Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Okay, this is not a food blog, and it’s not going to be a food blog. But, we have company this week, so our house is all about the food.

Back when I was still somewhat house bound, after baby number three, or four, I had a very sweet girlfriend, who used to stop at a coffee shack on her way over, arriving with mochas, and cream cheese coffee cake, in hand. I’m sure it didn’t do much to help me shed those post-baby pounds, but it was a welcome diversion.

She, and her family, arrived last night, to retrieve their daughter, who has been our guest for the week, and to spend the 4th with us. I figured a special dessert was called for, on their first night here, and the a recipe for Cream Cheese Pound Cake, taken from the November 2001, Southern Living, over at Elizabeth’s Edible Experience, seemed to fit the bill.

Southern Living’s Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups Butter, softened at room temp
  • 1 (8-ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened at room temp
  • 3 cups Sugar
  • 6 large Eggs
  • 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
  • ⅛ tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

If you want a really pretty cake, there’s a complicated dance of science, and culinary art, involving creaming the butter and cream cheese, until smooth, but not over beaten, gradually adding the sugar, and the eggs one at a time, then the sifted together salt and flour, beating the mixture slowly, until everything is just mixed, and then gently stirring in the vanilla, before pouring the batter into the a greased, and floured 10-inch bunt pan, and baking it at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour and forty minutes, or until a toothpick, inserted near the center, comes out clean.

Or, if you care more about the taste, than the look, you can do what I did, and plop all the ingredients into a large bowl, and beat them like mad, until everything, except for the last chunky lumps of butter, is smooth, and batter like. Then, blob the whole thing into an angel food cake pan (because it’s the first pan, you manage to extract from the cupboard), sprayed with Pam baking spray (it has the flour already in it), and bake it for about 2 hours, at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, poking it a few dozen times over the course of the last 20 minutes, to see if it’s done.

Then, serve it upside down, to hide the lumpy, and hole filled top. But, don’t remove the crunchy, candy-like, layer from the side of the cake. It’s not pretty, but it’s the best part.

It’s not quite the coffee shack, coffee cake I remember, but it’s good enough to be dangerous. I mean really dangerous. I’ve never been sure whether the “pound” in pound cake refers to the weight of the ingredients, the heaviness of the cake, or the amount you will gain with each bite.

Happily, the children liked the cake as much as I did.

So, I’m safe for today. But then, July is National Ice Cream month…

It’s great to be a homeschooler.

Barbecue Turkey Sub

I made this for my husband for lunch the other day.

And then he asked for it again for dinner that night.

And the next night.

So here is the how to:

1- Get some good hoagie rolls and toast them under your broiler

2- Spread some mayo and some BBQ sauce on your toasted bread

Then here is what you need for the rest of the sandwich

– Deli turkey chopped up and mixed with BBQ sauce

– Coleslaw (I just bought a bag of shredded cabbage and mixed it with a store bough coleslaw dressing)

– Sliced red onion

– Sliced tomato

– Sliced avocado

– Swiss cheese

So after you spread the mayo and BBQ sauce on the toasted bread…

3- Put on the Swiss Cheese and the BBQ turkey and put it back under the broiler till hot and bubbly

4- Then layer on the rest of ingredients, season with salt and pepper…

5- Then devour while still hot. Yum!

…

Click the link below to continue onto the full article

http://www.theredheadedhostess.com/home-and-garden/recipes/bbq-turkey-sub-deliciousness/

Brownies

Cream
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
½ cup cocoa

Add
4 eggs
1½ cup flour
2 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt

Greased cookie sheet
350° 20m

Icing if desired

½ cup butter
⅓ cup cocoa
1½ cups powdered sugar
milk as needed

Chocolate Mint Layer Brownies

Mint Layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1½ tsp mint extract
3 to 4 drops green food coloring

Alternate Chocolate Layer:
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 cup semisweet or mint chocolate chips
1½ tbsp milk

Prepare and bake brownies in a 9×13-inch pan. Allow brownies to cool completely. For the mint layer, combine powdered sugar, butter, mint extract and food coloring. Spread over cooled brownies. For the alternate chocolate layer, melt together butter, chocolate chips, and milk in a small saucepan (or use the icing recipe). Spread over mint layer and allow to cool. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. Makes 24 brownies.

Chocolate Almond Decadence

Chocolate-Almond Addiction Cake

Mix and bake at 350° for 15 m in 9×13 pan
1½ cup flour
¾ cup butter
3 TBSP sugar
¾ cup chopped almonds

Mix and layer on cooled crust
8oz cream cheese
1 cup cool whip

Mix
5.9 oz chocolate pudding
5.9 oz vanilla pudding
4 cups milk

Then let set and layer after set

Last layer
2 cups cool whip

Very healthy and low fat!!