Ingredients

Cream butter. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add eggs one at a time to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk and flavorings, beating after each addition until smooth. Baking: Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans, using about 2-1/3 cups batter in each pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and finish cooling on racks.

After living in Los Angeles for six years I became somewhat of a taco expert. After growing up eating the “Americanized” version of the Taco, I spent years trying out authentic Mexican tacos at restaurants, street carts and in friends’ kitchens.

I learned that well-seasoned meat and warmed flour tortillas were the basic building blocks for a sensational taco AND that your choice in garnish needs to be specific and the flavors should compliment each other well.

I’m one of those people that do not accept ground turkey as a viable substitute for ground beef. While ground turkey can be healthier, it can also be dry and tasteless. The key to making flavorful dishes using ground turkey is by layering flavors and using fresh herbs.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 pack of frozen vegetables (approx. 16 oz)

2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

2 cups of homemade or instant mashed potatoes*

1. Preheat broiler. In a very large skillet cook turkey on medium-high heat until brown. Stir in frozen vegetables.

2. Cook vegetables and turkey, stirring occasionally. Stir in half of cheddar cheese, half of parsley, salt and pepper.

3. If using instant potato flakes combine two cups boiling water, 2 cups instant potato flakes and 1 tbl of butter. Stir together until smooth. Season with additional salt and pepper and set aside. If using homemade mashed potatoes, prepare two cups of mashed potatoes, season and set aside.

4. For four individual servings, divide turkey mixture into four 16-ounce broiler-safe dishes. Top with potatoes; sprinkle each dish with remaining cheese. Broil 3 inches from heat for 2 minutes (be very careful, this dish can burn easily!) or until cheese is melted. Drizzle with remaining melted butter and sprinkle each with parsley. If you’d like to serve the dish family style, use a large broiler-safe casserole dish and follow the same steps.

This is a very easy and quick weeknight dinner that is full of flavor. Enjoy!

A little while ago I was looking for a different cupcake recipe that would satisfy my family’s love of chocolate but also allow a little wiggle room to add some extras. I was flipping through an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine and found a recipe for chocolate-cream cheese cupcakes and decided to try it out. I adapted it a little so their statement that each cupcake is only 166 calories may NOT be true for these.

Ingredients

4 ozs. of cream cheese, softened

1/3 cup of sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tbl vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup granola

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin with baking cups (12 – 18)

2. In small bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric hand mixer (or elbow grease if you got it) until creamy. Then add 1/3 cup sugar amd egg; beat until combined. Stir in chocolate chips; set mixture aside.

3. In large bowl sift together flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar and vanilla.

You should have two batters that look something like this…

4. Spoon chocolate batter into prepared cupcake cups, filling each about halfway. Then spoon about 1 tbl of the cream cheese mixture into each cup. Top each cupcake with a sprinkle of granola. I used a maple-flavored batch and the result was heavenly!

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in muffin cups on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from muffin cups and let cool completely on wire racks.

Mmmmmmmm, curry.

Don’t let the long list of ingredients make you nervous; this curry salad is well worth it! Crunchy celery and sweet raisins add tremendous texture and you can substitute dicted turkey or ham for the chicken breast.

Ingredients

4 tbs olive oil (NOT extra virgin, you will need the olive flavor)

1 1/2 cups diced celery

1 cup diced carrot

1 tbs curry powder (Indian-inspired)

1 tbs rice vinegar

1 tbs lime juice

1 1/12 cups cooked white rice

1 cup plain yogurt

3/4 cup light mayonnaise

3 tbs chopped cilantro

3 tbs chopped green onion

2 cups cubed, cooked chicken breast

1/2 cup raisins

salt and pepper

1. Heat olive oil in medium skillet overm edium-high heat. Add celery and carrots and cook until slightly soft (about 3 minutes).  Add curry powder and cook for two more minutes.

2. Remove mixture from heat. Add vinegar and lime juice. Stir to combine.

3. Place rice in medium bowl, add curry vinaigrette dressing; stir gently to combine. Place in refridgerator for 5 minutes to cool.

4. Meanwhile, combine yogurt, mayo, cilantro and green onions in small bowl. Toss yogurt dressing with rice; add chicken and raisins. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Serve with warm flat or pita bread.

With the spring/summer party season underway, this is a great dish to add to your salad arsenal. Get creative an add some diced red pepper, yellow onion or nuts.

I love oatmeal. Like, a lot. I could seriously eat it every day for breakfast, even in the blistering summer heat. I’m slightly addicted to the taste of oats and have been know to eat them dry and uncooked. *shrugs*

Soft and chewy, these delicious oatmeal bars leave room for lots of creativity. You can experiment by substituting chocolate chips, cocunut or chopped nuts.

Ingredients

2 Sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. Pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups oats cereal
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In large bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add eggs and mix thoroughly.

In a medium bowl combine oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add to wet ingredients slowly. Mix on low speed until blended then add cranberries and raisins.

Spray a 9 x 13 baking pan with butter-flavored cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and even out with wooden spoon.

Bake for 15 minutes. Let stand in pan 5 additional minutes before cutting into squares. Extra squares can be stored in a ziploc bag with a paper towel to absorb moisture.

These are seriously addictive and lasted about 2 days in my house. If you need a little extra indulgence, top with vanilla ice cream.

The combination of lemon, shrimp and fresh herbs is the perfect way to welcome spring (or beg for it to “arrive” if you’re anywhere but the South right now) and to begin bringing a little bit of outside in to your table.

Now that we live in the gulf, finding fresh seafood is incredibly easy. I have read all the reports and seen all the studies and I absolutely trust the seafood down here and plan to fully support the industry this summer. I can’t wait to fry, broil, grill and bake all the shrimp, crawfish, mussels andclams I can get my hands on!

This dish a a super easydinner (or lunch) that requires just a few ingredients. If you can try to purchase fresh thyme and lemons that aren’t overly ripe (you want them a little firm).  The shrimp are roasted which is a  great way to infuse them with flavor and maintain the chewy texture. I used fettucine but you can also use other pasta or grains or rice.

Cookies are an important staple in my home. It doesn’t matter what kind they are (although Chocolate Chip reigns supreme!) they will be devoured quickly, mourned and longed for.

Sugar cookies are a super quick and easy way to satisfy your cookie craving with minimal ingredients you probably already have on hand. This recipe will also give you moist, soft cookies that will not harden after a few hours. Nothing is worse than a cookie that can break your teeth, right? And you can make a large batch and freeze or refrigerate the dough so you never run out and your family won’t hate you!

Ingredients

•  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•  1 teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
•  1 cup butter, softened *
•  1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup* *

*It is incredibly important that your butter is soft for this recipe. In order to avoid hard, crumbly cookies the butter needs to be extremely soft, with an almost cream-like consistency.

**Traditional cookie recipes call for vanilla extract which at the time I actually had run out of. So I tried maple syrup instead and it worked wonderfully. Try to use actual maple syrup and not the imitation stuff if you can.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla.

Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. If you have a stand or hand mixer use a low setting and grdually increase the speed.

Once your dough is completely formed, put it in wax paper and let it chill in the freezer for a few minutes. Cookie dough bakes best when it has been slightly chilled. This is also a good time to store your excess dough for later use.

I like to wrap my dough in wax paper and then put it in a freezer-safe baggie.

Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Greasing the coookie sheet will cause the bottom of the cookies to burn. If you need a barrier, use parchment paper.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Oohhhh, chocolate.

OK, so I know the traditional sachertorte is layered and served with whipped cream and all that but let’s just throw tradition out the window for a second. I made this cake for my mom’s birthday the other day because she is a choc-a-holic but she ended up bailing on us at the last minute (RUDE!) which left an entire cake in the hands of my husband and children. I think we know how this story ends.

Recipe for Sachertorte after the jump

Torte:

2 oz semisweet baker’s chocolate

2 oz unsweetened baker’s chocolate

1 stick (8 tbl) butter at room temperature

4 large eggs separated

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup sifted cake flour

Optional topping:

1 cup apricot glaze (from jam)

chocolate frosting

whipped cream

• Position your oven rack to the middle and heat to 400 degrees F
• Lightly butter a 9inch springform pan
• Line the bottom with parchment paper (optional because I didn’t have any and my cake came out fine)
• Using a double broiler pot (or whatever you have handy) melt the chocolate
• Remove from heat and continue to stir while cooling
• In a medium mixing bowl beat together butter and sugar until fluffy
• Add egg yolks one at a time, make sure to scrape sides of bowl
• Add the melted chocolate and vanilla

The next step is very important so please follow directions carefully. Beating egg whites is serious business!

• Beat eggs whites until they form soft, shiny peaks. Do not overbeat the eggs.
• Add about 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and stir
• Add the remaining eggs whites 1/4 at a time
• Add the sifted cake flour
• Mix together with a rubber spatula
• Spread evenly into the cake pan
• Bake for 40-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
• Cool on wire rack

Now, I simply sprinkled confectioner’s sugar over top of the cake and started slicing. We don’t like to wait for fancy dressings around here. But if you want to truly top it off, try this:

And then it should look like this:

Summer is right around the corner so that means lots of fresh fruit to make scrumptious jellies. I made this quick and easy batch pf peach jelly with just a few over-ripe peaches I had lying around. There are a lot of jam/jelly recipes out there that require mulitple ingredients and steps – this ain’t one of those. You can thank me later.

Recipe for Peach Jelly after the jump!

Peach Jelly

1lb ripe peaches

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

*use 1 cup of sugar per pound of fruit

• To loosen skin, places peaches in boiling water for two minutes
• Then place peaches in ice cold waters bath
• Remove pit and chop peeled peaches into 1/2 inch squares

• In a large bowl combine peaches with sugar and lemon juice
• Stir until peaches are fully coated
• In a medium saucepan heat peaches until boiling

This next step is very important!

• Continuously stir peaches while mixture is boiling
• If you like a jelly with less chunks you can use a hand blender to further break down the peaches
• Boiling the peaches will release the pectin needed to gel but continue to stir so the peaches do not burn

Make sure you clean and sterilize your canning jar(s)

Place the pipping hot and delicious jelly in your jar – try not to lick it off the sides, use a napkin.

Place sealed jar in hot water bath for 10 minutes to ensure air tightness. If you’re going to eat it right away (like we do) that step is optional.

Enjoy on english muffings (or bagels as my 3 year old calls them), homemade bread, in a yogurt parfait – whatever whatever. It’s good stuff.