Culinary Delights

Iced Lemon Pound Cake

Posted on by Ang Anderson

Recently I came across these words: Starbuck’s Iced Lemon Pound Cake. 

Jenny Flake from Picky Palate pretty much had me at ‘Starbuck’s’.  You see, this is a word that evokes the simple comfort I receive in a delightful cup of coffee.  A single five spot magically conjures happiness, joy, and delight in the small things.  Yes, I do love a good Starbuck’s now and again.  I say this in my oh-so-nonchalant voice.  The real truth is a Grande Skinny Caramel Machiatto will completely make my day.  It will drown out a whiny three year old in the backseat.  It will bring me to the streets of Paris for a moment, long enough to cause me to feel a romantic swoon.  Yes, I am still speaking of my coffee.  You see, it’s THAT good.

I also have a teeny tiny thing for lemon.  I’m not over the top about it.  I just enjoy a good lemon flavored treat now and again.  Something about lemon radiates sunshine and rainbows for me.  I am trying to be non-chalant here too.  I have been known to eat entire pans of lemon bars.  Please don’t judge me.

Based on all this, you can imagine my squeals of delight when I spied this copycat recipe for Starbuck’s Iced Lemon Pound Cake.

Tiny bells of joy rang inside of me.  My mouth began to salivate ever so slightly. 

I have also been eyeing up these so-cute mini loaf pans and finally decided that they must be mine.

What do you think happened next?

Pound Cake.  Mini-loaf pans.  Hmmm…

Definitely worth a go. 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  If you have a chance to indulge at a real Starbuck’s, by all means do so.

Their coffee is top notch.  Their lemon pound cake is divine.

But if you feel like creating a little slice of heaven at home, you could make this luscious cake.

You could also share it with friends like I did.  You see, if I didn’t share, I might be inclined to eat all of it.

That can’t happen because I really don’t want to weigh more than I already do.  Plus, I like to share. 

I’ll even share the printable version with you. 

Lemon Love,

Crockpot Action

Posted on by Ang Anderson

I did not always feel this disorganized.  I am not sure of the exact moment when it happened but somehow I believe that the word ‘kids’ was definitely involved.  It has become a never-ending struggle to balance all of the things I should be doing with all of the things I want to be doing.  Lucky for me, I live in the Age of Pinterest.  It is here, in the digital age that I can pin ideas to boards for inspiration of all kinds, from caring for apples trees to zebra photography.  It is here, in My Pinterest World that I keep seeing pins for Crockpot recipes.  I had actually pinned a few to my food board.  Last week I decided that passively pinning crock pot meals was simply not good enough.  I endeavored to take action on one of my pins and do what the pin suggested.  I read over this post and printed off the grocery list.  I had many of the items already residing in my pantry which made me feel fortunate and as if I might actually have some things together at the Anderson household.  This was only a fleeting thought as I navigated through a mine field of Legos and My Little Ponies to safely reach my pantry.  (In case you were wondering, I made it!)

The tag line that caught my eye on the pin?

“Spend 1 hour in the kitchen preparing 5 meals for the Crockpot and you only have to clean up 1 mess!! Recipes for: Garlic Honey Chicken, Beef Burritos, Chicken Fajitas, Hawaiian Chicken, and Teriyaki Pork Chops.”

So, I got the goods, made the meals and it was all as easy as the pin suggested.  (Yee-haw!)

To have five meals resting in my freezer was a bit like winning free dinner for five nights.  Okay, it wasn’t exactly free but it gave me freedom from trying to figure out what to make for dinner five times.  Five times!

The tip for placing the Ziploc bag inside the blender to mix the marinade was exactly what a girl like me needed.  Genius.

Because our tater tots are three and five, they don’t consume a whole lot of dinner which gives us the added benefit of leftovers.

Would you like to give your freezer and your family five easy dinners?  Click Here for the Printable Recipes & Grocery List

You are the next contestant on I Can Use My Crockpot! 

Special thanks and promotional consideration to Janell at Saving You Dinero. 

Berry Legacy

Posted on by Ang Anderson

It is officially berry season in the great north woods and our family devotion to the raspberry in particular spans five generations.  It dates back to my great-grandmother Marie Congdon.  She had rows of raspberry brambles that she tended to each summer.  The mere smell of the berry patch brings me back to my six year old self, and I vividly recall the pints of berries resting in her front porch from a summer morning harvest. 

Today, my grandmother JoAnn carries on the tradition just next to where Marie’s berries grew so endlessly.  Each summer since I can remember, I have picked berries.  Now, my children accompany me and my grandma usually joins us to pick a few pints.  After we have thoroughly disengaged the patch from any ripe berries, we head in with our bounty.  Grandma bestows upon us a lovely luncheon feast served with a refreshing glass of iced tea as a reward for our toil in the July heat.  It is always a day I look forward to in our summer adventures. 

 

The fate of our berry harvest is a joy to behold. 

Berries with cream and sugar. 

Cakes. 

Pies. 

Pastries.

Jam. 

Always jam.  (This means that we can delight ourselves in berry goodness all throughout the year.)

I have proudly carried on the tradition in my own garden with seedlings from my grandmother’s patch.  They were transplanted last year and produced berries this year.  (This year!)  If you would have told me long ago that I would get excited about such things, I would have had trouble believing you.  Domesticity was not my strong suit.  I can’t declare with any level of certainty that it is currently my strong suit.  But with a family of my own, somehow these simple pleasures in life – sweet, easy, heirlooms that can be passed down from one generation to the next – have become extremely important. It is funny how drastically motherhood changes you.  It affects you in boundless, crazy, heart bursting ways that you could have never imagined.  It is as if the fate of the universe rests in these devout and delicious endeavors.

Of course, all aspects of the berry legacy were passed down to me and my sister by our own dear mother, which make the legacy that much sweeter.

And all of this takes place because someone simply decided to plant some raspberries. 

Thank you to my mom, grandma, and great-grandma for sharing the berry legacy with us.   

I hope that you are enjoying summer and all the goods that go along with it. 

Actually, I hope you are having a berry, berry good summer. *winks and pops berry in mouth*