Affogato {Ice Cream/ Coffee Sundaes}

Happy Monday lovelies!

Now, this is not your Monday morning coffee.  But if you make it that, I promise not to tell. Shhh...

I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I fell in love with affogato a few years ago.

Affogato in Italian means "drowned".  It is usually a dessert or beverage that has ice cream or gelato "drowned" in espresso and sometimes will include a bit of liquor.

This is the kind of dessert that has that "wow" factor but couldn't be simpler to make.  It's perfect when you don't have a lot of time to make dessert or you don't won't to heat up your kitchen.

Here's my version.  If you like coffee and chocolate, this will be right up your alley.

Affogato

serves 4

chocolate ice cream

8 tablespoons freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate-covered espresso beans (roughly chopped)

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon of Kahlua liqueur

1 tablespoon of powdered sugar

Place two scoops of chocolate ice cream in each of 4 bowls.  Meanwhile quickly whip cream with liqueur and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.  Pour 2 tablespoons of hot coffee over each serving.  Dollop some whipped cream on each serving and sprinkle on a bit of the chocolate-covered espresso beans.  Serve right away.

Enjoy!

Source: Young Adventures

xoxo

Rach


P.S.
Thank you so much for all of your encouraging and insightful comments on Friday!  I'm still thinking about what I would like to do.  If I do make any changes it won't be until the summer and I will make sure to keep you up to date.

Why I blog

 When I started blogging a couple of years ago.  It was because I wanted to record our adventures as a family for our children. I am terrible at journaling and scrap booking!  But I thought I could do a blog.  I like to take photos with my point and shoot and thought I could put photos up with little blurbs on a blog.  Not to mention that Brian's parents live a couple of hours away and my parents are overseas for a few months every year.  I thought this would be a good way for them to keep up with our family.  Somewhere along the line I started adding bits of encouragement and recipes and pretty much everything else that goes on around here.

Then a few friends started coming around which is a fun way to keep connected.  Then new friends started coming by...fun!  I love all the new people of have met.  I feel like  my life is so busy with raising a family that making new friends can be really hard.  So blogging is a great way to form new friendships.

All of this to say, I've been thinking a lot about our blog lately.  And I have a lot of questions, but not many answers.  I was wondering if you my faithful friends would help me answer them.

1.Should I move the blog over to wordpress and make it really fancy?  Ideally I would love to have separate pages for each section of our blog, making it easier for you to navigate and find what you're looking for.

2.How do you feel about e-books?  I thought about putting a small one together filled with recipes. Would you be interested?

3. If I jazzed up the page I could have a "shop".  If I did a series of recipes like weeknight cooking, holidays, etc... Would you like this option better?

I'll stop there.  Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.

Tonight is book club, super excited to spend time with the ladies.  The rest of the weekend will hopefully be relaxing maybe some cleaning and watching Tron.  Have a great weekend my friends!

xoxo

Rachel

Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm

I have been a lover of Burt's Bees products for a long time.  So when I came across their tinted lip balm I knew I had to try it.  Can I just say this is my new fav!

This balm goes on super smooth with a hint of fruity flavor.  And I love the barely there color.  Now, I love a good lipstick especially for the fall and winter.  For spring and summer I like something a little more natural and this fits the bill perfectly!  It comes in an assortment of colors.  I choose the hibiscus, which is a nice shade of  pink.

How about you my friends?  Do you have a favorite lip product?

Have a great Thursday!

Kisses~

Rachel

Tuna Melts

Tuna seems to be one of those foods that people love or hate.  Growing up my family ate a lot of fish, and I was never a fan.  The one exception I had was tuna.  We seemed to have sandwiches quite a bit on Saturday for lunch and tuna was a popular choice.  My Mom added hard boiled eggs and diced pickles (must have been a 70's thing).  If we were lucky Mom would make an open faced sandwich and put a slice of cheese on it and stick it under the broiler.  I have a lot of good "food memories"

Now that I am all grown up, I'm still not a huge fan of fish, but my family loves it.  I am trying to incorporate into our diets more often.  Since everyone loves tuna around our table.  I thought I would try an updated version of tuna melts.  Per Mr. Young's request I have made these a couple of times now.  It's a quick and easy meal that tastes good and everyone enjoys!

Tuna Melts

2-3 cans of albacore tuna

1/4-1/3 cup of light mayonnaise

1/2 cup kalamata olives chopped

salt and pepper to taste

*1 medium onion caramelized

Half a loaf of Italian bread

Pre-heat your oven to 350.  Cut your bread in half lengthwise.  Place the bread on a baking sheet in the oven for 3-5 minutes while the oven is heating up.  You want the bread to crisp up a bit, but not get brown.

Mix together the tuna, mayo, olives, and the salt and pepper.  Divide the tuna mixture equally over the two slices of bread and top with the caramelized onions.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top, place in the oven until the cheese is completely melted.  Cut into serving size pieces.
*To caramelize the onion.  Slice the onion thinly and place with a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan until caramelized about 30 minutes

Enjoy!


Hugs~
Rach



Easter in Pictures

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

He is risen!

xoxo

Rachel

Italian Cream Cake

We are having an Italian theme for book club this week, so I thought about bringing an Italian cream cake.  The hostess is not crazy about coconut, so I decided to bring something else.  But when Susie heard that I wasn't going to make it she said "You have to make it"!  So, I told her I would make it for Easter.  So I poured over my cookbooks and searched online for a recipe.  I couldn't find one I was sold on, so I took three different recipes and came up with my own.

I was really happy with the way the cake looked and tasted.  The cake was very moist and had a wonderful coconut and pecan flavor.  Plus the cream cheese frosting mmmm.

So if you have an event coming up, please make this cake!  It is so good, and your guests will be oohing and aahing.

Italian Cream Cake

Cake:

1 stick Butter (room temperature)
1 cup Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 cup Sugar
5 whole Eggs (separated)
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1 cup Coconut toasted
3/4 cup Pecans toasted 
2 cups All-purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 cup Buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla, and coconut and pecans. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, then fold in egg whites.
Pour evenly into the two prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.

Frosting:

8 ounces light cream cheese (room temperature)
4 ounces regular cream cheese (room temperature)
6 tablespoons butter (room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 -5 cups powdered sugar sifted
1 cup toasted coconut
1/2 cup toasted pecans chopped

Beat the cream cheese until smooth and free of lumps.  Add butter and vanilla until smooth.  Gradually add enough powdered sugar until it reaches a spreadable consistency, beat until smooth.

Place the first cake layer top side up and frost with a generous amount of frosting.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of coconut and 1/4 cup of pecans.  Top with the second layer and place it so the smooth side or bottom is facing up.  Frost top and side of cake with the remaining frosting.  Sprinkle the top and sides with the remaining coconut.  Then sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining nuts.

Enjoy!

Source: Pioneer Woman,Southern Living,Better Homes and Gardens 75 years of all time favorites

Happy Monday friends!  Have a great week!

xoxo

Rach

It's Somebody's Birthday

Happy Birthday Brian!!

Have a great week everyone.

Hugs~

Rachel