Doesn’t that look delicious?

I learned it from his Mama!

Mix a Can of crushed pineapple, CoolWhip, Cottage Cheese and a box of jello (any flavor) together,

and eat up!

It’s good.  Trust me.

As I have told you before, Ryan and I have had to get pretty creative with squash and zucchini this year because we have a ton.

Here is one of my inventions:

I am going to call it the “Squash and Lasagna Mix Up.”

I boiled some squash (I used 2 really large ones)  for a few minutes, until tender.

Cooked a pound of Italian sausage.

I gathered up some Ricotta, Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese; and. . .

mixed the cheeses together.

Then I heated some tomato sauce.

We also have a ton of tomatoes, but I was lazy on this particular night and used Prego.

I put the squash in,

and the Italian sausage.

I stirred it all up and put it in a 13 x 9.

Put the cheese mixture on top and put in the oven for about 10 minutes to melt the cheese.

This concoction totally satisfied by lasagna craving and used up some more squash and zucchini.

I think I will make it again!

This is my favorite way to eat them, other than straight off the vine, of course.

What you need:

Fresh Blackberries

Flour, Sugar, Milk and Butter

I doubled the recipe so I used 1 quart of fresh blackberries, 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of milk and 2 sticks of butter.

You would normally use, 2 cups of berries ,1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk and 1 stick of butter.

Whisk Flour, Sugar and Milk together.

Melt the butter.

Whisk the butter into the batter.

Pour the batter into a buttered baking dish. When doubling the recipe a 9×13 is necessary.

Sprinkle the berries evenly on top of the batter, then sprinkle a little sugar on top and bake it for about 1 hour, until golden and bubbly, at 350 degrees.

I wanted to show you the cobbler when it came out of the oven,

but this happened!

I will take a picture before it comes out of the oven next time!

This recipe I got from The Pioneer Woman’s new site, TastyKitchen.com:

Italian Zucchini Bake

I obviously use yellow squash and zucchini interchangeably, I can not tell any difference, other than color, of course.

It is pretty simple, you basically just cook the squash and sausage, mix all of the other ingredients together and bake them in here:

This is a very easy and very delicious.

It reminded us of a breakfast casserole, so we ate the leftovers for breakfast!

You can find the printable recipe here.

Ryan decided he was going to find a new way to eat squash.  This is what he came up with:

He put the bacon wrapped squash on the grill.

When the bacon was crispy he sprinkled them with shredded mozzarella.

When the mozzarella was melted he took them off the grill, put hot pepper sauce and dried cranberrys and they were delicious!

I don’t know  what he has decided to call this new recipe. . .

BUT, we have not had many peppers yet.

So, when Ryan asked for stuffed peppers, I made stuffed peppers and stuffed squash.

I did not use a recipe, but I ‘m going to try to create one with pictures. . .

In a Skillet,  I cooked lean  ground beef (a little over a pound), squash, onion, jalapeno, salt and pepper. You can leave out the squash or add bell peppers. I would have added peppers if we would have had any.

While you’re waiting on the beef halve your peppers, or squash,  clean out the seeds, and put them in a pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes. When they are slightly tender take them out and drain them.

When the squash and onions were tender, I added a can of sliced mushrooms, garlic, cooked rice (2 cups-ish), and a little sauce that is a mixture of ketchup (1/2 cup-ish), Worcestershire sauce (1 tsp-ish), and hot pepper sauce (to taste)

You could add diced tomatoes and/or tomato sauce in addition to or instead of the ketchup mixture, it is equally delicious.

When the mixture is complete, put the squash and peppers in a greased baking dish.

Fill them with the mixture and top with cheese

Bake, at 350, for about 20 minutes. . .

and enjoy!

First you need:

Fresh green beans from the garden

Ryan and I sat on the front porch, and snapped them, while watching the baby bunnies play.

Baby red potatoes:

A ham hock (about 1/2 pound) and chicken broth (3 quarts):

Bring the ham hock and broth to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add the green beans, potatoes, an onion (sliced), a bay leaf, salt and pepper.

Bring it to a boil again, then simmer until the green beans and potatoes are the desired tenderness.

I usually let it simmer for about a 30 minutes.

Then eat up!

You may want to add a little more salt and pepper, and some butter on the potatoes.

We arrived at the Stratosphere a few minutes late for our reservation, because we started walking the wrong way when we got off the monorail.  My directional lesson in Vegas was that when in doubt while outside, find the strip, and inside, find the Casino (all of the hotels have their casinos on the Strip level, if you find the casino you can find your way out).

The Top of the World had the most involved entrance process that I have ever seen for a restaurant. You first check in with a hostess at ground level, then they send you through a security check point to the elevator.  Inside the elevator there is operator who takes you up over 100 floors, in approximately one minute, to the restaurant.  You are then greeted by a second hostess who seats you in the revolving dining room.  Over the next hour and 20 minutes you will slowly revolve and see the entire 360 degree view of all of Las Vegas,  in fact, you can see about 600 square miles.

After being seated, the waiter immediately brought us water, bread and Stratosphere shaped butter.  From the menu we chose:

Three Course Dinner for Two with wine pairings

First Course:

With a choice of soup or salad, we chose the Caesar salad , which was paired with Trimbach, Pinot Gris, Alsace

Second Course:

Copied directly from the menu:

“Our World Famous Chateaubriand for Two Angus Beef ® tenderloin, roasted to perfection, served with sautéed langoustines with garden vegetables, house potatoes and sauce Béarnaise”

Paired with Beaulieu Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford

In a couple of words: Delicious! Melt in your mouth! Fantastic!

And then, as if we hadn’t already had enough delicious food to eat, we were served our third, and final, course, which was a dessert sampler. The sampler included: (from left to right) Trio of Desserts- Raspberry Mousse in a white chocolate bowl, Chocolate Mousse, and White Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

Sinful!

Paired with Godiva Chocolate Coffee

Tickets to the Observation deck, just above the Top of the World, are included with dinner, normally about $14 per adult.  So when dinner was complete we took the elevator up another floor or two to the observation deck to take pictures from the top of the tallest free standing tower in the United States.

(The blue light show in the picture below is the beam from the top of the Luxor)

The observation deck is also where you can board the Stratosphere Insanity rides.  I was too much of a wussy to take the chance, and Ryan had already done it once before, so we just soaked in the view of the lights of Las Vegas.

We had a great time at the Stratosphere and truly enjoyed our dinner at the Top of the World.  The three course meal for two, with wine pairing , was a little pricey, at $220, but worth every penny for the experience and the excellent meal.

]]> http://dumbyoungins.com/2009/07/22/top-of-the-world-restaurant/feed/ 5 http://dumbyoungins.com/2009/07/14/grilled-veggies/ http://dumbyoungins.com/2009/07/14/grilled-veggies/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:14:20 +0000 Ashley http://dumbyoungins.com/?p=1523 Grilled Vegetables are awesome!

Here’s what to do, it’s very simple.

Cut up your veggies (Peppers, Onions, Cucumbers, Squash, etc.), and rinse tomatoes and mushrooms.

Put the Veggies in a ziplock bag with Italian dressing.

Shake it up, making sure all of the veggies are coated with with dressing, let them marinate for 30 minutes, then put them on the grill.

Leave them on the grill for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Then they are all done!

We ate them with steak and the peas I wrote about here.

PS- If you do not already own a grill basket, you need to get one, they are great!

Get one from Amazon.com here:

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