Strawberries and Cream Angel Food Cake Roll

Phew! Happy Monday! Have you had a good six weeks?!? I don't know about you, but I've had soooo much to do, time has FLOWN.

Today's recipe review is what I made for our Christmas Day dessert, Strawberries and Cream Angel Food Cake Roll from Brown-Eyed Baker.

I had an admission to make: I've never done a cake roll before. My baby sister is fantastic at doing them - she does a pumpkin roll every fall that's beautiful and sooo good! - but I've seen too many of them crack and fall apart. I was REALLY nervous about doing this, but my sister gave me a pep talk and encouraged me to just go for it. So, I did. :D

I followed this pretty much to the letter, except for skimping a little on the strawberries inside the cake roll - it's the middle of winter, and they were a bit crunchy. :D

My verdict: YES, PLEASE! - especially when strawberries are in season, and would color and flavor the whipped cream more. My husband liked the fact that there was a variation of texture in the angel food cake, that it wasn't all just soft. :D It really was pretty easy; when I started to unroll the cake, it did start to crack - but I propped it up on rolled kitchen towels like my sister suggested, and didn't try to force it to unroll any further. I took my offset spatula and "stuffed" the center with the cream, instead of spreading it.

OK, I'm outta here! It's COLD here today! Brrrrr... :D Have a wonderful day, my friends. Be BLESSED!

Banana Split Kabobs

Happy Friday!

Are you enjoying your summer? How on earth did we get to the middle of July, people?!? This year is FLYING by.

Today's share is quick, easy, takes no heating of your oven unless you want it to, and is a YES, PLEASE! with any age group. :)

This is Banana Split Kabobs from Lemon Tree Dwelling.

(BTW, if you're relatively new here, just click on the link above to go right to whatever I'm sharing!)

Now, the only thing I changed was that I also picked up a sour cream angel food cake and made some kabobs with that rather than the brownies. I looked at purchasing fresh precut pineapple, but whole ones were on sale - and right now, they're only 00 cents at Aldi's! - so I cut my own pineapple up.

They were fun, they were pretty, they were yummy, and they were a hit. :D What more can one ask for?!?

OK, I'm outta here! :) Have a wonderful day, and a wonderful weekend, and try something new! Be blessed, friend!

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Welcome back to another Monday. :) How are you? Did you have a good weekend? Oh, and welcome to JUNE! One of my favorite months... ;)

Here in the south, the strawberry season is about past; in Indiana, it's about to begin. YUM, I love strawberries. And this is a YES, PLEASE! way to use some! :)

This recipe is for Strawberry Coffee Cake from Musings from a Stay-at-Home Mom.

Now, then, I WOULD change a bit with this. Do you see how dark this got on the bottom? Well, the recipe directions say to spread 1-1/2 cups of batter on the bottom of the pan. I did about two cups, and still had way more batter on the top than the bottom. And the bottom got way darker than I like. I think the next time, I'll use a 13x9 pan, double the strawberry filling, and keep the cake part the same. It was VERY thick, and took longer to bake the center than the recipe said.

I also sprinkled some sugar on the top of the cake. My mom's comment was that the cake wasn't very SWEET - which is part of what I really enjoyed about it. It allowed the strawberries to shine, IMO,  but I am glad I'd sprinkled it before putting in the oven.

I think that's all. :) I hope you'll try it!

Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED, friend!

Strawberry Almond Scones

Good Monday afternoon! :)

Friday, I got to stamp with my hostesses - well, all except Kathy, who had a preschool graduation to attend. :) I decided to make something sweet to share - and this is what we did!

These are strawberry almond scones from Love and Olive Oil.

Now, then. I didn't have whole wheat pastry flour, but I really wanted to try the flavor combination. So I used one cup of whole wheat flour, and 1/4 cup more unbleached AP flour. It wasn't enough. I really thought the WW would be more thirsty, but there simply wasn't enough flour in these to hold their shape. They turned out more like those muffin tops. :D Or a soft cookie. Which wasn't a BAD thing.... :D

These are a YES, PLEASE!; everyone seemed to enjoy them a lot. I sent most of them home with everyone else. :D

Next time, I will use the full amount of WW flour. And instead of slicing the strawberries, I will dice them; there was a lot of batter that didn't have a taste of strawberry in it.

I normally don't like almond-flavored anything, but I really did like this flavor combination. They were relatively easy to make, too - and they smelled so buttery while baking!

Let me know if you try making them, and if you modify the recipe. :) Ooooh, these would be good as blueberry-lemon, too.... :D Have a wonderful day! BE BLESSED!!!!

PB&J Blondie Bars

It's Wednesday again. :) I hope you're having a great week! If not, go home and make these. :D

I guess you can guess these get a YES, PLEASE! from me. And I bet you'd like to know about them. :D They're PB&J Blondies from the Food Network.

I was a little dubious at first; there is NO peanut butter in them. But they taste like there is! And I used homemade strawberry jam, so  I would give them the best possible ingredients. But if I were to make them for just us, I'd use grape - it's my favorite PB&J. :D Trust me, though, there was NOTHING wrong with the strawberry!!!

These were a big hit with Kenn, too! I put what was left into the freezer, because between the two of us, we could have polished them off in less than 24 hours - and that's BAD. :D

Seriously. Make these. You'll love them. :)

OK, I'm outta here! Have a wonderful day - and LMK if you try these!

Peach Strawberry Jam

Good Friday morning! :) I hope you're doing well today! Have you had a good week? Eaten or tried anything new lately? :)

Today's recipe review is from Jen's Happy Spot. We tried this first last year, and then I couldn't find the blog I'd copied-and-pasted from. When we made more jam this week, I had to search for it so I could share with you! :D

 Obviously, if we've made it twice, it gets a YES, PLEASE! from us. :D It's a wonderful jam, full of fruit and summer flavor. It's also a beautiful jam!

Mom did the fruit prep this year; the peaches weren't quite ripe, so they didn't break down as far this time. So the fruit chunks in the jam are quite large. Never a *really* bad thing, in my opinion. :D

It makes a beautiful gift, too! The jars are just out of the processor, cooling before going on the shelf. This is one of those jams that I love to have around in the dark or winter; just one taste, and it's like being in summer again. What could be better than fresh peach and strawberries?

We used regular peaches, not white ones. We also used all-natural pectin, purchased from an Amish store in Indiana. I WILL tell you that this jam is super-sweet, but it doesn't take much to get a jam taste. :) I use maybe 1/2 teaspoon on toast or PB&J! (That's because I'm being super careful of my carbs, NOT because I don't want more! :D )

You can also use strawberries you've put into the freezer! Now's a great time for strawberries; peaches really don't hit their peak for another three weeks. Get the berries now, and freeze them in measured amounts. If you like more peach than strawberry, then make sure your fruit mix has more of them. :D

OK, I'm off! Enjoy your weekend, try to stay cool, and try something new! If you try something I've reviewed, please let me know what you thought!!!! Hey, anyone made any of the meatball bubbles? I'm taking some to a family next week. :D

Be blessed!

Strawberry Napoleons

Good afternoon! Did you have a good weekend? I'm still trying to recuperate from my busy week last week. Oooh, LA! :D

Today's review is for Strawberry Napoleons from Six Sisters' Stuff. I chose this for my celebration with my family, obviously for dessert. My dad doesn't like anything chocolate, so I chose this so he could enjoy it, too. :D

YES, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Ok, so I can't make ANYTHING without tweaking the recipe; my mom made most of this, so she followed the recipe *almost* exactly. We had discussed the type of pudding earlier, so she did use sugar-free cheesecake pudding. However, she also used straight milk instead of half and half lower-carb milk, and almond extract when I wished for vanilla. <sigh> :D

This was SO good. I baked off the puff pastry in the morning before going to get my hair cut and run errands, and left them on the cooling rack until we used them. (You can put baked puff pastry in a container for about 24 hours, and then it really starts to get soggy again.) Each person assembled their own; this one's MINE. :D

The puff pastry is a crispy, flaky compliment to the creamy pudding filling. And fresh strawberries just take it to heavenly! :D

Please let me know if you try the recipe, and if you tweak it. Next time, I'm changing the vanilla and milks! :D

Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!

Welcome to my new blog!

I'm so glad you found me! :) My name is Lori, and I love to try new things - whether it's a new recipe, a new restaurant, or a new gadget. My hope is to try lots of things, and give you my opinions on them. That way, you have someone's viewpoint about things other than the creator's opinions! :) I'll be doing lots of recipes that I find on Pinterest; some of the photos look soooo good, but then they turn out kind of...odd? :D

Today, I'm reviewing the Strawberry Chocolate Nachos that can be found at Our Best Bites. I did tweak it a bit - and that's something you'll find out about me. I rarely use a recipe exactly as written. :D Anyway. Here's *my* picture of my strawberry chocolate nachos!

This recipe gets my YES, PLEASE! rating! Let me tell you my tweaks, and then I'll tell you why I enjoyed it so much - although LOOK AT IT. :D

First, I'm a diabetic. Whenever possible, I'm going to lower the carb count or sugar content - but I will never compromise on taste, so if it's going to be REAL something, I'll tell you. If I change it, I'll tell you. :)

With that said: I used lower-carb tortillas (probably a review coming up on them! :D). I used real butter to brush on the tortillas; I used baking Splenda and cinnamon to sprinkle on them. Fresh strawberries, semi-sweet chocolate chips and vegetable oil (surprisingly, a few chocolate chips have a pretty low carb count!), and real whipped cream.

Oh, GOODNESS. Was this ever YUMMY! It doesn't take too many chips to satisfy, either; six chips topped with two diced strawberries, a scant tablespoon of melted chocolate, and a dollop of whipped cream on each was a great breakfast one day, a cooling, satisfying dessert the next.

Let me know if you try this out! :) I think you're going to LOVE it - and so will anyone you decide to share your nachos with. :)