CINNAMON STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE

I am always looking for a great coffee cake recipe.  I love to serve coffee cake and fresh fruit for a quick breakfast treat for guests and for my family over the week-end.  I already have a great blueberry coffee cake recipe and also a recipe for a great cranberry vanilla coffee cake.  This time around I was looking for a beyond good cinnamon coffee cake.  My main goal was to find a recipe where there was an awesome sweet and crunchy streusel on top.  I found what I was looking for with a Martha Stewart recipe.  Now, I don't want to "knock" Martha, but I usually find Martha's recipes a little too plain at times and her a bit "artsy crafty" for me.  To be honest I have never really been too interested in searching her recipes.  I just happened to put in a photo google search for "Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake" and a ton of pictures popped up.  I don't know about you, but I eat with my eyes!  This picture with a mile high streusel topping just jumped off the computer at me.  It just so happened that this picture belong to a recipe from Martha.  So....long story short...this recipe turned out to be a winner.  I have made it several times in the past few months.  I recently cooked for a family for a big 8th grade graduation party and they chose this coffee cake for me to make for their breakfast the next day.  It is a perfect wrapped package as it looks  beautiful, but it also tastes as good as it looks!

VANILLA BEAN & CRANBERRY COFFEECAKE

Ok everyone Easter is just about a week away!  With holidays come out of town guests. With out of town guests comes lots of cooking.  Let me help you!  I have two great recipes you can serve for breakfast or brunch.  And guess what I actually have found the time to post these recipes.  How?  You may ask.  Well, I was lucky enough to contract a kidney infection!  Yep, 104 temp. with pain so bad in my back, sides and abdominal region I could cry.  My husband and my mom have been great as they have taken over the job of taking care of the baby and the two three year olds.  So I have been laying in bed since Tuesday (with no t.v. in bedroom I may add).  Today I finally have the strength to check e-mails, pay some bills and post recipes on my blog while laying in bed.  So....the two recipes I have for you are: Vanilla Bean & Cranberry Coffeecake, which is in this post, and Italian Sausage, Pepper and Parmesan Cheese Strata ( which will be the next post).  When I say the coffee cake is to die for...it really is to die for...no lie!  Please do not substitute the vanilla bean for vanilla extract.  Recipes that include the seeds from the vanilla bean taste to dramatically different than recipes that use vanilla extract.  The vanilla bean really does make this recipe.  When I shopped at Caputos for ingredients they were out.  I found some at Jewel in the spice section.  If your local grocery store does not have them I am sure that Trader Joes or Whole Foods would carry them.  Also, it is not cranberry season.  Ask your local grocery store to point you in the direction of whole frozen cranberries.  They work just as well, just pat them dry as they tend to have excess water when the thaw.  This recipe is for sure a "make ahead" recipe so you can make it the day before your guests arrive...bonus!

SUGAR SPOT BANANA MUFFINS

So you may be wondering why I am so many baked goods using banans.  My answer is simple....I buy a lot of bananas and we don't end up eating them before the sugar brown spots show up.  So I have a habbit of placing the brown bananas in a freezer bag and then throwing them in the fridge.  Frozen brown bananas are super sweet and make the best banana coffee cake, muffins and bread.  Recently I made the best banana muffins.  Since the recipe called for the bananas with the brown spots they called it Sugar Spot Banana Muffins.  They were super quick to make and super simple.

BANANA COFFEE CAKE WITH MACADAMIA NUTS & COCONUT

My sister and some friends of ours were all going to the Tim McGraw concert this past saturday.  I was having everyone over for some cocktails and apps (recipes to come at a later post) and then after the concert everyone was coming back to my house to spend the night....total girls night...yeah!  For the next morning I had planned a great breakfast; fruit, yogurt and granola parfaits along with this amazing Banana Coffee Cake w/ Macadamia Nuts & Coconut.  I actuall kept the macadamia nuts off the top because my girls cannot eat nuts yet and I also kept the coconut off because my sister does not like coconut.  The coffee cake was great without those ingredients, but I am sure it would have been even better when they are added.  The cake is actually pretty sweet.  Our friend Megan said, " I could throw some cream cheese frosting over the top and call it a dessert."  This being said, if you want it less sweet you could add less sugar.  It was really great though.  Super moist and full of banana flavor.  If you have some bananas going brown in your house whip up this coffee cake...you will love it!

"HERBED" THEME TEA PARTY MENU

I made it!  I officially made it through my first ever cooking "gig" without even breaking a sweat (well I think I did a little bit the last 10 minutes), but other than that all went extremely well.  My husband kept asking me if I was nervous and I just kept saying " Well, no I am not nervous at all...but I feel like I should be".  All went smooth and the good turned out fabulous!  I got to spend my day doing things I love...making food and watching people enjoy it.  I want to than Vignette's for giving me this oppurtunity!  I am including all my tea party menus and recipes for all to enjoy.

MENU:

-Tarragon & Thyme Chicken Salad
-Assortment of rolls with Honey-Chive Whipped Butter
-Grilled Asparagus Salad
-Minted Strawberry & Cantelope Salad with a Limoncello Syrup
-Lemon Verbena & Blueberry Teacake with Fresh Whipped Cream
-Mini Cherry Babycakes

Planning Ahead for Easter - Walnut Citrus Twists

I very good friend of mine is hosting an Easter brunch for about 16 people.  She called me a few days ago and asked if I would help come up with a few recipes for her brunch menu.  I love...I absolutely love planning menu's.  I like to think of this as my specialty (so if anyone out there needs help with this...please call me.  I have hundreds if not thousands of books and recipes).  So that being said I hopped right to this task of finding some fun Easter brunch ideas.  I am thinking salads, breads and other baked goods, egg casseroles, yummy spring desserts and fun punches and mimosas! The next few weeks many of my posts will be dedicated to Easter menu ideas. The very first recipe I thought of is one of my very favorite sweet roll recipes:  Walnut Citrus Twists.  These are extremely easy to make since you purchase some frozen Rhodes dough, wrap and twirl it around some walnuts, sugar and cirtus rind and bake it to a puffy yumminess!  Slap a citrus glazed icing on top and you have heaven all wrapped up in a yummy citrus twist!  These Walnut Citrus Twists are a must....I repeat....a must for an Easter breakfast or brunch! 

Fiesta Chowder with Chile-Corn Custard Squares

It was walk the red carpet night last night!  Yes, that is right it was "my superbowl" or at least that is how I explain Academy Award night to my husband.  The festivities started at 5:00 with some pre-show glamour and then moved on at 6:00 with the Barbara Walters special (we are going to miss your Oscar special Babs!), which preceded the event of the evening.....The Oscar's!  Of course my dinner for this special night was already thought about and pre-made during the day so that I could enjoy my evening.  I chose to make a simple dinner filled with mexican flavor.  I made my Fiesta Chowder which is a soup that is a mix between tastes of tacos & fajita's with a little reminder of chili, but in a soup version.  It is great!  I also made some Chile-Corn Custard Squares that I found in my June-09 issue of Bon Appetite.  These little squares can be served as an appetizer, but I cut them into larger squares to go on the side of our soup.  They are a mixture between corn bread and a Thanksgiving corn casserole; creamy and  yet breadlike....a perfect side for a Mexican soup.