Summer never ends when you're eating ice-cream

Oh friends, it is the last weekend of summer.

To celebrate, I'm sharing one of my all time favorite recipes for frozen yummiosity. Thanks to my friend LJ for first introducing me to this many years ago. Make this. It's quick and easy. Then get your ass out of the house and enjoy the weekend before it starts snowing.

3 Ingredient DIY Fro-Yo
95% Fat Free Cool Whip (you can use regular as well)
Any fruit yogurt you like (I use the Shiloette Mixed Berry Yogurt)
Any frozen fruit you want to add (I use frozen berries)
Mix it all together, and put it in the freezer for an hour or so.

Full in-box = Full tummy.

I collect recipes.

Duh!

Hear me out. For years, I have been collecting recipes by cutting them and pasting them into binders. Also by writing them on scraps of paper. My mother has done the same thing, and I know lots of women (no men - surprisingly) that take pride in their extensive recipe collection.


Then why is it that they never actually MAKE any of the recipes they collect? Most will resort to trusted, memorized standbys. I'll tell you why. Because even the most organized, alphabetically organized recipe card box is STILL not organized enough. You will never find what you need when you need it.

I 'd like to share my method of recipe collection. I've created my own on-line database organized my way with my own classifications and notes. I can access this database anywhere that I have an internet collection, and it's free and easy to maintain. Since beginning this database 6 months ago, I have collected 714 recipes, and have experimented with new recipes more than ever before!

Here's how I developed my method. Feel free to create your own online recipe database, if you are so inspired. It is time consuming, but it really is worth the hard work.

• Create a gmail email account. This should be totally different from your regular email acount. i.e. my recipe account is mickis.recipes@gmail.com
• Enter in every new recipe as a separate email, and email it to yourself at your recipe account
• Add labels to your recipes. This is where you really personalize your system. You can label your recipes according to cuisine, course, or level of difficulty. You can label one recipe with several different labels. Here are the labels I use: 'tried' for recipes that I've attempted before, 'healthy' for on-the-wagon standby's that I make regularly. 'Occasional' for recipes that I make to impress, and 'cheat' - exactly what the word implies. (see post on Smores Pie)
• To add notes to your recipe i.e. if you make it and want to note some modifications, you simply add a second email to the thread. It keeps the notes and comments together.

Searching for Recipes on the database: (this is what makes it worth it)

• To search by ingredient, you can enter the ingredient by entering the search field at the top of the window
• To browse recipes, you can sort a list by label. For example, if I wanted to browse through my recipes that I've tried before, I select the label 'tried' and it will bring up the list of recipes that I've pre-labeled 'tried.'

There you have it. I love my system. On a side note, if you're not using a gmail address for your regular email I can't even describe how superior it is to yahoo and hotmail.

Carb-free cool cucumber gazpacho

This little gem came together just today. I have been searching for ways to cut down/eliminate processed carbs from my diet - not an easy task. I've been making lots of gazpacho lately and have been using soaked breadrolls to give it a creamy consistency. I found that substituting ground almonds for the bread eliminates the refined carbs and adds nutrients. This recipe is delicious, easy and perfect for summer. I will be making more of this tomorrow.

Micki's Easy Cucumber Gazpacho
2 English cucumbers (The long ones that are sold in platic wrap) peeled and diced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 carton store bought low-fat tzaziki dip (I like Astro)
1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil - don't cheap out here, the quality DOES matter
1-2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1/2 cup ground almonds

Blend all ingredients in food processor or blender and refrigerate overnight.

Fake 'n Bake Fruit Cobbler

I haven't posted a recipe in a while, and I figure you might be hungry. Here's another fave from my stash that has minimal ingredients and very few steps but tastes fab - and looks as impressive as yo' mama's spray tan.

I think this was a Weight Watchers recipe. The key to this one is that you need to let it stand for at LEAST an hour after taking it out of the oven. A really good option for cheap DIY comfort food that isn't too unhealthy.

Fake 'n Bake Fruit Cobbler

2 (16 ounce) bags of any frozen fruit
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can diet Sprite or diet 7-Up

Place both bags of frozen fruit into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish (do not thaw). Sprinkle DRY cake mix over the top of frozen fruit. Pour entire can of diet Sprite or diet 7-UP over mixture. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees F. Uncover and bake an additional 40 minutes.

Otta-why's everything closed? The Inspration Junkie's foray into our nation's capital.

I convinced the hubby to drive us 5 and something hours east to our glorious captial city because despite being a bona-fide card-carrying Canadian citizen for the past 13 years, I'd never been to Ottawa. As always, when I travel, I excitedly search for new sources of inspiration. Apart from some beautiful archtecture, and taking 63 photographs of our magnificent parliament buildings, I've learned that Ottawa is the city that fun forgot. It's pretty culturally and artistically devoid. This Inspiration Junkie was fresh out of material.

Actually, there was one highlight. I got really excited because a beaver came right up to us right on the street! I was freaking out, I took like a zillion pictures. Then my hubby told me that the beaver was a groundhog.

Yup, a bona-fide card-carrying Canadian, I am.

For all intensive purposes...

have you ever said that phrase? Well, for all intensive purposes, let's pretend that you came out of a toilet stall, with a huge wad of TP stuck to the back of your pants. Imagine nobody told you?

Well, that's how I felt this afternoon when I found out that , for all intensive purposes, I've been saying that phrase completely wrong! There's no such thing as 'all intensive purposes.' The correct phrase is ' for all intents and purposes!'

Says the wise wise wiki...
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The correct phrase is "to all intents and purposes." This phrase dates back to the 1500s and originated in English law, where it was "to all intents, constructions, and purposes." In modern usage, "for all intents and purposes" is also acceptable. The phrase means "for all practical purposes" and is generally used to compare two nonidentical acts or deeds, i.e., "She went to his room and drank with him, which he viewed - for all intents and purposes -as consent to sex." A shorter equivalent phrase is "in effect."

When used in a strictly legal sense, the wording would be "intent and purposes," as it refers to one's mental attitude/state at the time said action occurred.

A common malapropism is "for all intense and purposes" (also, "for all intensive purposes") a result of the original phrase being misheard and repeated.
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Which poses a few questions:

a) Has anyone else ever used the phrase 'for all intensive purposes', and not been corrected?
b) If Wiki is so good with grammar lessons, and the Wii is a damn fine sitter then why do we still send our kids to school?
3) Why is it that everytime a girl carries a cosmo to a bedroom with a dude, is she seen as a slut-bag, maybe she's just thirsty?

but I digress....

I know that there were no yummy recipes in this post. But I hope I made you laugh, made you think, enlightened you a smiggin' and prevented you from sounding a little less gauche in public.

smooches!

My Swedish Marriage Counsellor

I recently heard the expression 'Divorce Dust', referring to a relationship crumbling under the stress of home renovation. I have never gone through it myself, but yesterday,I did a smaller-scale test of the health of my own marriage.

Wanna know if you're gonna last? Nothing tells you faster than putting together Ikea furniture with your mate. The wood and screws within those boxes become a microcosm of your relationship how fantastic, and how flawed it is. Our Swedish Marriage counsellor was named Granas, and came in the form of a glass-top kitchen table and four chairs. Here is the finished result of our counselling session.

I am extremely proud of the outcome. This from two people who can barely knock nails into the wall created a functional piece of furniture. What the morning table-building session proved to me, was how great of a team we are. We both complement eachother's shortcomings, and even though we may get ticked-off at times, we do listen and communicate when it counts.

Honey, I think we're gonna make it. Hell, we may even outlast the table.