The post is a day late . . . what?

Okay, so I realized that I hadn’t yet published my post for Friday until right before midnight last night. But you have to understand what was going on.

I prepared for interviews and had one in Seattle yesterday evening. 🙂

AND

I had a baby to take care of and even resorted to driving him around between the 11 and midnight hour so he would finally stop fighting the urge to just fall asleep. 😦

So how was everyone’s 4^th of July weekend? We had a lot of fun just hanging out as a family and doing nothing in particular. I even had my 7 year old niece help me with taking pictures at the firework show we went to at Thanksgiving Point. I thought she did an excellent job!

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What I did do was a lot of cooking. So here are 5 of the things that I made. I have attached the links to the original recipes that I worked from but below are pictures and helpful hints on how I made it.

Pretzel S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

• Line your pan with foil . . . really . . . it make cutting them a lot easier
• Don’t try cutting them 2 minutes after you take them out of the oven they are very gooey at first but will setup

California Breakfast Casserole

• Make sure you really thaw your frozen hash browns and place them between paper towel to try and get the excess moisture out of them
• I used turkey sausage links that I cut in half length-wise

Three-Cheese Potato & Rosemary Tarts

• I only used two cheeses because I couldn’t find bocconcini in a store close to me
• Make sure you use a mandolin to cut the potatoes so they are consistently the same width. The thinner the better.
• We had extra after dinner so the next morning we scrambled eggs, reheated the tarts, topped them with the eggs and salsa and it was a very hearty breakfast dish.
• Side note: To my American friends; don’t be afraid of the metric measurements. Consult the internet or your Betty Crocker Cookbook to see the conversions.

Baby Kale & Blackberry Salad

• I have a person living with me that has a sulfur allergy so we couldn’t use the kale. I substituted with red leaf  and romaine lettuce.
• I also substituted goat cheese for the ricotta salata
• I made extra of the Rosemary Honeyed Almonds at the request of my mother. She has been snacking on them for a week but they need to be stored in an air tight container and when you have just finished coating them and they are soft, spread them out on a piece of parchment paper to cool so they won’t stick to your pan.

Watermelon Soda

• Keep in mind that the sweeter the watermelon the less sugar you need to add and vice versa.
• We used sparkling water and the adults loved it but the kids wanted it sweeter and we could have used ginger ale for them.