Happy Pink Saturday!!

Since the pink flowers in my yard are done for the year, I am sharing some beautiful pinks from our vacation last January.

Taken in Fort Lauderdale, does anyone know what flower this is?

Taken in Roatan, Honduras. Our guide told us what flower this is but I can't remember.

I am linking this to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound!!

Zucchini with Tomatoes and Brown Butter

Zucchini seems to be one of the vegetables of choice on the blogsphere. You'll find Zucchini bread, zucchini pancakes, sauteed zucchini and pasta with zucchini. I found this recipe on the Star Tribune blog Taste. It called for ribbons of zucchini, I decided to go with matchsticks. As with most pasta's it called for parmesean cheese. I used some leftover Parrano from our cheese tasting a couple of weeks ago. It added a nice nutty yet buttery flavor to the pasta.

I like how the liquid from the tomatoes, zucchini and the small amount of browned butter make a nice sauce. Tim said it was a nice change and he would eat it again. That's a compliment considering this dish didn't have any meat.

Zucchini with Tomatoes and Brown Butter
Recipe Adapted from Taste

• 1 lb. bowtie pasta
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2 medium shallots, chopped
• 1 lb. zucchini (about 3 small), very thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated, preferred)
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley

Directions

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until butter is beginning to brown, about 2 minutes. Add shallots and zucchini and cook, stirring often, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes, salt, nutmeg and pepper and continue cooking, stirring often, until tomatoes are just starting to break down, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in Parmesan and parsley. Add pasta and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday and this is my entry for this week's Presto Pasta Nights hosted by Abby of Eat the Righhttp://www.eattherightstuff.com/t stuff.

From The Good Life

Labor Day weekend Tim and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. "The Great Minnesota Get Together" is one of the largest state fair's in the country. Attendance at this year's state fair was 1,776,211, just shy of last year's record attendance of 1,790,497. Not a record, but a huge crowd, 210,000 people attended the day Tim and I were there.

We experienced all of the traditional fair fun! Livestock, produce, art, machinery and last but certainly not least food. Everything you can think of on a stick. There was a booth that advertised nothing on a stick. The booth promoting their vegetable tray didn't have much of a crowd.

Bacon on a stick! And a really large tree for background!

A corn picture of Minnie and Paul!

The largest pumpkin, just over 1000 pounds!

The CROWD!

The Fair Princesses out of butter!

Aren't they cute?

What else in Minnesota...Hot Dish on Stick with Mushroom Soup dipping sauce!

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes - Martha Stewart Cupcake Club

It's been months since the last time I participated in the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club. I love cupcakes but sometimes there's just too many sweets in the house.

This month's recipe isn't a traditional cupcake. It's a cheesecake in cupcake form. These were easy to put together and delicious. Also, there's so many possibilities for this recipe, different cookies or candy bars. I have a delicious butterfinger cheesecake recipe that could be easily adapted to "cupcake" form.



Thanks to the talented Nina of Nina's Cupcakes for choosing this month's recipe. You can find the links to the other MSC bakers here.

Cheese Tasting 101

Tim gave me a cheese board for my birthday this year. Having grown up eating ColbyJack and Gouda, I want to learn more about cheeses. I decided to check out the cheese selection at Whole Foods. Don't you just love that store? The cheese monger was so helpful. I knew I wanted a soft, hard and goat cheese. A lot of articles say to include a blue cheese but I knew most of my guests didn't like blue cheese. After some discussion and several suggestions, we settled on Appenzeller for the soft, Parrano for the hard and Humbolt Fog as the Goat Cheese.

What should you serve with your cheese? In addition to the baquette, we had grapes, nuts and if you chose a drizzle of honey. What else do you need to know? Be sure to take the cheese out of the refrigerator an hour or two prior to serving to allow it to come to room temperature.

Which cheeses would we would like? Would there be some we didn't like at all? Which one would be the star?

Each of the cheeses had their own unique flavor. My favorite was the Humbolt Fog. I love that it looks like a beautiful piece of layer cake. The flavor is tart, yet mild. The texture is beautifully creamy. I think the rest of the group was partial to the Parrano. The parrano had a buttery texture and a nutty flavor. It reminded us all of gouda. I guess it was our comfort zone cheese. The Appenzeller was our "stinky" cheese. The aroma comes from the washing of the rind.

This was such a fun and interesting experience. I can't wait to do another cheese tasting!

I am linking this to Tuesday's at the Table and Tasty Tuesday's.

Carmelized Onion, Sage and Cheddar Muffins - SMS

Don't you just love those days where you have a ton of things you want to accomplish and then...something happens!! That was my day today. Last night before I went to bed, I started the upgrade on my IPhone. Yep, you guessed it. When I picked up my IPhone this morning everything was gone! After a fairly major meltdown, we called Apple. While on the phone with Apple, my IPhone began restoring. As it turns out, it had timed out while updating and didn't finish the process. A couple of stressful hours later, I was able to start my baking.

Today's SMS recipe is actually Pear, Blue Cheese and Walnut Muffins. You can find the recipe over at Andrea's Nummy Kitchen. One of the other versions for these savory muffins is Carmelized Onion, Sage and Cheddar. I must have passed on these when the SMS group made these a year or so ago. As it so happens, I planted a sage plant this year and have been searching for recipes using the beautiful sage.

Quite a few of the bakers commented these muffins were dry and suggested substituting sour cream for the cream and milk, to increase their moistness. As I combined the wet and dry ingredients, my batter was so dry I had trouble getting it to combine. I quickly grabbed some cream and added about 1/4 cup. I think next time I make these, I might just add some sour cream to the milk and cream. Concerned these weren't going to be any good, I tried one pretty much right out of the oven. These are delicious, I love the hint of sage along with the onions. Savory muffins are such a nice change!



Thanks Andrea for hosting this week. You can find all of the other SMS baker's muffin creations here!

911 - Let Us Never Forget!

Seems hard to believe it's been nine years since 911. Everyone remembers where they were that day. I just remember how surreal it all seemed. Let us never forget those who lost their lives that day, the loved ones left behind and the police and firefighters whose lives are changed forever!

I am linking this post to Pink Saturday.