Josh's Birthday Chocolate Cake!

I normally don't pay too much attention to the recipes on the back of packages and boxes. BUT this is a chocolate cake recipe I got straight from the Hersheys Unsweetened Cocoa tin. I made it for Josh's birthday. I followed the cake and frosting recipe exactly, and it was yummy. Taste like what a chocolate cake should taste like, rich and chocolatey. I like my chocolate cakes to have substance;) It's nice to have a cake from scratch every now and then. So if you are looking for a chocolate cake recipe, look no further than the back of the Hershey's cocoa tin.

But don't get my wrong, I am a big cake mix fan;)

I don't feel like posting the recipe but it is easy to find:)

Turkey Sweet Potato Shepherds Pie

My husband loves this shepherds pie, he is a big fan of sweet potatoes. So I have made this a couple of times in the fall. It a great cool weather/fall dinner. The picture isn't the best, but it is a tasty and filling dish, though I think my husband likes it more than me. (It's a Rachael Ray recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds ground turkey or chopped leftover turkey
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 onion, cut into 1-inch dice
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups turkey or chicken stock (recommended: Kitchen Basics brand)
• A few dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen peas
• 1 very ripe banana ( I instead added some brown sugar and a little butter)
• A few dashes hot sauce
• 2 cups shredded sharp yellow Cheddar (I usually have put this on, but if you are making your sweet potatoes sweeter, then I prefer without it)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In a deep skillet or a Dutch oven heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. Add meat and break up with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper and poultry seasoning.

Place sweet potatoes in a pot, cover with water, cover pot, bring to a boil, salt and cook 15 minutes until tender.

Grate onions and carrots into the turkey. Add the celery and stir, cook 5 minutes. While vegetables are cooking, heat 2 tablespoons butter in a small pot over medium heat. Add flour to melted butter and whisk 1 minute then whisk in stock and season with salt, pepper and Worcestershire. Thicken a few minutes.

Stir the gravy into the turkey mixture. Stir peas into meat and turn heat off.

Drain potatoes and return pot to heat. Add remaining butter and melt over medium heat. Peel and slice banana and add potatoes to the pot. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper and a few dashes hot sauce. Mash potatoes and banana to combine, adjust seasoning. Top the meat with the potatoes. Cover potatoes with cheese and set in oven. Bake to melt cheese, 5 minutes.

Linguini con Vongole e Cozze

Here is my finished product! I served it with a crusty garlic bread.

I LOVE seafood and lately I have been craving a savory pasta dish with clams and mussels. I had some in Italy and at other restaurants I have been to in the past year, and I loved it. I had never really had mussels or clams (besides clam chowder) in a dish until recently and now it is one of my favorite things. Steamed mussels with fresh, crusty bread to dip in the broth or clams with pasta, you name it, I like all of it!

So here is a seafood pasta dish from Emeril Lagasse with a little alterations. The nice thing about this dish is it is flexible and easy to alter, like most pasta dishes.

I found some good fresh mussels and clams at a nearby place. In fact ALL but one of them opened when I steamed them, which means all but that one are good to eat. You will normally have a few that don't open when you steam/cook them and that means you want to throw them out because it's probably bad shell. So whoever says you can't find good seafood when you are not by the sea, I must say you are wrong. Yes, living on the coast gives you better options but, you are not without options when you are landlocked:)

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 whole garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 2 pounds baby clams (littleneck if available), scrubbed
• 1 stick of butter, cut into tablespoons (I cut back on the butter by about half, but it probably would be better with all)
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic, in all
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pounds fresh angel hair pasta (I used linguini)
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

Bring a pot of salted water up to a boil. In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil and the garlic cloves. When the garlic starts to turn golden discard the cloves, about 2 minutes. Add the mussels and clams to the oil. Cover the pan and saute the seafood for about 3 to 4 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, or until the shells open. Remove the pan from the heat and discard any shells that did not open. Pour the seafood into a bowl and set aside. Place the saute pan back on the heat and melt the butter with the minced garlic, over medium-low heat, about 2 minutes. I also added some seafood (or chicken stock) to the pan for more liquid. I wanted more of a broth with my pasta. You can also thicken it a LITTLE, with a LITTLE cornstarch. Drop the pasta in the boiling water and cook until the pasta is al dente, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the Sauteed mussels and clams with their liquid back into the pan. Saute for 1 minute. Remove the pasta from the water and drain. Place the pasta directly into the saute pan. Remove from the heat and toss the pasta with the mussels and clams. Season with salt and pepper. Mound the pasta in the center of an over-sized pasta bowl. Garnish with the grated cheese and chopped parsley.

Like I said, I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but this is basically the way to get this type of dish. Just play around with it:)

Homemade Blackberry Ice Cream!

I love homemade ice cream, especially when there are great fruits in season. About a month ago, I found some great, big beautiful blackberries, and I decided to make blackberry ice cream! Yes, this is a indulgence, not for those on a "diet" :) But hey, everything in moderation, right?

I have a Cuisinart automatic ice cream maker but this recipe should really work with any ice cream maker.

1 and 1/2 cups, blackberries, lightly smashed

1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 and 1/2 cups whole milk

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar (you can add a little more if you like sweeter, I like it a little more tart)

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Smash the berries with a mash potato smasher or chop with a large knife. I left it a little chucky because I like small chucks of fruit, but smash as much as you like.

Combine milk and cream in a medium saucepan and heat until it almost boils about 5-8 minutes. Reduce to heat to low.

Meanwhile beat egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla in small bowl until light yellow and smooth, about 1-2 minutes.

Important: Add four tablespoons of hot milk/cream mixture to the egg mixture in the bowl, stirring while adding. This helps temper the liquid, so that you don't get scrambled egg ice cream, eww! Then slowly add the tempered egg mixture to the hot cream/milk mixture in the saucepan, stir while adding it to avoid scrambled eggs!

Cook over low heat until slightly thickened and mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 3-4 minutes.

Cool completely (or else it will melt your ice maker ice bowl or ice and never turn into perfectly frozen and fluffy ice cream). When cool add the berries and stir until combined.

Pour into ice cream maker, and let it run for about 45 minutes or longer, until it is thick and fluffly, like what ice cream should look like, it shouldn't be drippy. But keep in mind it will not look as hard as store bought ice cream. It will be better! It is best right when it is done, but you can put it in a air tight container and store it in the freezer.

Little tip I learned, make sure your ice cream maker is not in a hot kitchen, or near a heat source, like a stove that is being used, or your ice cream will never quite set! That may be obvious to some, but not to me. I was hosting a dinner party a while back, and homemade ice cream was the dessert and it never set because I had been using the stove and oven cooking away for the dinner party. The kitchen was just too warm. So no ice cream for us...just berry soup :) The key is just get the ice or ice cream maker as cold and frozen as possible.