Favorite Recipes

So, I promised last night that I would share our vegetable noodle stir fry recipe, which has become my new favorite make at home take-out. The recipe actually came from Everyday Rachel Ray, so I've given you the link above. Since we generally use recipes such as this merely as suggestions, we made a few variations based on what we had on hand. I would have loved to have tried it with the black bean paste and snow peas, but we didn't have either, so we either omitted or substituted. (Note that standard cabbage works well as a stand in for bok choy, as long as you keep it crisp, and we used regular onions in place of scallions.)

I also made this fantastic strawberry coffee cake that we love. I made it for my cousin's wedding breakfast at the beach a few years ago, and it was a total hit! I used strawberries I had frozen a while back, and it was good, but is much better with field fresh strawberries. So, I've included a picture here of our lovely, buttery, cream cheesy (no that's probably not a word, but go with it), HEAVENLY coffee cake. (Did I mention how good this stuff is?!) It's great slightly warm with a cup of coffee. So, here's the recipe from Coffee Cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas:

Strawberry Coffee Cake (warning, it's addictive, so pace yourself)

Ingredients:

8 oz cream cheese at room temp. (I used low fat so I didn't feel quite as guilty)
1 stick butter at room temp. (the butter is a must, don't go with margarine)
3/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (use homemade if you've got it--I add a splash more)
2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 c strawberries, sliced
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c chopped almonds or walnuts (I used pecans from our family's farm)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 9x13 pan (I use Baker's Joy to make this easy).

In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter, and granulated sugar, and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in the milk, eggs, and vanilla and beat thorougly. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to blend. Add to cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth. Spread half the batter in the pan. Scatter the berries evenly over the batter. Dot the remaining batter over the berries. Mix the brown sugar and nuts together and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until cake is golden brown, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares. Serves 12-15.

Enjoy a slice for us!