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Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post remotely related to food is welcome. Recipes are enjoyed, but you can write about the Indiana State Fair’s chocolate-covered bacon or link to a post about how to freeze zucchini.In other words, the Food on Fridays parameters are not at all narrow. I think of it as a virtual pitch-in where everyone brings something to share; even if the content of one item is unrelated to the rest, we sample it all anyway and have a great time.When your Food on Fridays contribution is ready, just grab the broccoli button (the big one above or the new smaller option at the bottom) to paste at the top of your post and join us through Mr. Linky.Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.

Food on Fridays Participants

1. Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker (Yoplait Giveaway–ends Friday night!)
2. Twirl and Taste
3. Passionate Homemaking … Becoming P31 (Mocha Freeze Mini-Cheesecakes)
4. Stretch Mark Mama (10 Summer Recipes)
5. At Home N About (Quick -n- Easy Baked Beans)
6. thoughtsfromovertherainbow (Spinach Salad)
7. Inside the White Picket Fence (Zucchini Recipes)
8. Newlyweds! (corn dip)
9. Cook with Sara (lemon blueberry zucchini cake)
10. Kitchen Stewardship (Sausage Zucchini Bake–many ingredients from Farmers’ Market)
11. Home Ec 101 (Homemade Noodle Tutorial)
12. Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free (Healthy, Five-Minute Blueberry Banana Ice Cream)
13. Hoosier Homemade (Zucchini Cupcakes)
14. The Byrd House (Versatile Pastry Dough)
15. The Prudent Pantry (Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup)
16. Gravity of Motion (An Original Recipe)
17. Earth Friendly Goodies (Organice Blueberry Kefir Pancake Recipe)
18. Coping with Frugality (Yummy Soup–Needs a Name)
19. Hopeannfaith (Summer Tea)

Food on Fridays with AnnI wanted to serve a friend something special with tea the other morning and found this Blueberry Coffee Cake recipe that I modified slightly. I’ll Annotate the recipe below.Oops. I cut into it and started to serve, but my guest stopped me. “Get a picture!” she exclaimed. “For your blog!”Excellent advice.But even a piece that’s been cut looks appealing to me.Blueberry Coffee CakeIngredientsStreusel topping (Note: I made only half of this)

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter (I had to make-do with oil, and it was delicious–can’t wait to make this with butter)

Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (Note: I left out about 1/2 C flour, because people on Allrecipes recommended doing that so that it would be more moist—an excellent decision, in my opinion)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter (again, I was out of butter and substituted oil–can’t wait to try butter)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (Note: I used frozen)
• Almond slivers (optional Ann addition)
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting (I didn’t use that much sugar to dust it; and my kids laughed hysterically when I said I was going to be dusting the cake)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a Bundt pan well with cooking spray.
2. Make the streusel topping: Mix 1 brown cup sugar, 2/3 cup flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl (or half of that, like I did). Cut in 1/2 cup butter or margarine; topping mixture will be crumbly. Set aside.
3. For the cake: Beat 1/2 cup butter or margarine (or oil) in large bowl until creamy; add 1 cup white sugar, and beat until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Whisk together 2 cups flour (or 1/2 cup less), baking powder, and salt; add alternately with the milk to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition (this was really thick and hard to spread, but it worked).
4. Spread half the batter in the prepared pan. Cover with berries (I poked them into the batter individually, then topped with half of the streusel topping), and add remaining batter by tablespoons. Cover with streusel topping (some streusel is on the inside, and some on the top, which will become the bottom when inverted after it’s baked; then I tossed on a few almond slivers, which browned slightly as it cooked and added a wonderful texture and flavor—who knew I could be so fancy?).
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, until deep golden brown. Remove pan to wire rack to cool. Invert onto a plate after cake has cooled (oops–I inverted before it was cool, and it was fine), and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

I thought it was amazing.

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The post Food on Fridays: Blueberry Coffee Cake appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

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The post Is Life Too Planned? appeared first on Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.