150 Best Recipes for Cooking in Foil

                                   Ovens  *  BBQ  *  Camping

         Foil packet meals = cooking at its simple best.

The publisher was kind enough to send me a copy of this little beauty.  It's great!  As we're finally getting back to our normal entertaining, I'll be using this a lot!

For campers, backyard grillers, hosts of tailgate parties and home cooks feeding a hungry family, these creative recipes for meals wrapped in foil packs are welcome additions to a cooking repertoire.

For camping, the recipes are designed for a 4- to 7-day trip with fresh staples used first in multiple recipes, followed by canned or dry-packaged items. Minimal packing and easy storage are features of these great recipes: Hill Country Hash Brown Breakfast, Peach and Ginger Glazed Pork Chops, Candied Ham and Cranberry Sweet Potatoes and Salted Caramel Pears for dessert.

For delicious and easy-to-prepare grilling and oven recipes, all are "one pot" and need minimal clean up. Many of the recipes can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen for a quick and easy weeknight meal, lunch or morning breakfast. All of these are perfect for the busy weeknight cook or the tailgate chef: Bacon, Onion and Ale Glazed Flank Steak, Belgian Style Marinated Chicken or Beef Tenderloin with Glazed Carrots and Parsnips.

For convenience, these 150 recipes can be easily resized for one or two people. And versatility is the key to these recipes as they include breakfasts and lunches plus main courses, side dishes and desserts.

Foil wrap cooking is ideal for so many occasions when minimal time and optimal convenience is prime.

Look Inside HERE

What a Swell Party it Was! - By Michael Turback

The publisher recently sent me this book.  I LOVE it.  I've been pouring over it for days.

It's a slick hardback loaded with old photos and recipes.  What a blast from the past!  A lot of nostalgia and history of these clubs.  FUN!

(I'm a big Glen Miller and Mills Brothers fan, so this was very enjoyable!)

Rediscovering Food & Drink from the Golden Age of the American Nightclub

Relish in the reverie and revelry of yesteryear with recipes from twenty-five of history's most iconic entertainment hotspots.

Chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud once explained: “The future of cooking is about how we can rewrite the history of it—it’s important to keep the memory and be entertained by it and inspired by it.” What A Swell Party It Was! entertains and inspires with a delicious slice of nearly forgotten culinary history—an era that followed the Great Depression and prohibition’s repeal, where America boomed and the nightclub scene flourished.

Opening this book is like swinging open the doors to another time and place when big city life was a unique mixture of innocence and sophistication, romance, and formality. It spotlights twenty-five legendary clubs that thrived in the 1930s and ’40s, just as Jazz exploded into mainstream popularity and alcohol was no longer illegal to serve. Through these pages and recipes, enter past the proverbial velvet rope into establishments forever-immortalized, such as Chez Paree in Chicago, Café Trocadero in Hollywood, The Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, The Blue Room in New Orleans, and New York City’s Cotton Club. 

In addition to including entrée, appetizer, dessert, and cocktail recipes from their original menus, each featured venue will be introduced with vivid anecdotes and history, narrated in a breezy style and illustrated with reproductions of vintage menu covers, beverage napkins, matchbooks, postcards, and rare photos.


An unabashedly joyful journey and a deeply authentic perspective on American culture in a rich, tumultuous age, What a Swell Party It Was! promises a cookbook/cocktail guide with a tip of the hat to history, crammed with details that bring life again to a fascinating American era.


What a Swell Party it Was- look inside here

A FUN, FUN Super Bowl!

Dom and I haven't entertained since his cancer returned in April.  We were finally ready for this.

Had a BLAST

We had:

*Country Ham from my pal in KY.  Thanks again, Goldie!
*Loaded Potato Salad
*Spicy Deviled Eggs with Siracha
*Cheeses
*Breads
*Bacon Wrapped Meatballs with brown sugar and chili powder
*Chocolate Covered Bacon
*Antipasto Skewers

Wendy brought a King Cake.  Dennis and Cheryl left after the game.  Wendy and Bubby spent the night, so the partied continued into Monday afternoon!

It felt SO GOOD to socialize once again!

ANOTHER Fun Idea for Mardi Gras (Or Valentine's Day)

We are HOOKED on Sparkling Ice!

Planning on fooling around with this on Fat Tuesday or Wed!

Hurricane Snow Cone

INGREDIENTS
*Juice of half a lime
*2 oz light rum
*2 oz dark rum

*2 oz passion fruit juice

*2 oz Sparkling Ice Orange Mango
*1 tablespoon grenadine

DIRECTIONS
*Squeeze juice from half a lime into cocktail shaker over ice.
*Pour the remaining ingredients into the shaker and shake gently.
*Strain into a hurricane glass filled with shaved ice, garnish with a cherry and orange slice.

THESE COCKTAILS WILL BE GREAT FOR MARDI GRAS AND VALENTINE'S DAY! WITH 'BEET'-EVERYDAY MIXERS

The PR firm that represents BEETOLOGY sent me a 6-pack of "Beet & Berry".  Talk about TASTY!

We made this today.  Loved it.  We'll be celebrating Mardi Gras on Tuesday, and planning on a pleasant Valentine's Day on Wed.  THIS is already on the menu:

Berry-Beet-a-rita
3 oz. Beetology Beet + Berry

2 oz. Silver Tequila

½ oz. lime juice


Directions

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice. Add Beetology, lime juice and tequila.  Shake vigorously for about 20 seconds, and serve in a glass with or without salt.

A BIT ABOUT THIS BRAND:

Distributed exclusively by New Jersey-based Kayco, Beetology is available in the refrigerator section at health food, specialty, grocery, and kosher food markets in five varieties. For additional information about Beetology visit beetology.com

Beetology starts with farm-fresh, certified organic beets, cold-presses them for maximum nutrition, and blends them with nourishing organic fruits and veggies like antioxidant-rich tart cherries, kale, and ginger.

The result: a mixologist’s fantasy league of cocktail starters that deliver a tasty punch of vitamin C, iron, fiber, magnesium, and other elements essential for good health. Kick off the party with the refreshing Beetology cocktails below or let them inspire you your next signature drink. You can make these drinks sans the alcohol for refreshing mocktails too.

We're looking forward to trying their other flavors!  This is good- healthy stuff, gang!