Italian Cream Cake

My mom's birthday was last week, and we have a few cakes that we make pretty regularly in our family. This year my dad asked if we could make something new and requested Italian Cream Cake. I searched recipe after recipe for the perfect cake. I thought I found one, it had amazing reviews, and then it had ONE that was not very positive. I took their suggestions into consideration, and decided to make the changes when I made my cake. So, here is how I made my Italian Cream Cake. I definitely recommend this!

Ingredients:


Cake:
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups white sugar
5 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flaked coconut, sweetened
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

Icing:
8-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut, sweetened

Directions:


1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line 3 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk; set aside.

2. Sift flour and salt and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks and the vanilla. Alternately add the buttermilk mixture and the sifted flour. Add 1 cup coconut. Stir until just combined.

3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter mixture until incorporated. Fold in the remaining egg whites. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Allow to cool.

5. To make the icing: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioner's sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Mix in cream to attain desired consistency. Stir in chopped pecans and coconut.

6. To ice the cake: Lay one cake, top down on a large serving plate. Put a large "plop" of the icing on top. Cover the top of the cake. Lay down second cake, top down and cover with icing. Lay down last piece of cake, top facing up. Use remaining icing to cover the top and the sides. Serve immediately, or cover for later.

Fruit Salad with Creamy Lime Dressing

I made this for the first time on Mother's Day, and it was a HUGE hit! I will definitely be making it again. I think it's an amazing summer salad for everyone to enjoy. I adapted the recipe to things that I thought would be good. Original recipe calls for honeydew, but I used pears instead. Also calls for whipping cream (unsweetened), and limeade. I used cool whip, and margarita mix. I think these changes made it taste delicious.

Ingredients:
1 8oz package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup frozen limeade, thawed*
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tub cool whip (2 cups)*
1/2 cantaloupe (3 cups), diced
1 quart strawberries, quartered
2 ripe mangoes, seed removed, peeled and cut up
2 cups blueberries
3 pears, peeled and cut up (around 2 cups)

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, mix on medium-high speed cream cheese, limeade and confectioner's sugar until creamy. Fold in cool whip.

2. In a 3-quart bowl, layer cantaloupe, then strawberries. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture over strawberries. Layer Mango, blueberries and pears next. Spread the remaining cream cheese mixture.

3. Serve immediately, or refrigerate up to 2 hours before serving.

*Apparently limeade is not sold frozen anymore (or I just wasn't able to find it anywhere.), so I bought and used a margarita mix instead. It turned out fine.

Alfredo Sauce

I use this recipe every time I make Alfredo sauce. I've tried others with cream cheese or no Parmesan, but they just aren't the same and good old fashioned Alfredo with cream. It's a simple and quick recipe, easy to do while waiting on your pasta or side dishes.

Ingredients
3 Tablespoons butter
8 fluid ozs heavy whipping cream
salt to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup Romano cheese, grated
1 egg yolk

Directions
1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium high heat. Add the whipping cream, stirring constantly. Sprinkle some salt, then add the Parmesan and Romano cheeses stirring until melted. Mix in egg yolk, and simmer over low heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Crock pot Chicken Tacos

Here's another easy one! I got this from Sarah over at Chocolate Therapy. They are seriously some of the best tacos ever, and really incredibly simple.

Ingredients:
1 envelope chicken taco seasoning
6 pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast or around 14 boneless skinless chicken breast tenders
16oz of your favorite salsa

Directions:
1. Dump everything into your crock pot and mix it up. Cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or low for 6 to 8.
2. When finished, chicken should shred easily with a fork.
3. Serve with your favorite toppings and soft tortillas.*

*Some of the ones we used were shredded cheese, sour cream, shredded lettuce, and avocado.

Man Pleasing Chicken

I got this recipe from Pinterest, as I've gotten a few others recently, but originally...it's comes from Witty in the City. We tried this one about a week ago, and I'll be making it again tomorrow night. I found it a little difficult to read over there, mainly because it's all kind of scattered and not in one place. (OCD kicking in) At first, I was thinking it would be anything special, because there are so few ingredients and you wouldn't think to put those together. It was actually really tasty though. Nice flavor, just all around good. Definitely a recommended dish.

Ingredients:
1 pkg chicken thighs, skinned
1/4 cup syrup (they use maple on Witty, but I just used plain-o syrup and it was fine)
1/2 cup dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Mix together mustard, vinegar, and syrup. Clean chicken and place in a baking dish. Pour most of mustard concoction over chicken, turning so it's all coated nicely.
3. Bake for 40 minutes, basting with the left over mustard mixture halfway through. Let the chicken rest around 5 minutes before serving.

I recommend serving with a nice salad or some green beans.

Simple Meatballs

This is my own recipe that I make for spaghetti and meatballs, but you could serve them just meatballs with sauce if you like too!

Ingredients:
1lb ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
1 26 oz can spaghetti sauce
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, beat egg slightly. Add ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, oregano, cheese, and pepper, mixing until combined.
2. Separate into 12 equal sized balls, placing into a pan with the spaghetti sauce as you go.
3. Bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes. Cover.
4. Remove cover, stir around, and serve.

Easy Savory Veggies

For this, you can use whatever you want, and serve it with what you want. I've served it twice with homemade Chinese, and it compliments it nicely.

Ingredients
2 zucchini
2 large carrots
1/2 large yellow onion
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Directions
1. Peel carrots, and roughly peel the zucchini. I like to leave a little bit of skin on there, for the color.
2. Use the peeler to completely peel the carrots to their cores. Place in a bowl.
3. Slice small pieces off the zucchini. Set aside with the carrots.
4. Peel off the outside of the onion, slice in half, and then slice off skinny slivers. Set aside with carrots.
5. Heat up a large pan with 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the veggies, and saute until onions are clear. Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic powder, mix and serve.