Cake and carbs

As promised here are some of the newbies (as in recipes) we tried when the Bitters came to town. Can you say carbs?

I made (for the first time) Annie's Eats tuxedo cake (sans chocolate topping, I ran out of time) and homemade bagels. Simply put, they were both amazing (pats self on back). I will show you a not super great picture of the cake, which was giant by the way. Seriously, both were extremely tasty. In fact, the bagels were so good I forgot to take a picture. Fear not though, I made another batch to take home to Virginia so I'll post some pictures soon!

I told you it was huge.

VAY CAY!

I'm taking a vacation! Well, sort of. I'm actually on furlough (ugh.) and so I've hopped a plane to the fine state of Virginia where I plan to spend my entire unpaid week off (I do get to collect unemployment, thanks Alabama!) livin' it up visiting with friends and family and stuffing about 200 wedding invitations.

In the spirit of vacation, I thought I would post some recipes that scream fun and relaxation. And what says vacation better than salsa and margaritas?! Nothing, that's what.

This salsa from Pioneer Woman and is amazing. It can easily be made in the blender or food processor. It makes a massive amount of salsa so you might want to half the recipe if you're not planning on entertaining a large crowd.

And what better to go with some spicy salsa, but a nice cold maragarita. This is my own maragrita recipe, which I have titled "the poor man's margarita."





 Follow these steps:

-- Fill a pilsner glass with ice.

-- Pour a shot of tequila into the glass.

-- Pour a half shot of triple sec into the glass.

-- Fill glass to the top with limeade (I recommend Simply Limeade).

-- Stir, garnish with lime and enjoy!

Cheers! I may have to mix one of these up while stuffing those invites!

Old standbys

So I promised some more deets on what we snacked on when the soon-to-be in-laws came for a visit (hi Jim and Rose!). So with this post I will share some of my old standbys when it comes to snacks for company. They are easy, tasty and will impress your crowd whether it's parents or ravenous young men hungry for food and football (we seem to have a lot of the latter at Casa de McBitter).

Pizza bites, mmmm.

So first up, the pizza bite. What's more delicious than a bite size morsel of pizza? Nothing. Seriously, if you find something more satisfying than this let me know, you might also be able to solve global warming and peace in the Middle East. You can find the recipe over at Annie's Eats.

Sammies.

My other regular entertaining snack is also from Annie's Eats, enter the ham and cheese pretzel bites (sorry I forgot to take a picture). Are you sensing a trend? Bite sized treats are the best. It takes a little extra time to make the pretzel dough and boil the finished product, but believe me the hassle is well worth it.

And my final standby snack is the ham and cheese sammies from Tasty Kitchen. Yum. These are insanely easy to make ahead of time and you can just pop them in the oven 15 minutes before your guests arrive.

Enjoy! Look for a future post on some new recipes I tried out when the Bitters came for a visit, there will be cake and carbs!

Cookies and pizza (mmm sounds good to me)

OK, so this post will include details on two of my favorite bloggers. For anyone who is not acquainted with them already, please meet Picky Palate and THE Pioneer Woman. The recipes I tried out here come from their sites.

Both seem like pretty cool ladies in addition to being light on their feet in the kitchen and rockin' bloggers. Pioneer Woman is a particular favorite of mine. I own her cookbook and recently purchased her new book "From Black Heels to Tractor Wheels." Drop what you are doing right now (drop it!) and go buy her book.

PIZZA.

And now on to pizza and cookies. So this weekend I made an old standby, PW's perfect pizza dough, and tried out PP's newest cookie recipe. The pizza we had for dinner this week and the cookies were for work. Both dishes were wolfed down. The cookies are a perfect combo of sweet and salty -- translation they were extremely addictive.

And since I was feeling particularly adventurous I also decided to make my own pizza sauce. Also tasty and found on Annie's Eats. I am insanely jealous of that blog name by the way.

See the pictures. If one thing is obvious here besides the fact that I'm awesome (kidding, kind of) it's that my photography skills leave a lot to be desired. I'll work on that, in the meantime get crackin' and try these recipes

Cookies