Root Beer Freeze

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month was Meghan's blog Cupcakes with Sprinkles.  With a blog name like that, you'd think there would be plenty of cupcake recipes, as well as other desserts - and you'd be right!  There are tons of dessert recipes to choose from.  Oh yes, Meghan has a huge sweet tooth! She's definitely a dessert before dinner kinda gal.  Besides cooking and baking, Meghan likes to quilt, sew, scrapbook, and decorate her house - and she's got three adorable children to keep up with!

One of the sweet recipes that caught my eye turned out to be my recipe from the time Meghan had my blog for SRC. I should probably make those again soon, but not today.

Here are just a few of Meghan's recipes I want to try:

• Slow Cooker Apple Barbecue Chicken
• Slow Cooker Beef & Broccoli
• Strawberry Lemon Cookie Bars

See, not all sweets, but when I saw this recipe for Root Beer Freeze, I knew I had to try it. It seems Summer has finally decided to get hot, and this looked like the perfect cool treat. 

Root Beer Freeze
from Cupcakes with Sprinkles

Ingredients:

• 4 1/4 cups (1 liter) Root Beer
• 1- 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Directions:

1. Pour chilled root beer and sweetened condensed milk into a large bowl and stir until combined.
2. To freeze:
   either pour it into your ice cream maker and follow the instructions for your ice cream maker,
   or if you don't have an ice cream maker, pour it into a 9x13 pan and freeze for an hour. Break into pieces and blend until smooth. Return to the pan and freeze until firm.

Such a simple and delicious treat!  If you like root beer floats, you will love this.  It tastes just like a root beer float, and the entire thing is the best part - the icy bits!  My husband and I liked this so much I made it twice.  I mean, I did buy a 2-liter bottle of root beer.  What else was I gonna do with the other half?

For an adults only version: pour some Baileys Irish Cream over the top.  Oh, yum!  It's like a creamy, icy, frozen version of a Baileys Harbor, the drink our son introduced us to a few summers ago.  It's just root beer and Bailey's over ice, and it's really good.   But this is better!

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Chile Lime Salmon Tacos

I pinned this several week ago because these tacos just looked so good.  Seriously - yum!

Mine didn't turn out looking nearly as nice as the ones in the picture, but they were definitely yummy.  And easy.  Gotta love an easy recipe that is also delicious.  I will definitely make these again.

Chile Lime Salmon Tacos
from BumbleBee

Ingredients:

• 1 can (14.75 oz) Salmon, drained and flaked (remove skin & bones as desired)
• Juice of 1 fresh lime
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning (or chile powder)
• salt to taste
• 8 soft corn tortillas or small flour tortillas
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• Cilantro
• Sliced green onions
• White Sauce
  1/2 cup sour cream
  1 tablespoon hot sauce

Directions:

1. Sauté salmon with lime juice and taco seasoning to warm through, about 2 minutes.  Add salt to taste.
2. Meanwhile, combine sour cream and hot sauce; stir well.
3. Fill warm tortillas with salmon mixture; top with cabbage, cilantro and green onions. Serve with your favorite salsa and the white sauce.

The original recipe said that the white sauce was optional, but don't skip it.  It really adds to the texture and flavor of the tacos.  I suppose you could use plain sour cream, but the hot sauce just gives it a little kick.  You could also probably stir about half a teaspoon or so of your taco seasoning or chile powder - whichever you use - into the sour cream for the sauce.

I used taco seasoning for my tacos, but I'm going to try the chile powder next time, just to see which one we like best.  Did I mention that these are super easy?  And super yummy? 

Blueberry Peach Buckle

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month was Anna's blog Cheese with Noodles.  I always love meeting someone who shares my name!  I'm noticing more Annas recently, but when I was growing up, it felt like I was the only one.

Anna lives in Alaska with her husband and pets, and we share a love of reading, gardening, and of course cooking.  She's much more crafty than I am, though.  I am completely challenged when it comes to stuff like that.

As with all Secret Recipe Club assignments, I had a hard time picking a recipe.  There were so many to choose from, and they all looked good!  Here are just a few that caught my eye:

• Creamy Salsa Dressing - I've been wanting to try some homemade dressings
• Buffalo Turkey Burgers - yeah, buffalo anything sounds good
• Cinnamon Roll Pancakes - I've been meaning to try something like this for AGES
• Greek Pasta Skillet - I am definitely making this soon!

But, I had some blueberries in the fridge, and since I don't buy blueberries very often, I don't really know what to do with them.  So, I checked to see if Anna had any blueberry recipes on her blog and found this one.  Who can resist making something called a Buckle?  I don't know who names these things, but doesn't it sound fun?  (OK, so I looked it up -Buckle or Crumble - Is a type of cake made in a single layer with berries added to the batter. It is usually made with blueberries. The topping is similar to a streusel, which gives it a buckled or crumpled appearance.)

While I was looking at the recipe, one of my facebook friends posted something about a blueberry peach crisp, and I decided to add some peaches to the recipe.  It sounded like a wonderful combination!

Blueberry Peach Buckle
from Cheese with Noodles

Ingredients:

• 1/4 C butter, softened
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 C milk
• 2 C flour (I used 1/2 white whole wheat)
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 C blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed if frozen)
• 2 peaches, peeled and diced

Topping:

• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C flour
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/4 C cold butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg, beating well.  Stir in vanilla and milk.
2. Mix dry ingredients and stir in.  Fold in blueberries and peaches.
3. Spread batter into greased 9" x 9" pan. (will be very thick)
4. To make topping, stir together sugar, flour and cinnamon and then cut in cold butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles course crumbs.  Spread evenly over batter. 
5. Bake 40-45 minutes in 375° F oven or until topping is browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This stuff is so good!  We ate it all weekend for breakfast.  It's fruit, right?  My husband and I both enjoyed it very much.  The cake is nice and moist with a really good flavor.  Besides adding the peaches, I cut the sugar down a little bit and added some vanilla to the cake.  The star of this cake is definitely the blueberries - lots and lots of blueberries!  The peaches really do complement them very well. 

This recipe is definitely a keeper.  From now on, when I buy blueberries, I'm making this!

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