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Ever since I read the raving review of this Spiced Prune Cake at The Pioneer Woman, I have been dying to make it. It lived up to all the hype. It is delicious, moist and with a sweet buttermilk icing, it tastes incredible.


If you can get over any initial, "Ew! Prunes?!" response, I urge you to try this one out. In fact, if you are worried at how it will be received by your family, just don't tell them about the prune part. The texture is light and moist, spicy and sweet. I thought this cake would go very well with just barely sweetened whipped cream to keep the texture nice and light.

The only tricky part, judging by comments at The Pioneer Woman site and other reprints, seems to be the boiled icing. It seems a lot of people are boiling the icing mixture at too high of a heat which causes the icing to harden to the point of not being able to cut through it. I erred on the side of caution for my icing, keeping it on a very low boil on a gently heat.


Notes; I poked some holes throughout the cake to get the icing to seep down into it. This is an optional step. I think next time I will just skip doing that.

Enjoy!

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I created a roundup highlighting my past St. Patrick's Day recipes. I hope you find something delicious to try. A few recipes listed I included because they are green, since that is a common theme for the holiday. Enjoy!

A delicious and charming retro recipe courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, Mandy's Recipe Box. Be sure to drop by her blog and check out her amazing recipes. I've followed her blog for a very long time and she will always be one of my all time favorites. Mandy has lots of jello recipes for all you fans. Enjoy!

Notes:
~The only thing I would do differently next time around, which there definitely will be a next time, is to pour the mixture into a shaped jello pan to pump up the nostalgia factor.


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Today is a classic lasagna recipe with just a small tweak or two that made the best lasagna I've ever made. The recipe comes from the 1953 edition of Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book. I found the recipe over at Chez Bonne Femme, who recommended it highly.


A delicious lasagna with a rich sauce and creamy filling that is great served with garlic bread and a green salad on the side.



Notes:

~I used cottage cheese since I had that on hand and I think the filling turned out wonderful.

~I used a 28 oz. can of San Marzano peeled tomatoes in place of the 2 cans of diced tomatoes. Look for a brand that says "Product of Italy." The brand I got is Cento from Walmart. Chop up the tomatoes into small pieces and add all of the sauce from the can to the recipe. I would highly recommend this substitution as I feel it improved the flavor of the sauce tremendously.

~I had planned on using traditional noodles that are cooked first but no-boil noodles are what came back from the grocery store. I used them and they turned out fine. The recipe calls for two layers of noodles which was only half of the box of noodles. I was a bit worried about this, but I thought the end result was the perfect ratio of noodles to filling, as I don't like lasagna with an over abundance of noodles.

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A few weeks ago I spotted a recipe for Cucumber Salad that I knew I had to make. We have made cucumber salad a few times on the blog already and we love them all.


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Simple and delicious. Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream.


Ours was just a bit under baked (okay, a lot under baked). We had a timer malfunction. Really delicious even so. Many thanks to erinnish for the recipe. Enjoy!


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