Orange Cream Popsicles

Ok, so I've been on a popsicle kick recently. Popsicles are great for the summer and they are so easy to make at home. Ever since I found that one recipe from Eat Good 4 Life blog where she made Strawberry Lime Pops (check out my previous post about the ones I made here) and Raspberry Cream pops, I've been dying to try out other flavors. So recently made a series of four different flavors and tested them out on some friends at church.

All of these flavors have the same basic recipe as the ones mentioned above.  The first one I'm going to share is Orange Cream.  As a kid, I always LOVED those orange Dreamsicles (and still do)!  This is my version of a kids classic.

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup low fat yogurt (I use Stonyfield organic, plain)
1/2 cup sugar
1 can frozen orange juice partially thawed (I prefer pulp free)
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Grand Marnier

In a medium-large bowl, blend whipping cream and sugar with a hand mixer until soft peaks form.

You want to make sure your frozen orange juice is partially thawed.  If its completely thawed it will be too liquidy, if its completely frozen, it will be too hard to work with.  You may not need the whole can either.  You'll need at least 1 cup of it but you may add a little extra to suit your own orangey tastes. At this point, you can add the orange juice to the whipped cream mixture.

Also add the yogurt, vanilla, and Grand Marnier and stir until well blended.  The Grand Marnier is an orange liqueur.  You can omit this is you like but it does enhance the orange flavor a little and helps keep the pop from getting too solid frozen so that its too hard to eat or remove from its cup.

Using 3 oz Dixie cups, scoop the orange cream mixture into the cups almost to the top.  The original recipe says it makes 9 but I sometimes got as many as 11 cups filled. This mixture is a little more liquidy than the others. Remember to cut a small slit at the top of each cup to allow for easier removal from the pop later.  Once the cups are filled, you may insert a popsicle stick.  Because this mixture is more liquidy than some of the others, you may have to recenter the sticks once they start to freeze or just wait about 10-15 minutes before inserting stick.

Capital Grille-a-licious!!

So last night was my husband's company Christmas dinner we have every year come December.  Some people really dread their holiday company parties but feel obligated to go so they don't look like the office party pooper.  We, on the other hand, actually really enjoy ours every year.  It might have something to do with the fact that the company is made up of only 4 people, and they all happen to be close friends and family of ours...my husband's boss Tony (and close friend), along with his wife, Lisa (who is also the business VP), my brother-in-law Matt (who just recently joined the company) and his wife, Gwen, plus my hubby and I.  All 6 of us are close and get along great.  And the restaurant we went to was very yummy and we all rolled out of there very full!

The restaurant is called Capital Grille, located in McLean, VA.  Its basically an upscale steak and seafood house.  "Be wined, dined, and dazzled" is their motto and they did not disappoint.  The decor was rich and warm as was the service and the food despite the bitter snow-flurrying cold outside.

(Be aware...most of these photos are a little dark as they were taken with my cell phone camera that has no flash and I was trying to take them on the sly so as not to look like some crazy woman taking pictures of her food...can anyone else relate?)

The first course was appetizers.  We ordered several different ones to share around the table.  Hubby ordered Wagyu Beef Carpaccio which was served seared and chilled then sliced razor-thin accompanied by a small arugula salad. Very unique and tasty.  My appetizer was prosciutto-wrapped mozarella served with a lovely tomato salad.  The mozarella was very yummy, like cheese sticks for the foodie snob.  And the tomato salad was sweet and juicy, drizzled with a balsamic glaze.  I'm not one to just sit and eat tomatoes but these, I could've eaten a whole plate of them!

The next course was soup.  Actually before the appetizers they brought each of us a sample of their butternut squash bisque...very creamy and squashy (in a good way).  So for our soup orders, hubby got french onion and I got lobster bisque.  Both delectable!

The French onion soup was covered with a warm blanket of gooey cheese and underneath a broth of sweet and savory onions.

The Lobster bisque was rich and creamy with huge chunks of sweet lobster. The waitress even topped it off at the table with a few drops of dry sherry. I could just go swimming in that stuff!

Next the entrees...hubby ordered king crab legs.  And let me tell ya, they were the King of king crab legs!  When he pulled the meat out, they were like thick crab hot dogs!  That may sound weird and gross but trust me, it was wonderful!

For me, I ordered lobster and crab stuffed shrimp.  It's like, okay, how many different types of seafood can we cram into one dish?  But again it was lovely, lightly breaded and roasted with a touch of wine, served on top of a light tomato sauce.

The sides were ordered a la carte.  The side we got was parmesan truffle fries.  Fries, maybe a little unrefined, but served like this, they were delish!  Although at this point we were starting to get full and wanted to save room for dessert so we ended up boxing most of my shrimp and all the fries to take home.

And last, but certainly not least...dessert.  My favorite part of every meal.  Heck, dessert should be a meal all on its own.  But thats a whole other blog post.  Hubby's not a big dessert person (I know, weird huh) so he didn't get any.  But our friend let me take a picture of his dessert to share with you.  It was a light and fluffy vanilla cheesecake topped with raspberries and blackberries, drizzled with strawberry sauce and sort of flambeed with a sugary crust on the top.

My dessert was the restaurant specialty, Fresh Strawberries Capital Grille.  Fresh sliced juicy strawberries, (one of my favorite fruits ever), topped with handmade vanilla ice cream and wonderful sauce made of ruby port and Grand Marnier. Oh to die for! I tried my best to refrain from licking the bowl after scraping every bit of that sauce I could get on my spoon.

Needless to say, the dinner was a hit.  I must also add that I appreciated the more petite portion sizes of the appetizers and soups, and even the desserts...just enough so you could have a taste, maybe share with friends and have room for the next course without feeling like you were going to be sick. All in all great food, great friends, and...great food. (Yeah I know, I couldn't think of anything else to say!)  We will definitely be adding this place to our list of restaurants to visit again in the near future.