Are you an avid tea drinker looking for a different way to enjoy your tea this summer? A lot of tea drinkers go iced in the warm summer months, some even adding lemonade to their iced tea, but there is an even colder way to enjoy your tea in the summer months if you enjoy green tea: smoothies!

Below you will find the recipe for my personal summer tea concoction, which will require matcha (powdered green tea). Matcha is high in caffeine content compared to regular steeped tea, so you may not want to indulge in one of these smoothies too late in the day.

INGREDIENTS
1 tsp matcha (powdered green tea)
4 oz. cup of fruit-flavored yogurt (Light 'n Fit works well, low in sugar)
frozen strawberries (or other desired fruit)
frozen peach slices (or other desired fruit)
apple juice

In college, my dining hall often - suspiciously often, in fact - had a special DIY station for making panzanella, Italian bread salad.

One of my favorite things in the world is a thick wedge of pâté de campagne - rustic French pork pâté - served with crusty bread, coarse mustard, and a little jar of pickles. The buttery pâté is cut by a bracing smear of mustard, given body and crunch by the bread. And digging cornichons and pickled pearl onions out of the jar with a tiny fork and popping them, whole, in your mouth, is just plain fun. This combo makes a great dinner party appetizer because, like roll-your-own sushi, it gives guests something to do with their hands while they get to know each other (and you put the finishing touches on the lamb chops). But I admit I always thought pâté was something you bought, at exorbitant cost, at your local chichi market, not something you made yourself.

But a New York Times story about a new book, Terrine, by Stéphane Reynaud, has me ready to bust out the pork belly and a rectangular pan. The book includes recipes for terrines of all types, from pork head to chicken and lemon, to vegetarian zucchini with cream. Check out the article for two free recipes.

I grew up eating crustless quiche. My mother, always looking for a way to save on the calories and fat content in a recipe gave up making crusts for her quiches long before I was born. In recent years, she stopped making them all together, in an attempt to reign in her cholesterol. This is why I was fairly surprised when she called me the other day to tell me that she had discovered the easiest quiche recipe ever. However, when I asked if she had used a crust, she responded with shock in her voice, "Of course not!"

So folks, in anticipation of the weekend, when one of you might want to whip up a simple Saturday or Sunday brunch dish, I offer you my mom's new, very easy quiche recipe. You don't have to make it crustless, but if you do, you can indulge a little more in a scone or muffin.

Now I realize that it's the day after Halloween and the last thing you want to be thinking about is pumpkin, especially since some of the neighborhood kids smashed your jack 'o lantern last night and you have big chunks of pumpkin to clean up off your front porch. Be that as it may, I wandered across a really fun recipe for pumpkin steaks and I couldn't help it. I had to share.

It's sort of a labor intensive recipe, in which you cut the pumpkin into flat chunks, bake it in the oven until its tender and then pan fry it. But gosh does it sound good. I'm tempted to get my hands on another cooking pumpkin and try it out. It would be a great one to tuck away for Thanksgiving, for those of you who are tired of the same squash or sweet potato dishes. The full recipe is after the jump.

[via Green Daily]
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During a chunk of my childhood, my family lived in a house that had once been owned by a botanist. She had planted all sorts of wonderful stuff on the property, including a small apple orchard way at the very back of long, sloping yard. I loved going down there with the dog after school in the fall. The air carried the smell of boozy, decomposing fruit and I felt like a pioneer girl, being able to pick all the apples I wanted.

My mom, driven by the desire not to be wasteful, would pick buckets of apples and make huge batches of applesauce that would get ladled into plastic quart-sized bags and frozen. I learned from her just how easy it is to whip up a pot of applesauce and what a rewarding activity it is. I don't have access to apple trees the way I once did, but I try to go apple picking at least once a fall at one of the local farms in my area. I always turn at least half my bounty into a large batch of applesauce. I save some to make applesauce cake and eat the rest by the bowlful. It tastes like pure fall.

My "recipe" for making applesauce is after the jump.

My Slashfoodie friends, I am at a loss.

I have about a bazillion (yeah, so I exaggerated when I said "gazillion") cherries sitting on my countertop, and I have no idea what to do with them besides wash them and just eat them straight out of the bowl. I have used dried cherries in baking and during the autumn, and lately, I have been throwing frozen cherries into my morning smoothies. However, I have never used fresh cherries in cooking.

The reason I have yet to cook with fresh cherries, I think, is that the idea of standing in my kitchen squirting cherry red juice all over my kitchen floor and my clothes, possibly knicking my fingers on a fruit knife, and basically staining my fingers a lovely shade of red for days to come -- pitting fresh cherries -- does not appeal to me. If I'm going to go to all that effort to take out the stones, I'd just as soon pop that cherry into my mouth standing right there.

So Slashfoodies, I am asking for your help. Share with me, your favorite recipe using fresh cherries that will most definitely make my time and sanity pitting cherries in the kitchen worthwhile, will you? Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert -- anything!

Since Mother's Day is right around the corner, I've been searching for some recipe ideas and started wondering how Paula Deen, probably the best-known mother in the cooking world, would celebrate Mom's Day? The answer, of course, is by inviting her sons over to cook with her. After a quick search, I found out that the Food Network would be airing her Mother's Day special today. Paula, Jamie and Bobby will apparently be preparing a brunch feast which includes Nutty Orange Coffee Cake, Benedictine Sandwiches (pictured, above) and Eggs in a Nest, which essentially equates to a ham and cheese omelet served in phyllo pasty - nice twist on the original.

If you watch her often, you'll know that Paula isn't afraid to mix things up a little in the morning with some wine - and in this case she is preparing Wine Spritzers which I'm fairly certain would be light and refreshing after a heavy brunch.

(image: Food Network)

Where I live, we are usually enjoying some Spring-like weather by now, but this year the snow and cold just wont go away. I haven't been inspired enough to cook much lately since I've had it with winter staples like soups and stews, roasts, and anything else that has to be done in the oven. Though I do tend to barbeque year-round, even that has been put on the back-burner lately, simply for lack of inspiration.

I am in desperate need of some sunlight, some warm weather, and some fresh recipes to get the creative juices flowing again - which is why I was so excited to see Brilynn's recipe for Mango Wrapped Thai Shrimp. This dish just looks like summer. It conjurs up visions of a tropical island and endless sunshine, and I'm sure it tastes pretty amazing too. You can view the entire recipe at her site Jumbo Empanadas.

I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but I do love how beautiful it can make even the most ordinary desserts. If you've ever wondered how chefs prepare some of their gorgeous chocolate creations, Ghirardelli lets us in on one of their secrets with this recipe for chocolate dessert cups which I found via bfeedme.com. Using balloons of all things, the procedure is really quite simple - dip inflated balloons partway into melted chocolate and let set in the freezer until solid.

The cups can be filled with just about anything - mousse, ice cream, berries, whatever your heart desires. Just be sure to remove all traces of the balloon before serving. If you'd like to try making these at home, the full instructions from the Ghirardelli website can be found after the jump.

Like so many other people, I nearly always have a couple of bananas laying around that are getting overly ripe. Sometimes I just stick them into the freezer for later use, but I often toss them into a loaf of banana bread. Banana bread is fast, easy and works great for both breakfasts and for snacking. The only drawback is that you can get tired of it after making the same loaf recipe several times in a row. It is easy to dress up a loaf by tossing in chocolate chips, nuts or raisins, but it's nice to have some more varied variations available, as well. In this month's Vegetarian Times magazine, I saw a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips that looked quick, easy and tasty. Not surprisingly, it lived up to my expectations. The bread is slightly heavy, but not too dense, and has a good balance of peanut butter and banana flavors. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet and cut back on the amount slightly. The bread is good plain and toasted, for breakfast, with tea or for dessert!

Happy Mardi Gras folks! Just about everyone who has been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans has had one of Pat O'Brien's Hurricanes. A tall red drink served in a 24 oz. Hurricane glass which looks like the tall glass chimney of an old fashioned oil hurricane lamp. Sipping a Hurricane is one of the most popular ways to celebrate when in New Orleans, and I've had my share back in the years when I made my annual pilgrimage to Mardi Gras. It's a tasty drink with a bit of a kick, the saving grace is that it is served in a tall glass filled with ice so you can sip it slowly. If you slurp it down fast, then after a few you're gonna feel like you went through a hurricane yourself. Your clothes will start to come off, your popularity will soar, and you'll soon be wearing a lot of Mardi Gras beads and pearls.

Pat O'Brien operated a speakeasy during prohibition called Mr. O'Brien's Club Tipperary. The semi-secret password to get in was "storm's brewin". Then in 1933 after the repeal of prohibition Pat O'Brien moved
across the street and opened Pat O'Brien's and a while later in 1942 moved to the present location at 718 St. Peter Street. The Hurricane was created at Pat O'Brien's some time in the 1940's during the war years. Whiskey was hard to get but rum was plentiful and to order a case of whiskey a bar had to order as many as 50 cases of rum first. So Pat O'Brien created this punch like drink to make use of the available rum.

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone.

The whole idea behind having pancakes on Fat Tuesday is to use up the butter, milk, eggs and other indulgent ingredients that you might having lying around the house so that you won't be tempted during Lent. But because everyone likes pancakes and not everyone observes lent, calling the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday "National Pancake Day" makes the tradition open to all - and I think that we can all agree that more pancakes are not a bad thing.

For my pancake day breakfast, I opted not to go with something decadent, but instead with something more wholesome so that I don't feel too bad about starting the day with a couple more pancakes (topped with maple syrup, of course), than I need.

Although it is still cold in many parts of the country, temperatures here in Southern California shot up to almost summer-like highs over the past few days. The sudden heat has cause me - and many others - to turn away from hot soup and "comfort food" cookbooks and turn back to salads and other cool, light fare. This salad is idea for moving from winter into spring, although you could make it all year round, because it incorporates fresh oranges, dried cranberries and salty-sweet candied nuts, all of which are frequently used in late fall and winter dishes and desserts. These sweet salad components are on a bed of mixed baby greens and diced avocado. I dressed the whole salad with a heavily vinegar-based dressing (a citrus flavored vinegar mixed with a bit of oil, salt and pepper) to enhance the brightness of all of the components.

At Trader Joe's the other day, I picked up a container of Dark Chocolate Covered Dried Cherries on my way to the checkout. Unlike chocolate-covered raisins, each piece was huge and there was clearly a high chocolate-to-cherry ratio. Chocolate and cherries are a great combination as it is, but Trader Joe's tends to carry some high-quality brands (under their store name), so I didn't hesitate to put them in my cart. My immediate thought was that they would be good in a cookie, so I baked up a batch to share with some friends. I used one of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes, which turns out cookies that are just sweet and buttery enough to be dangerously addictive, with a slightly chewy center and crispy edges. The cherries added some extra chew to the basic recipe and the chocolate brought it all together.