Frugal In Florida

It's almost May! Which means a few things special in MY LIFE: My birthday! Not so exciting as it's the 5 3 one! Cinco De Mayo - same day as my birthday! Fort Lauderdale Air Show - same weekend as my birthday! Kentucky Derby! Yup, same weekend as the above 3 things! Uhm ... I am going to need a long vacation after this first weekend in May! We are having a 'few' people over for all  the festivities and you probably already know that I LOVE margaritas ... uh huh ... but not the heartburn at 2am after a few of the ones using the pre-made margarita mix ... Hubby already has the system worked out where he just pulls out the bottle of Prilosec and sets it next to my glass. Pretty pathetic, don't you think? ;-) I had shared this recipe a while ago and decided to make these again since I am having a few friends over ... I mean, heck, I have frozen strawberries, a ton of them,  because I always FREEZE them once they sit for a few days to keep them from going to...

Merry Christmas!! *This is a repost from last New Years and well, it's rather fitting again this year! I currently do not have the Prosecco, but DO have  4  now 6 bottles of Champagne in the  freezer  fridge (2 Moet, 3 Cuerve and 1 less expensive brand, NOT Korbel!)  Seriously, this is what I will most likely be drinking on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve!  Definitely on New Years Eve since I figured I'm starting another round of Whole30 on Friday and I sure as hell do NOT want to be hungover!  I have 6 bottles of champagne which should be more than adequate for the dinner toastings, the mimosas AND the midnight toast ... if necessary and see it on sale, will buy a few more bottles of Prosecco ( if  it's on sale). I DO have the POM so that's not a problem! Let's face it ... on a whim, I will sometimes buy things spontaneously, with good intentions ... just like when I bought 2 bottles of Prosecco a few months back. By the time I g...

FYI ... THIS IS VERY ADDICTIVE AND YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD MADE A DOUBLE BATCH! It's been a looooong time since I made this as we were making it every weekend and both Hubby and I decided that it was a little too indulgent to make "just because it's Saturday!" BUT now the Boat Parade Party is coming up and well, what better time than that to make this again! Yippee!! Cheese? Yup, in the freezer! Onions, of course, and SWEET VIDALIA ones at that! Cream cheese? Yup, down to 2 now in the fridge. Mayo ... yes, sadly, store bought.  Parmesan cheese? Wasn't 100% certain but I have some!  This is one of those dishes that people will be crowding around, giving a little jab of the elbow at times to try and get a scoop of the yumminess ... We've had friends who just pull up a barstool at the counter and just basically hover over the dish, inhaling it without a care in the world ...  Trust me, the one guy is Mr. Health Conscious and does not ju st eat stuff ...

I'm a big fan of the warmed spinach and artichoke dip, but Hubby prefers the cold one and especially served in a bread bowl (!!) so of course, I do try and keep the man somewhat happy and occasionally cater to his wants ;-) Then I realized, that even though it's fairly common, some of you out there in blog land may not know about the simplicity OR at all! So, here you go, the ORIGINAL COLD SPINACH DIP ... so easy to make! Because I only make this when we are entertaining and sometimes our parties are large, the last time I made this, I doubled the recipe and that's how it's shown: 2 boxes of frozen chopped spinach, thawed 2 cans of water chestnuts, drained and chopped (I can never find the chopped ones in store) 2 cups of mayo (I do NOT use my homemade stuff here, Hellmans is the choice...at least it's gluten free?)    2 containers (16 ounce) of sour cream (I use full fat, feel free to use low/no fat) 6 stalks green onions, sliced 2 packages of ...

You probably already know that I LOVE margaritas ... uh huh ... but not the heartburn at 2am after a few of the ones using the pre-made margarita mix ... Hubby already has the system worked out where he just pulls out the bottle of Prilosec and sets it next to my glass. Pretty pathetic, don't you think? ;-) I had shared this recipe a while ago and decided to make these again since I am having a few friends over ... I mean, heck, I have frozen strawberries, a ton of them, after freezing nearly 2 pounds last week to keep from having food waste ! And we still have a lot of tequila in the bar area ...  (and I can't find my favorite bottle ... I'm concerned but at least I have 3 bottles of Patron!)   This makes ONE generous drink ... last time, I had a couple and let me just tell you that 1 cup of tequila is a LOT ;-)  Take a few Tylenol or Advil with a large glass of water before you go to bed! 1/2 cup tequila 1/2 cup frozen strawberries juice of ha...

I'm sure you've seen this recipe floating around Pinterest ... it's certainly been on my radar for quite a while. BUT ...  I'm not a fan of those sweet Hawaiian rolls that everyone uses .... So when I saw these dinner rolls at Walmart the other night, I grabbed 2 packages at $2.28 a piece. One of them got stuffed in the freezer and the other package was used to make these on Friday night prior to our Movie Night. This is really simple. Like Stupid Simple! I figured it costs me about $7 TOPS and we had leftovers. I would certainly say to add this to your food entertaining rotation as they would be great for a party.  We ate them as a dinner since we were going to be having some junky food stuff while we watched a movie that night ... Here's what you need: 1 package of dinner rolls (12 count), try to slice the whole package in half as one sheet of bread 3/4 pound of ham 10 to 11 slices of cheese. I used Asiago as it's what I had in the fridge ...

I love corn ... and when Florida Sweet Corn is in season, I'm all over it! Only problem is that me and Hubby disagree on how to cook it. He prefers to boil the crap out of it. I prefer to gently steam it. And yes, we've done it on the grill, husk intact a few times. I'm not allowed to do that anymore since it makes such a huge mess of the grill and surrounding areas (you do know that Hubby is a super neat freak, right??). This latest way though is BY FAR the best way to make your corn. And easy! So very easy! As in, peel corn, place in middle of large tinfoil, melt butter, pour over top, close up foil tightly, place on indirect heat of grill and ignore for about 20 minutes or so. Tada! You got perfectly cooked, sweet corn! I'm not even going to give a "recipe" on this ... it's just too simple.   I will tell you to melt a stick of butter and season it up (I used salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and some parsley) .... A...

A little while ago, I was really, really in to fresh veggies: cucumbers, red peppers, green peppers, red onions, tomatoes, all tossed together with a light dressing. I would eat that stuff daily. DAILY And then, I guess I just got over veggied out. It happens, you know? But ... it's summertime and the peppers, the cucumbers, the tomatoes, everything looks so dang appealing in the produce stores that I just have to scoop them up ... to hell with the Freezer / Pantry / No Spend Challenge! I could justify the purchases, honestly. It is, afterall, Summertime! And that's the time when the full fledge BBQ/Pool/Outdoor parties are kicking in ... and psst ... it's also Whole30/Paleo approved but don't tell no one THAT! Sunday morning rolled around and Princess and the Boyfriend texted us to say they wanted to maybe come over later in the day to hang out.  Not quite lunch time, not quite dinner time ...  and because Princess is currently in AA (lon...

*This is a repost from a while ago but it's what I gave this recipe to Princess this past week and Hubby heard me, it's on the menu for a fast crockpot meal ...* I wanted to type Raunchy Chicken but figured not too many people would find it funny UNLESS you knew me and my friend Cat ... Cat always has a hard time putting the right word in and most likely would have said raunchy ... especially if there had been a glass of wine or two involved. Any ways. The original recipe is modified from the  Real Mom Kitchen  ... (which, thanks to  Pinterest , I've discovered!) and since I had chicken on hand, figured why not? Bonus for me: I had EVERYTHING on hand ... because we are STILL in a sort of Freezer/Pantry/No Spend Challenge for June ...  So, I give to you, my readers, fans, followers, stalkers, what have you: Raunchy Chicken 6 normal size b/s chicken breast (freezer) 1 packet of dry ranch dressing seasoning mix (Aldi's for i think 49 cents?) 1 can of cr...

You all know that I am NO longer allowed to drink Fireball, right?  Apparently, if I drink it too late in the night, I tend to drink MORE and then I get all pukey ... not a good thing by any one's standards, trust me.  The thought of Fireball makes me shudder now. Any way. Vodka, on the other hand ... well, that certainly got Hubby's attention ... and then we were thinking, ahhh, Indiana in the winter ... how comforting! Maybe? I don't know.  All I DO know is that I made this in a small batch (Hubby wanted a whole bottle's worth!) to make a apple cider grown up drink and I'm hooked now!  I do wish I had made a double batch as this lasted one evening! It's easy to make and remember, the longer you let it sit, the hotter it will be! 1 cup vodka (seriously, I always say go with a better quality when it comes to booze) 1 cinnamon stick (courtesy of Aldis!) 1 tsp sugar Put the vodka in a pint size canning jar. Add the cinnamon stick and sugar. Put the...