Tater Salad

I love potato salad. It is just one of those things that must be present at any cookout, in my opinion. I do like cole slaw and pasta salad too, but there is just something about "tater salad" that strikes my fancy. :)

As much as I love this stuff, can you believe that I have never made it? Until this past Saturday, that is. We provided lunch for our new members after church this past Sunday (hot dogs, pulled pork BBQ sandwiches, tater salad, chips, baked beans, Poke Cake) and instead of purchasing a big tub of the stuff I decided to try my hand at it. Of course I called my mom to see how she makes hers and she told me everything I needed to know to make it. (Thanks, Mom!)

There are so many kinds of potato salad out there, and I love just about every one of them. I believe my favorite, though, is the mustard potato salad. It's tangy and sweet and just reminds me of what potato salad should be. Here is my "recipe" (I use this term lightly because I pretty much just added stuff!):

Mustard "Tater" Salad

5 or 6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
1 Tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 teaspoon onion flakes (or you can cut up a small onion)
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish (or you can chop up a medium size sweet pickle)
1 Tablespoon of sweet pickle juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

Boil potatoes until fork-tender, but not too soft (unless you want a "mashed potato" consistency), drain. Allow to cool. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. You can eat it right away, but it actually tastes better after it has chilled in the fridge overnight or for at least a couple of hours. Enjoy!

By the way, if anyone has any good "tater salad" recipes, I would love to try them!

Good Earth Giveaway Winner!

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner of the giveaway - I've been on vacation. :)

Congratulations to ....... Kimberly Kitchens! Kimberly, you have won the Good Earth Prize Package!! Please email me at brizner (at) hotmail (dot) com with your address and phone number so I can send it on and you can get your goodies!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway. More giveaways to come in the near future so stay tuned!! :)

Good Earth Giveaway!!

Oops, I'm a day late on the giveaway....better late than never, though!

Good Earth and MyBlogSpark have not only provided me with an awesome Good Earth dinner kits gift pack, they have provided one for you too! Here is what you will get:



All you have to do is leave a comment answering the following questions:

1) Are you a "from scratch only" kind of cook, do you "swear by boxed/frozen dinners", or are you in-between?

2) Which of the dry dinner kit flavors would you like to try most of all?

Good luck!!

Restaurant taste from a box!

I love dining out. I especially love Italian food. Imagine my surprise when I made this yummy pasta dish....from a box....and it tasted like something I would order at a nice sit-down Italian restaurant!

I recently participated in a new spark from MyBlogSpark. They sent me a goodie box that included 2 sets of bamboo flatware, 2 bamboo plates, a bamboo cutting board, a 100% recyclable grocery bag, and a Good Earth Mediterranean Chicken boxed dinner kit. Everything was awesome!! Thank you, MyBlogSpark, for allowing me to participate in this spark. Now, on to the star of the show...the dinner!

This dinner was AmAzInG. I never thought something from a box could taste so good! Plus, it only took 20 minutes to make. Pair the pasta with some garlic bread and you have a meal fit for a king...er....queen! :) Also, the dinner kit has no artificial flavors, no trans fat, no artificial preservatives, no MSG, and the pasta is 100% whole grain. What more could you ask for?

The kit itself comes with angel hair pasta, cream sauce, Mediterranean seasoning, and seasoned whole wheat flour, The only thing I had to add was chicken, olive oil, water and milk. It's really that simple. And the flavor, well the flavor was just out of this world delicious. Even my hubby loved it (...and this is a hubby that is a pretty picky eater)!

Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Doesn't this look yummy?? I have to admit, I had the leftovers for lunch today and I believe it was even better today than yesterday. I can't wait to try the other dinner kits! Good Earth also offers these dinner kit flavors: Spicy Citrus Glazed Shrimp with angel hair pasta, Herb Crusted Chicken with mushroom risotto and Tuscan Chicken with penne pasta. YUM!!! Thanks Good Earth!

Stay tuned for a Good Earth Giveaway tomorrow!!

The good ole' days...

Remember when you were younger and the thing that you looked forward to most in the summer was the ice cream truck? Well, I never had that luxury. I lived on a hill. On a farm. No trick-or-treaters, no ice cream trucks, no kids to play with. :( Sad, I know.

Now that I live in a suburb of Louisville, in a neighborhood packed with kids, we see the ice cream truck every day. As soon as the weather starts to turn slightly warm, here come those tunes of "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "The Wheels on the Bus" billowing down the street. And sometimes, we have several ice cream trucks that zoom down our little street (one of them rings a bell though, the music box is broken).

Lately, my little man and I have been sitting outside on the front porch in the afternoons when it is cool. We always look for the ice cream truck to drive by our house and little man always waves to the driver. Well, the other day it was a little hotter than normal so I decided to get the little guy an ice cream. I chose the push-up (sherbet) which is what I always used to get. He LOVED it! He also loved going up the the truck and seeing all of the pretty colors/flavors of ice cream listed on the side. Here are some pictures of him devouring his cool treat:

As you can see from this last photo, he REALLY enjoyed it! :) The only negative thing about the whole experience was the fact that prices have went up on these yummy treats.....$1.50 for a push-up? Come on!!!

Brrrrrrr!!!!

One of my FAVORITE things about summer is all of the cool treats -- ice cream, DQ blizzards, this cake, and most of all, SHAVED ICE!! Now, shaved ice is not to be compared to the ever-so-popular snow cone. The textures are totally different from one another.


Snow cones are granular, with little pieces of ice kind of in the shapes of little balls with flavored syrup on top (usually blue, red, or purple) and scooped into a paper cone. Shaved ice has the consistency of soft snow and is usually scooped into a styrofoam cup, packed/piled high with a plethora of flavors to choose from. Snow cones usually lose their flavor fast, whereas shaved ice keeps the flavor until the very end.


I am very fortunate to have a shaved ice stand 3 MINUTES from my house (driving that is) called Snow-to-Go. It. Is. Awesome. The workers are soooo nice and friendly, and the prices are very cheap - Small $1.50, Medium $2.00, Large $2.50, XLarge $3.00. Plus they have some covered picnic tables to the side where you can sit and enjoy your delicious treat. I haven't counted all of the flavors, but I am pretty sure there are more than 50 listed from Strawberry to Ninja Turtle to Tiger's Blood. :)


My favorite is this one:

You can't really tell by the pictures (since it was half gone at the time!), but it was a blue raspberry/cherry swirl. Can you see how soft the texture is?

When I was little, we had a shaved ice stand in my hometown. I think we were there just about every day of every summer, and I tried almost all of the flavors! One of my favorites then was the Creamsicle (orange and vanilla swirled).

This was so good and refreshing on a hot day. I think next time I will try the Pink Lemonade. :)