What's for dinner?

So, last night we had turkey burgers with Mexican Corn Dip & Frito's Scoops and we finished it off with Strawberry Cream Cake.

These are the turkey patties that I buy (yes, they're frozen) at Sam's or Wal-Mart. My family enjoys them and I love having a quick meal on hand. I usually cook them from frozen, but yesterday I actually remembered to set them out to thaw. A little of my homemade seasoning on both sides and a few minutes on the griddle and we were good to go.

I cooked 9 of them for my family. There are 6 of us, but we had a couple of extra mouths to feed last night.

I'll include the recipe for the Mexican Corn Dip in my next post.

Trifle

Leftover brownie pieces and crumbs from the Brownie Cakes (see previous post), leftover chocolate icing, a box of instant pudding, a little bit of cool whip and some chocolate syrup...well, that led to a trifle for tonight's dessert. YUM!

Brownie Cakes

 

Today is my Kate's birthday.  As has become custom around here, the birthday girl chose the menu for her birthday dinner with family.  We are doing that later this week, and I plan to post about that meal.  BUT, today is the big celebration with her friends at preschool.  She was very specific about her requests for snacks at school.  She explained to me that she wanted brownies that were circles...little one on top of a big one...chocolate icing...sprinkles...and each one had to look like a little bitty baby birthday cake...and cheese-its and capri-suns.  (At least she didn't request homemade crackers and fresh squeezed juice!)  Well, after some googling and some pinteresting (are those even words?), this is what I came up with.  And I am so proud of myself that I just had to share with all 2 of you that actually read my blog.  he he he



I baked boxed mix brownies according to the package directions, let them cool completely and then used my very fancy, dollar store, biscuit cutters to get my circles.  I have a set of three cutters and I used the medium and small ones. Using 4 brownie mixes and my cutters, I was able to make 35 little cakes. [In case you're wondering, I saved all the brownie scraps so I can make a Death by Chocolate trifle for our Wednesday night Bible Study group.]

I heated a can of store-bought icing (gasp!) until it was pourable, but not too hot. {Betty Crocker, Rich & Creamy, Milk Chocolate is the BOMB!] I put just a little bit on top of what was to be the brownie on the bottom.  This would serve as the "glue" to hold the top brownie in place.

I then generously spooned the icing over the top of each one and let it run down the sides.  You'll want to only do 2-3 at a time, so you can stop and load each one up with sprinkles before the icing sets. 15-20 minutes later, the icing was set enough for me to transfer them to my storage containers.

 

She hasn't yet seen the finished product, but I know she is going to be thrilled! I can't wait to see the look on her face! Happy Birthday to my little, big girl!

Apple Pie Muffins

This week, the kids and I spent a few days with my parents since its spring break. While we were there, I helped Mom with a few projects. One of those projects was cleaning out and tidying up her pantry. During this project, she decided there were several things in her pantry that would most likely expire before she used them. So, since I cook a LOT more than she does, such items were donated to the needy (me). I came home with a couple bags of stuff, including a few cans of apple pie filling and lots of oats. This is the first thing I came up with.

Get this:

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter

1 can Pillsbury caramel or cinnamon rolls (8-count)

1 can apple pie filling, coarsely chopped

Do this:

Stir together oats, flour, brown sugar & cinnamon. Cut in butter. Set aside. 

Grease or spray 8 muffin cups. Press/flatten each roll and place one in each greased muffin cup.

Fill each with pie filling and top generously with oat mixture. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until rolls are beginning to brown around edges. 

Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

These are super good. So good, in fact, that my husband said "these are a keeper" as he was finishing off what the kids didn't eat on their plates (only because they were full). Then he told me they must "go into the rotation." That's pretty high marks around here.

Keep in mind, this makes a 9x13 pan. That's a LOT! You'll wanna plan on sharing this one with a good friend or neighbor. Would be great for a potluck too.

Adapted from this recipe. http://www.southernplate.com/2013/01/revel-bars-amish-romance-and-korean-tv.html

Ingredients

Crust:
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats

Filling:
14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions
Take 2 tablespoons of butter and set aside to use in filling.
In large mixing bowl, place remaining butter and brown sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Add all other dough ingredients and mix again until well combined.
Pat 2/3 of mixture into bottom of greased 9x13 pan.
Place all filling ingredients (including the 2 tablespoons of butter you set aside in step one) in a microwave safe bowl and cook at 30 second intervals, stirring after each, until chocolate is completely melted. Pour over crust and spread to the sides.
Drop remaining dough in teaspoon sized drops over the chocolate.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Ingredients

• 1 box Lemon Cake mix with pudding in the mix
• 1 pkg. Lemon instant pudding mix (4-serving size)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/8 cup poppy seeds

Instructions

1. Grease 2 loaf pans and instead of flouring, use sugar.
2. Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Note: I like to add 1 teaspoon lemon oil for an extra lemon “kick”.
3. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350° F.
4. Test with toothpick for doneness.

My notes:

The recipe above is taken directly from Southern Plate and is another easy "Quick Bread" recipe.  I follow the recipe (shocker, I know) except that I didn't have any lemon oil on hand.  So, I squeezed 1/2 a lemon into mine and just stirred it in.  If you need to whip something up in a hurry to take somewhere or because company's comin', then this one is great!

Deep-Dish Layered Southern Banana Pudding

Oh my!  This is NOT your Grandma's banana pudding!  And, to be completely honest, I was never a huge fan of traditional banana pudding.  It lacked texture.  I know, that sounds crazy.  But I really like to chew my food and after it chilled for a few hours, then there really was no chewing required.  Well, after you taste this one, you may never make Grandma's banana pudding again.  I certainly won't!  This is phenomenal and is one that, after we all had our serving, I had to give the rest away just to get it out of the house.  If I hadn't, then we'd all be miserable AND fat!

30 vanilla wafers
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 pkg (3.4 oz each) Jello vanilla flavor instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
1 tub (8 oz) thawed Cool Whip
4 bananas, sliced
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Crush vanilla wafers; mix with next 4 ingredients.  Spread onto bottom of large rimmed cookie sheet or jelly roll pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Bake 5 min; stir.  Bake 3-5 min or until golden brown; cool completely.

2. Beat pudding mixes and milk with whisk 2 minutes.  Pudding will be thick.  Stir in 1 cup cool whip.  Layer 1/3 of the crumb mixture and half each of the bananas and pudding in serving bowl; repeat.

3. Beat cream cheese and granulated sugar in medium bowl with mixer until blended.  Gently stir in 1 cup of remaining cool whip; spread over top, sealing to edge of bowl.  Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture.  Refrigerate 3 hours.  Top each serving with remaining cool whip and whole wafers just before serving.

My notes:
I knew that one teaspoon of cinnamon in the crumb mixture would not be quite enough for my taste.  I used close to a tablespoon, but I can't tell you for sure because I didn't measure.

It took 12-15 minutes to get my crumb mixture as toasted as I wanted it.

I did not have 2 small boxes of vanilla pudding mix on hand.  I had one small box of cheesecake pudding mix and one large box of vanilla pudding mix.  So, I used the one small box of cheesecake pudding mix (which I measured it to be 1/2 cup) and 1/2 cup of the vanilla one.  That was equal to the 2 small boxes.  And I usually substitute cheesecake flavor for vanilla in recipes.  It just tastes less artificial to me.

Make it!  You'll move up in the ranks with a lotta folks!

Peach Cobbler Muffins

Ran across this recipe on Southern Plate and knew immediately it was one I was gonna have to try.  After tasting it, I knew immediately it was one I would make again and again.

Ingredients
•1 1/4 cup self rising flour
•1 cup brown sugar
•1/4 cup quick cooking oats
•1 teaspoon cinnamon
•2 eggs
•29 ounce can peaches, drained well and coarsely chopped
•1 teaspoon vanilla
•3/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions
Prepare muffin pan by spraying with Pam. In large bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, oats and cinnamon. In separate bowl, mix beaten eggs, peaches, oil and vanilla. Pour egg mixture all at once into flour mixture: stir just until flour is moistened. Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees or until tested done. Makes one dozen.

My notes:
First let me say, if you are hoping for something as sweet as traditional peach cobbler, then please don't make these.  You'll be disappointed.  That is one thing that I really liked about them...they are not sickeningly sweet.  They are REALLY good with a cup of coffee (and a beautiful friend) and much more of a breakfast or snack muffin than a dessert.


I did not have "quick cooking oats".  I used what I had on hand..."Old-fashioned oats"...and it worked just fine.  I used extra large eggs and I also added about 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cloves and ground nutmeg...because I love the flavor of both and I find myself constantly looking for places to use them.


The tops of these muffins get really brown and the sugar almost caramelizes as they bake.  You might be able to tell from the awesome pics made by my friend over at Lulu Photography.  (There's a subtle plug for you, Becke'!)


Oh yeah, one last thing.  The recipe says it makes 12.  Now I don't know what size muffins she made, but they obviously were a bit larger than mine 'cause I got 18!  And I was proud to have those extra 6!!!

Peanut Butter Parfait

This recipe has Paula Deen roots, but I can't say for sure that this is her exact recipe.  My mother called me saying she had seen something by the same name on one of her shows and that I needed to make it.  I googled "Peanut Butter Parfait" and this is the recipe that I found and used.  I got the recipe HERE.

Ingredients:

2 cups cold milk

1 (3.9 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (8 ounce) container cool whip, thawed

1 cup chopped peanuts

1/2 (1 pound) package Nutter Butter cookies, crumbled

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine milk and pudding mix; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter and powdered sugarIn a medium bowl, combine milk and pudding mix; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter and powdered sugar; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add cream cheese, beating until smooth. Fold in the cool whip, mixing to combine. In serving glasses, layer pudding, peanuts, peanut butter mixture and crumbled cookies, as desired. Garnish with cookies and chopped peanuts. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

My notes:

First, regarding the ingredients...I used 4 ounces of cream cheese because I happened to have half of an 8 ounce block that I needed to use up and I was not going to cut off an ounce and save it.  (o:  I did not use the peanuts.  I didn't have any peanuts in the house and I wasn't going to get any.

 

It was not light at all, as my mother said she thought it may be.  It was heavy and rich and almost caused me to slip into a diabetic coma.  However, it was DELICIOUS!  The husband LOVED it and I will definitely be making it again.  It took all of about 15 minutes to make it and it was really easy.  I was able to do the two stemmed glasses pictured above and 6 smaller ones.  ENJOY!

Two-bit Wonders

before

after

If you are a coconut lover, then you will fall head-over-heals for these!  To say they are easy is an understatement.  And so delicious, they are addictive!  I don't have any "My Notes" below because there is little to say about the preparation...two ingredients and about 15 minutes.  That's all there is to it and you get a little bite of heaven!

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 cups shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened (see note)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease or line with parchment 1 large or 2 small baking sheets.

In medium-size bowl, combine condensed milk and coconut.  Drop mixture by tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets.  Yield 24.  Bake 13 minutes or until cookies are set and coconut is golden brown.

Note: If using sweetened coconut, reduce baking time to 8-10 minutes.



Valentine Brownies

When I discovered this recipe in the February 2011 issue of Good Housekeeping, I had to give it a try.  I have never made brownies from scratch (always a mix) and the write-up that accompanied the recipe mentioned crunchy meringue-like tops with a fudgy brownie underneath.  I was sold.  I had to try it.  Plus, I already had all but one ingredient on hand!  Now, of course, it took a little more time than a mix.  But the question is was it worth the time and ingredients?  YES YES YES.  Without a doubt, YES!  The top is indeed crunchy and meringue-like and the inside is chocolate overboard.  Then again, with 3 different kinds of chocolate, it was bound to be decadent.  I didn't take a picture because...well, they don't look any different from the brownies I usually make with the help of Betty Crocker.  And I didn't figure such a picture would help much.  However, trust me on this one and go to the sto right now and get the stuff to make these.  You won't be disappointed!  To say they are impressive is an understatement!!!

Ingredients
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut up
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 9x13 pan with foil; grease.

2. In saucepan, melt butter and chocolates on low, stirring.  Remove from heat.

3. In bowl, whisk flour, cocoa and salt.  Set aside.  In large bowl, with mixer on high speed, beat eggs until blended.  Gradually add sugars; beat 10 minutes or until tripled in volume.

4. Fold in chocolates and vanilla, then flour mixture.  Pour into pan.  Bake 28-32 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out almost clean.

My notes:
It says large eggs, but I used extra large because that's what I had.

The recipe didn't say to do so, but I stirred my sugars together in a bowl before I gradually added them to the eggs.  And, yes, it really does take 10 minutes to triple the volume of the egg/sugar mixture.  This step is important.  Beat egg/sugar mixture until it is pale yellow and literally leaves a ribbon when you lift the beaters and let the mixture drizzle onto itself.

On the "fold" step, be sure and actually FOLD.  You don't want to lose all of that air you just took 10 minutes beating in.  Go slowly...it's worth it.

The suggested 28-32 minutes wasn't enough time in my oven.  Usually things bake more quickly in my oven than the recipe suggests.  That leads me to believe the 32 minutes isn't gonna cut it for other people too.  It took closer to 40 minutes for me.  My suggestion is go with 30, then test it with a toothpick.

Brownie Covered Oreos

1 Brownie mix

1 package Oreos

White chocolate, melted for drizzle, or Wilton White frosting pen works great

White nonpareils Sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare brownie batter according to package directions. Leave in mixing bowl. Dip Oreos in brownie batter then place in bottom of cupcake tins that have been generously sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until brownies are cooked through (doesn’t take long). As soon as you remove, take a plastic knife and run along edges, (this is VERY important so you get the cookie out with brownies not stuck to pan

2. Let cool for 5 minutes, remove drizzle with melted white chocolate or the Wilton White icing pen and sprinkle with nonpareils.

Makes entire package of Oreos

My notes:

Above is the recipe as I found it at Picky Palate.  But the pictures are my own.  I made these for an annual NYE party and I was thankful we were having friends over since there were THIRTY of these little guys.  They were very easy and an instant hit.  I feel like I over-baked mine slightly and I will definitely take them out a couple of minutes sooner next time.  Obviously I skipped the white chocolate drizzle but no one complained.  I'm gonna do this again and I'm also gonna try it with Chips Ahoy too!!!

Strawberry Cream Pie (aka frosting from Cream Cake)

The first time I made the Cream Cake I have posted about before, I knew the frosting was SOOOO good it could easily stand alone.  I finally did something with that thought.  I made the frosting and was able to fill 6 mini graham cracker crusts and a full-size one as well.  Then, because I was pressed for time, I popped them in the freezer to firm up while we were eating dinner.  GREAT!  They were fabulous...exactly as I expected they would be.  I reposted the recipe below for your convenience.  Another thought I had, but haven't tried yet, is to make parfaits with graham cracker crumbs, this frosting and more strawberries!  WOW!  Can't wait to try that one.  I may have to make them in little disposable shot glasses so they are single-serve/single-bite desserts...and cute too!  Would love to hear your comments when you share this one with your family!

Strawberry Cream Pie (aka frosting from Cream Cake)

Combine 2 1/2 to 3 cups of frozen sweetened strawberries (thawed) with 1 small box instant vanilla pudding.  Stir well then fold in 8 oz. whipped topping.

Oatmeal Fruit Bars

1 package yellow cake mix
2 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
3/4 cup softened butter
1 egg
2 cans Solo Cake & Pastry Filling

Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a 13" x 9" x 2" pan.  Combine dry cake mix and oats.  Add butter and egg and stir until crumbly.

Put 1/2 of mixture in pan.  Press down lightly.  Spread filling over mixture in pan.  Top with remaining mixture.  Press down lightly.

Bake for 22-26 minutes.

Cool before cutting into squares.


My notes:

I got this recipe from the label of a can of Solo Raspberry Cake & Pastry Filling.  I bought it at Kroger a while back just because it looked good and it said it had recipes inside the label.  It was a really easy recipe and I would think you could get very similar results with just a jar of your favorite preserves or lemon curd or some sort of cream cheese filling...oh my, my mind is racing.  Nonetheless, there were several different flavors that sounded pretty darn good.

In my oven, I had to bake it for 27 minutes.

Jewish Apple Cake

I got this recipe from the Relish insert in the Wednesday edition of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette several weeks ago.  I try to make it a point to browse both that insert and the Food section of the paper on Wednesdays.  Sometimes there are some great recipes and even when the recipes don't sound so good, I often get inspiration at the very least.  This cake recipe ranks pretty high.

Not that it concerns this Southern Baptist girl, but "the cake uses vegetable oil instead of butter, and orange juice in place of milk, to meet kosher laws saying that diary cannot be eaten at the same meal as meat."  Just wanted to share that interesting tidbit found in the article accompanying the recipe.  The article also stated "apple and cinnamon flavors infuse the cake, making it even better the second day."  I will most definitely have to agree.  It was a really good cake a couple hours after I took it from the oven, but the next morning it was AMAZING!

Ingredients:

6 cups peeled and thinly sliced Granny Smith apples (about 3 large)

1 1/2 cups, plus 5 tablespoons, granulated sugar, divided

4 teaspoons cinnamon

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup orange juice

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease, sugar and flour a 10-inch Bundt o tube pan.

2. Combine apple slices with 5 tablespoons granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.

3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

4. Beat eggs with remaining granulated sugar and brown sugar.  Add vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla; beat well.  Gradually blend in flour mixture and mix until well blended (about one minute).

5. Pour one third of the batter into the pan. Top with half the apple slices, draining off any liquid.  Pour in half the remaining batter and top with remaining apple slices.  Top with remaining batter, making sure the apples are covered.

6. Bake 55 to 60 minutes, until the top turns golden brown and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  let cool 10 minutes in pan.  Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.  Serves 16.

Banana Nut Bread/Cake

You can call it bread or cake.  I call it bread when it's baked in a loaf pan and cake when it's baked in a bundt pan.  Whatever makes you happy though.  Either way, this is one REALLY EASY and VERY DELICIOUS way to use up some over-ripe bananas and have a nice treat on the table in no time.  ONLY FIVE INGREDIENTS!  That is enough to get my attention right there.  I have made this one several times before and, to me, it is as good as, or better than, most "from scratch" banana breads I have eaten.  Hope you enjoy!  If you make it, leave me a comment.  I'd love to know what you think.

Ingredients

1 box cake mix with butter

3 eggs

1 stick of butter, melted

4 mashed bananas

1/2 cup nuts

Directions

Mix well and bake in a loaf pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour or until golden brown.

My notes:

Yes, that is all of the directions that were included with the recipe.

That is a "butter recipe" cake mix.  Oh, and do not substitute margarine for the butter.  It gives it a very artificial taste.  Your bananas do not have to be over-ripe.  When I made this today, I used 2 that were over-ripe and 2 that were just fine for eatin'.  I peel mine and toss them in a mixing bowl then get out my handy-dandy potato masher and don't stop til it's banana soup.  I bake mine in a bundt pan just because that's my preference.  It only takes 45 minutes when in a bundt pan and unless you have a really big loaf pan, I think I would divide this between 2 loaf pans.

Key Lime Cupcakes

Cupcakes

1 box lemon cake mix

1 box (4-serving size) lime-flavored gelatin

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup key lime juice

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 or 3 drops green food color, if desired

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons key lime juice

Frosting

1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

grated lime peel, if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.  In a large bowl, beat cake mix and gelatin with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds.  Add remaining cupcake ingredients.  Beat with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds; beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl as necessary.  Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.

Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes.  Remove from pan to cooling rack.  With toothpick or wooden skewer, pierce tops of cupcakes in several places.

In small bowl, mix 1 cup powdered sugar and enough of the 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice until glaze is smooth and thin enough to drizzle.  Drizzle and spread glaze over cupcakes.  Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy.  on low speed, beat in vanilla and 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar until mixed; beat on medium speed until fluffy.  Frost cupcakes, mounding and swirling frosting in center.  Garnish with lime peel.  Store covered in refrigerator.

My notes:

These are quite possibly one of the best cupcakes I have ever put in my mouth.  They even rival those from specialty bakeries.  And, they were remarkably easy.  I can't wait to make them to take somewhere.

Yes, you really do beat the dry ingredients together.  After I did it, I understood why.  It really helps to get the gelatin fully incorporated before you add the wet ingredients.

I did not have, and husband couldn't find at the grocery store, key lime juice in a bottle.  I suggested fresh key limes, BUT he came home with one of those little lime shaped bottles of "reconstituted lime juice."  So, I had to make-do.  If you find yourself in a similar situation, here's what you can do.  Measure 6 tablespoons of the reconstituted lime juice into a 1/3 cup measuring cup and fill the remaining space up with water.  That will give you enough liquid and the taste works out fine.  On the glaze, use the same amount of the reconstituted lime juice as you would regular lime juice.

The recipe says you will have 24 cupcakes.  I got 26.  At the present time, there are only 8 left - I sent 10 to work with the hubby, 6 across the road to the neighbors and the girls and I shared a couple.  I could've eaten at least 2 by myself.

When piercing the cupcakes with a toothpick or skewer, the more holes, the bigger the wholes, the better.  You will want the glaze to run down inside the cupcakes.

I did not drizzle the glaze.  I used a baby spoon and each cupcake got at least a spoonful.  I dropped it in the middle and spread it around really well.  I LOVE lemon/lime stuff and I figure if a little's good, a lot's better.

I grated my lime peel and planned to garnish with it, but instead decided to stir the lime peal (the zest of 2 limes) into my frosting.  I think you can probably see it in one of the pics.  Turned out great.  These were definitely a home run in my book.  If you have a lime/lemon lover in your life, I guarantee these will be much appreciated.

Cream Cake TWEAKED

Go check out the changes I made to the CREAM CAKE recipe.  It's a better cake now...although I didn't think that was possible!

12-minute Chocolate Cake

Yep, you read that correctly.  You, too, can have a cake that looks this wonderful on your table after only 12-14 minutes of bake time.  And believe me, it tastes as good, or better, than it looks.  But first, you're gonna have to go treat yourself to the Pampered Chef Stoneware Fluted Pan.  It retails for $33 which seems a little much, but there are SO many ways you can use it.  And several variations on this one recipe.

Here's what you need.

your favorite chocolate cake mix

your favorite chocolate icing

pecans, chocolate chips, coconut, caramel ice cream topping (all optional)

Here's what you do.

Grease pan and scatter pecans, coconut and/or chocolate chips on bottom on pan.  Prepare chocolate cake batter with eggs, oil and water according to directions on box.  Pour into greased/sprayed fluted pan right on top of whatever you chose to put in the bottom (if anything).  Then drop icing by the spoonful evenly on top of raw cake batter.  Place in microwave and cook on high for 12-14 minutes.  Cool AT LEAST 10 minutes (but 20 is better) in pan before inverting.

Invert and drizzle with caramel ice cream topping.  You will notice that while the cake cooked, the icing sank to the bottom so that when you inverted it it runs all down the cake and creates this amazing chocolate sauce/glaze.

I always keep a chocolate cake mix and chocolate icing on hand for this one.  You don't have to do anything but the cake mix and icing if you are a "purist" (that's what my husband calls himself).  The one pictured above has only the pecans added because the hubby doesn't like coconut and I forgot to sprinkle the chocolate chips before I poured in the batter.  And I'm not really sure why I didn't do the caramel drizzle.  However you decide to do it, it's amazing!

Frosted Zucchini Bars

Ingredients

BARS

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup flaked coconut

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

FROSTING

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.  Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to the creamed mixture.  Stir in zucchini, coconut and nuts.

2. Spread into a greased 15 x 10 baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire wrack.

3. In a bowl, combine sugar and sinnamon.  Stir in butter, vanilla and enough milk until frosting reaches spreading consistency.  Frost cooled bars; cut.

My notes:

I had one pretty large zucchini on hand and, when shredded, it produced about 1/3 cup more than what the recipe called for.  I used it anyway and these turned out just fine.

I did not put coconut in mine.  The reason is two-fold: none on hand and hubby doesn't care for it.

I used pecans instead of walnuts.  Again a two-fold reason: it's what I had and we love them.

I failed to include the cinnamon in the frosting.  Just wasn't paying attention I guess...and it was late.

These were really good and made just a few more than 2 dozen 2 inch bars.  Great if you needed a treat for a crowd.  Would make 60 or more if you cut into bite-size pieces.  I made them because I had a zucchini I needed to use and I haven't found a good zucchini bread recipe yet.