Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All: From Denny:  This sheet pan cake of creamy goodness only requires two cups of fresh blueberries.  First you make a simple syrup of water and sugar, add cornstarch to thicken, then add the blueberries.  Set the blueberry topping aside to cool while you create the crust.

The crust is a yummy combination of finely chopped pecans, butter and flour that you pat into the sheet pan and bake for about 10 to 20 minutes to make your tasty crust.  Set aside to cool.

To make your filling you combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar together and when that is well combined you add in the whipped topping, pouring it into the cooled crust.

After the blueberry topping has cooled then pour over the cream cheese-powdered sugar-whipping topping mixture.  Now set the sheet pan of blueberry goodness into the fridge to chill well.  Serve to screams of total delight!...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All

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Cooper Name Mug

Shooting star Cooper says, "I'm the man!" What confidence! Who doesn't want to drink coffee every morning with him?  More products available in this name design for your pet or your man! 

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler

     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 

                                                                                  
Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler: From Denny:  Blueberries.  The awesome blue food we all love.  So, I went hunting for something interesting in the cobbler department for us this week.  The first recipe is from our local newspaper, a blueberry cobbler made with a cream cheese pastry and a filling that consists of a combination of blueberries, apple and lemon.  A cream cheese pastry always tastes great with a fruit filling, especially blueberries!  It's a simple and straightforward pastry recipe with flour, salt and butter but also with cream cheese and a bit of orange juice added to the pastry to spike up the flavor.

The filling calls for fresh blueberries, an apple and lemon juice and lemon zest.  While this recipe calls for sugar I often substitute brown rice syrup or agave syrup in its place for a lower glycemic index than refined white sugar.  Try it half sugar and half agave as an idea, whatever you like at your house, just try experimenting until you find that sweet spot Goldilocks zone for your taste buds!

The second recipe is a traditional blueberry cobbler made in a 9-inch square baking pan like you do for brownies and is from a local Louisiana blueberry grower.  When a recipe calls for margarine, well, I'm no fan of margarine, so I use clarified butter.  If you don't have the time to make your own clarified butter it's now available in grocery stores as I saw a jar in Trader Joe's just last week.

Also note that I use "Tablespoon" and "teaspoon" as an easier read so you don't get confused by small type - by writing it out instead of an abbreviation and also capitalizing Tablespoon.  There have been those moments when I was busy and scan read a recipe only to make a mistake with too much or too little of an ingredient so I changed all my recipes to reflect what I do here on my food blogs.  The whole point is to enjoy a good food experience!

Oh, and the Denny Lyon Gifts ads are from my Cafe Press store.  The profits go to my two favorite charities:  the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank that feeds half of Louisiana and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital that has helped thousands of children on the Gulf Coast.  After all, should anyone go hungry in America?  Should any parent have to emotionally stress and experience financial ruin because their child got sick?  Thank you to those of you supporting my gift store effort!...

(As these articles post this week I'll add the links, so check back often!)

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake

Photo: The Advocate/HEATHER MCCLELLAND

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Deliciously Easy Small Blueberry Cake: From Denny:  This is an easy to assemble cake, practically a dump cake after you add together the dry ingredients and milk.  You pour the melted butter over the batter without stirring and layer loads of blueberries on top and then bake to get this marbling effect.

Make sure you are using aluminum free baking powder, an easy find at most grocery stores these days and always at health food stores like Trader Joe's.  You could also substitute agave syrup for the white sugar to lower the glycemic index.  I'm considering trying it with brown rice syrup to see how it performs so I'll let you know later how that turns out.  (First we have to finish off my experiment with a rice pudding recipe that came out quite well.)

While this recipe calls for Louisiana blueberries there are plenty of other blueberry growers with very delicious berries in Texas, Mississippi and California and other states too.  Since blueberries have grown in popularity more farmers have turned to growing them.  Get what is local to you so the berries will be fresh.  Buy USA berries which supports workers and farmers in America.

This is a small pan cake (9" x 9") so it is suitable for just a snack for a few friends or a couple of people who regularly cook for two - with leftovers.  Oh, that's too bad, you mean there might be more to enjoy for breakfast?  This would be wonderful at tea time or a coffee break snack at the office or home as this little cake will travel well for picnics and gatherings too.  It would even taste great chilled for the hot summer weather.  Blueberries are awesome and healthy!

Oh, and a big thank you to those of you supporting Denny Lyon Gifts by purchasing products like aprons, t-shirts, pillows, bedding and mugs.  My profits (paid by Cafe Press) go to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank here in Louisiana that basically feeds half of the state and also to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, two of my favorite charities that help a lot of children.  Who should go hungry in America?  Who should experience financial ruin because your child gets sick?  So, I started up my small store at Cafe Press for some creative fun of designing and to give to these charities.  So, again, thank you for your support.  You guys rock!...

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Easy Blueberry Heaven Trifle

  The Advocate photo/HEATHER MCCLELLAND

                                             
Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Easy Blueberry Heaven Trifle: From Denny:   Could this week get any hotter?  With 100 degree highs and a 115 degree heat index this summer is turning out to be a real scorcher.  It brings to mind a Downton Abbey episode when Lord Grantham was arm-twisted by the women of the family to quit drinking for six months until his health issue was confirmed or denied: "Good God, man! Steady on!"  Any time we don't like something or want to complain at our house that's our new go-to phrase for laughs.

Cooling summer desserts come to mind when the weather is uncooperatively too hot.  In fact, before the age of air conditioning it was custom to never eat a hot meal.  The vegetables were as cold as the meats on the plate.  You still see some of that mindset in places like Greece where the concept of a hot vegetable is considered strange.  They boil their vegetables and then chill them before even considering offering them to a guest or family.  With this kind of outrageous weather the idea sounds good!  It certainly takes the stress off the body for getting too hot.

What?! You've heard enough about the ridiculous hot weather and Greek culture?  How about this easy recipe that is kid friendly too that the family could help with this one.  This one is easy to assemble as it involves a purchased angel food cake torn into chunks, cream cheese (whipped or not), sweetened condensed milk, a box of Jell-O vanilla pudding, whipping cream, toasted pecans (Louisiana pecans, if you can get them, because they sure are wonderful) and a honking huge quart of fresh blueberries.  Remember, this trifle does serve 10 to 12 people.  Enjoy!...

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat

                                     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Lemonade To Beat The Heat: From Denny:  Blue food.  It's pretty to look at and cooling in this summer heat.  Blueberries are the very essence of summer.  Did you know the silvery bloom on blueberries is a naturally protective waxy coating?

Most people don't wash them until just when ready to eat.  Well, that doesn't work in our house so I pour a large bowl of water, add about 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar and let the entire plastic box and blueberries soak for about 5 minutes to kill bacteria.  Drain the entire box well, dry off a bit with a towel and throw back into the fridge.  Usually, a reputable grocery store - and even from the farm - they give the berries a quick vinegar wash to brush off leaves and bugs.

We all like to dine on blueberries by the handfuls as snacks, toss them on to the breakfast cereal or yogurt and make breakfast muffins. Here's a new twist: how about blueberries in your homemade lemonade?

This interesting recipe (from our local newspaper food writer) combines two fruit syrups:  a blueberry syrup and a lemon syrup.  You only use the blueberry syrup to color the lemonade to your preference.  The remaining blueberry syrup can be used on pancakes, waffles, toast or even in salad dressings.  OK, you got me, this lemonade is so doggone pretty!  Great idea for summer entertaining...

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A Truth Journal: GOP and Rubio 2016: Women Should Suck It Up And Enjoy Results of Rape And Incest?

A Truth Journal: GOP and Rubio 2016: Women Should Suck It Up And Enjoy Results of Rape And Incest?: From Denny:  Does any one in this country actually promote or like abortion?  No.  Even as a liberal I agree with my Republican voting friends that abortion is disgusting and disrespectful of humanity.  But the way the Republican Party screams about the abortion issue does not solve the problem and has not solved the problem in over 40 years.  Obviously, the Republicans do not know how to lead the country - just stir up passions in cultural scream-offs just to win yet another election.  After the elections all the politicians sit on their hands doing nothing until the next election cycle of what will be broken promises.

Planned Parenthood has some serious problems with those insensitive doctors caught on video discussing the marketing of fetal body parts.  Of course, the calculating GOP strategists are promoting that video to rally the cause to defund Planned Parenthood - that also happens to do a lot of good for women's health issues in other areas like cancer testing.  Defunding Planned Parenthood is not the solution that will change the need for abortions.

The real questions every voter should be asking about that Planned Parenthood video is who the hell are these medical science creeps that are demanding said fetal parts be given for free or sold to them for their research and development of who knows what?  How pervvy can you get?  What exactly are they doing with that fetal tissue?  Why is there a "market" for fetal tissue, hearts and lungs in the first place?  Does this situation have anything to do with a severe shortage of donor organs in China with wealthy Chinese willing to pay any price to procure those organs?...

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Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Try Grilled Summer Cooling Puttanesca Gazpacho

                                                 AP photo/Matthew Mead


Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Try Grilled Summer Cooling Puttanesca Gazpacho: From Denny:  Fancy a cold soup to counter the ridiculous hot heat of the summer?  Gazpacho is everyone's favorite, especially when entertaining for large groups.  This version involves grilling all those delicious veggies like red bell peppers, poblano peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a head of fresh garlic.

Let the charred peppers cool before removing the skins and the inside seeds and membranes. Squeeze the cooled soft garlic cloves out of their papery skins and into the food processor.  Add the delicious flavors of capers, Kalamata olives, anchovies, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Make the soup as chunky or as smooth as you like.  Chill well before serving.  To serve, garnish with yummy ricotta cheese and fresh torn herbs like cilantro and basil.  Then sit back and wait for the compliments to arrive!...

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A Christmas Post: Christmas Story: A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Post: Christmas Story: A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens: From Denny:  Check out a Christmas story written by Charles Dickens over a century ago.  Here, in this story, the author gives us a glimpse of the age of early technology of mechanical toys and the increasing consumerism at Christmas.

Dickens recalls his own childhood Christmas time.  This memoir is an intriguing romp through the mind of a child as he perceives the Christmas magic and contemplates the holiday season.  He likes to relate a ghost story along the way too!

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A Christmas Post: True Christmas Story: Funny Christmas Conversations

A Christmas Post: True Christmas Story: Funny Christmas Conversations: From Denny:  Think back. How much can you remember about the things your parents used to tell you about Santa? This Christmas Eve my husband and I started that conversation. Though we have been married many years there were still some things we did not know about each other.

We laughed about the incredible stories our parents told us on Christmas Eve. It was becoming a contest between whose parents were the most outrageous storytellers.

Do you remember the funny and downright lame excuses your parents used to give you when talking about Santa coming to visit on Christmas Eve? 3 videos.

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A Truth Journal: Will Your Kids' Mock Election Votes Influence Your Vote?

From Denny:   As a way to teach students the election process mock elections occurred across the country last week.  Right here in Louisiana, involving 88,600 students across the state from 280 public, private and home schooling, they voted President Obama into a second term.  Louisiana broke for Obama by a margin of 51.29 percent to Romney's 48.71 percent.

From Angie Franklin, the gifted program teacher at Peabody Montessori in Alexandria, Louisiana,  "Our objective was to make sure the kids here in the school knew what the election process was.  And why it's so important, every four years, to vote."

- - - To read more click on the title link - - -

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The Social Poets: What Obama and Romney Should Be Talking About: These 2 Sick Little Girls

The Fish girls:  Alice, left and Natalie, right -  Source:  Fishes For Marrow Wishes-Sisters


The Social Poets: What Obama and Romney Should Be Talking About: These 2 Sick Little Girls: From Denny:  It's time to stop the madness along with the childish political campaign bickering.  Americans don't want to hear it anyway.  There are bigger issues at stake like the lives of these two seriously ill little girls from Utah, Natalie and Alice Fish.  In light of what this one American family is enduring should shame all the national politicians who are so self-absorbed they have not stopped long enough to notice.

I'm so disgusted with the 2012 election's childish name-calling tone and enabling media encouraging it that I change the channel constantly.  As a respite yesterday I went up on my page at Google + to catch up on those who friended me.

Well, it turned out these little Fish girls' parents friended me (that's a link to their Google+ page).  It's a good thing I always take the time to read a profile page or I might have missed this struggling life drama of a middle class family.  These little girls are real troopers and have been living in and out of hospitals since they were born.  Their parents are to be commended for going the distance with not just one child but now two with this rare problem. 


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Best Inspirational and Funny Mothers Day Quotes

A photo of my own beautiful mother - photo by Denny Lyon

From Denny: Enjoy some more great quotes, inspirational ones, this year, about our mothers, a few poems found too. I've also collected many funny Mother's Day posts from many of my other blogs on this post:

Best Funny Mothers Day Quotes, Trivia, Photography, Poetry


Inspirational Quotes


A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. - Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever. - Anonymous

A mother understands what a child does not say. - Anonymous

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. - Washington Irving

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Cute Funny Children Quotes

From Denny:  The holiday season is about children - and sometimes the child in all of us when it comes to gift giving and receiving!  When we look through the eyes of a child we can view the world from a simpler place, a landscape of wonderment.  And children often speak up with the funniest perspective on a situation that is so unexpected - and undeniably true - it makes us laugh.

Fathers Day Quotes: Funny and Inspirational

Best quote: The father is always a Republican toward his son, and his mother's always a Democrat. - Robert Frost

Father's Day Quotes

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. - Clarence Budington Kelland, U.S. Writer

A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society. - Billy Graham, Christian Evangelist

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
- Theodore Hesburgh, Catholic Priest and President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame

How true Daddy's words were when he said: 'All children must look after their own upbringing.' Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. - Anne Frank, German Jew and Holocaust Victim

It is much easier to become a father than to be one. - Kent Nerburn, U.S. Author and Educator

We are given children to test us and make us more spiritual. - George Will, U.S. Journalist

Happy Father's Day! photo by jwlphotography @ flickr, All Rights Reserved with embed code available

Funny Pet Quotes

Funny Pet Quotes

When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem. - Edward Abbet

I always like a dog so long as he isn't spelled backward. - G. K. Chesterton

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate. - Sigmund Freud

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. - Roger Caras

Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. - Anne Landers