Homemade Alfredo

1/4 cup butter
1 minced clove garlic
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 - 2 cups freshly shredded Parmesan Cheese

Melt butter and add garlic stirring over medium-high heat.  Add  cornstarch to cream.  Pour into butter garlic mix and simmer for 5 minutes.  Whisk in cheese until melted.

Original recipe called for no cornstarch but I like my alfredo to be a little bit thick so I added the cornstarch.

Shown with sugar snap peas and mushrooms.  YUMMMMMMM!!!  Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Chocolate Cream Pie

1 9" chocolate cookie crust:
Emeril says this is the way to make the crust.  Personally I would cut the recipe by 1/2 as I didn't get the mixture to press down very much.  Your choice.


Graham crackers crushed to yield 2 cups
Oreo cookies minus innerds crushed to yield 1 1/2 cups
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 375

In bowl of blender or food processor process the graham crackers and Oreos to make crumbs.


In a bowl mix together cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter with your hands.  Press mixture evenly into a 9 inch pie pan. Compress.  Bake for 15 minutes.


Cool completely before filling.






Chocolate Pudding Filling & Whipped Cream Topping:

1 plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream; plus 1 3/4 cups
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
4 egg yolks
4 oz good quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 Tbsp butter
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp powdered sugar


In small saucepan combine sugar, 3/4 cup heavy cream, buttermilk, and cornstarch. Whisk until smooth.  Place over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil, whisking from time to time for the sugar and cornstarch to dissolve and the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.  Continue to cook at a low boil for an additional 5 minutes, whisking constantly.


In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly.  Pour 1/2 cup of hot mixture into the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly.  Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan and whisk over heat until thoroughly combined and very thick, 1-2 minutes.  Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl, and whisk in the chocolate, butter, and vanilla.  Continue whisking until thoroughly combined (mixture will be very thick).  Cover the mixture with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface and refrigerate until cooled to room temperature, about 30 minutes.


Place 1 3/4 cup heavy cream in chilled mixing bowl and add the powered sugar.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold about 1/4 of the whipped cream into the cool chocolate pudding mixture, then spoon the chocolate mixture into the prepared pie crust and refrigerate until firm and cool, at least 4 hours.  Refrigerate remaining whipped cream until you are ready to serve pie.


Invite friends or avoid contact and devour the whole pie yourself!

Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip

2 (8oz) package cream cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup fresh grated Romano cheese

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp Mrs. Dash tomato, basil, garlic

2 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts (drained and chopped)

1 cup frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained)

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease casserole dish

In large bowl, mix together first 7 ingredients (cream cheese, mayo, Parmesan, Romano, garlic, garlic salt, and Mrs. Dash).  Gently stir in artichoke hearts and spinach.

Transfer to casserole dish. Top with mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 25 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

Great as a dip. Great on it's own.  Great when mixed with rice.  It's just plain great.  

Enjoy!

Lemon Parmesan Tilapia

Totally dreamed this up myself so I don't have any sort of measurements for you.  It will all depend on how much fish you are making.  Soak thawed tilapia fillet in low sodium chicken broth just briefly.  Coat with flour.  Dunk fillet in egg wash.  Coat with 50/50 Parmesan cheese/bread crumb mixture.  Put in sprayed baking pan.  Meanwhile, in small pan mix low sodium chicken broth and good squirt or two or three of lemon juice; add some flour and heat until thickish - similar to how you'd make a cheese sauce or gravy.  Dump lemony goodness over fish and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.  Served with sweet potato crinkly cut fries. Yum!

Perfect Pork Chops

Best pork chops. Super easy.  Amazingly delicious.  Definite keeper recipe!

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 pork chops (about one pound)

 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

3/4 cup milk

1 (1 oz) package ranch salad dressing mix

paprika

Served over ranch style rice

Directions:

Heat oil in skillet on medium-high.  Add pork and cook until well browned on both sides.

Leave chops in pan and stir in soup, milk, and half of the package of ranch dressing mix and heat to boil.  Reduce heat to low; cover and cook for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with paprika.

Ranch Style Rice:

Make as you would normally make rice only add the remaining half of the pack of ranch dressing mix.    I use a rice cooker and added the mix with the water before adding the rice.  Simple and adds that little bit of extra favor.  

Next time I'll add some mushrooms also.  The soup cooking with the pork chops mixes both flavors and is used as a gravy over the rice.  It's sooooooo yummy!  Only share with those you REALLY love a whole bunch...otherwise it's too good to go sharing with just anybody!  =)

Jalapeno Corn Bread

Not the greatest corn bread ever but super easy.  I'm still on the hunt for a great corn bread recipe.  My recipe is half size...
Dry:
1 cup whole grain cornmeal
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Wet:
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with lemon juice)
1 egg
1/2 cup cream style corn
diced up 1/2 a jalapeno (or more or more dangerous a pepper if you are so inclined)

for skillet:
1 Tbsp olive/canola oil

Place 10" cast iron skillet in preheated 425 degree oven.  In small bowl combine dry ingredients.  In large bowl whisk your wet ingredients (minus the oil).  Add dry to wet and stir.  If it isn't pourable add more buttermilk.  Swirl the oil in the skillet to coat the bottom and edges.  Pour batter in the now lubed up cast iron skillet.  Bake until golden brown and springs back to touch.  Around 20 minutes.  

I halved the recipe but still baked around 20 minutes.  Don't think it was overdone and it was good - just not fabulous.  I'm looking for fabulous...still looking.  Liked that it used creamed corn and cornmeal rather than just cornmeal and I added the jalapeno on my own.  Originally a Food Channel person's recipe - Alton Brown maybe.  I expected more....Oh well, try try again.

Cinnamon Yummies

Multi-Grain Cinnamon Pull Apart Loaf

Dough:
1 pkg active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups flour

Filling:
3 Tbsp soft butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 tsp heavy whipping cream
2 tsp soft butter

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oats, wheat flour, brown sugar, egg, and 1 cup flour.  Beat until smooth.  Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft yet still sticky dough.

Turn onto lightly floured surface (adding flour as needed) and knead until smooth and elastic (about 6-8 minutes).  Place in greased bowl turning once to coat all sides.  Cover and let stand in warm place until doubled (about an hour) <I heat up a glass of water in the micro and push the now hot water to the back and use this as my warm spot>

Punch dough down.  Roll into 18in x 12 in rectangle (or close enough).  Spread with filling butter right to the edges.  Combine filling cinnamon and sugar (you can use white sugar I just find that brown sugar makes it better) and sprinkle this over the butter right up to the edge.

Cut into rectangles (your goal is 36 3in x 2 in rectangles - I managed to get close to this but then I didn't measure my original rectangle either and don't much care).  Make 3 stacks of rectangle goodness.  Place cut side up into greased 9x5 loaf pan.  Cover and let rise until double (about 45 minutes).  Preheat your oven to 375 while doubling.  

Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. I bake on the lesser minutes as I like my cinnamon yummies to be just a tad gooey.  Cool about 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Make glaze by adding everything and stirring until smooth.  Drizzle over the warm bread. I cut glaze in half as 1 cup of confectioner's sugar seemed a bit much to me and it would have been.  But, if you prefer cinnamon yummies with your glaze feel free to double.

These are super simple to make - it's just the bread making process of waiting for it to rise twice that makes it take awhile.  But, so worth it.  And you can use this same recipe and just do different things to the dough to make different results - for instance roll jelly roll style and make rolls; or cut into long strips and twist for a twisted ring.  I might just make these again right now.  Best when warm but still pretty rockin' when it's not!

Pretzel Crusted Fried Cheese Balls

Ingredients for Cheese Balls (my suggestions in parenthesis):

8 oz provolone, cubed

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

4 oz yellow chedder cheese, cubed

1 1/2 cup + 2 tsp flour (3/4 cup + 2 tsp)

8 oz thin pretzel sticks

freshly ground pepper

4 large eggs (2 or 3)

5 Tbsp spicy mustard (3 or 4 Tbsp)

peanut oil for frying (olive oil)

Ingredients for sauce:

2 Tbsp horseradish

1 Tbsp spicy mustard

1/4 cup sour cream

To make the fried cheese: Pulse provolone and Parmesan in food processor until cheese gathers into a slight ball (this takes more than a pulse or two).  Transfer to a bowl.  No need to clean processor.  Yippee.  Pulse chedder and 2 tsp flour in the same food processor until smooth (this takes more than a pulse or two also).  Form teaspoons of chedder mixture into 12 small balls, roll between hands until smooth.  These are not micro mini balls - this recipe actually makes good sized cheese balls and 12 like it says (how often does that happen?!)  Transfer chedder balls to a plate and freeze until firm (around 15 minutes).

Meanwhile:  Wipe out food processor and add pretzels.  Pulse until finely ground with nice chunks.  Transfer to a shallow dredging dish.  Mix remaining flour and 1/2 tsp pepper in another dish.  Whisk eggs and mustard in third dish (I used horseradish mustard).

Roll tablespoons of provolone mixture into 12 balls (slightly larger than the chedder).  Flatten into disks.  Put 1 chedder ball on each disk and form provolone around it, enclosing chedder.  Roll into a round or egg shape (if you do an egg shape then it looks like an eggs - white outer and yellow center - get it?)

Dip cheese balls in egg mixture.  Then dredge in flour. Return to egg mixture.  Then roll in pretzel coating.  Refrigerate at least 20 minutes and up to 3 hours to set coat.  I did right around 20 minutes and they came out great.

While refrigerating preheat your oven to 350.  Heat 1/2 inch of oil in small saucepan.  Your goal is 360 degrees should you use a thermometer.  Fry cheese in batches, turning until golden - only about 30 seconds or so.  Remove with slotted spoon and transfer to a rack set in a baking dish (I couldn't find a rack and set it directly in the dish with no issues).  Bake until heated through - about 5-7 minutes.

While baking make your sauce.  Whisk all 3 ingredients in bowl.  Serve with hot cheese balls.

Doesn't make much.  It's lots of little steps.  But, it's super yummy.  And what's more fun than fried cheese?  Unless that's just a Wisconsin thing...=)

Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo

8 oz linguine

1 cup fresh broccoli florets

2 Tbsp butter

1pound(ish) of bite size chicken pieces

1 10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Prepare linguine.  Either add broccoli during last 4 minutes of cooking linguine or steam them separately.  Drain linguine mix well.

Heat butter in skillet over medium heat.  Add chicken and cook until well browned and cooked through, stir often.

Stir soup, milk, cheese, black pepper, and linguine mix into skillet with cooked chicken.  Cook until mix is hot and bubbling, stir occasionally.  Serve with extra Parmesan cheese that was not in the original ingredient list. =)  

Yum, simple, goodness.

Fresh Berry Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350.

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/2 pint or so of fresh berries

Put butter into 8x8 pan or whatever dish you'd like to bake in.  Stick it in the oven until it is melted.  Meanwhile mix your dry ingredients and add the milk.  Stir this up.  This is the cobbler part.  Pull out the buttered dish.  Add your fresh berries (I cut up strawberries and added whole blueberries and red raspberries).  Pour the mixture over the berries. Do not stir. Simply stick back in the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.  Let cool slightly.  Serve with ice cream if you wish.

YUMMMMM!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
chopped nuts as desired

Make sure that butter is soft.  If it's fresh from the fridge nuke it ever so gently.  Combine nicely softened butter, sugars, and vanilla.  Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Stir in baking soda.  Gradually stir in flour.  Mix in your chocolate chips and nuts.  I use walnuts and/or pecans...and by use I mean I pack those babies full.  Sometimes I'll eliminate the chocolate chips and just add the nuts before I chow them down.

             Enjoy!

Oh you're on of those...ok if you must:  Drop onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes in your preheated 350 degree oven.  Recipe says it makes 50 - 4 inch cookies.  I find that hard to believe but mine never much makes it past the dough stage before it's gone so I really can't verify this for you. 

Grilled 3 Cheese with Bacon and 1000 Island

Simple. Quick. Yummy.

What you need: butter, cheeses, bacon, thousand island, two pieces of bread.

Pick three cheeses of your choosing. My choice was provolone, chedder, and feta. Fry yourself up three slices of bacon. I had extra lean turkey bacon. Butter up the outsides of your bread. I had homemade Parmesan Italian Bread (see previous post for recipe). Slap the cheeses, bacon and some thousand island dressing in the center - slap the other half of bread on (butter side out of course). Grill to your pleasing, frying at a low heat to get those cheeses melted while browning the bread slowly.

Viola!

Sandwiches rock! Quick, easy, and super tasty.

Baked Hush Puppies

3/4 cup whole ground cornmeal
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk with lemon juice)
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 minced jalapeno
4 minced scallions (green onions)
pepper to taste

Mix dry ingredients.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Bake around 10 minutes in mini muffin tins in a preheated 350 oven.

Super easy. I served mine with slow cooked country style boneless BBQ ribs from the local meat market, whole red potatoes fresh from my garden (also in the slow cooker), and a green salad.

Tuna Fish on Italian Parmesan Bread

I wanted to make some bread...picked out a recipe for Italian bread and added some fresh parmesan cheese to the mix just for kicks.  Then, what to eat on it......I had one little bitty can of tuna fish in the pantry so I whipped myself up a tuna fish sandwich with baby dills on fresh made Italian Parmesan bread.

Note: This is a bread machine recipe.  Course you can use the recipe and do all the labor - but I cheated and put it in the lazy lady machine.  I love that machine!

2 pound loaf:
1 1/4 cups + 3 Tbsp warm water
2 Tbsp butter
4 cups flour
3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 Tbsp dry milk
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 tsp active dry yeast OR 1 3/4 tsp bread machine/fast rise yeast

Add warm water and butter to pan.  I sliced the butter into three sections and placed it strategically in the pan to cover all areas.  Mix your dry ingredients (flour, Parmesan, milk, sugar, seasonings) except yeast.  Add this to the top of the water.  Level and make sure you cover your corners.  Make a well (not too deep don't expose the water) and add the yeast.  Lock the pan into the bread machine if you haven't already.

Push the correct buttons and let it rock n roll.  This is a basic bread.  I used medium crust.
Note that when I made this I didn't use warm water and it still got good rising.  Not recommended of course, but if you happen to mess up don't go throwing it all out just because of the cold water you accidentally added.  Came out beautifully.   Tall loaf so I cut one slice and ripped it in half for a full sandwich.  Rocked it with some tunafish, pickles, and tomato.  Added bonus the house always smells so awesome and you don't have the added heat from the oven being on.  It's perfect.

Go make you some bread, baby!  =)

Banana Bread/Cake

This is a recipe for so called Banana Bread although it came out really heavy and quite moist so maybe it's banana cake.  Either way it's really good.  I like bananas but they are one of those foods that I only like in the perfect way...I like them just a tad on the green side if I can't have them on that one day when they are perfectly ripe.  If you wait another day they are too far gone and taste too much like, well, like banana.  Who wants that? =)  Once they've gone to the other side I let them go and use them for banana bread.  It's difficult to eat bananas for me...even if I remove all the bananas from the bunch (supposedly if they are not attached they ripen on different days) they all still ripen on the same day and I end up eating two or three a day so they don't go one day past good eating.  Anyhow....to the kitchen we go:

Recipe I found makes two loafs so I've cut the recipe in half as I only want one loaf at a time:

1/2 cup softened butter
7/8 cups sugar (1/2 of 1 3/4 cups)
1 cup mashed up very ripe bananas (I used two and did not measure)
2 large well beaten eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/8 cups flour
Unmeasured but happy amount of nuts: walnuts and pecans were my weapon of choice.

Large bowl time: cream butter and sugar.  Add bananas and eggs.  Combine flour and baking soda to mixture.  Stir by hand until moist.  Add nuts of your choice if you wish.  I use enough so the batter is perfectly lumpy and every bite will be nutty.  Pour batter into loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.  Test center with toothpick or knife to make sure it comes out clean.  Run knife along edges and turn out right away.  Cool on a rack.

Mine came out quite dark and was very flat.  Not sure why...but it was surprisingly extremely moist.  Heavy like a cake.  Would be great with whipped cream...but then again what isn't great with whipped cream. =)  Enjoy!

Lasagna

It may not look quite the way it's supposed to but I wonder if it's because I like to eat my food hot - if you put it in the fridge well then it comes out in perfect set layers.  Like it much matters - it tastes yummy.  They say classic lasagna takes all day to make...why do they say that.  Just that you need to cook up those noodles first before you bake.  All in all probably takes 75 minutes total.  Might be awhile, but it's lasagna...come on that's totally worth it. =)

8oz pkg lasagna noodles
1 lb ground beef
2 15 oz containers of ricotta cheese
4 cups pasta sauce
2 eggs slightly beaten
2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)
1 cup freshly shredded parmesan cheese (divided)

Preheat to 350. Get those noodles cooking.  I always end up boiling them longer than the box says as they are almost crunchy yet if I were to only cook them that long.  Anyhow cook to your liking.  Then drain. Meanwhile cook and drain your beef.  Then add your pasta sauce to the beef.  If you use the cans of sauce like I do you'll need 1 full can and 1/3 of another (plan on making spagetti later in the week or use this sauce on pizza - it's good).  I use the actual pasta sauce rather than spagetti sauce but whatever you want.  Or make your own.  I'd do that but then we have all those extra ingredients that I don't normally have on hand issue.  Meanwhile back in the kitchen;  Mix your ricotta, eggs, 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella and 3/4 cups parmesan.  Once everything is ready you can start layering.  Get yourself the 9x13 pan.  First up is 1 cup of the meat sauce.  Then, 1/3 of the lasagna noodles.  Spread 1/2 the cheese mixture on top of the noodles and top that with 1/3 of the meat sauce.  Repeat...noodles, cheese mix, sauce.  Top with the last of the noodles and the remaining meat sauce.  Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes.  Uncover and sprinkle with all that extra cheese you saved without eating - 1/2 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup parmesan.  Bake an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is it's bubbly goodness.  Remove and let stand for 15 minutes (I never do this part cuz I'm hungry by now dang it!)  Cut to giant portions and eat and enjoy!

I find this to be a bit much on the cheese side - not that I'm complaining...but it's ricotta overboard so what I'd do is add 1-1/3 or 1-1/2 containers and then use the remainder in making that blueberry triffle for dessert.

I prefer to use Italian sausage instead of just plain beef but you could substitute ground turkey or chicken too I suppose.  Had been using ground turkey Italian sausage thinking it was healthier cuz it's turkey dang it...well I compared it to the pork sausage I had in the freezer and they were practically identical.  Turkey was higher in sodium and in protein but otherwise fat and calories were the same.  Interesting.  Turns out if you just buy ground turkey - that is adding all the skin and dark meat which adds to your unhealthiness, so you need to be on the lookout for ground turkey breast specifically or extra lean ground turkey.  And beefwise you are to buy in the 90s rather than the 85/15 kind - first number is fat free percent and second is fat percent I think.  So, you want the first number to be highest and second to be lowest.  Basically whichever is most expensive is healthier probably too! =)

I wanted to try a spinach lasagna but didn't have any spinach and wanted lasagna now! I'm thinking chopped up in the cheese mix.  Luckily for me I love Italian food so I'll try again...course I also love Mexican, and Chinese, and American, and Greek, and.....=)

Garlic Buttermilk Biscuits

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 cup shortening
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped or diced
1/2 cup of buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk & 1 tsp lemon juice (or vinegar)

Mix your dry ingredients thoroughly.  If you have buttermilk measure out 1/2 cup - if not mix 1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp (or a squirt or two) of lemon juice (or vinegar if you haven't got lemon juice).  Let this sit to get a thick buttermilk like consistency.  While that's sitting cut the shortening into your dry mixture of flour, soda, and powder.  Stir liquid in.  Mix well with your small diced garlic pieces.  Usually I end up adding more flour to make it less sticky...but sometimes it works out just as is.  So, add flour as needed.  Knead until soft and elastic.  Roll to 1/2" thick...I usually make them about an inch thick. Use the biscuit cutter of your choosing.  Place on an ungreased sheet or pan and bake at 450 for around 8-10 minutes - a bit longer if you make them thick like I do.

If you don't want garlic simply remove it from the recipe.  If you want more add more.  If you don't have a pastry cutter put it on your Christmas list.  I use mine quite often but then I love, oh love, to make pie.  I love the pie.  Speaking of which I have some peaches just sitting here...the few I had were milly in texture - not so good for eating but oh so good for making pie with.  Peach pie is my favorite.  Course I love the pecan pie.  Oh and red raspberry pie.  Oh, but wait: fresh strawberry pie.  Oh my.  As long as you don't go and get all evil on the strawberries and bake the pie - that's just wrong.  Peach or strawberry.  Ooooh, how can I decide.  Well, there's only one way that I can think of - I'm gonna have to make both and have a pie off.  Coming soon: Pie Off results! =)  In the meantime enjoy these biscuits with any meal.  Yummmmm!

Celery Chicken

So, it's hard to make this look appetizing. I served it over rice which is tan, and the chicken is tan and then the sauce (for a lack of a better term) is tan.  Hmmmm.  Oh well, it was good.  So here you go!:

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
4 oz cream cheese, softened (I used neufchatel cream cheese to be a bit healthier)
1 can condensed cream of celery soup
chopped up celery - amount to your liking - I used three or so stalks
pepper and Mrs. Dash Tomato, Basil, & Garlic

Rinse chicken and pat dry. sprinkle with seasonings.  Place in greased baking dish (I used a 7x7 or thereabouts). In a bowl beat up the cream cheese and then add and mix the soup until smooth. Mix in the chopped celery pieces.  Slather the chicken with this mixture.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.  Top with more pepper and seasonings if you'd like.  Parsley too if it makes you happy inside.  I served over brown rice with a side salad and garlic buttermilk biscuits (recipe forthwith =)

Enjoy!

Blueberry Trifle

Angel food blueberry trifle
Perfect for a hot day - aside from that little bitty part about turning on the oven and making angel food cake!

What you need: I usually measure in close enoughs but here are actual amounts for those anal ones who actually think that's important! =)

2 cups vanilla yogurt
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 cups fresh blueberries (or 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup strawberries if you want to spice things up a bit)
4 cups ripped up pieces of angel food cake (if you must you can cube it with a utensil but why dirty a knife when you can always lick off your fingers)
1/2 cup whipped cream

Blend the yogurt and ricotta until smoothish and creamy.

Combine your berries in another bowl if you must.

Pick your presentation bowl - I used a wine glass for my fun individual portions but you can dig out that trifle dish if you want.

Put in some cake and then some berries and then some custard. Repeat. Top with a few berries that you left out to make it look pretty (kinda wishing you read through the whole recipe before you began aren't you!) And dollop with whipped cream or dollop with whipped cream and then add your berry garnish.

Those of you technical cookers:
2 quart glass bowl. Layer 1 cup cake and 1 cup berries and half yogurt custard. Top that with remaining cake cubes, 3/4 cup berries, and remaining yogurt mix. Garnish with berries and whipped cream. Refrigerate should you have leftovers. I'd keep it all separate and remake it new the next day to avoid soggy cake but you do what you gotta do.

It's GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!