A Very Blueberry Cake

Every visit home to Pennsylvania always involves lots of great eating and this trip was particularly focused on desserts.  The abundance of fresh blueberries, black raspberries, watermelon and peaches yielded some excellent after dinner treats.  My mother and my sister-in-law are both avid bakers, something which is definitely not my forte, so I always appreciate their efforts.  I really wanted to post the recipe for my mother's black raspberry pie, but it was devoured before I even got to take a picture.  My other favorite was my sister-in-law Missy's Very Blueberry Cake which I was able to snap a quick shot of the very last piece before it got finished off.  Not my best photo, but the cake was to die for.  I also love the combination of blueberries and lemon and this moist, delicious cake really complements both of them.  You might remember Missy's recipe for Pumpkin Roll that I published over the holidays...

Very Blueberry Cake

Cake
½ cup butter softened
½ cup shortening
1-½ cup sugar
4 eggs
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ t. baking powder

Filling
1 T. all purpose flour
2 t. cornstarch
1 t. quick cooking tapioca
4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 t. grated lemon peel

Glaze
1 Cup confectioner sugar
2 T. Milk
1 t. lemon juice

In mixing bowl cream together butter, shortening and sugar.  Beat in eggs on at a time, and then mix in extracts.  In another bowl, combine flour and baking powder, mix and add to creamed mixture, blending well.  Spread 2/3 of the batter in a greased 15x10 pan, reserving the other 1/3 for the end.

For filling combine flour, cornstarch and tapioca in a large bowl.  Add ½ cup blueberries, mash with a fork and stir well.  Add lemon peel and remaining blueberries, toss to coat.  Pour blueberry mixture evenly over batter in pan. Drop remaining batter in rounded tablespoons over filling.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes until golden brown.  Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over warm cake.

Slovenian Beef Noodle Soup

One of the things I get most excited about when I come home is my mother’s homemade beef noodle soup, an old recipe handed down for generations in the Slovenian community she grew up in called Bon Air in Cambria County, Pa. My mother knows how much I love it, so there is always a huge pot waiting every time I come home. It is a simple beef and vegetable broth made with tomatoes, carrots, celery and onions and finished off with thin egg noodles. Comforting and delicious, I make it at home often using my grandmother's old soup pot, but somehow it never tastes as good as it does in my mother's kitchen.

Ingredients:
2 1/2lbs beef roast, either English cut or chuck roast
5 1/2 quarts of water
1-28oz. can whole tomatoes crushed by hand, and their juices
4 carrots cut in 1/4" slices
3 stalks of celery cut into 3" pieces
2 medium onions quartered
Thin egg noodles
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the beef in a large soup pot and add water. Bring to a boil, then add tomatoes, carrots, celery and onion. Again bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 2 hours.

Remove the beef to a cutting board. The beef should be very tender at this point so you can pull apart bit size chunks and cut away any fatty areas. Strain the broth into another pot and add the meat back in to the second pot as well. Put on the stove at low heat and simmer.

Take the strained vegetables and discard the celery and any overly large chunks of onion, carrot and tomatoes. Pour the rest of the vegetables back in the pot, add salt and pepper to taste and continue to simmer.

Cook your noodles as to the instructions on the package and strain. Keep the noodles separate from the soup until serving as they tend to soak up too much of the broth.

Ladle soup into bowls and add the desired amount of noodles and serve.