The Lighter Side of America's Test Kitchen

I rave about ATK all the time. But there are times when I just can't do the "fully loaded" dinners. For that I have my America's Test The Best Light Recipe to turn to. I've only tried a few things before, like my creamy pesto. So tonight I tried their Macaroni and Cheese with Ham & Peas. Very tasty! It said to use the 50% Cabot Cheddar but I chose to use the 2% Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp. I don't know what the difference is between the two. Maybe my use of skim milk instead of 2% made up some of the difference. And rarely do we eat regular pasta anymore, so I used the Barilla Plus elbow noodles.

Craziness!

So what began as an experiment has turned into craziness. David was trying out FaceTime on our new iPhones and did a portrait for a customer of his in Miami. Then he tweeted about it. He got a pretty good response. Next another client tells some of his friends. Next thing we know, he's on the internet geek blog gizmodo.com and the website wired.com. He's slightly overwhelmed! (to put that gently) Gonna have to take on the role of administrative assistant.

Check out the articles!

David on Gizmodo

David on Wired.com

And by the way...wired.com...who said you could call him "Dave".

Finished Products

So I have finished two of my projects.

First off, my needlepoint.

I went a little too far out on two of the edges but that won't matter once I have it made into a cushion.

Now my afghan. I love this throw. It ended up bigger than I thought it would be. There were variations in the instructions, so I went with the longer of the two.

Almost big enough for the bed.

I just love all the colors. So much variety.

MVP

My poor little soccer star...at least that's what he wants you to think. ;-)

Broke two bones in his foot. Guess our mountain trip is off....and I just learned it's the highland games this weekend. :-(

Watch out world! He's a menace on those crutches.

Another Project

Here's the blanket I'm currently working on. It's made by doubling up colors and crocheting them together. The whole thing is made up of about 17 different color combinations. Stay tuned for the finished product.

The design is a ripple pattern, one of my favorites.

Most of the colors don't really match but it all seems to work.

And here's a picture of baby blanket that I made for a friend.

Their colors were pink and green...I can't really handle baby pink.

4th of July "Cookout"

Since we live in an apartment, we cannot have a grill. So we had to do hamburgers inside but they turned out great! The idea came from Cook's Country, they're pimento & cheese stuffed burgers. Yum! I lightened it up in several ingredients. Then I made cobbler/pie without the crust. Essentially...blackberry sauce to put over ice cream (well...frozen yogurt).

Oh man these were soooo good!

Tasty replacement for cobbler and ice cream. I added splash or two chocolate syrup.

Gotta love summertime!

Check out the blackberries. We bought some from our local farmer's market.

They were huge!

And delicious!