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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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For my Mardi Gras party I was looking for a dark purple punch that would compliment the traditional mardi gras colors of purple, yellow and green. I came across a video recipe for Grape & Ginger Ale Punch by Sister Felicia. I loved the story she told of her grandmother making this punch and I recommend you watch the video as well.


I call this delicious drink "chunky" punch as it contains crushed pineapple and cherries, which give you a bit of something to chew on as you drink this.


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We had a small celebration for Mardi Gras this year. The kids, grandma and I made a king cake which I think turned out delicious. Along with the king cake we made a pretty dark purple punch.

I got a mix from King Arthur Flour this year. For as much as I mention KAF you'd think I was being paid to promote the, but I am not. Onto the King Cake Mix. Right now they have the price listed at $12.99 but a few weeks ago when I bought it, it was a whopping $19.99. Not exactly cheap when you add in $8 shipping.


As you can see there is a thick almond filling running through the cake which I happen to love. The quality of the sprinkles was outstanding. They have such a deep, vibrant color.

I probably could have baked it for another 5 minutes but as I have mentioned, my oven is a bakers worst nightmare. It runs hot, it's uneven and to boot we are at a very high altitude. So I try my best and cross my fingers when it comes to baked goods.


The kids helped decorate the cake. Even though we had some mistakes with the glaze, I thought it turned out very pretty. All in all it was a tasty cake mix. I don't know that I'd fork over $30 next year just to make it, but I like to try things out from KAF at least once.

Of the other mixes I've tried, the Yuletide Cheer Scone Mix (their holiday scone mix) was outstanding, along with Cranberry & Orange Muffin Mix and a Butternut Squash & Apple Bountiful Soup Mix.




I realized this week that I need to pick up a much smaller punch bowl for our little parties. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up something soon.


This delicious grape punch recipe will be coming soon! I hope you had a great Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras! Today I have an indulgent and rich Cafe au Lait Pie, recipe courtesy of King Arthur Flour. While I didn't nail the technique 100% in my layering, it was still delicious. I think my mistake might have been not letting the chocolate filling cool long enough. Lesson learned!



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These pretty little cupcakes are perfect for Mardi Gras. Made from scratch and to die for good. A lemon cupcake is tipped with lemon cream cheese frosting then sprinkled in green, purple and yellow.


There are a lot of cupcake recipes out there that produce just ho-hum results, but these are incredible!


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Next up for Mardi Gras Month are these Cajun Sausage & Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms. I adapted a recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything to give these a Cajun twist.

Although I tweaked a few things, the proportions of my filling were close to the original, yet I found myself with a bunch of leftover filling. Were my mushrooms to blame? I'm not sure what happened there, but if you make these please let me know if the filling amount was too much. If you happen to have leftover filling like I did, wrap some up in a crescent roll and bake those suckers.


The only change I would make to these next time around is to add a small amount of sauteed celery and bell pepper. Not even a lot, just 1/4 cup each to give it a traditional Cajun holy trinity flavor. I'd love to hear your feedback if you thought these were hot enough as well. Please let me know and enjoy!



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Today I have a pasta dish that is creamy, spicy and very filling. I used sausage, but feel free to switch it up to chicken, shrimp or a combination of any of the three.

This meal reminded me of the Spicy Romano Chicken from Johnny Carino's. If you were to swap the sausage for chicken, all that would be missing was artichokes. This was a big win for me, as I inadvertently made one of my favorite eating-out pasta meals. Enjoy!

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I've had great success with spicy shrimp dips. You can't go wrong with Cajun seasoning, shrimp and cream cheese. This dip is a bit different than my popular Spicy Creole Shrimp Dip. That particular dip has cheddar cheese and jalapenos and is a much 'saucier' style of dip.

This dip, however, is all about the shrimp and Cajun spices. We absolutely loved it. It isn't the prettiest dip but it is one of the best tasting I've ever made.

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May I just say that I think cheese balls can be beautiful? This pretty little appetizer is a tasty combination of (primarily) savory and (a little bit) sweet. I spotted this recipe over at Plain Chicken, one of my long time favorite food blogs.



In terms of size, keep in mind that this cheese ball only uses one block of cream cheese, so it is rather small when compared to other cheese balls that have two or three blocks of cream cheese.

I was afraid that the original recipe might not have enough pecan topping so I doubled that. Pictured is the original amount, however, to give you an idea of how much it makes.

If you have leftovers, store then in the fridge. To reheat, I put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Enjoy!

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