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Cream Cheese Pound Cake

6/29/2013

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​I am such a summer berry fanatic.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries - you name it - I love it.  The fresh, sweet berries need very little adornment to make them shine.  Dust a handful of berries with powdered sugar and serving them alongside a slice of pound cake to highlight the bounty of summer berries.  
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1/4 milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups sugar
24 Tablespoons butter
6 ounces cream cheese
​Grease a bundt pan and set aside.  Combine flour and salt.
​Whisk together eggs, yolks, milk and vanilla.  
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​Beat sugar, butter and cream cheese together in mixer until light and fluffy.  
​Add egg mixture.
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​Add flour in 3 additions.
​Scrape batter into prepared pan.   
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​Bake 90 minutes at 300.   
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​Cool 15 minutes in pan.  Invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.  
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​Dust with powdered sugar before serving.   
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I am leaving it up to your imagination to picture this decadent cake with a heaping helping of fresh summer berries.  It's really hard to beat a simple pound cake topped with fresh summer fruit for a summertime dessert.

Ciao!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
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Homemade Smoothie Packets

6/27/2013

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​Summer and smoothies go hand in hand.  As a special treat in the summer, the kids and I will stop at Smoothie King on our way home from the park.  It's a treat for all of us.  We've tried making our own smoothies at home but it seems like we are always out of at least one ingredient when we want to make them.  We like the smoothie packs from the grocery store but they are really expensive.  I saw for homemade "smoothie packs" on pinterest and I took the idea and ran with it.

Since my son is the biggest smoothie lover of us all, I decided to try my smoothie packet experiment on him.  I asked him to tell me his favorite kind of smoothie - chocolate, strawberry, banana.  (Who knew?)
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​I started by freezing some yogurt into drops.  If you need the directions for this, check out my blog post on frozen yogurt drops.
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​Next, I sliced some bananas and froze them on a waxed paper covered cutting board.
​I had to think a little bit about how  was going to introduce chocolate into this smoothie.  My first thought was cocoa powder but that seemed too powdery.  I considered chocolate chips but those seemed too chunky.  Finally, I decided to use chocolate syrup.  I froze some chocolate syrup in individual cups.   It didn't really freeze completely but it was fudge-like.  
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​I bought a bag of frozen strawberries so there was no prep work there.  Once everything was frozen, it was time to start experimenting with quantities of each to make the perfect smoothie.
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​My son's perfect chocolate, strawberry, banana combination was:
9 banana slices
5 strawberries
9 yogurt drops
1 container of chocolate syrup
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​He added some skim milk, blended it up and voila - homemade smoothie.
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​Once we had the combination of ingredients perfected, I used freezer bags to make up our own "smoothie packs."  
​I also made some berry smoothie packs.  I used a bag of frozen raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, some of my leftover frozen strawberries and a few yogurt drops.
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We are set for summer now.  We have ready to blend, smoothie packs in the freezer.  Bring on the heat.  

Ciao!
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Meatballs

6/26/2013

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​I never realized just how versatile my meatballs recipe really was until recently.  I made a batch of meatballs a couple of weeks ago and I put a few of them into a timpano.  I served some of them with a side of pasta and the rest I turned into meatball burgers!  The kids liked them all three ways but the biggest surprise of all was the meatball burger.  To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure how these were going to turn out.  It was an experiment that could have gone either way.  Fortunately for me, they were delicious.  (And way quicker to make than rolling meat into tiny balls.)
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Meatballs
1 pound ground turkey              4 splashes milk    
1 pound ground beef                   4 eggs
1 pound ground pork                  parsley
1 chopped onion                          parmesan cheese
4 slices bread                                1 1/2 teaspoons salt and pepper


​Combine beef, turkey and pork in a large bowl.
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Combine onion, bread, milk, eggs, parsley, cheese and salt and pepper in food processor.  Pulse until chopped finely.
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Add to meat and mix with hands - gently.
​Shape into meatballs and place on a broiler rack.
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​Place under the broiler for 5 minutes, rotate and continue to broil until golden brown.
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Place meatballs in a saucepan with spaghetti sauce and let cook for an hour.  Remove from sauce and serve with spaghetti or in a timpano.  You can also shape the meat into burgers and grill for and even easier way to enjoy meatballs.  
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​One batch of meatballs - three ways.  Love it.

Ciao!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
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Mocha Three Layer Cake

6/25/2013

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There are some things that were just meant to go together - milk and coffee, Oreos and milk, peanut butter and jelly, coffee and chocolate.  OK, so maybe that last one doesn't seem so obvious but in my world, they're a match made in heaven.  A dark chocolate cake infused with a rich coffee flavor is hard to beat.  This three layer cake is really delicious and even non coffee lovers really like this moist, tender cake.
Mocha Three Layer Cake
1 cup butter                 
3 cups brown sugar                   
4 eggs                  
3 teaspoons vanilla
¾ cup cocoa    
3 cups flour                   
3 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups brewed coffee
1 1/3 cups sour cream
Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs, one at a time.  Stir in vanilla.
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​Add dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream and coffee.
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Pour into 3 greased cake pans.
Bake 35 minutes at 350.  
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​rost and decorate.  You could go for a triple chocolate threat and fill this cake with chocolate ganache and frost it with chocolate buttercream.  I filled my cake with a whipped cream filling and frosting it with swiss meringue buttercream.  
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Ciao!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
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Grilled Chicken Parmesan

6/24/2013

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​Chicken parmesan is one of my favorite things but I rarely order it in restaurants because it's almost always breaded and fried.  As I was leafing through the June issue of my Cook's Country magazine, a recipe for GRILLED chicken parmesan caught my eye.  Could you really make a grilled, healthy version of the classic Italian dish without all of the oil and breading?  It was worth a try.
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Grilled Chicken Parmesan
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoon minced shallot
1 clove garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
6 chicken breasts
2 Tablespoon mozzarella
Melt butter in saucepan.
​Add shallot and saute until soft.
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Add garlic and heat 1 minute.  Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.
​Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes until thickened.
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Remove from heat and add fresh basil and parmesan.
Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill.
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Turn and grill to 160 degrees.

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Add a spoonful of bruschetta to each chicken breast.
Continue to grill until chicken reaches 165 degrees.  Transfer to a platter.
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Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, tent with foil and let rest 10 minutes.
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 I served my grilled chicken parmesan with a green salad. 
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​This was sooooo good.  I am definitely going to be making this chicken again soon.  Both kids scraped off their bruschetta and ate the chicken plain but I'll keep working on that.

Ciao!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
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