Summertime Sangria

I love Sangria which is typically made with red wine, but in the summertime I prefer white wine. I found a recipe that uses Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine) since plums aren't in season I substituted raspberries or blueberries which you can find in the grocery store. I hope everyone enjoyed their memorial day! Recipe below.

8 peaches, pitted and sliced 4 white plums, pitted and sliced 1 pound green grapes, cut in half 3 bottles Prosecco (an Italian sparkling wine) One 12-ounce can Fresca or diet lemon/lime soda One 12-ounce can club soda

Combine all the ingredients and chill for at least 1 hour. Serve over ice.

Sweet Sundays

Liam helping out in the kitchen

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Do you ever wake up and just want chocolate? This happens to me all the time : ).  Today I decided to make a flourless chocolate cake. When the hubs and me were on our honeymoon in Italy we discovered this great dessert. I have tried lots of recipes and this is the closest I can get to the one we had in the Emilia-Romagna region. Enjoy the picture of the one from Italy and the one I made today! Recipe is below!

Flourless chocolate cake I made today

Flourless Chocolate in Italy!

Waiting on dinner!

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 18 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 6 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water, salt and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.
3.  In a microwave oven melt the bittersweet chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.
4. Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar-water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
6. Bake cake in the water bath at 325 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 45-55 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan or if you cant wait place in fridge for 2 hours.  

It is 96 degrees here today I think I will try the below recipe!

Vanilla Frozen-Yogurt Pops

Try this quick-and-easy way to lighten up frozen-yogurt bars

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2 cups nonfat plain Greek yogurt+
1/3 cup raw sugar+
18 reduced-fat vanilla wafers (or 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs)=
Vanilla Frozen-Yogurt Pops

I love frozen-yogurt bars, but many are loaded with sugar or some sort of supersweet sugar substitute. My version has 7 grams less sugar plus twice the protein of a traditional fro-yo bar—at only 123 calories per pop.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups nonfat plain Greek yogurt and 1/3 cup raw sugar until well blended; divide among 6 (3-ounce) waxed-paper cups, and freeze for 1 hour. Insert a wooden stick into each cup, and freeze for 2 more hours. Crush 18 reduced-fat vanilla wafers (or 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs) in a food processor until fine. Remove yogurt pops from cups, and roll in cookie crumbs. Place each in a new cup; freeze until ready to eat (at least an hour).

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Bethenny Frankel

Gloria's Chew Bread

Here is a recipe from my wonderful Mom, this is the kind of sheet cake you used to get at your school cafeteria.  I doubled up two small squares and added whip cream, blueberries, and strawberries. Check out the recipe below.

Chew Bread

1 Stick of Butter
1 box of brown sugar
2 cups of self rising flour
3 eggs
optional 3/4 chocolate chip/ nuts/coconut (I made my plain, but all the above sound yummy!)

Bake at 350 degrees and cook for 40 mins.

Summer Time is here!!

After being in New Hampshire for a week where it was cold and rainy I really needed some fun in the sun!  Since its been close to 90 here I thought why not go to the beach and enjoy the weather. Here is a picture of Liam enjoying the weather and some of my favorite summer time food!

Happy Mother's Day!

This mother's day Liam had his baby dedication at Lamb's Chapel instead of making a cake I decided to buy one from BUY ME CAKE in Burlington, NC.  Jason and me had our anniversary trip as well so I had no time to make a cake and I am really glad I left it in the hands of Buy Me Cake if you are interested in there cakes here is there website http://www.buymecake.com/

Royal Wedding Strawberry Scones

I know I am almost a week late posting this, but better late than never! On Friday I went over to my friend Brittons house at 5:30 to watch the royal wedding of course we needed to celebrate in true British style by making scones! Recipe is included below!

prince charming and me

Strawberry Sunrise Scones
Scones
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, cold
6-oz (1 container) orange-flavored yogurt*
1 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen (frozen works best)

Drizzle
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp [fresh] orange juice

Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a food processor. Pulse for 5 seconds to combine.
Cut butter into 4 or 5 pieces and add to food processor with flour mixture. Process for 10-15 seconds until no large pieces of butter remain.
Add yogurt and frozen strawberries to food processor. Pulse for 10-15 seconds until mixture comes together into a ball.
Divide dough in half and shape into two balls. Place the balls on the baking sheet and press down until dough is 1-1½ inches thick. With a knife, cut a cross into the dough so that each disk is divided into 4 pieces.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until scones are lightly browned. Let the scones cool on the sheet for 5-10 minutes. Divide the scones along the lines you cut before baking and remove to a wire rack to cool.
While scones cool, prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar and orange juice in a small bowl. Stir until smooth. When scones are cool enough to touch (it’s ok if they’re still a little warm, especially if you still want to serve them warm), drizzle glaze onto scones with a fork.
Makes 8 scones.
*I opted for orange flavored yogurt as a qualifying ingredient for the bake off. Alternatively, use plain or vanilla yogurt with 2 tsp orange zest added to it.

Sweet Sunday's

 The loves of my life