Best Summer Fruit Torte

Linked to http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com


All Time Best Summer Fruit -Torte

I got this off a Foodie Board that I'm on and it came from one of the members who by the way is Linda, a fantastic cook and baker..........and if she said it's good well then I know it is good. :-)

This has to be my all time favoutrite cake........it's very humble looking but the taste is amazing. I love it especially in the summer time when the fruits are ripe and sweet. My favourite is the peach and raspberry while my husband loves the Italian Plum version I make.

It's not WOW! looking but I get requests for the recipe all the time..........it's very simple and easy and everyone usually has all the ingredients in the pantry. I don't even need to yank out the huge mixer..........just use my Kitchen Aid hand mixer for the liquidy ingredients.

You can make this cake your own by sprinkling on a combo of sugar and cinnamon or just plain sugar, whatever hots your fancy. My family loves sweets so I sprinkle it on with the sugar and my husband adores anything with cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 360 F. degrees.

Makes - 8 or 9 inch single layer cake.


1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
1 scant cup flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 peaches or nectarines, peeled, pitted and sliced
1/2 cup blueberries OR raspberries
sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

1. Butter the cake pan.

2. Mix butter at medium speed til' light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and vanilla; beat in the eggs, one at a time.

3. In a small bowl, stir together with the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter mixture and stir til' just combined and no longer.

4. Scrape the batter into the pan; smooth the top. Scatter the fruit over the batter. Sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon combo.

5. Bake til' cake is golden brown and baked through about 45 minutes.

6. Cool on wire rack.......serve at room temperature.

*****other fruit combinations; -12 purple plums, halved, pitted and skin side down down.

-apples and cranberries

-cherries

Straight out of the oven.........also yummy with ice cream on the side. :-)

Enjoy!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!!! I appreciate all 'comments' and enjoy reading them.

Berry, Berry Streusel Bars

This is a recipe I got off one of the Foodie Boards I'm on and it came from Diane, who's a fabulous cook and Mom to six kids.........ever since I baked this a few years ago it has been my favourite recipe for Blueberries. It's easy and quick. It's great with fresh or frozen blueberries......yummmm!

Berry, Berry Streusel Bars

1 1/2 cups Quaker Oats [quick or old fashioned]

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1.5 sticks of butter, melted

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries or frozen

1/2 cup of strawberry, cherry or raspberry preserves

1 Tbsp. flour

1Tbsp. lemon peel

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Directions;

Heat oven to 350 deg. F.

Combine oats, flour, sugar and butter, mix till crumbly.

Reserve 1 cup of oat mixture for streusel topping and set aside.

Press remaing oat mixture into the bottom of an un/greased 9" x 9" square baking dish.

...........bake for 15 minutes till golden brown. Cool slightly.

In medium bowl, combine preserves, blueberries, lemon peel, juice and flour. Mix gently.

Spread over crust. Sprinkle reserved oat mixture over top, patting down gently.

Bake for 22 - 25 minutes or till light golden brown.

Cool and cut into bars.

*******Sometimes I add a bit more preserves b/c I like it better........or I double the recipe and bake in a 9 x 13 pan and freeze some for later.

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate any comments and for taking time to look at my Blog!

Be sure and visit these links that I'm linking to;

http://beautyandbedlam.com

and

http://blessedwithgrace.net/

Pound Cake

Pound Cake

I have been meaning to make this cake for a long time and just never got around to it so last week I made time and made it and it was sooooo good.
.............this is a recipe I got from a Food Forum that I belong to and it came from Becky.........who's a great foodie. She mentions it's her husband's favourite cake and she has been serving it to him for over 27 years.
So..........I figured it if it's been in the family this long then it must be good. My husband also loves pound cakes, he likes it with a glass of milk. This recipe is definetly a 'keeper'. It's very tasty and has simple ingredients and easy to make.

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups unbleached flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pinch salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

Directions;

...........grease and flour a large tube pan.

Cream butter and sugar till smooth.
Add eggs one at a time beating well after each.
Add flour a little ata time.
Slowly add milk, flavouring and salt.
Put the baking powder last.
Pour batter into pan and place into a cold oven.
Turn temperature to 325 deg. F. and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or till till done.
Cool slightly and remove from pan.........yummy!

*********You can eat this plain or with some sort of lemon drizzle....or glaze.


Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend. I appreciate all comments left here and love to read them.



.......................... be sure and visit the other foodies for some fun!!!!! at

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum

Herb Garden

Thank you to Susan of

A Southern Daydreamer

for hosting Outdoor Wednesday.

This outdoor herb garden is at my Sister-in-Law Lorraine's home...........on the side of her yard.

The tomatoes are on the side, I think there is a variety of them.

Various herbs..........

This is an Avocado that is taking root. She said she got this from Florida one year and decided to plant it at home. I doubt that it will grow much bigger here as we have pretty brutal winters up here in Toronto and cold.

One of her cats.......not sure if this is Paris or London. I believe she was staring at some birdies hanging around. I was trying to get her attention, but I guess I wasn't interesting enough.Thanks for stopping by!!!!!

Sky

Blue Sky

I saw this as I was driving one day.........and I couldn't figure out if it was just clouds or some designs that some Pilots designed with their airplanes. It stayed up in the sky for quite long, and there were no airplanes in sight.......so I will let my imagination get the better of me. :-) But it was a lovely blue sky that day even though it was extremely HOT and HUMID.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure and visit the other participants at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com

HAPPY BLUE MONDAY!!!!!

Turkish Green Beans

If you follow my Blog you will know that my husband Don has a Turkish background.........through the years I learned to make some of his favourite childhood foods and this one is his all time favourite.

Whenever I go there for a visit in the summers this dish is made weekly, the green beans there are very abundant at all the markets. I must admit that they are very tasty there, not like here. For some reason they melt in your mouth and have this fresh taste.

My SIL will simmer them for 20 min. and they are done.........but here I simmer and simmer and still they are not like there but the taste is similar..........

They serve this green bean stew with some crusty bread and a side dish of plain white buttered rice...........sometimes ground beef is added and if they are vegetarian the ground beef is omitted.

Turkish Green Beans

I lb. fresh green beans

1 large onion, diced

2 or 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 carrot, shredded

2 large fresh tomatoes, finely chopped or 1 small can of diced tomatoes

1 or 2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1/4 cup Olive oil

1 cup or more Chicken broth OR beef broth OR water

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/4 lb. ground beef (optional)

Trim and clean the fresh beans to 1 or 1 1/2 inch pieces....set aside.

Heat olive oil in pan and saute onions, garlic and carrots till lightly browned and soft.

Add tomato paste and tomatoes and stir for about 2 or 3 minutes....slowly adding the broth.

To this add the green beans and broth OR water.

Cover pan, season and let it simmer for about 45 minutes.

This dish is served at room temperature or slightly warm with some crusty bread. These are not "crunchy" beans if you like them but are soft.

Notes***** Sometimes I saute the ground beef separtely , drain and add to the bean mixture just before it starts to simmer. But this is optional, if you want it to be vegetarian then omit the ground beef.

Last 10 minutes I add chopped parsley.


....................if my husband could he would eat this daily.

This is parsley from my garden pots that 'Alvin' the chipmunk has seemed to have not had lunch with.

Thanks for stopping by!!!!!!

Don't forget to link with

http://beautyandbedlam.com/

and

http://blessedwithgrace.net/

for some other great treats.

Lemonade

Lemonade

I thought of this saying once I heard when I was small........'when life gives you lemons, drink lemonade'. As a lil' kid I don't think that I totally understood this, but drank the lemonade hoping that all will be well. I probably fell and hurt my knee or something.
Did you ever run a Lemonde stand as a kid? We did with some neighbourhood kids, but I remember Gillian the girl from across the street making Kool Aid lemonade........it sure tasted good on a hot summer day. Even now when I hit the Yard Sales early on Saturday mornings some kids set up their lil' stands selling Lemonade.......it brings back memories.

I got this recipe from this Gal on a Foodie Forum that I belong too........ever since she gave me the recipe that I requested I've made it a million times. So refreshing and delish on a hot and humid day.

Lemonade

3 lemons
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar
8 cups water

Squeeze the juice from the lemons, and add to a large pitcher. Straining the lemon juice to make sure there will be no seeds.

Add the orange juice, sugar and water and mix well..............and now you can enjoy this refreshing drink.

Notes***** Sometimes I add 4 lemons, depending on the size of them.
Instead of orange juice I substitue for peach juice.
For sugar I adjust the amounts sometimes and use Splenda if I want sugarless.

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

Turkish Blue Waters

I'm linking with http://smilingsally.blogspot.com

Be sure and visit the other participants to see all the 'blues'.

Today I'm showing the Blue Waters of Cesme, Turkey. It is a beach and hotel resort less then one hour away from the city of Izmir...... it is along the Aegean Sea. My husband took these pictures in April of this year, but a month later when the weather is scorching HOT it is very crowded with tourists from all around the world.
The beaches are jam packed and all hotels are booked solid. My husbands childhood friend lives here now so that was why he was visiting here. In the future when we retire we will be looking for a cottage here to spend the summers.........I especially love the Bazzars and Farmer's Markets, they are amazing.
Path to the beaches........

In the summer the docks are full of private yachts and sailboats.

Some rooftops of cottages where people have for the summers.

The boardwalks and condo's on the side.

Hotels and Ferry Boats along the boardwalk. In summer this boardwalk has people walking, jogging and just strolling along, very busy.

My husband's friends sailboat, it sleeps about 9 people.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my tour of Cesme, Turkey and the gorgeous Blue waters they have there.

Strawberries

Strawberry Shortcakes and Chocolate Covered Strawberries

My Sister in Law was hosting Canada Day Barbecue this year.........even though my dear Brother couldn't be there because he was out of town on business we all still had a good time but missed him. This year I provided desserts with stawberries.

The theme was supposed to be red and whites like the Canadian Flag.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

This is one of my favourite ways to eat strawberries dipped in chocolate. I'm sure that everyone has their own recipes and there sure are lots out there, but I've used this one for years and it works for me.


1 cup semi/sweet chocolate chips [I used Hershey's]
1 TBsp. Canola Oil

I used a double boiler and put the chocolate and oil into a heat/proof glass bowl over simmering water that I had turned off the heat and kept stirring till it melted nice and smooth. I had a couple of inches of water over medium heat when I brought it to a simmer..

Holding the strawberry by the stem, dip the berry into the melted chocolate, lift and twist slightly, letting any excess chocolate fall off so the berry will look smooth. After dipping the stawberries I put them on parchment paper lined tray or wax paper and put into the refrigerature for at least one hour till they hardened. [I find to get the chocolate nice and smooth on the berries I had to work fast.......dipping that is.]

I was in a hurry that day as my husband was in the car waiting to go to the barbecue and there I was dipping away at those strawberries.





Strawberry Shortcakes

I was going to make a strwaberry shortcake but decided not to as I had to transport this over and I knew for sure if I made a cake it would fall down and then no cake. :-( So as I was roaming around the supermarket I saw these lil' angel cake individual cakes and then I had a 'red' lightbulb moment. I thought why not make individual ones, so much easier to bring over to someone else's home. So.........here they are. I made them up as I was doing them.


I sprinkled the cakes with raspberry liquer, then a layer of raspberry jam.


Layered it with sliced strawberries sprinkled with sugar for 15 min...... I let it mingle together to get the juices out.

Topped with whipped cream and a strawberry..............with a mint leaf from my garden that the chipminks managed this year not too chew on, but that is a whole different story.

Ready to eat.

I made one big tray with my strawberry desserts..........and this was a lot easier to transport and thankfully we had a chilly day so there was no melting till we got there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't forget to link with

http://beautyandbedlam.com/

and

http://blessedwithgrace.net/

for some other great treats.