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Monday, July 25, 2016

Citrus Freeze

Best summer dessert ever—and no baking! I’d like to provide credit for it, but I’ve had it so long I don’t know where I got it, and failed to find it (though there are many recipes with a similar name) online. Given the ingredients, I suspect it originated with Kraft Foods.

10-12 ginger snap cookies
1 250 gm package cream cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
1 can frozen lemonade or limeade,* thawed
1 litre tub CoolWhip, thawed

Place cookies on bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Don’t worry if there are gaps, but you can put in broken pieces if you like.

Beat cream cheese with sugar until well blended. Gradually add juice concentrate. Add whipped topping; stir with wire whisk until well blended. Pour over cookies in pan. Freeze overnight.

It claims it serves 16, but we’ve never managed to make it go that far.



*It will work with any frozen citrus juice concentrate, but for best results, use Bacardi’s frozen lime margarita mixer. I’ve also made it with pink lemonade, and Five Alive.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Peanut Soup

1 can (354 ml / 1 ½ cups) evaporated milk
3 ounces smooth peanut butter
salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

Heat the milk in a double boiler over medium-heat, gradually stirring in the peanut butter. Once the peanut butter is mixed in, add the seasoning, and continue to stir until warmed through—10 to 15 minutes from start to finish. Thin down with milk or cream if you find it too thick.

Serves two

Got this one from the 1914 Canadian Family Cook Book, “a volume of tried, tested and proven recipes by prominent Canadian ladies, edited by Grace E. Denison.” Oddly enough, none of the recipes have the names of the “prominent Canadian ladies” attached, which I would have thought would be a good marketing tool.

I’d never seen a recipe for peanut soup before so thought I’d give it a try. Here’s the original version of the recipe in case you want to try it.

1 quart rich milk
1 large cup peanuts, ground fine


Put milk on to cook in a double boiler, add salt to taste, and season highly with black and red pepper. Add the peanuts. Cook 20 or 30 minutes. Just before taking from the fire, add a cupful of cream. Strain.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Tastes Like Gourmet Rosé Pasta

I love alfredo sauce but it’s so rich, it doesn’t always agree with me. So when I was making pasta the other night, I decided to cut my store-bought alfredo with something else, and tossed in a can of Aylmer Accents stewed tomatoes. It was really good—in that slaving over a hot stove all day way. Which was great, considering it took almost no time at all.

4 cups dried pasta (I like penne or rotini, but use what you like)
1 small jar or half of one large jar alfredo sauce
1 can Aylmer Accents Spicy Red Pepper stewed tomatoes

Cook pasta according to directions. Pour into a colander and while it’s draining add the alfredo sauce and stewed tomatoes to the pot you used to cook the pasta. Heat on low, then add the pasta back in.

Serves four


If your kids are old enough to use a stove, they can certainly make this.

Ice Cream Floats for Adults

When I was a kid, sometimes as a special treat Mom would make ice cream floats for dessert. They were especially good if we had A&W root beer on hand, which at the time could be bought at their restaurants in large glass jugs.

So when I recently spotted a four pack of Mad Jack Hard Root Beer in my grocery store I had to try it, even though I’d not been keen on the original Mad Jack Premium Apple Lager. The combination of lager and apple just didn’t work for me. I did like the root beer version, however. It made me feel nostalgic and I started wondering how it would work paired with ice cream. Quite well, actually! And no, I’m not being paid to write this up—I doubt the company even knows this blog exists.

Hard Root Beer Float

Put two to three scoops of vanilla ice cream (depending on the size of the glass) in a glass. Add Mad Jack Hard Root Beer. Serve with a straw.

Then I discovered Mad Jack’s Premium Ginger Flavoured Lager. Of the three, it’s probably the best to drink on its own. It also makes a mean rhubarb cake. And not a bad float, either.


Lemon Ginger Float

Put two to three scoops of lemon sorbet or gelato in a glass. Add Mad Jack Ginger Flavoured Lager. Serve with a straw.

Looking for more cool summer drinks? Check out my B52Milkshake recipe.