Our family loves this recipe!  Birthdays, family BBQs, graduations and camping — Chances are pretty high we have Marinated Turkey Tenders on the menu.

The recipe calls for turkey tenders or turkey tenderloin, which is a boneless, skinless cut of breast meat under a turkey breast.  It’s a low-fat cut and super easy to prepare, but not always easy to find.  Ask your local butcher if it’s available, either fresh or frozen.    You can always substitute a skinless chicken breast, but you won’t regret the extra effort to find the turkey tender. If you have a friendly butcher, you may ask him/her to trim the center tendon from the tenderloin.

To take camping, marinate your turkey in a zip-top bag or large, snap-tight plastic container. The turkey grills up easily on grate over a fire or on a hot dog stick for 8-10 minutes per side. Check to see that it’s cooked thoroughly. We bring some bamboo skewers and transfer the cooked turkey to make turkey popsicles. The turkey tears apart easily so a knife is optional.

Marinated Turkey BBQ Recipe
2-3 pounds turkey tenders, quartered
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup oil
1 can Seven-Up (up to 2 cups)
1 tablespoon horseradish
1 tablespoon garlic powder or fresh garlic

Prepare turkey by cutting tender in half while removing center tendon. Cut into half again. Prepare marinade, adding in the Seven-Up last. Stir to combine ingredients. Allow turkey to marinate overnight or up to 24 hours. Heat grill to medium hot and cook turkey until 165 degrees or approximately 8-10 minutes per side.

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Many thanks to the Moroni Feed Company in Sanpete County, Utah. This cooperative of turkey growers created this recipe to help people enjoy turkey year round.  My version is adapted and may be known as the Manti Marinade.

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Find your favorite spinach and pasta recipe and you’ve got a hearty dinner in the making!  Technically, this is a Spinach Cannelloni recipe, but as you can see, I skipped the cannelloni part and stuffed some jumbo pasta shells with spinach and ricatta cheese before smothering with a mushroom-filled marinara sauce. It’s spinach and pasta and cheese – you can’t really go wrong with this trio of ingredients.

The original recipe calls for using egg roll wrappers. You might also try rolling the filling into al denta lasagne noodle strips to make your cannelloni tubes.  If you’re using fresh spinach, you’ll be able to use nearly three-fourths of your Costco bag or you can always thaw and saute two 10-ounce packages of frozen spinach.

Why not make this for your next family dinner?

Spinach and Pasta Recipe (aka Spinach Cannelloni)

Filling
20 cups loosely packed fresh spinach, chopped
2 tablespoons butter + 2 tablespoons butter
15 ounces ricotta cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup Romano cheese
1 cup mozzarella + 1 cup mozzarella
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs

Pasta
1 box jumbo shells, cooked al dente, cooled

Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 8-ounce package fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can (28-ounce) crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil

Prepare the pasta shells by cooking according to box directions for al dente pasta.  Drain and spread on a baking sheet to prevent sticking. Set aside.

Prepare the spinach by sautéing half of the fresh spinach a large skillet using 2 tablespoons butter.  Cook approximately 3 minutes or until spinach has reduced to one-fourth the original volume. Remove spinach from pan and store in a small mixing bowl.  Add second batch of spinach and butter and repeat.  Drain any excess liquid and return all spinach to your large sauté pan.  Add ricotta cheese and cook another 3 minutes.  Add Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, 1 cup mozzarella, nutmeg and eggs. Continue to stir until well blended.  Remove from heat.

In a second sauce pan, sauté onions and garlic in butter until onions are translucent.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer for at least 15 minutes.  Short cut – You can also use a store-bought pasta sauce, but jazz it up by allowing to simmer and by adding the extra ingredients above minus the tomatoes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a 9×13-inch pan, spoon one half of the sauce and spread evenly.  Using a spoon, fill the jumbo shells with filling mixture and place in pan.  Cover shells with remaining sauce and cover pan with foil. Bake for 30-40 minutes. With 10 minutes bake time left, remove the foil and sprinkle last cup of mozzarella on top. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly.  Serves 6-8 dinner portions.

Adapted from Colorado Collage

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Plus, with spring in full swing, the early morning light invites me to get up and cook.  The sun starts to peek through my kitchen window.  By breakfast time, I’m standing in a full ray of sunshine.  This recipe makes a fluffy muffin where the tart raspberries and lemon zest are balanced against the crunchy, brown sugar streusel topping.

Don’t you just love house guests?   Thanks for the visit, Erica!

And yes, I am accepting reservations for my Guest Room. Who knows? Maybe there’s even a B&B in my future?

Raspberry Streusel Muffins
Batter
2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Streusel Topping
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, prepare the batter by sifting together the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center and add the milk, egg and melted butter. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, stir by hand to moisten, approximately 50 strokes. Add raspberries and lemon zest and gently fold until incorporated. Scoop into prepared muffin tins, filling two-thirds full. Note: If using frozen berries, the cold berries will set the butter and stiffen your batter to an ice cream consistency. You may need to press the scoop of batter evenly into the muffin tin with a spatula or spoon.

Prepare the streusel topping by melting the butter in a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl. Add remaining ingredients and stir with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle batter with up to 1 tablespoon of streusel. If you batter is still semi-frozen, you may want to press the streusel into the batter slightly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until muffins are domed and streusel is lightly toasted. Makes 12 muffins.

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Recipe from Ann W. Orton. Thanks, Mom!

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Midnight study snack during college…Out of a toaster oven in humid Hong Kong…In a wok baked with steam…Delivered to new moms…Shared with neighbors…Flown on an airplane for summer vacation…Taken out of the freezer for an emergency meal…Doorbell ditched at a strangers…Served at a baby shower…Most often enjoyed by my kids for breakfast…And now, shared with my favorite readers!

This is one of those recipes I don’t have to read.  I can whip it up before my oven has preheated and it makes two perfect loaves of bread. One for us and one for you (or another one for us!)

What’s the trick? Use your bananas when they’ve first earned their brown freckles like a giraffe, but before they’ve molted to black like a dead spider.  You should be able to peel the gently ripened banana easily without a lot of strings.  The fruit will still be slightly firm without a lot of bruising.

Easy Banana Bread

3/4 cup butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
4-5 large, ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
baking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar together until light-colored and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and blend completely. On a large plate, mash bananas until no large pieces remain. Add to bowl and mix well. Add vanilla. Sift together flour, soda and salt. With mixer on low, slowly add dry ingredients until completely mixed.

Prepare two large loaf pans (9×5-inch) or 6 to 8 mini loaf pans by spraying with quick-release baking spray (Baking Pam).  Fill pans two-thirds full and bake for 40-45 minutes. Smaller loaf pans will bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bread will be a medium brown color.  Let cool completely before slicing.

Makes approximately 15, 1/2-inch slices per large loaf.

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When I read Robin’s great tutorial for making a Petal Cake on Bird on a Cake, I knew I had a cake to try.  Why not for Easter?

I love pastels, especially in the spring, AND I knew I’d found a great color scheme for a Petal Cake.  I considered using all the pastels in the cake, but simplified to a more Spumoni-style color scheme.  I love the simple lines and the repeated patterns of this cake decorating technique.

I used my favorite Vanilla Cake recipe since I knew it would make a cake dense enough to support a little more frosting.  I tinted the cake layers with spring green and pale pink food coloring gels, leaving the middle layer white.

Next time, I may flavor the cake layers with cherries or pistachios to make it a more official Spumoni-style dessert.  Anyone else have a cake obsession? What kind of cake do you crave?

See the full Petal Cake Tutorial here.

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Good news – The word ‘Ham’ generally means the meat is already cured (code for preserved with salt). Hams can be purchased pre-sliced too.  Sounds like a recipe for a fool-proof meal to me. Except….

My first trip to the store I purchased a “Pork Steak Ready Shoulder Butt,” as I tried to recall the recipe notes I’d left on the counter. Keywords being Pork and Butt.  My first results tasted like a pork roast, not sweet-crusted, salt-tinged, hint-of-honey ham.

This time, I found the “Butt Portion Ham” and was ready to roll.  What’s the difference?  Both cuts have a bone, but the latter is already cured to a nice pink ham. Since ham is already cooked, I wondered why I needed to cook it again?

Cooking with this marinade adds flavor to flavor.  The soda tenderizes the meat so it cuts more easily. The longer you cook it, the more easily it will fall apart as you cut it off the bone. The honey and sugar give it a bit of sweetness, but not an overpowering sugary flavor and the liquid smoke brings it all together.  If you have a large enough crock pot or small enough ham, you could even use a slow cooker to make this.

Homemade Honey Baked Ham Recipe

1 large Butt Portion Ham (pyramid-shaped cut, bone-in, cured but not sliced)
1 can regular Coke
1/2 to 3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons honey
1 tabelspoon liquid smoke (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Remove ham from packaging and place in a large roasting pan with the bottom of the “pyramid” on the bottom of the pan.  Prepare the ham by lightly scoring the outside with a sharp knife, making a criss-cross pattern (or Ninja-slice it like me since I wasn’t watching where I’d already cut).

Mix together Coke, brown sugar, honey and liquid smoke in a large measuring cup until sugar and honey are dissolved.  Slowly pour mixture over ham until is half-way submerged in liquid.  Remember that the ham will give off some liquid during cooking, so don’t overfill the pan.

Cover with foil and place on the lowest rack in the oven.  Bake covered for 60-90 minutes.  Remove the foil and cook for another 60-90 minutes uncovered.  If you’re worried about your ham getting dry, try basting the meat with the excess liquid in the pan a few times during baking. Recipe from Katy Johnson.

This year, save yourself a trip to the ham store and make your very own Honey Baked Ham. Enjoy!

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Since Easter is all about rebirth, what better reason to give this dish a new life as part of my Easter Brunch menu!

What’s new? The cheese. Le Gruyere frommage!

Gruyere cheese is like no other cheese.  It’s created using cow’s milk to form a hard, yellow cheese.  One cheese maker describes its flavor as “distintive with notes of candied walnuts, dried fruit and spices.”  It’s trademarked name and process of creation make it near impossible to imitate, although the two towns in the French and Swiss Alps named “Gruyere” both claim to have prize-winning cheeses.

What can you do with a cheese that’s made from a specific species of cow, that’s eaten a specific variety of grass grown only in the high altitudes of the Alps mountains, that’s cured in a temperature range of a single degree (13-14 degrees Celsius) in order to simulate the temperature of a natural cave?

Quiches, fondues, soup (a la French onion soup) are yummy ways to bake Gruyere. You can also serve it cold on salads or as part of a cheese platter.

Deliciousness!

Here’s a recipe for Gruyere Cheese Potatoes for your Easter Brunch or any meal when you want your guests to feel like royalty.*

Gruyere Cheese Potatoes Recipe
5-6 medium sized potatoes, your favorite variety
1-2 6-ounce packages of authentic Gruyere cheese, grated
1 leek, thinly sliced
1/2 cup cream
pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Give your potatoes a good scrub and slice thinly by hand or in a food processor with peels intact.  Finely grate the cheese by hand or in a food processor.

Rinse and slice leek bottom, using the stalk of the leek, but not the green tops.

In a 9×13 pan, using half of each ingredient, layer the potatoes, leeks and cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Pour up to 1/2 cup cream over the dish and top with a dash of salt if desired. Note: A Gruyere aged more than 6 months will have a saltier and stronger flavor than a younger Gruyere cheese, so additional salt is often unnecessary.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cheese is golden and pan is bubbly.  Potatoes will be fork tender.

*A 6-ounce package of Gruyere cheese costs more than the price of a movie ticket, so be sure to serve it to guests who will appreciate its yumminess.  Now you know why those cows are treated like royalty too!

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Recipe provided by Ann Orton, my mom.

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If you’ve eaten your charm bracelet already, how about a batch of Lucky Charms Bar Cookies?

I caught my little leprechauns trying to steal a box of Lucky Charms.

Of course they were happy to help when I needed the marshmallows removed.

When dreaming up this recipe, I consciously worked to offset the sweetness of the cereal with some saltiness.

These Lucky Charm Bar Cookies are a mash up of White Chocolate Decadence Brownies and Salted Peanut Chews – a blondie brownie crust topped with a layer of toasted marshmallows and a crunchy, peanut-filled white chocolate topping.  Don’t forget to serve with a daily recommended serving of milk.

Lucky Charms Bar Cookies Recipe
Crust
1 cup crushed Lucky Charms cereal, oat pieces only (approx. 2 cups cereal = 1 cup crushed)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks

Topping
2-3 cups  miniature marshmallows (traditional kind, not from cereal)
1 package (12 oz) white chocolate chips
2/3 cup corn syrup
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups salted peanuts
1 cup Lucky Charms, oat pieces
Lucky Charms marshmallows to garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor, crush  2 cups Lucky Charms cereal oat pieces until a fine flour.  Pour into a medium bowl and add remaining dry ingredients (flour, salt, soda and powder).  In a large mixing bowl or food processor, blend together softened butter, brown sugar, eggs and a vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients on low speed until well incorporated.  Spray a 9 x 13 glass pan with cooking spray and spread batter evenly in pan.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until edges turn golden.  Immediately sprinkle miniature marshmallows over brownie crust and bake an additional 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows just begin to puff.

Cool while preparing topping.

In a large sauce pan over low heat, melt together white chocolate chips, corn syrup, and butter.  Stir constantly until mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir in peanuts and cereal.  Immediately spoon warm topping over marshmallows.  Garnish with Lucky Charms marshmallows (assuming the marshmallows you removed to begin are still available).  Refrigerate until firm. Cut into bars. Makes approximately 36 bars.

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Normally, I’d make this easy pie in a big pie pan with a graham cracker crust.  Only we’ve had a few bugs going around and individual, sanitary servings seemed to match my constant commenting, “Keep your hands to your self.” Great reason to bust out the mini tart pans for our Key Lime Tarts!

Once I got the limes warmed up*, rolled and squeezed, I realized I didn’t have any graham crackers.  Pause here to make batch of Soft Gingersnap Cookies and chop them up in my food processor.  Just like that and I had a new crust option!  If you don’t have time to make a batch of cookies so you can make a pie [Really? I must like to bake and then bake some more], you can always use store-bought ginger cookies.

Did you know that Key Limes have a chartreuse yellow color skin when ripe?  The fruit is more tart than its cousin, the Persian Lime, which is sour tasting.  Key Limes are also more potent than regular limes, so  a 1/2 cup of Key Lime juice gives plenty of flavor to the dessert.  To get the most juice out of a lime, warm it in the microwave for 10 seconds or less and then roll it on your cutting board.  The heat and friction help release the juices so squeezing is more productive.  I was able to juice 1/2 cup from ten walnut-sized Key Limes.  If you must substitute fresh for bottled, use authentic Key Lime juice.  Never use regular bottle lime juice unless you’re trying to make a Cherry Limeade.

Don’t forget the whipped cream! Your Key Lime tarts will need the creamy sweetness to balance out the tart filling.

Mini Key Lime Tarts with Gingersnap Cookie Crust
2 cups crushed ginger cookie (or graham crackers)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup fresh-squeezed Key Lime juice (approx. 10 Key Limes)
5 egg yolks
1 can (14-oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whipping cream + 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, softly whipped

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter. Add crushed cookies and blend until moistened.  Divide evenly into 10-12 mini tart pans.  (You can also use shallow muffin tin or a 9-inch pie pan.) Press crumbs firmly against the sides and bottom of the pans and place on a baking sheet.

Squeeze your limes into a large liquid measuring cup and set aside.  In a small bowl, separate eggs.  (Eggs whites can be used to make a meringue topping or for macarons another day.)  Whisk yolks for 1 minute before adding a can of sweetened condensed milk.  Stir until even consistency.  Add lime juice and continue to whisk together until creamy.  Pour evenly into prepared tart pans.

Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.  Once cooled, refrigerate until ready to serve.  Once chilled, the tarts pop right out of the pans (or muffin pan) for an individual serving.  Garnish with whipped cream.

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, you can add some green food coloring and serve this to all your Irish-born, Florida-loving neighbors! Erin Go Bragh!

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I may have already ordered cookies from two nieces, but here’s my answer to that out-of-season craving for a Thin Mint cookie!

Why not whip up a batch before my cookies are delivered?

Full Recipe Here

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