Iced (Kinda) Lemon Poundcake

Apparently, you can get in a lot of trouble for copying trademark recipes from well-known chains. So for the sake of me not going to jail, we will call this *Shmarbuck's Iced Lemon Poundcake.

I used to work within walking distance from a *Shmarbuck's and love, love, loved their iced lemon poundcake. Now the closest *Shmarbuck's is 30 miles away! That has to be a crime, right? Most places have these coffee shops every 50 ft and on every corner but I digress. Anyway, I've been on a bit of a lemon kick lately so I figured I'd try to find a really-similar-but-not-the-same-because-then-I'd-be-arrested recipe. Unfortunately, it was no where near the same as *Shmarbuck's but fortunately, it was still awesome!

My favorite part of *Shmarbuck's is the dense icing the sits on top. Well, this "icing" just absorbed into the cake. BUT it made it incredibly moist and lemony. Its also much more light and airy. Also, the recipe lied and said it makes one loaf pan. Well, one overflowing loaf pan and a 8x8 cake pan later I realized it must have been a misprint. Next time, (and my husband is already begging me to make it again) I will use a 9x13 and I think it will be perfect.

Iced Lemon Poundcake

Source: Kitchenlink

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Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon lemon extract

Lemon Glaze-

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.

2. Beat butter in a large bowl at medium speed of an electric hand-held mixer; gradually add oil, beating until well blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until blended after each addition. Stir in lemon extract.

3. Pour batter into a prepared pan. Bake at 300F for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

4. Lemon Glaze: Combine glaze ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves. Spoon glaze over top, a little at a time. Let lemon pound cake cool completely.

*Name has been changed so I don't go to the Penn.

Beer Butt Chicken

I've been reading a ton of blogs lately of authors who have made beer butt chicken, or beer can chicken as others call it. I was feeling intrigued to give it a try. At first I didn't think there was anyway that we'd have enough propane to last three hours but fortunately, I was wrong. The final result was very tasty! I wish I would have had a meat thermometer, though, because I think I overcooked it a bit. Overall, it was much easier than expected!

I chose a recipe from allrecipes.com that had great reviews.

Beer Butt Chicken

Source: Allrecipes.com

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Ingredients:

1 cup butter
2 tablespoons garlic salt
2 tablespoons paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1 (12 fluid ounce) can beer
1 (4 pound) whole chicken

Directions:

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for low heat. In a small skillet, melt 1/2 cup butter. Mix in 1 tablespoon garlic salt, 1 tablespoon paprika, salt, and pepper.

2. Discard 1/2 the beer, leaving the remainder in the can. Add remaining butter, garlic salt, paprika, and desired amount of salt and pepper to beer can. Place can on a disposable baking sheet. Set chicken on can, inserting can into the cavity of the chicken. Baste chicken with the melted, seasoned butter.

3. Place baking sheet with beer and chicken on the prepared grill. Cook over low heat for about 3 hours, or until internal temperature of chicken reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C).

Frozen Lemon Cupcakes

These are a great refreshing treat for summer!

Frozen Lemon Cupcakes
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*Makes around 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
Lemon Cream
1 cup sugar
Juice and finely grated rind of one lemon
2 cups whipping cream

"Crust"

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup crushed graham crackers
1/2 cup crushed corn flakes
2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

1. Making lemon cream: combine sugar and lemon juice and rind in a large bowl. Gradually beat in cream.

2. To make the bottom crust: melt butter in a pan over low heat and stir in crushed graham crackers, corn flakes, and sugar. Remove from heat.

3. Press down crust mixture into the bottom of a silicon cupcake holder or cupcake liner. Freeze for at least 3 hours. Unmold and top with a jellied lemon slice or a small berry of some kind.

Acorn Squash Bisque

My Coworker came in with tons and tons of acorn squash as a result of a gardening accident. I had made this bisque last year with butternut squash and it was fabulous so I decided to give it a go with the acorn squash. I know something is a hit when my husband tells me I should open a restaurant while eating. Shhhhh....I think he thinks I make these recipes up. We'll let him continue to ponder how amazing I am.

Acorn Squash Bisque
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/2 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
2 acorn squash
3 cups vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
ground nutmeg to taste
1/2 cup cream (used light)

Directions:

1. Cut acorn squash in half and remove the seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 min or until soft. Scoop out squash and place aside.

2. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil under tender.

3. Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.

4. In a blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture until smooth. ( I skipped this part and instead used a potato masher to break up any chunks.) Return to the pot, and stir in the heavy cream. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

Blueberry Crisp

Warning: The following recipe may be hard to understand and could cause random feelings of nauseousness. I beg you to believe that I would never steer you wrong!


So I had some blueberries in the fridge and wanted to make some dessert. I searched through allrecipes looking through recipes for cobblers and crisps until I found one that appeared to be simple enough. Blueberries, sugar, flour, mayonaise, cinna....WHAT? Mayonaise? What kind of freak would put mayonaise in a blueberry crisp!? So I read through the reviews and reviewer after reviewer gave the recipe 4-5 stars and proclaimed that the mayonaise was unrecognizable in the crisp. I felt intrigued.

Now I'm not a mayonaise lover to begin with. If I ever went on one of those reality shows where you had to eat giraffe testicles or mayonaise straight from the jar, I'm fairly certain I'd pick the testicles. Even mixing the ingredients together was a bit difficult for me. I figured I'd make the husband try it first and see what he said.

Then I realized that mayonaise is really just oil and eggs. Most cake recipes call for both of those ingredients anyway, right?

So the verdict is..... it was good! It tasted like any other blueberry crisp I've had. AND it only took 3 minutes to prep. Can't beat that!

Blueberry Crisp
AllRecipes.com

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Place the blueberries into an 8 inch square baking dish. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Stir in the mayonnaise until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the top of the berries.

3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is lightly browned.

**Serve warm with vanilla ice cream**

Zucchini Pancakes

It seems like everyone and their mother has a garden these days. Except for me. Luckily, I have enough friends and family overproducing to keep me stocked with fruits and vegetables up until...eh....2012. I had some zucchini in the fridge that I wanted to use up and my husband was out with his friend scoping out deer hunting spots. Doesn't that sound grand? It gave me a great chance to make something that would be fun for dinner but wouldn't be enough for his monster appetite if he was joining me.

This recipe is from my favorite blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks . They were delicious! The recipe from PW is a little vague in ingredients so I used my own measurements to make things simplistic for you all. You can thank me in the form of cookies.

Zucchini Cakes (I say pancakes because zucchini cake makes me think of dessert)

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded zucchini (2 whole zucchinis in my case)
1/2 bread crumbs
1/2 cup italian cheese blend (I used romano/parmesan)
2 eggs
1 T. minced garlic (about 4-5 cloves and that made it very garlicy but it kept the vampires away)
olive oil (enough to make a nice frying layer in the pan)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions:

1. Shred zucchini using a cheese grater. Take towels and pat shredded zucchini to remove majority of water. (There's a lot of water in those suckas!)

2. Mix together zucchini, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper. Heat olive oil in a frying pan to medium heat. Drop in small globs of zucchini into heated olive and press down with fork to flatten. Cook 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Serve with ranch dressing or other dipping sauces!

Chicken Vino Bianco

I'm not gonna lie. I love the Olive Garden! With those breadsticks and that salad and all those carby entrees. I usually go into carb-shock within minutes of paying the check. The downsides are the wait is always at least an hour. (Seeeee all you OG haters! There are more of me!) So I decided to try to find a copycat recipe of my favorite entree that I get each and every time I go to the Olive Garden. This is the second time I've tried a "copycat" recipe for this dish and this one was right on!

Chicken Vino Bianco

Source: Recipezaar.com

Ingredients:

4 pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts; pounded thin

4 T olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1/2 cup small diced tomato
1/2 cup red onion, sliced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, divided (cut to 5 T. No one needs that much butter)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lb uncooked linguine (I used spaghetti because thats what I had and cut it back to 3/4 lb. because I like my pasta wet with the wine sauce)
seasoned flour (for dusting)

FOR SEASONED FLOUR (this was way too much! I'd suggest cutting in half)
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large saute' pan. Dust chicken in seasoned flour. Cook chicken on both sides until golden brown and internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

2. Add 2 Tbsp butter to pan. Add green onion, diced tomato, red onion, mushrooms, garlic, chopped parsley, crushed red pepper, black pepper and salt to pan. Let saute' for three minutes, stirring constantly.

3. Add chicken back to pan. Add white wine, lemon juice and the remainder of the butter.
Allow to come to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions. Add drained cooked pasta to the pan and toss together and serve.