen lobbied for Hawaiian, Chef for pepperoni. Then we got there, Chef looked on the menu and found the White Rustica. Ricotta, ham, meatballs, pepperoni, garlic, olive oil and scrumptious. We came home with half a pie-Ed got a nice late dinner out of it, too.

A big part of moving to Florida six years ago was because it brought us closer to family. Recently, family members moved to Florida so that they could be closer to family, too. Ed's sister by proxy, Betsy, husband Tod and son Michael moved a half hour away. (Betsy's brother lives an hour in another direction, too.) Tonight, we got to see their new place and enjoy a meal and companionship. It was so nice to actually sit and shoot the breeze, laugh about the things we all find amusing and share what we know about their new town (it's minutes from scouts and our old stomping grounds.) They found a wonderful house in a quiet neighborhood that backs onto a lake. Chef's favorite part was probably the treehouse, and he took these pictures from his bird's eye vantage point. For next visit, I need to brush up on pinocle rules, because they apparently are a couple of card sharks!

The show opens at the house Aarti worried about being on the bottom. Tom, says six people left makes things very intense. Food Star Kitchens, Giada is standing in front of a table of six Kellogg’s cereals. Breakfast time? Not quite. To assist Giada, in explaining the challenge, out comes Melissa D’Arabian, winner of last season’s competition. Melissa tells the challengers that her life has changed so much since she’s won NFNS, she’s now a working mom and doesn’t always have the time to shop. This means she has to fashion a meal out of what’s in the pantry and the Camera Challenge today is to make dinner with breakfast. Aria- Crispix-Hopple Popple Frittata with Crispix Potato Pancakes Brad-Rice Krispies Rice Crispies Encrusted Tuna with Cucumber Salad Aarti-All Bran-Quinoa pilaf Tom-Rice Crispies-Corn Flakes and Pecan Crusted Pork Chops Serena-Cocoa Krispies-Pork Meatloaf with Cocoa Crispes Herb-Froot Loops- Froot Loop Encrusted French Toast with Latin Sausage The challenge is tig...

I deleted a post that wasn't supposed to be deleted. In it's place, the half constructed post, still in draft mode. I hate when I do that!

One of our favorite family restaurants over in Brandon closed the other day. Cody's Roadhouse is a Tampa based chain that caters to families and a bar clientele, serving up decent food at a decent price. There aren't many mid-tier restaurants that you can expect to spend 40 bucks for a family of four, but this was one of them. When we lived locally, the rallying cry in our house was 'Fajita Wednesday,' because that was the night you could buy one platter and get another free. Yes, there are others in the area, but it's still a little disappointing to lose one of the places that was a treat on scout nights (when kids ate free).

44. Not young not old, just in the middle. Two years ago, I got the idea about 88 lines for a birthday post and decided to save it for this year. Of course, I forgot about it until last night. There wasn't any preparation put into this, meaning this isn't anything like the song that inspired it. Rather, it is some ramblings about what memories I carry from the past 44 years that don't quite add up to 88 lines. The title was too good not to keep. Year one involved spitting up on Alfred Hitchcock* He probably found that scarier than those birds in his movie My siblings probably liked the fact that finally, someone had a summer birthday to spread out the cake distribution Year three was the last as the youngest Giggles arrived the following February Four was the year that I decided I was going to drive mom's convertible out of the driveway into the street For my fifth birthday, a party and a gift of a Hoppity Hop that my sister popped about an hour after the party was...