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I have a delicious recipe for a Patriotic Poke Cake being featured over at Mom Spark this weekend. Follow this link to check it out. Happy Weekend!

Today I have a delicious variation on my tried and true Extra Moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I have gotten many good reviews from folks that have tried the original recipe. This time around I added a swirl of delicious Nutella. It turned out fantastic. Please, please try this recipe, or the original. They are both incredible.

Note: If you prefer you can warm the Nutella mixture for a few seconds in the microwave. It loosens the spread up a bit and makes it easier to add to the batter. After baking you can serve it plain, with a bit of butter, or my favorite is to add a thin layer of cream cheese.

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Depending on where in the world you are located, Langostino can be a variety of things. In the United States, Langotinos are typically the meat from a squat lobster, which confusingly enough isn't actually lobster. To many people the taste is somewhere in between a lobster and a shrimp. Personally they very much remind me of crawfish, which I love.

Finding these little guys may take a bit of looking around, but I have found them at places like Costco or Trader Joe's. They may tend to be a seasonal item as well, so if in doubt, call ahead and ask.

For this recipe we went with a classic Lobster Roll filling, which complimented the Langostino very well. Make sure to butter and toast your rolls for maximum flavor. Enjoy!


For our Langostino Roll preparation, the meat came already cooked. We defrosted the meat and after defrosting, gently squeezed the excess water out as it tends to hold onto a lot of fluid.

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This weekend over at Mom Spark I posted a recipe for Red Hot Cinnamon Apple Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. Be sure to pop on over and check it out. Have a great weekend!

I got the flower mold from Wholeport, one of my sponsors. I was originally planning on trying out this mold by making a cake but the hot weather tempted me to try it out for Jello. I lightly sprayed the baking mold with a cooking spray before filling it and once it had set up I had the big test - does it actually come out of the dish easily. It did! We were actually quite surprised at how easily the jello make out of the mold and pleased that there was very little fuss to remove it.


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I tried out this delicious recipe from the wonderful blog Smitten Kitchen. The only thing I forgot was to add a dusting of powdered sugar on top. I love rhubarb so this was a winner. Enjoy!


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My son Jack turned 4 last weekend and we celebrated with a themed birthday party of his current favorite - Angry Birds. How about those angry piggy cupcakes? I thought they turned out really cute. The tongues sticking out were a spur of the moment addition, along with a few mustaches. I had planned to do more for the party but as I mentioned, I have been very sick lately so I just didn't have the energy to do more.

We were outside for most of the party and set up a kiddie pool, sprinklers and a radio. (Who picked the country station for music??) We grilled cheeseburgers and hot dogs, along with the Best Ever Broccoli Salad, a traditional potato salad with diced sweet pickles, punch, chips with homemade chip dip (Penzey's Chip Dip is awesome!), Piggy cupcakes and we got a angry bird sheet cake from a local grocery store.



The Angry Piggy Cupcakes were made with a yellow cake mix, a homemade frosting tinted green, lime marshmallows cut in half and dipped in green sanding sugar, mini M&Ms for the eyes, and for the ears, tongues and mustaches we bought a pack of gummy sour candies that come in rectangle strips and we cut them to the appropriate shapes.

The wind was pretty crazy and popped all of the balloons outside, blew away the plates and napkins and blew a bunch of grilling smoke in our faces, but even with all of that it was a nice time. The kids enjoyed the warm weather, which we haven't had much of yet, mainly just rain and more rain.

Leading up the party my son had been pretty adamant in saying that he was NOT turning 4, but instead was gonna stay 3 years old instead. By the time the party finally came around he finally had accepted that he was turning 4. It was a fun and low key party for a little angry bird loving kid. Happy 4th Birthday to my little man!

These muffins truly are bursting with blueberries. As such, I will note that they were a little bit tricky to get out of the muffin pan if you don't use any sort of muffin/cupcake liner, so I would suggest using those.

This recipe came from Tasty Kitchen. In the description of the recipe, the person who submitted it said that they were a whole grain muffin, but in her recipe there was no whole grain flour mentioned. I used regular flour and it turned out delicious. I am not much of a blueberry fan in general but I thought these were delicious, especially with the sparkly sugar topping. Enjoy!

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This recipe comes from my mother. It is nothing fancy but it is a standard side dish at our house, particularly during the Summer. It is refreshing and tasty. Enjoy!


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If you are breaking out the grill this Summer, I have a delicious grilled steak recipe to check out. I posted it over at Mom Spark so please hop on over and check it out!

Sharing this recipe at the following fun link parties.