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!

An InLinkz Link-up

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!

An InLinkz Link-up

Cranberry Nutmeg Breakfast Cake

This is one of those recipes I almost picked for Secret Recipe Club. (I ended up going with these amazing enchiladas instead)  But this cake just sounded so good, I had to go back and try it.  I'm really glad I did, because this is one good cake!  I like to make coffee cakes, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and things like that for Sabbath morning breakfast.  I bake on Friday, and we have something yummy to eat over the weekend.  I think this one is going to show up on a regular basis.

Cranberry Nutmeg Breakfast Cake
adapted from Jessie Weaver

Ingredients
   Cake:

• 4 T butter, softened
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. milk
• 2 c. white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 bag (12 oz.) fresh (or frozen) cranberries, coarsely chopped*

  Topping:

• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans
• 1/2 c. shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, beating well.  Stir in vanilla, sour cream, and milk.
2. Mix dry ingredients and stir in.  Fold in cranberries.
3. Spread batter into greased 13" x 9" pan.
4. Mix all ingredients for topping and spread evenly over batter. 
5. Bake 35-40 minutes in 375° F oven or until topping is browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

This is a really moist, not-too-sweet cake.  I cut the sugar down a little from Jessie's recipe, but then I added the topping, so it's definitely sweet enough.  The cranberries add just the right touch of tartness in every bite.

We really enjoyed this.  Did I say that already?  Yes, it's really good!  Next time (see - next time - I am definitely going to be making this again) I am going to bake it in two round cake pans, the foil disposable kind.  The foil cake pans fit just perfectly into a gallon-size zipper bag.  I used to do that all the time when I made Overnight Coffee Cake when the kids were little. 

Then they got bigger and ate more coffee cake, and I started just baking it in a 13" x 9" pan.  Now that the kids are grown and it's just the two of us, I think it's time to go back to baking two smaller cakes and freezing one.  One of them will give the two of us plenty of coffee cake for the weekend, and the other one will come in really handy for another time when I don't have time to bake. 

Anyway, try this cake.  I think you'll like it, whether you bake it in a large pan, two smaller pans, or even make it into muffins, which is another possibility.

Italian Beef and Zucchini Stir Fry

I'm not sure where I originally found this recipe.  I cut it out of a magazine or something, and it's been in my recipe collection for ages.  Here's a copy of the original recipe I found over on Food.com.

Of course, I didn't follow the recipe, exactly, but I think that's part of the appeal of a recipe like this - you can substitute the ingredients you have on hand.  I didn't have any cherry tomatoes, but I did have one Roma - and a red pepper for some color.  I also added some sliced onion, because everything needs onions!

Italian Beef and Zucchini Stir Fry

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 8 oz. thinly sliced beef
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 a medium onion, sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 2 small to medium zucchini, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup Italian dressing
• 1 Roma tomato, diced
• Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.
2. While spaghetti is cooking, heat oil in skillet; add beef and stir fry until partially cooked, 2-3 minutes.  Add garlic, onion, and bell pepper and stir fry another couple minutes before adding zucchini.
3. When zucchini is crisp tender, season with salt and pepper and then add Italian dressing and diced tomato.  Heat through.
4. When spaghetti is cooked, add a ladle of the cooking water to skillet and set aside a little more (1/2 cup to a cup)  Drain spaghetti and add it to the skillet; mix it in and heat for a couple minutes to let everything combine.
5. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

I used whole wheat spaghetti, which was just perfect in this, but you can use regular spaghetti too.  A green bell pepper will work in this, too if that's what you have.  It's a simple recipe with a lot of flavor, and you can adjust it to suit your tastes or to use the items you have in your kitchen.

Even the leftovers are good!  This is where the reserved pasta sauce comes in - add it to your leftovers before refrigerating them.  Pasta tends to soak up extra moisture.  If you don't add the pasta water now, you will find you need to add water when you reheat, so you might as well use the good pasta water.

I've heard that there are people who won't eat leftovers, but if you liked it the first time, wouldn't you like it a couple days later?  Sometimes it's even better reheated because the flavors have had time to blend and improve.  But that's another topic.  Just try this recipe.  You'll like it.  Oh, and if you have lots of zucchini you're trying to figure out what to do with, try this first and then pass the rest to me.  I actually had to buy the zucchini I used in this recipe because I don't have a garden again this year, which makes me very sad.   Hard to believe when I was growing up I said I didn't want to have a garden when I grew up!

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