Low Sodium BBQ

Yes, it can be done!

Honey is having some blood pressure issues.

Since my heart lives in his heart, I am

very motivated to rectify the situation.

I can't remove the stress or change heredity but I can

COMBAT SALT!

Did you know salt is in like, EVERYTHING!?

The good news is, I use very few prepared foods.

Those seem to be the biggest offenders.

Bad news, 

so many of the condiments that make cooking so easy are 

chock full o'sodium. 

But, I WILL rise to the challenge!

Well, me, with the assist of the internet. 

I came across this site:

http://www.lowsodiumcooking.com/

I used their "Barbecued Spareribs 2" recipe as a start and 

changed it up by immersing country ribs in 

the cooking liquid in a slow cooker. 

After 8 hours I took the meat out and shredded it and 

then reduced some of the sauce down and added the 

molasses, vinegar and mustard. 

It was delicious. 

And I've learned something new about myself, 

I'm actually pumped for this new challenge.

Heart disease wants to put the love of my life in it's cross hairs

and I won't have it!

Oh, and I found uncured hot dogs so all is not lost :o)

Number 200!!!!!

WHOOT! WHOOT!

Wasn't even aware of it!

(200th post, that is)

In honor of which there will be a fantastic giveaway!

A giveaway of gargantuan proportions!

A giveaway to end all giveaways!!!!

Yeah, no, actually just a 

Whoot, Whoot.

Oh, and a new post :o)

About an Asian Sweet Potato Salad that I don't need to make again.

And now looking at it, I can't remember what intrigued me about it to begin with.

Well, except for that I have been interested in finding a 

potato salad that uses sweet potatoes as opposed to white potatoes.

It's from Tyler Florence and the one good take away

from the experience was his reiterating to be careful

not to over cook the potatoes.

"We are making potato salad, not mashed potatoes."

Good point.

I have been known to cook my potatoes to within an inch of their lives.

Thank you Tyler, I will take your advice. 

You, however, may keep your 

Asian Sweet Potato Salad with Cucumbers, Dates and Arugula.

Meantime, Honey and I are devising

 our own recipe for 

Grilled Sweet Potato Salad. 

It's better already, way shorter title.

Oh, and we found out we like arugula.

Once again, thank you Tyler. 

Cake Balls and Oreo Balls

One I have down pat, the other, 

not so much.

It has been brought to my attention that I don't actually

have the instructions for the creation of Oreo Balls

officially posted on the blog, so as a public service

I will do so now. 

Along with the couple of tips I have discovered.

Pulverize a package of Oroes. 

Food processor, blender, baseball bat. 

Whatever works best for you.

Once you have a nice powder, transfer them to a mixing bowl and 

combine them with one 8 oz. package of cream cheese at room temp.

My first two tips:

1- Use the "block" style cheese, not the "spreadable."

2- Put the cream cheese in the mixer first and smash it around a bit. 

Once it's all nicely mushed together

(technical term)

use a 1 inch scoop to form your balls.

These puppies are pretty rich and I find that in this case, 

bigger isn't always better.

Next I chill them a bit in the fridge. 

Once nicely chilled and firm you send them for a dunk.

I have found it best to use either 

almond bark or candy melt discs.

Anything else just doesn't coat properly.

If you use the white you can add colored sugars and they

will show through. 

I did Mardi Gras ones with green, yellow and purple

sugars and they looked great.

Pop them back in the fridge and 

WALA!

Oero Balls!

Now for what I don't have down....yet....

Cake Balls.

But that's all gonna change.....

Thanks Michael and Michelle.

...and Tiffany :o)

White Sangria

It would appear we drank about half of it before I thought to ask 

Lory to get a picture of it.

Makes sense.

I got clearance from the mother-to-be to serve an adult

drink option at her baby shower.

White Sangria seemed like the perfect choice for a mid-day 

gathering. 

A friend of mine sent me her recipe and as I sat to write 

this I thought to compare it to the recipe I already had.

Yep, EXACT same one!

So, it appears there is just one white sangria recipe out 

there and the good news is, that's all we need.

It's really good.

The first time I made it I realized that all the 

rum goes to live in the fruit. 

My mother-in-law ate the fruit with a slotted spoon.

Truth.

So here's the recipe:

1 bottle white wine

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate

1/2 cup light rum

1/2 cup triple sec

1 15 oz can pineapple tidbits in juice

1 large apple, diced

2 cups chilled soda such as 7-up

(I used ginger ale because it's what I had)

Mix it all together but add the soda just before serving.

Lory said this might just be a margarita alternative. 

High praise indeed!

ABS Tea Cakes

Apple, Brie, Salmon

that is.

I love these things!

They were the result of brainstorming with multiple friends.

I wanted to make tea sandwiches but didn't want to use the usual 

"white bread cut with a cookie cutter" vehicles.

This started with my thought to put something on a 

sweet bread, I was thinking zucchini bread.

Lynne suggested brie and smoked salmon.

Reminiscent of an appetizer of

a slice of apple with brie and salmon.

It seemed to me that you could change up the zucchini to apple

and come even closer to the original. 

I just took my standard zucchini bread recipe and swapped out 

grated apple, with the peel on that I squeezed most of the

moisture out of, for the zucchini and swapped

apple sauce for the oil.

It worked out great. 

Then I just sliced the bread and used

a round cutter about the same size as the 

Brie that you can get in a log!

Stack em up with a little salmon and a 

parsley leaf on top and

 WALA!

That sweet bread takes you by surprise but once you

get over the surprise the yum factor kicks in. 

PS, the "WALA"

is just to make Shanna twitch :o) 

Baby Shower Favors

And one of the best ideas I've ever had!

Nope, these weren't it. 

I'll get to those next.

My bright idea was to ask a few of Christine's friends

to host the party!

I got to do all the fun of decorating and cooking

and designing but once the door bell rang, 

I was done!

And I was! 

The girls (young women) did a great job.

I put them in charge of name tags, games and favors

and they came through with flying colors.

I sent them the clip art giraffe I had used on the invites and throughout

the decor, they put him on the name tags and the favors.

These favors were terrific!

They bought bulk animal crackers

 (to go with the animal theme)

bagged them up in cello bags and printed off these

adorable labels complete with bible verse!

Psalm 127:3

What a great idea.

 I love that they weren't some "thing" 

that people were going to have to figure out what to do with. 

Eat em!

So, there you go TWO great ideas, ONE blog post :o)

Time well spent.

Baby Shower Recap

I had fun.

This may take a couple of posts to cover.

I really like concentrating my theme decorations in one spot.

It makes a bigger impact.

Those balls are a decorating budget boon!

At less than two dollars a piece that's a lot of bang for your buck.

I also used animal print tissue paper on the table.

I picked up a couple of plastic zebra chargers

for just a couple of dollars each and then with

an assortment of animal print napkins 

fanned out along the table, 

WALA!

It's a theme!

I also had small wooden bowls with peanuts in the shell

around the table and some more with chocolate

and ginger animal cookies around the house.

I had the zebra chairs.

Trust me.

...gotta know me...

I really had fun developing the food.

A couple of the items I made up and I'll get to those eventually,

but first I HAVE to talk about these cupcakes!

I stumbled upon the recipe on Epicurious.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Banana-Cupcakes-with-Peanut-Butter-Frosting-358240

They are banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting.

AAAAAAAmazing!

The cake part is made with sour cream and they are so light.

Not at all like you think of banana bread.

The frosting is a slice of heaven.

It would be good on anything.

The only thing I changed up from the recipe was that

I used chopped honey roasted peanuts on top.

That extra little sweet just seemed right. 

It was funny because these were a last minute addition

and turned out to be one of my favorite things!

Oh, and back to decorating;

Lory has like 50 small white plates she picked up at

 Crate and Barrel

that we share for parties so no expense on paper plates 

(I get my color or pattern in on the napkins)

and no landfill impact. 

I have 24 footed iced tea glasses that work well

for just about any drink. I just keep them in the

box they came in and store them in the basement.

Another cost/landfill saving and 

real glasses and plates just elevate the whole thing.

Don't you think?