The Duke and I have really been taking advantage of the grill lately. We love throwing zucchini, onions and peppers on and letting them get a good char. Want to know my favorite meat to grill? Smoked sausage! It’s delish.

Our friend brought us this smoked sausage that he picked up on a back country road between Birmingham, AL and Destin. No tellin’ where it came from, but this sausage was awesome!

We’ve had this meal twice in the last week…it’s just too good (and too easy!).

Have a great weekend! See you Monday.
The Duchess

The creamy centers of the Golden Oreos are great in here, but the unexpected crunch puts these cookies over the top.

The Duke, who loves Oreos more than life itself, proclaimed that he actually likes Golden Oreos better than traditional Oreos. Who knew?

Believe me, if you make these cookies, they will fly off the plate!

Alright, back to the grind for me…I’m at a writing training today. Can you believe pre-planning for teachers starts this Thursday, and school starts next Thursday, August 5th??? CRAZINESS! Where did the summer go? The Duchess

I’ve been wanting to make Rachael Ray’s Salsa “Stoup” for a while now and finally got around to it the other day. As Rachael would say, it was Delish!

It really tastes like salsa, but piping hot. The onions, peppers and cilantro make this tomato soup for grown ups. I made some grilled poblano and zucchini quesadillas for dipping, and this meal was a home run.

For the quesadillas, I charred two poblano peppers and zucchini rounds on an indoor grill pan, then removed the skin and seeds and sliced the peppers. Sprinkle cheddar cheese, poblano slices and zucchini rounds on a whole wheat tortilla, then sprinkle with chopped cilantro. Broil the quesadilla for a few minutes, the fold over and slice into wedges.

If you love Mexican flavors as much as I do, then you’re totally going to dig this dinner!

Have a great weekend, friends The Duchess

So how does the Duchess celebrate a year of blogging bliss? Cupcakes? Bananas Foster? How about both!

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Bananas Foster Cupcake. Isn’t she cute? I think I’m in love.

Start with a few bananas…give ‘em a slice.

Then proceed to caramelize them in butter and brown sugar. Oh yeah.

Fill the cupcake liners about half way up, then top with a few caramelized banana slices and a sprinkle of butterscotch chips.

And then top with some more batter before popping in the oven. The result?? Warm banana perfection!

I have to say, these cupcakes were amazing! Next time I make them I’m going to add more bananas to the cupcakes. The sweet buttery bananas were the best part.

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I’ve enjoyed blogging for the past year. Here’s to another great year of fabulous recipes!
The Duchess

Umm..yeah, I’d say that’s chocolatey! So what makes it a “breakfast cake,” you ask? Well, this cake is actually a pound cake. When I was growing up, my Granny Flash would often eat sliced and toasted poundcake for breakfast with coffee. So, in a round about way, this cake is perfect for breakfast.

You can also eat it any other time of the day. Got it? Good.

German Chocolate Breakfast Cake

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray two 8-inch loaf pans with cooking spray, then dust with flour. Shake out any excess flour and set pans aside.
2. In a large bowl, blend cake mix, butter, milk, eggs and vanilla with an electric mixer on low speed for about a minute. Increase speed to medium and beat two more minutes. Stir in pecans and coconut, then divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing out with a rubber spatula. Place pans in the oven side by side.
3. Bake loaves for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely before removing from pans.

Makes two large loaves

Now, you know this would make the perfect breakfast.

Hope you enjoy! Have a great Thursday. The Duchess

Last week I wanted a fast, yet flavorful meal, and thus the Mediterranean Shrimp and Feta Tostada was born.

This dinner comes together in about 20 minutes…start to finish! I made a simple marinade for the shrimp using olive oil, red wine vinegar and other spices common in Mediterranean food. Be careful not to leave the shrimp in the marinade more than about 5 minutes. Otherwise, the acid in the vinegar will begin to “cook” the shrimp.

I was really happy with how this dish turned out. Don’t you love when a last-minute brain child is a rock star??

I keep forgetting to give an update of my aunt. Believe it or not, she is doing a million times better and is expected to make a full recovery! This is nothing short of a miracle, since she was basically out of it for two weeks. She has no recollection that I was up there in her hospital room, but that is ok. Her long-term memory is in tact.

Have a great week! P.S. Less than a month til my BIRTHDAY The Duchess

There is a restaurant along 30A (a beautiful scenic highway that runs right along the Gulf) that hosts trivia every Friday night. Tables compete against each other, so it gets really crazy. Each person at the winning table is entered to win a trip to Vegas to be given away at the end of the summer. I’ll let you know if I win.

Jessica, Laura and Damon were on our team.

Jessica is one of my best friends…she was in our wedding. Isn’t she gorgeous??

Before the competition really heated up, Jessica, the Duke and I split some fried pickles.

These bad boys were perfectly seasoned, but pretty greasy. I could only handle a few, since they main course was a good ‘n healthy PIZZA!

The Duke got pepperoni on his half, while Jess and I split the veggie side (which only consisted of green peppers, olives and mushrooms).

After three rounds of trivia, we were the top team. We sent Jess and the Duke up to go head-to-head with another team. There were a few tense moments with some serious questions (i.e. Who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird?)

We won!! Way to go, Jess and Duke!

After the competition, we headed back to Laura and Damon’s for games. We played a few rounds of Scattergories before breaking to make S’mores. Laura has a nice gas range, so we roasted marshmallows right there on the cook top. Genius!

It was such a fun night! It’s time to hit the books hard today. Only three more weeks of my LAST classes for teacher certification. Woohoo! Lots to do between now and then, though. Have a great weekend.

The Duchess

I was browsing one of my favorite blogs, Picky Palate , and came upon a recipe for Peanut Butter and Jelly White Chocolate Blondies. Hold the phone! Those are the three most heavenly things on this earth, all put into one scrumptious treat. I’m not surprised…Jenny is the queen of sweets, after all!

These blondies had a texture similar to pound cake, which is just fine by me.

You all know that I’m obsessed with peanut butter, right? I could eat it at every meal. I try to limit myself to 1 serving (aka 2 tablespoons) per day, but sometimes I can’t do it. I love getting a spoonful of peanut butter and dotting it with white chocolate chips.

These blondies are sorta like that, but people don’t look at you as funny.

Hope you all enjoy! Have a fabulous Thursday and wonderful weekend. I’ll be trapped in my house doing homework. BLAH! The Duchess

I’ve been drooling over a recipe from Aggie’s Kitchen for months now, and it certainly makes for the perfect light, summery dinner. Aggie’s Fish Oreganata combines light and flaky fish (we have tons of fresh grouper and snapper from the Gulf of Mexico right now) with panko crumbs, lemon zest and fresh herbs. Doesn’t that sound divine?

This is a fantastically flavorful meal that you can feel great about eating! The best part is, you probably already have all of these simple ingredients in your kitchen now.

This panko topping would also be great on top of shrimp…I’ve got to remember to try that one. Hope you all have a fabulous week! I’m stuck going to a 6-day training this week and next, but at least I don’t have to do it during the school year. The Duchess

The 4th of July is easily one of my favorite holidays of the year. Nothing beats family, friends and food in the summer heat (and here in FL, most of the activities revolved around or in the water). Here’s a brief recap of our weekend:

We starting things off on Thursday night by having dinner with our friends Natalie and Kevin at their house.

They made an impressive spread of grilled beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes and roasted asparagus for us.

Check out this awesome clock Natalie and Kevin have in their kitchen. Their last name is Schmidt, so they made this clock on the wall!! I’m obsessed.

Friday night we had a bunch of folks over for a shrimp boil, but I didn’t really take many pictures. I need to get better at documenting events at our house. I guess I get overwhelmed with all of the cooking and entertaining.

Saturday we loaded up the dogs and headed over to the Duke’s Grandpa’s house (on the bayou) for a backyard BBQ.

Can you believe how much Pearl has grown in one week?

The Duke was feeling quite patriotic.

We spent Independence Day on the beach, running in and out of the pavilion, trying to dodge the rain. Let’s just say we got soaked! After coming home to dry off and freshen up, we headed down to Destin Harbor to catch the fireworks from my father-in-law’s big charter boat.

The boat was rocking pretty bad in the harbor…we nearly fell over!

In true family get-together fashion, there was tons of food. I made a fabulous corn pudding and roasted veggies. I loaded up my plate with a bit of everything…including fried chicken.

The fireworks display was amazing…it started pouring just in time for the grande finale, though.

Looks like someone is worn out from the weekend’s festivities:

Hope you all have a great Monday! See you soon. The Duchess