Better Than Sex Cake

You can decide if this cake really is all that it's cracked up to be! :) I will agree that it is VERY tasty though! This recipe was taken from my St. Patrick's Parish cookbook (my church's cookbook put together by the parishoners of St. Patricks) and it's original name is Symphony Cake so you can call it whatever you like!


Better Than Sex/Symphony Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix (I believe I used Devil's Food)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar carmel sundae topping
1 container Cool Whip (small size)
3-4 Heath candy bars, crushed

Prepare cake as directions on box instruct. When completed baking and still hot, poke holes in cake with fork and pour can of milk and jar of carmel over top of cake. Allow to cool. Spread cool whip on top and garnish with crushed Heath bars. Quite easy and really delicious!! :)

Be sure to let cake cool COMPLETELY. I, unfortunately, did not so my cool whip melted a bit.

Baked Bow Tie Pasta

Another wonderful dish made for our dinner group. :)

This one is SUPER easy and pretty quick! I came up with this one all on my own and I don't think I would change anything. If you prefer dishes with meat (like my dad and boyfriend...) you could easily add pork sausage, chicken or beef - but, it is definitely equally as delicious without!


Baked Bow Tie Pasta

1 1/2 boxes of Bow Tie Noodles
2 jars pasta sauce (I used two different kinds - 4 cheese and Super Chunky Mushroom)
4 cups of mozzarella cheese (approximately)
1 container Ricotta Cheese
Italian Seasoning (McCormick Grinder) - to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Coat glass 9x13 dish with cooking spray. Boil noodles according to box. Place half of noodles in dish, add one jar of pasta sauce. Top with 2 cups mozzarella cheese and then all of ricotta cheese. Sprinkle on some Italian Seasoning. Add remaining noodles and second jar of pasta sauce. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Be sure the top is completely covered. :) Sprinkle more Italian Seasoning on top. Cover with tin foil and allow to bake 20 - 30 minutes. After that time, remove tin foil and replace in oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy! :)

I served this dish with corn, Caesar salad (made with Holly's fresh garden lettuce), bread sticks, snicker salad (recipe coming soon) and dessert(Better than Sex Cake -- recipe also coming soon!).

Greek Style Ravioli.

This is a great way to use some up some of that spinach you have growing in your garden...or a good excuse to go the farmer's market or grocery store and pick some up.

Greek Style Ravioli

(adapted from Taste of Home - Cooking for Two)

1 small package frozen cheese ravioli

1/3 lb. ground beef

1 cup diced tomatoes (with basil, oregano, garlic)

2 cups fresh spinach

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Cook ravioli according to package directions. Cook beef until no longer pink; drain. Stir in tomatoes. Bring to a boil and reduce heat simmering for 10 minutes.

Add ravioli and spinach to the beef mixture. Heat through. Sprinkle with cheese and serve!

NOTE: The original recipe called for feta cheese instead of parmesan. It also added olives.

Strawberry Muffins with a Streusel Topping

It's not very often you hear of strawberry muffins - or so just about everyone who tried one has said... but... they have always so said - these are absolutely delicious! :)

I had a quart of strawberries that were just about to go bad so I wanted to use them all up and therefore came up with this delicious recipe!


Strawberry Muffins

2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oats (a heaping 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 quart strawberries, diced finely
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/3 cup canola oil

Streusel Topping:

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup quick oats
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tablespoons cold butter

Preheat oven to 425. Lightly beat eggs; stir in milk, sour cream and oil. Add remaining dry ingredients and lastly fold in strawberries. The mix is rather thick. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray (or use muffin liners). Fill muffin cups. Prepare streusel by adding first 4 ingredients and cutting in the butter. Top muffins with streusel mixture and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Allow them to cool in muffin tins for 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.


These muffins really are a tasty treat but I think I would make one alteration. Rather than using the sour cream, I think would use vanilla or strawberry yogurt; but I didn't have any on hand.

Try them out and let me know what you think! :) Now's the perfect time to be using strawberries in all your recipes seeing as they are in season!

Homemade Egg Rolls

Last week Lucas and I made Homemade Egg Rolls for our dinner group. I was a little apprehensive at first because they seemed like a lot of work but, it turns out they really weren't much more work than any other dinner and, we decided it totally paid off because they were VERY delicious! If you like egg rolls, you absolutely have to try these! I made the recipe up on my own, I just looked at several recipes to decide how exactly I should go about make them.

I made a portion of the egg rolls vegetarian for our non-carnivorous friends (I added the meat after rolling up theirs and made sure to fry theirs first).


Homemade Egg Rolls

1 head cabbage
1/2 onion
2-3 green onions
bean sprouts (I was planning on using a package of fresh bean sprouts but the grocery store was out so I settled for a can of them)
3-4 carrots
1 can water chestnuts
pork sausage
a splash of olive oil, soy sauce and hot sauce
2 packages of egg roll wrappers
canola oil for deep frying

Chop/slice all vegetables and add to olive oil, soy sauce and hot sauce. Cook on medium heat until cabbage is tender. Add cooked pork sausage. Half way through cooking vegetables, begin heating the oil in a deep pan for deep frying. Allow vegetable mix to cool a bit so you are able to work with mix to prepare egg rolls. Prepare egg rolls as demonstrated on egg roll wrapper package and deep fry. Serve with sweet and sour sauce if desired.


This recipe made more than plenty egg rolls for our dinner group of 9 people. I served the egg rolls with fried rice and sugar snap peas and our dessert was the trifle that can be found a few recipes below. :) Happy egg roll rolling!

White Chocoloate Raspberry Scones.

A while back I saw a blueberry buttermilk scone recipe in a Martha Stewart Living recipe. I wanted to rip the recipe out, but it called for cutting in cold butter - something I am not that good at. So I took scones off of my "to bake" list.

Yesterday I went and picked raspberries. I made some freezer jam, froze whole berries, and kept some out for eating now. As I thought about the raspberries I remembered a white chocolate & raspberry scone I had eaten at a bakery a while back.

That was it. I browsed tastespotting to find a scone that did not require cutting in cold butter. This is what I found: BLUEBERRY SCONES. Melted butter? I can handle that!!!

White Chocolate Raspberry Scones

(adapted from the recipe linked above)

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 c. butter, melted (stick and a half)
2 eggs, beaten1/4 c. milk
1 cup fresh raspberries

1 cup white chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl and mix well.
In a small bowl, stir together butter, eggs and milk. Pour into flour mixture, and mix just until combined. Fold in raspberries and white chocolate.
Turn dough out on a floured surface. Form into a 9 inch circle and cut into 8 wedges. Transfer to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Makes 8 large scones. Cut into small wedges for a smaller scone and/or to feed more people.

And, yes, I did make blueberry ones too. I used a full cup of blueberries in those.

Happy 4th of July!!

Vanilla Almond Strawberry Trifle

This recipe is simple and perfect for the season!! I went to the Farmer's Market today at Phoenix Park in Eau Claire and could not pass up the fresh picked strawberries and figured I could use them in tonight's dinner dessert.

So, the recipe was made mostly on a whim because I wanted something relatively easy to put together, I wanted to use my strawberries and I didn't want to do strawberry shortcake (because someone did that a few weeks back). I decided to make a trifle, even though I realized it wouldn't look nearly as wonderful as it could because I don't have the proper "trifle" dish here at school.

1 pound cake (I made mine from a box and followed the given directions and added almond extract and 1/2 stick butter), cut into cubes
1 box (small) vanilla pudding, prepared
1 quart strawberries, sliced
1 large container cool whip

Bake pound cake and allow it to cool completely. After pound cake is cooled, cut into cubes. Depending on the size of your dish, your layers will vary. I used a 9x13 glass cake pan so I only had 2 layers. Layer pound cake, pudding (more of a drizzle rather than a solid layer), strawberries and cool whip. Repeat as necessary. Top with a solid layer of cool whip and accent with strawberries.