Erin's Creamy Garlic Fruit Salad

Erin wrote to us, "I made up these recipes myself." This sounds like such a wild combination, we'll have to try it. We are all big garlic fans here at Spatulatta but we've never tried it on fruit.

Creamy Garlic Fruit Salad

What you ll need:

1 apple (any kind)
steak knife
7-8 medium-sized strawberries
1 banana
some paper towels
cutting board
two salad bowls
two forks
salad tosser
½ cup of Larosa a Creamy Garlic Dressing
½ a bag pre-made salad mix
¼ of cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Rinse the strawberries and the apple. Dry them off with paper towels. Then peel the banana. Place all the fruit on the cutting board. Chop them with the steak knife into bite sized pieces.

2. Divide the pre-made salad mix into the bowls. Then throw equal amounts of each fruit into the bowls.

3. Now divide the creamy garlic dressing over the bowls. Use the salad tosser to mix it all up. Make sure the fruit and salad mix are evenly covered with the dressing.

4. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese over the salads.

5. Dip a fork in each one and enjoy the sweet and savory goodness. Serves two.

Tips:
1. You could add strips of chicken breast into the salad. They would be even better if they were marinated in lemon juice.

2. Try the different kinds of pre-made salads for this recipe.

3. It would be even more delicious delicious if there was more fruit in the salad.

Serving Suggestion:

You could take a pineapple and cut off the head. And then you could scoop out all the fruit inside (include it in the salad) then serve the salad in those little pineapple bowls you just made. Perfect for Hawaiian themed parties.

Grape Leave Dolmah from Gaby

Here's a note from our friend Gaby:

i wanted to give you the grape leaf recipe that has been in my family forever.

first you need grape leaves, you cut them in half, leave them open. then make a mix of raw meat together with rice. put them in the middle of your grape leaf, fold it nicely and you put it in a pot with whatever vegetable you want and water until the rice and meat are well cooked.

you can eat this with any yogurt.

gaby

p.s. i hope you like it.

Edible Playdough

Here's some fun from our friend Brooke

Edible playdough

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup karo syrup
3 cups powder sugar
3 1/2 cups flour

Mix all together @ enjoy

Thanks for the fun recipe Brooke!

Spatulatta Cookbook Making News!

Check out today's Chicago Sun-Times for an article about the Spatulatta Cookbook.

Liv and Belle also did an interview about the cookbook for Newsweek. That article will appear on September 10th.

The cookbook tour will begin on September 15 with a signing at Anderson's Bookshop, 5112 Main in Downers Grove

Allie's Baked Chicken Crust

Here's an easy recipe for crispy chicken from our friend Allie:

Buy chicken legs, wings, etc.

Prepare for oven.

Separate 2eggs in a bowl and stir until the yolk is as smooth as the white.

Pour in 1 cup of corn flakes and mix evenly.

Use a wooden spoon to spread over the chicken and bake.


My mother taught me how to make them!

Livvy's Ode to an Apple

An apple is red
and juicy too.
It's so good, the taste
goes from my head to my shoe.

An apple is green,
just like a pea.
And everyone knows
that they come from a tree.

An apple is yellow
and very round.
And when I bite it,
it makes a crunchy sound.

- Olivia Gerasole

Livvy invites you to send us your fruit poems.

Mustard Festival in Mt. Horeb, WI

Belle and Liv took a trip to celebrate National Mustard Day in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. Here they are with the Duchess of Mustard in all her golden finery. There they found out that mustard is the condiment of kings and the King of Condiments.

National Mustard Day has wacky fun for every taste. There was accordian music and a rock band, plus games like Fishing for Mustard and Mustard Bowling. Artists could try their hand at painting with mustard.

Three thousand hot dogs were sold (with mustard of course) for the benefit of charity. And the Spatulatta girls learned how to make mustard pasta from Chef Peter Robertson. No, the mustard wasn't on the pasta, the mustard was in the pasta dough.

The Festival is put on every year by the World Famous Mustard Museum. The museum has the world's largest collection of mustards - 4,800 in all. You can sample many of them in the museum's gift shop: Cranberry Mustard, Champagne Mustard and even Chocolate Mustard.

And if you can't make it to the Mustard Museum, the museum will ship to you. Because friends don't let friends eat k*#@*%!