Kitchen Tips and Guides

Thanksgiving is literally around the corner.

Are you starting to plan your menu yet?  I've been thinking about it.  Tossing around some new side dishes to thrown in with my standard ones.

Well, I found some great cooking guides on MyRecipes.com that I think every kitchen should have! It makes life easier.   I hope that you find these useful, especially with all the holiday cooking coming up.

First up is a guide to internal cooking temperatures for all types of meat, seafood, eggs, and even leftovers.  You name it, it's there.  A great resource.

Next is a Holiday Turkey Timeline.  This has great tips from deciding how big a turkey to buy, how to thaw a frozen turkey, different methods of cooking, to testing that it's done.  It even has tips on how to store leftovers.  All we need now are some recipes for the leftovers!!

Lastly is one of my favorites, a cooking conversion chart.  I ALWAYS need to know how many tablespoons are in a 1/4 cup and can NEVER remember!  This guide has it all, and it's cute too!

Happy planning!

Southern Sundays

Welcome to Southern Sundays !

I'm running out the door to go cook and sample some new Thanksgiving side dishes, but before I go I wanted to put up the party for you.  Hopefully we have some winner side dishes that I can share with you shortly.

Before we start I wanted to give you some Thanksgiving decor inspiration courtesy of my talented sister, Sue.  What a great tablescape!

Last week's party was fun, fun fun!  Dishes are getting better and better all the time!

There was one recipe that stood out by far...and got the most clicks!  

Congratulations on our featured recipe this week.

Chocolate Cake with Surprise Filling

by Something Sweet - Winnie's blog

This sure is a winner!

Stop by and say Hi!

This wonderful dish has been pinned on Pinterest!

Ready to party?

Couple of reminders to make the most of your posts.  ** Make sure to tell all your friends so they can join the party as well!  **Please make sure to visit 1 or 2 other posts to share your compliments and enjoy their dishes as well!

Guidelines:

Please become a follower by joining my site with Google Friends Connect in the right side bar.
Link back to your specific recipe and not to your main site.
Link back to Southern Sundays either in your post, or grab my Southern Sundays Button located in the right side bar.
Please visit a few of the links in the post and say hello to your fellow bloggers!
Enjoy, have fun, cook lots of food, and relish your Southern Sunday!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Who can resist the flavors of lemon and blueberry?

Not my mom!  I've said this many times before, and I'll say it again.....Mom is a lemon lover.  Anything lemon, bars, pie, cake, cookies, hard candies..you name it.

So obviously when I found this recipe for Lemon Blueberry Bread I bookmarked it and took it along with me on my next trip to visit mom.  First thing I made when I got there was this Lemon Blueberry Bread, so we could munch on it during my visit. 

The recipe is one adapted from JoyofBaking.com.  You can find her recipe here.  A wonderful site with how-to videos of most recipes, and a great resource.  Note: She put a lemon glaze on the top.  We chose to leave this off as it was sweet enough.  This is not really what I would consider a quick bread.  It was more like making a cake.  It's denser, and a little more involved than a quick bread, however, the results were heavenly.  Just ask my mom the lemon expert!

Kitchen tip:  When folding fresh blueberries into a batter use a delicate hand so they don't crush and stain the batter blue. Tossing blueberries in a little flour helps to prevent them from falling to the bottom of the bread during baking.

Now I'm off to find another lemon wonder for my next visit with my Mom!

Enjoy!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

adapted from JoyofBaking.com

makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1T lemon zest
1 c fresh blueberries
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 c Splenda or sugar
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla
1/2 c 2% milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray the bottom and sides of a  loaf pan. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Place the blueberries in a small separate bowl and toss the berries with 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture.

In  a mixing bowl using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter until softened.  Add the sugar and cream together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla, making sure to scrape down the sides as needed.  

Add in the flour mixture in three additional, along with the milk, alternating.  Start and end with the flour.  Mix only until combined.  Gently fold in the blueberries.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.