Mikey and Mommy's Birthday Surf & Turf!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY AND MIKEY!

 About a month ago, my mom and brother celebrated their birthdays. Yep, my brother was born on my mom's birthday AND Mother's Day.  What a gift! It took us awhile to celebrate but we finally did on Memorial Day.  And it's taken me this long to post about it!!!

After spending an amazing weekend on the Cape, I cooked up a storm on Monday in honor of two of my favorite peoples special day! On the menu: Corn on the Cob, Salad, Baked Zucchini Fries with Kale Chips, BBQ Steak Tips and Lobster. It was quite the spread!

 Surf and Turf galore. 

 The baked zucchini fries were awesome and I will definitely make them again.  I love finding new ways to use zucchini!  The recipe was inspired from Two Peas & Their Pod.

Baked Zucchini Fries:
Ingredients:
3 Medium Zucchini, sliced into skinny sticks
2 large eggs (or egg whites)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
Seasoning of choice- I used dried basil, cayenne and oregano
salt and pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425.  Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.  In a bowl, whisk eggs.  Then put the breadcrumbs and seasonings in another bowl. Mix well.  Dip the zucchini sticks in the eggs then into the bread crumb mixture.  Place the sticks on a baking sheet.  Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until they are nice and crispy.  

All together, I think I had a little bit of everything. Now that's a full plate.

I also BAKED dessert!  I really wanted to make Carrot Cake and after scouring the blog world, I decided to use Sugar Plum's recipe.  Maybe because Sugar Plum is my favorite word in the world.  The cake was good.  It wasn't great and next time I make Carrot Cake, I will definitely use Lauren's recipe. I think the raisins scared me Lauren, but I'm going for it next time!

 Sugar Plums Frosting tasted a little too cream cheesy to me so I added in about a cup of confectionary sugar.  This is why I don't bake because I like to add things in on the fly and I know you're not supposed to do that.  But I'm much too adventurous to follow a recipe exactly! The cake wasn't as moist (eww I know) as I would have liked. I think I needed oil like Lauren's recipe.  You live and you learn.

But the recipe that was really tasty was Coconut-Lime Berry Cake from Martha Stewart.  Look how gorg these bars are, right?

 And this was a simple recipe.  I like simple recipes that don't tempt me to stray too far.
Coconut-Lime Berry Cake Bars
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperture
1 3/4 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
salt
1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of lime zest plus 2 tablespoons of lime juice
3 cups of mixed berries- I used blueberries and blackberries
3 tablespoons of orange juice
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cups of flour, baking powder, salt and coconut.  In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup of sugar on high until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until combined.  With mixer on low add in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and beat until well combined.  Stir in lime zest and juice and then pour batter into a 9by 13 inch baking dish.  In another bowl, toss 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, the berries and OJ. Scatter the berry mixture over the batter. Bake cake until cake is golden at edges about 35 minutes.  

 But the best part of the meal was enjoying it with the rest of my family in Omaha.  Oh Skype, how I love you!

Off to spend time with some of favorite bloggers!!! Happy Friday everyone : )

Do you like to bake? Do you always follow the recipe?