Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

I've decided to introduce Flash Back Friday (FBF) no it's not just a cheap way to produce filler for the blog. It's a way to revisit things that I make often and are our faves and perhaps I may have tweeked a bit - I'm always changing things up. So for my first entry I'm looking at you Coconut Mint Mojito. Check out the recipe here . Since we were away in San Antonio* for the official start of summer AKA Memorial Day weekend. This past weekend we broke out the coconut/Malibu/mint.  I have to say this recipe is excellent. We've tested it out on some guinea pigs um I mean friends and they also really liked it. I have still not tried it using the simple syrup - I know I'm just too lazy. We used light coconut milk. I do have to say it is better with the full fat (sorry). So enjoy! *I had a conference that weekend - yeah I know who has a conference Memorial Day weekend?? Anyway the Sous Chef decided to come down a day later and we enjoyed the Riverwalk. T...

It rained all week (or was cloudy) and it was so nice to see the sun out again that we decided to invite a few friends over for afternoon cocktails. I threw some cheese that we had in the refrigerator on a platter, added some dried cranberries and almonds for good measure and picked up some red grapes at the store. I also picked up some sour cream while I was at the store to make some type of dip for vegetables. I kept it simple - just baby carrots and celery.  I didn't feel like blanching broccoli or messing around with any other vegetables.  I wasn't sure what type of dip to make so I improvised. I went out to the garden and picked some spinach and herbs and got to work. Parmesan Spinach Dip 10 oz spinach (handy that we had that in the garden) 2 cloves garlic, minced olive oil 1 t ground nutmeg 1 T fresh tarragon, chopped 15 basil leaves, torn 1T fresh oregano 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese 16 oz sour cream 2T lemon juice and zest of 1 lemon salt/pepper ...