Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Bread

A million years ago I use to work the front desk at an athletic club and we would always have people coming in trying to sell us stuff. Well I usually didn't ever want what they were selling but one day a clever cookbook salesman came in. He handed me a cookbook and told me to just look at it for a couple of days and when he came back to get it I could decide if I wanted to buy it or not. Three days later he came back and I bought the cookbook. It was full of colorful photos and really good recipes. One of my favorite recipes from the cookbook was the Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Bread. (BTW the name of the cookbook was Favorite Brand Name Cookbook)

Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Bread

Bread:

1 package bakery style blueberry muffin mix

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 egg

3/4 cup of water

1 tablespoon lemon zest

Drizzle:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray. Rinse blueberries from mix with cold water and drain. For the bread combine muffin mix and poppy seeds in medium bowl. Break up any lumps. Add egg and water. Stir until moistened about 50 strokes. Gently fold in blueberries and lemon peel. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with contents of topping packet from mix.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Loosen loaf from pan. Place on cooling rack and let cool completely.

For the drizzle combine sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Drizzle over loaf.

Garnish with fresh blueberries if desired.

Zucchini Bread

For some reason I have really been wanting to make zucchini bread. I had an old recipe that I hadn't made in forever so I kind of tweeked it. I'll give you the original recipe then in italic I will put my substitutions. It turned out really nummy. Not overly sweet.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

3/4 cup veg. oil

1 1/2 cups sugar (1 cup regular sugar and 1/2 cup raw sugar)

1 teaspoon lemon zest (1 teaspoon lime zest)

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

(instead of the orange and vanilla extracts I used 3/4 teaspoon Bakery Emulsion)

2 cups grated un-peeled zucchini

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used walnuts)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (1/4 teaspoon all spice)

2 1/2 cup all purpose flour (2 cups all purpose flour and 1/2 cup cake flour)(I only used the cake flour because I ran out of all purpose flour)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add oil and sugar and beat well. Stir in flavorings and zucchini. In another bowl combine dry ingredients and nuts. Add to zucchini. Pour into two small loaf pans or one large loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Optional glaze: combine powdered sugar and lime juice, then drizzle over the bread.

Happy Birthday Trayce!!!!

Today is my big sister's birthday! She is such a wonderful, fun-loving person. I know that she loves Tres Leches Cake. (translated-Three Milks Cake uses evaporated, condensed and whole milk) Only one problem with that..... I don't know how to make it. So

I went and picked her up one. I love you Trayce and hope the last part of your day was better than the beginning.

A little of this and some of that.....

After the holidays, I'm always left with a lot of "extras" that weren't used up in recipes. So I thought I would experiment with different toppings for cupcakes. I made French Vanilla cupcakes and iced them fluffy white icing then topped them with the things I had on hand.

Left to right: dark chocolate chips/walnuts, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips/Heath, coconut

For the dark chocolate/walnut and mini chips/Heath I put some in the middle of the cupcakes as well as on top.

Peanut Butter & Fudge Swirl Pie

Birthdays are special and I like to make the birthday boy/girl feel special by making their favorite dessert. One of the men I work with loves anything with peanut butter and chocolate. He's not a huge fan of cake so I found this recipe for a peanut butter/chocolate pie. It was good but very rich!

Peanut Butter & Fudge Swirl Pie

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese-softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (I added 1/2 cup because I wanted a stronger peanut butter flavor)

2 cups Cool Whip

1 (6 oz) Oreo pie crust

1/4 cup hot fudge ice cream topping

Beat cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in Cool Whip until blended. Spoon into crust; drizzle with fudge topping. Swirl gently with a knife. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm. Refrigerate any leftovers.

You could also sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

At lady at work tasted this pie and liked it but she wanted to make it lighter so she made it but used low fat cream cheese, Splenda and sugar or fat free Cool Whip. I didn't taste it so I can't say for sure if it was good or not, but she really liked it.

Circle Birthday Cake

Almost every Sunday my Mother takes some nummy something to her Sunday school class. Well this last Sunday was my Daddy's birthday so she asked me to make a birthday cake for him so she could take it to Sunday school and let everybody enjoy it. It was a triple chocolate cake with whipped icing and fondant letters and circles.

Hockey Cake

A very dear friend of the family asked me to make her grandson a simple birthday cake. He is a great hockey player so I thought I would incorporate hockey into the design. I found the image on my new card software and printed in onto an edible image sheet. This is only my second time using the edible images so I still need a ton of practice. The cake was white with cookies and cream filling and buttercream. Nummy num!

Better than almost anything cake

I found this recipe on the box of a Betty Crocker cake mix and have made it several times. It tastes great and is easy to make.

Better than almost anything cake

1 box German chocolate cake mix

(water, vegetable oil and eggs called for in the cake mix directions)

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 jar (16 to 17 oz) caramel, butterscotch or fudge topping (I used caramel ice cream topping)

1 container (8 oz) Cool Whip

1 package (6 oz) toffee chips or bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make cake as directed on package for 13x9 inch pan. Cool for 15 minutes. Poke top of warm cake every 1/2 inch with handle of wooden spoon. Drizzle sweetened condensed milk evenly over top of cake; let stand until milk has been absorbed into cake. Drizzle with caramel topping. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled. Spread Cool Whip over top of cake then sprinkle with toffee chips. Store covered in the fridge.

Rhonda's Lasagna

Ok, I have known my husband since the 10th grade (awe high school sweethearts isn't that cute) and he is a VERY picky eater. Well when we got married (at 18) there were very few things that I could cook that he would actually eat. Rhonda's Lasagna is his favorite meal. Rhonda is his mother and she would make this lasagna for her boy and he would gobble it up. It's unique because instead of lasagna noodles you use crescent rolls. So needless to say I had to master this recipe if I wanted to make my man happy. Fortunately for me it's an easy recipe. I have tweeked it just a little over the years, but here it is.

(sorry not the best picture I've ever taken)

Rhonda's Lasagna

1/2 pound ground sausage (like Owens or Jimmy

Dean)

1/2 pound lean ground beef

3/4 cup onion-chopped (if you don't like onion like my hubby just use about 1 tablespoon dried onion)

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1 can (6 oz) tomato paste (I use the one with garlic and basil added to give it more flavor)

1 cup cottage cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

2 cans of crescent rolls

1 (8 oz) bag of shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet brown the sausage and ground beef (if you like a strong garlic flavor like I do add some chopped garlic to the meat). Drain excess fat, then add onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and tomato paste. Using the tomato paste can, fill it half full of water and add that to the meat mixture. Simmer about 5 minutes. In a small bowl combine the cottage cheese, egg and Parmesan. Set aside.

Roll out one can of the crescent rolls to cover the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Spread half of the meat mixture on the crescent rolls, then the cottage cheese mixture, then the remaining meat mixture. Then add mozzarella cheese and the other can of crescent rolls. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling. This is definitely nummy num!

Coconut Cream Pie

One of my husbands favorite desserts is coconut cream pie. I have tried some different recipes and this one got pretty good reviews from my family. The recipe was kind of hard to follow so this is my adaptation of it.

Coconut Cream Pie

3 cups of milk

3 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)

sprinkle of salt

3/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup coconut (more for sprinkling on top)

Prepared baked pie crust

In a medium sized bowl save out a little milk and put the rest of the milk in a double-boiler and heat. Add the egg yolks (beat them sightly) and salt to the bowl of milk. Then add sugar and stir. Add cornstartch and beat. Pour this mixture and the hot milk into a saucepan and cook on the stovetop until it thickens. Add vanilla and coconut. Pour coconut cream filling into baked pie shell. Make meringue and spread on top.

Meringue

3 egg white (add more whites if you want a taller meringue)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

2 tablespoons sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Add sugar. Beat until it forms stiff peaks. Put on top of cake and sprinkle coconut on top. Bake pie at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until brown on top.

Salsa

"Salsa/Hot Sauce" whatever you call it, I call it nummy num. I came up with this recipe a while ago and I make it all summer long. My son begged me to make some the other day. Here is the recipe:

Salsa

(all amounts are approximate)

2-14.5 ounce cans of diced tomato

4 jalepenos

6-8 sprigs of cilantro

1/2 medium onion

1/2 lime-squeezed

1 teaspoon garlic salt

In the bowl of a food processor or blender add the tomato's with juice. Cut the tops off of the jalepenos and rough chop them and add them to the food processor. ~Note: most of the heat from the jalepenos is in the seeds and white membrane, so if you want your salsa to have less heat do not add it~ Pluck the leaves off of the cilantro and add to the processor. Rough chop the onion and add it. Squeeze half a lime into the processor. Add garlic salt then pulse until everything is chopped and well blended. You might have to play with the measurements a little to get it to taste exactly like you want it.

Strawberry Birthday Cake

Sorry it has been so long since I posted. As my best friend put it "I'm sick of looking at those deviled eggs". I've just been so busy with the holidays, but now I'm back. My sister-in-laws birthday was New Years Eve but we celebrated it today. She loves strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. I found this recipe on www.cooks.com. I was happy with the way it turned out. Everybody really liked it. I even heard a couple of people say it was the best strawberry cake they had ever had.

Strawberry Cake

1 white cake mix

1 (3ounce) package strawberry gelatin

2 tablespoon flour

4 eggs

1/2 cup water

5 ounces frozen strawberry (thawed) (I put mine in the blender and made a puree)

3/4 cup oil

Mix first 5 ingredients at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add strawberries to batter. Beat one minute more. Add oil and beat another minute. Bake in two 9 inch cake pans at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

1 (8 ounce) cream cheese

1 stick of butter

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

3/4 cup mashed strawberries

Combine cream cheese and butter in a mixer and beat until well combined. Add sugar and strawberries. Blend icing on low until sugar is incorporated.