Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake

  We are always on the lookout for food related ideas and recipes. A few weeks ago we found this recipe in Southern Living magazine. Strawberry season had just started and this recipe was the perfect excuse to use some of the local berries that we were starting to see at all the Amish stands

Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 1/2 c butter, softened

3 c sugar

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

6 large eggs

3 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 c strawberry glaze

1 (6-inch) wooden skewer

Strawberry Glaze

1 c ripe strawberries, finely chopped

1/2 c sugar

4 1/2 tsp corn starch

1/4 c cool water

1 tbsp butter

2 tsp lemon juice

Prepare glaze. We chopped our berries very fine in a food processor. Dissolve corn starch in water. Combine chopped strawberries, sugar and corn starch mixture in a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens somewhat. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and butter. Cool in fridge for 15-20 minutes. While the glaze is cooling, move on to the cake batter.

(Southern Living Recipe)

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese, beating until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Gradually add flour to butter mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed. Stir in almond and vanilla extracts. Pour one-third of batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (14-cup) tube pan (about 2 2/3 cups batter). Dollop 8 rounded teaspoonfuls strawberry glaze over batter, and swirl with wooden skewer. Repeat procedure once, and top with remaining third of batter.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

We enjoyed the cake and of course we made some extra glaze to serve on top with whipped cream. Enjoy!

TTFN

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Grilled Lemon-Oregano Chicken



  Here's a quick grilling dish and an excuse to use some of those fresh herbs from the garden. I make this up earlier in the day and let it sit for a few hours in the fridge before tossing it on the grill. 10 minutes on the grill and this tasty chicken can be sitting on your plate

Grilled Lemon-Oregano Chicken

4 chicken breast, de-boned without skin

2 lemons juiced

1 tsp grated lemon zest

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp black pepper, ground

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 c fresh oregano, chopped

1/4 c fresh parsley, chopped

3 cloves garlic, pressed

  Flatten the chicken breasts to a uniform thickness. I find it helpful to put the chicken breasts in a gallon ziplock bag and beat it with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. I can do two breast at a time this way and then I use the bag to marinate the meat as well. A food processor makes quick work out of the marinade and it can save you a little chopping to boot. Combine all the ingedients except the chicken either by hand or in a food processor and then dump the marinade in a gallon ziplock bag with the chicken . Let the meat marinate for a couple of hours and then grill. I would not recommend marinating the meat more than a few hours in advance because the lemon flavor can become very strong and over-power the other flavors. Optionally you can change this recipe up a bit by swapping out the oregano for 1/2 c of fresh cilantro. Enjoy!

TTFN
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Greek Yogurt With Macerated Blueberries and Strawberries

  This simple and appropriately colored dish is a refreshing and somewhat healthy snack or dessert. By the way, happy Memorial Day to everyone and a great big Thank You to our veterans and soldiers both living and deceased!

Greek Yogurt With Macerated Blueberries and Strawberries
1/2 c Greek yogurt
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 c strawberries, sliced
1/4 c blueberries

  Macerate the berries by adding 2 of the tbsp of sugar to the berries, mix well and let sit for 20 minutes. Mix the remaining tbsp of sugar into the yogurt. Once the berries are nice and juicy, put half the berry mixture in the bottom of your bowl, cover with yogurt and put the remaining berry mixture on top. Enjoy! :-)

  A quick word about Greek yogurt. Unless you get the yogurt from Greece, it won't really be much different than regular yogurt except the majority of the whey will have been removed to get the thicker consistency associated with Greek style yogurt. With that said, if you take regular yogurt and drain the whey out by using a coffee filter and a colander, you will get a very similar result. Simply put a coffee filter in a colander and put the yogurt in the coffee filter. Put a bowl under the whole contraption to catch the whey. You can use the whey for other recipes if you like. The process takes a few hours and I typically do it overnight in the fridge. I have been using this technique for years for baked potato topping, sauces, dips and dressings. It really is a great substitute for sour cream.

TTFN

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Bread and Butter Cauliflower

 

  Somehow this recipe never made the blog last fall, but now that we are on the last jar and wish we had more it certainly deserves mentioning. We acquired a lot of cauliflower in the fall with every intention of canning all kinds of items, but we just got plain canned-out and this was the only canning item we made with cauliflower. We used Aunt Lib's bread and butter pickle recipe and it is definitely on the canning list again this year.

Bread and Butter Cauliflower (about 4 quarts)
4 qts cauliflower, cut into florets (about 2-3 med heads)
2 medium onions, sliced thin
3 c white vinegar
4-5 c sugar
1 1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp celery seed
2 tsp whole mustard seed

1/2 c canning salt for cauliflower/onion prep
ice for cauliflower/onion prep

  Blanch cauliflower for 5 minutes. Put the cauliflower and onion slices in a large bowl, cover with canning salt and ice. Let sit at least an hour. Rinse the cauliflower and onions well to get all the salt off. Combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and mustard seed into a pot. Bring to a boil. Pack warm jars with the cauliflower and onions. Split the liquid between jars. The liquid should completely cover the cauliflower. Leave 1/4 inch of head space. Adjust two-piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner or 5-10 minutes in a pressure canner at 10 psi. Enjoy!

TTFN
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Peanut Butter Cup Smores



  No real recipe here, just an epiphany. We were making smores the other night and I thought peanut butter cups instead of plain chocolate would be good. Was it ever. I won't insult anyone with the ingredients list or instruction, but do try swapping the chocolate for a few creamy peanut butter cups like you can find at Walmart or your local grocery. I'm sure Reese's would do fine, but the creamy variety have a different texture and mouth feel. Enjoy! :-)

TTFN
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2011 Bucket Garden Update 2

  Everything is flowering and all things green are flourishing. What a beautiful time of the year.

Even our roses are blossoming.

The garden plants are no exception. We have had a few losses over the last few weeks, but overall I am pleased. The Chinese Five Color Pepper plants have sprouted up all over the original container they came in and I expect we will give a few of these away this year as gifts. These ornamental pepper plants are very colorful. It is very satisfying to watch all of these plants grow from seed and I can't wait to make some of my favorite summer dishes from our garden harvests.

TTFN

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Mild Italian Link Sausage

 

  Who doesn't like sausage? The only thing I dislike about store bought sausage is most of it contains MSG (or natural salt if you want to be evasive). An allergy to MSG prevents some of our family from partaking in MSG laden foods, so we have to take matters in to our own hands when it comes to things like sausage. Preparing this sausage is a little extra work, but very satisfying in the end. I recommend doing as much sausage making as you can while all the sausage making gear is out. It isn't hard and maybe this entry will push you over the edge to try it yourself.

Mild Italian Link Sausage

2 lbs pork butt (with fat)

2 tsp kosher salt (or sea salt)

1 1/2 tsp black pepper, ground

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 1/2 tsp fennel seed, ground

5 ft natural casing

For Hot Sausage Add:

2 1/2 tsp paprika, ground

1/4 tsp anise seed, ground

2 tsp red pepper flakes

  Mix all seasoning ingredients together. Cut the pork into chunks. Mix the pork and seasonings together. Grind the pork mixture with your choice of meat grinding hardware.

  Our choice of sausage stuffing and grinding hardware was the sausage attachments for our KitchenAid mixer. We used the fine die on the mixer for grinding, but recommend using the course or large die. The next time we do this we will definitely use the larger die for grinding. Once the pork is ground, refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour while preparing the casings. The mixture should be cold while stuffing the sausage.

  We used natural casings obtained from a local kitchen store. The package is fairly small and could easily be ordered from the internet if you cannot find it locally. You may want to consider using collagen casings instead of the natural casings if that is more to your liking. There is a lot of information on the internet about the different kinds of sausage casings and plenty of places to order them from. Any leftover casings can easily be stored either in your pantry or refrigerator depending on the type you choose. To prepare our casings we had to soak them in warm water and rinse them thoroughly.

  When the ground pork mixture was chilled for an hour, I tied one end of a prepared casing into a knot and slid the other end on to the sausage making tip all the way up to the knotted end. I turned on the mixer and started stuffing the ground pork mixture into the hopper which feeds an auger which eventually pushes the pork in to the casing. Continue until the casing is completely full or you run out of meat.

This particular batch was grilled with sweet onions and peppers and served on a soft italian roll.

A few things we learned along the way:

- Any left over natural casings can be stored in your refrigerator, sealed in the original bag completely covered in salt for up to a year.

- To clean out the auger after making the sausage, send a few pieces of bread through the system to push out any left over meat. This greatly simplified the cleanup.

Enjoy!

TTFN

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