Lemon Loaf

It's rare for me to find a recipe where I don't make some changes. When you have a family with a sensitive digestive system and and a picky palette- you learn to make adjustments. The recipe for this lemon loaf was no exception, except the original recipe I found to be too dry and not moist enough.

After baking a few loaves and not satisfied with the result- I came up with this recipe that I was very happy with.

Ingredients:
-2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs, room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- ½ cup oil
- ½ cup sour cream
ICING
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon juice with a mixer until blended.
4. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Add oil and mix well.
5. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pan on a rack.
6. Making the icing: In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk and lemon extract with a mixer until smooth.
7. When loaf is cooled, remove from pan and frost top with icing. When icing has set, slice loaf into slices (should get about 8 good slices).

Cooks Note: For a zestier lemon taste, grind about 1 to 2 tsp of lemon peel. If you want a thick layer of icing, wait about every 5-10 minutes before you put another layer of icing until you get the desired thickness. RM likes his icing very thick, but I got tired after 3 layers. The picture below is how the icing looks with only 3 layers of icing, the icing is very thin which is why you want to keep layering the icing.

This is another family favorite except for Moe- he's allergic to lemons!

Yummy Crumb Cake

Every Sunday, I try to have something sweet ready for my family to eat after church. We're so famished, that usually what we're craving for is desserts- we have it before our main meal, AND after we eat our main meal. It's a Sunday tradition!

Last Sunday, I made Crumb Cake-my first time making it. I found a recipe, that seemed easy, but the measurements were wrong! After doing some tweaking with the measurements, came up with this recipe:

Ingredients:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes

2 cups flour
1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 sticks cold butter, cut into chunks (1 cup)
2 packages (18 1/4 ounces each) white cake mix
2 eggs
2 c sour cream
1 stick butter, melted
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix flour, sugars and cinnamon in large bowl. Cut in cold butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

2. Beat cake mix, egg, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed about 1 minute or just until mixed.

3. Spread evenly in greased and floured 13x9-inch baking pan. Sprinkle evenly with topping mixture.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan. Cool on wire rack. Cut into squares to serve.

Cook's Note: When I sprinkled the crumb toppings on the cake, I firmly pressed the toppings with a spatula because when I eat a crumb cake- I don't like it when the toppings start to crumble when you're eating it.

However, when you don't press the toppings, it looks better, like the picture above. And when you press the toppings, it looks like the cake I made below-whichever way you make it, the results are the same- it will still end up being a very delicious crumb cake!

H.K.

Easy Noodle and Spinach Casserole

When I try out a new recipe, I have a few criteria that the recipe has to meet. Here they are:

- easy to follow
- not too much prep time
- ingredients that can be found in any store
- re-use ingredients for other recipes

And this recipe met all the criteria.

My son is the "King of picky eaters" and enjoyed this casserole, so if you have kids that are picky eaters- they will LOVE this casserole! Don't be intimidated if the casserole pictured above looks a lot - I always double the ingredients since I like to have lots of left overs and a teenage son that often invites his friends over for dinners.

Ingredients:
1 (8 oz.) pkg wide egg noodles
1-1/2 lb. ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (26 oz.) jar spaghetti sauce
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 (10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1-1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook noodles according to packaged directions; drain and set aside.

Cook beef and next 3 ingredients in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring until beef crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain and return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning.

Combine spinach and next 4 ingredients. Fold in noodles; spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Cover with meat sauce, top with Parmesan cheese and bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Cooks Note: I didn't have grated Parmesan cheese to put on top of the casserole and used mozzarella cheese instead, it was still good. Recipe taken from mormonchic.com

Enjoy!

H.K.