I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!
We took a little bit of time off to relax and celebrate with friends. It was wonderful seeing good friends, playing in the pool, and eating all that great food!
It's hard to get back into the daily swing when we had such a relaxing holiday. One way to do that is to make life simple, and to make our breakfast's simple too. After a weekend of goodies it's time stop the baking and cooking for a little bit. In doing so we decided to spend our last day of holiday with a quick and easy breakfast of fruits, coffee and tea, and fresh bagels.
We are lucky to live near a Western Bagel store and so we picked up several varieties of bagels to enjoy. My all time favorite is an egg bagel. Soft and yummy, that's how I like them. There's nothing better than fresh, soft bagels and Western Bagel has the best in Los Angeles.
To go with our bagels I decided to whip up a special cream cheese spread. I wanted to make it just a little bit fancier...just a little. Which leads us to today's recipe, Triple Berry Cream Cheese Spread. It's a blend of cream cheese, feta cheese and Smucker's new Fruit N' Honey fruit spreads. Smucker's describes them as " Ripened fruit is naturally sweetened with honey for a simply delicious way to complement your breakfast or dress up your appetizers and desserts." I found this new product at my store and decided to pick up a couple. The one I used today was Fruit & Honey Triple Berry Fruit Spread. Of course you could use this recipe with any jam, jelly, or fruit spread, I chose this one because I was curious to have a spread with honey in it instead of refined sugar.
It's just the perfect additive to my cream cheese to jazz it up a bit for our breakfast. It turned out so delicious, with little chunks of fruit mixed in. Perfect on a bagel or a piece of toast.
So next time you have a simple breakfast, try this easy cream cheese spread. You'll enjoy it's light and fruity taste, and make your breakfast extra special!
Enjoy!
Triple Berry Cream Cheese Spread
1/2 tub of whipped cream cheese
3 Tbls feta cheese crumbled
3-4 Tbls Triple Berry Fruit Spread (Smucker's - or your favorite fruit spread)
In a medium bowl add all the ingredients and stir until well combined. Serve with bagels or toast. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Yum
I've found my drink love for the summer.
I was wandering around the mall parched from all the shopping, when I stopped in a random coffee house to get something to quench my thirst. They had a wonderful array of cold drinks. Typically I gravitate to iced tea. That's my main stay.
But today something came over me and I decided to try their Green Tea Specialty Drink. I was blown over by the light refreshing taste. So much so that I new I had to try and recreate this at home. After several tries I got it down. I dare say, mine is even better!
You don't need a fancy blender for this recipe. Nope! Just a couple ingredients, a tall glass and some ice and you are set. This will become your drink of the summer as well. Just one taste and you'll be hooked. Promise.
This is the perfect non-alcoholic drink, so it's kid-friendly. Serve this at a BBQ, picnic, or a potluck. It's versatile and oh so tasty!
Kitchen Note: This recipe is based upon a ratio of liquids instead of exact measurements. This will allow you to use this ratio for a glass or a pitcher of drinks. Also, I used a sweetened ice tea. If you use one that is unsweetened you may need to add 1 tsp of sugar to the drink. Try it first unsweetened and then add to taste.
Enjoy!
Tropical Green Tea Cooler
serves 1
Ice cubes
Green Iced Tea ( I used Gold Peak Green Iced Tea)
Mango Puree ( such as Kern's)
1 tsp lime juice
optional: sugar to taste, if not using sweetened tea
Fill a tall glass with ice cubes. Pour in 2/3 of the glass with Green Iced Tea. Fill in the last 1/3 of the glass with Mango puree. Add the lime juice and stir to combine. Serve immediately.
Yum
Summer fruit is everywhere and what a better way to use it than in a cooling fruit salad.
This salad isn't any old fruit salad though. No, it is one that is tossed in a wonder sauce. Yes, a sauce that just lends another layer of fruit flavor to the mix.
Recently I had the leisure of attending a Cool "No Cook" Sauces cooking class taught by Phillis Carey (one of my favorite chefs) down in San Diego. She made some fabulous sauces using oils and vinegars from Vom Fass. I love them all but new that I would make the Red Currant Raspberry Sauce first. She placed it on a fruit salad and I loved it so much that I kept my dish simple as well.
We had this for Memorial Day, but guess what? The 4th of July holiday is coming up next week and this would be the most PERFECT dish to serve at any BBQ festivities you may be having. Perfect for a picnic, grill, potluck, outdoor concert, beachside, lakeside...you name it. Everyone loved this fruit salad so since it was such a hit, I wanted to share it with you today.
Kitchen Notes: This uses a Red Currant Jelly. Bonne Maman' make a good Red Currant jelly. You also may find it from Knott's jelly. If you can't find the red currant use a good grape jelly. It tastes delicious as well. This also uses raspberry vinegar which I've seen at most major grocery stores as well as Walmart. You can also get one here. It's also perfect in salad dressings. The 3rd item is that she uses grapeseed oil. This is a great base to the dish as it a healthy choice and has a clean, light mild taste which is perfect for a dish where you want the fruit flavors to shine. This can be bought at most grocery stores, Walmart, and Trader Joe's.
This serve a crowd but you can adjust this to suit how many you are serving. I used little ice cream cups to serve our in. They look adorable!
Enjoy!
Fruit Salad with a Red Currant Raspberry Sauce
5 cups of mixed fruit ( I used watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, honeydew melons)
Sauce:
1/4 cup red currant jelly, melted and slightly cooled
2 T raspberry vinegar
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup grapeseed oil
Place the mixed fruit into a large mixing bowl. To make the sauce, whisk together the melted jelly, vinegar, sugar, mustard, paprika and salt until well mixed. Slowly whisk in the oil. At this point the sauce may be chilled until serving time. When ready to serve, pour over fruit and toss to combine. Serve immediately or may be refrigerated up to 4 hours before serving.
Source: sauce if from Phillis Carey Cool 'No Cook' Sauces cooking class
