Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 pkg. white cake mix

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding

1 cup water

4 egg whites

2 TBS. oil

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

2 TBS lemon juice

1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar

Procedure: Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

Mix the cake mix, jello,water, eggs and oil until it's blended well.
(The batter should be thick) Use a spoon to fill into cupcake lined muffin tins. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes then, move to wire racks and cool completely.

You want to beat the cream cheese, butter and lemon juice until it's well blended.Then, gradually add sugar and beat until smooth. Spread onto cupcakes. Zest a little bit of lemon for color and beauty if you'd like. (not too much zest tho... you don't want tart cupcakes)

Made in Philadelphia

So what are some foods that are highly recognized
in the City of Brotherly Love?

We all know about the Philly CheeseSteaks...
Philadelphians Pat and Harry Olivieri are often
credited with inventing the sandwich by cooking
chopped steak on hoagie rolls in the early 1930s.

Pat's (www.patskingofsteaks.com)
and Geno's Steaks (www.genosteaks.com)
have a highly publicized rivalry. Both restaurants are
located across the street from each  other on 9th Street
and Passyunk Avenue in of course south Philly.

What is so good about a Philly CheeseSteak vs.
a cheesesteak from somewhere else?
The steak meat used for Philly CheeseSteaks is thinly
sliced rib-eye or top round. The steak meat is also usually
cooked on top of  sauteed onions for the flavor and to
prevent over cooking or  more importantly from drying out.
In Philadelphia, most  cheesesteaks go on an Amoroso roll.
Amoroso Baking Company (www.amorosobaking.com)
is a family-owned company that specializes in
baked breads and rolls. The company was founded in 1904 in
South Philly by Vincenzo Amoroso and his two sons.
Philly CheeseSteaks are known for having Cheez Whiz which is
a thick processed cheese sold by Kraft Foods and was first
used in 1953. Cheez Whiz is known to have been used because
it was easy and already a spread/melted texture.

Soft Pretzels are known all around Philadelphia.
They originated in Germany and after they immigrated to
Pennsylvania- Pennsylvania is known to make 80% of the nations
soft pretzels today. Pretzels sold in paper bags are best

rather than the ones wrapped in plastic because the plastic
makes the doughhard making them more often stale.

The 1st American cream cheese was in made in 1872 in New York
by William Lawrence. In 1880, the name "Philadelphia" was used
and put into their brand name after the city that was considered at
the time to be the home of top quality food.
Cream cheese is good for bagels of course but you can also use
Philadelphia cream cheese when you are making a cream sauce
for your pasta dishes, cheesecakes & other desserts along with
adding it to veggies such as potatoes appetizers and more...

Philip J. Baur, a baker from Pittsburgh and Herbert T. Morris,
a Boston egg salesman got together and created a business and
produced baked goods in 1914. The baked goods were so good
that after tasting a few samples, Herbert's wife
said they were so "tasty" so they named the business
Tasty Baking Company (www.tastykake.com)
and came up with the catchy name Tastykake and the
rest is history!

To Drink Or Not

This one is a dilemma ....

To drink or not to drink MILK.

Now, we know milk is good for you

the calcium makes our bones strong etc...?

So many people become lactose intolerant as adults

because their body is not able to metabolize lactose

because of the lack of the required enzyme lactase for our

digestive systems. It is estimated that about 75% of adults

all over the world have decreased activity of the enzyme,
making it harder to digest milk and other dairy products.

The actual dilemma is that...

people usually don't think about it but,

cows are mammals and they only produce milk

when they are pregnant-

so all the milk we drink and have with our cereal

comes from a cow that is pregnant pretty much

her whole life literally. Cows produce milk

after calving and their milk is produced longer than

people produce milk after giving birth but,

regardless many cows are impregnated pretty much

every other year in order to give us milk.

Commercial farms often give a hormone to the cows

to produce the milk for a longer period of time than usual.
See the dilemma.......? hmmm

Barley Risotto With Shrimp

Ingredients:
1/2 cup barley
3 cups chicken stock (substitute any stock)
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 cup minced onions
1/4 of small shrimp
1/2 TBS grated lemon zest
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
salt, pepper and grated Parmesan cheese to taste
you can top some cut scallions for a garnish

Procedure:
It's best to let the barley soak in cold water over night.
Bring the stock to a boil in a pan.
Heat oil in a pan and let the onions sweat (about 5 min. or so)
Stir in the barley when onions are cooked-
pour 1/2 of the stock in the pan to let the barley cook,
and then pour the rest of the stock until the stock pretty much
evaporates and the barley is soft.
Stir in the shrimp when the stock is almost evaporated
and when the shrimp is pink (cooked)
add your lemon zest, salt, pepper and Parmesan Cheese.

Oat.

Whether you want instant or whole oats for your oatmeal-
oats are good for you.

Oat bran... bran being the outer casing of the oats is known to
lower bad cholesterol.

Oats are known to take longer digesting- resulting
in keeping  our stomachs fuller for a little longer
than other grains such as rye or barley.

Oat straw is known to be used by cattle farmers as
bedding because it is usually softer and more dust free.

Oat extract is also known to soothe certain skin
conditions and used in many Aveeno products.


The oat grains are de-husked, heated and cooled to stabilize the
"Oat groats"- the seed inside the husk to make the oats we are
more familiar with like Quaker Oats or any type of oats ready
for your oatmeal. You can purchase instant oats which are
processed and broken down more but are very easy to microwave
or you can purchase whole oats that aren't broken down as much.
Either way... have fun with them- add some fruit,
jelly and nuts to your oatmeal.

 To make whole oats on the stove you can... take
1 TBS butter
1 cup of whole oats
3 cups of boiling water
1/2 cup whole milk
1 TBS brown sugar (substitute an apple by grating about 1/4 of the apple)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
stir all the ingredients on the stove until oats get soft and cooked

You can also make oatmeal cookies with craisins.

2 1/2 cups of uncooked oats
1 cup flour (if you can, sift it)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup softened butter (not heated or melted) room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar (substitute Splenda)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup of craisins (dried cranberries)
or you can do 1/2 and 1/2 of craisins and raisins
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown at the top

Jimmy Johns

The Jimmy John's franchise has made it's way to King of Prussia and Conshohocken.

JJ serves delicious gourmet sandwiches that for the price, quantity of food, and quality, should be putting Subway out of business any day now. My current recommendation is the #9, Italian Night Club with a bag of their BBQ chips.

As their slogan says, they are definitely freaky fast and freaky good!

What I like about the store is that it offers a young, hip atmosphere, yet, seems to fit in better in college towns. Regardless, it takes me to a more fun and more cool place, so I like it.

Bottom Line.. If you combine great food, in a fun atmosphere, and at a nice price, I'm a repeat customer for life.

http://www.jimmyjohns.com

*While Lee's Hoagies has been around the Philadelphia area for longer than JJ's, I've only recently discovered it. I haven't dared to venture too far down JJ's sandwich menu because the #9 is so tasty and so after a request I'm wondering if I should conduct a taste test.

Capogiro Gelato Artisans in Philly

Capogiro's is located on...
---119 South 13th Street,
---117 South 29th Street,
---3925 Walnut Street and
---1625 East Passyunk Avenue
all in Philadelphia, PA

Capogiro Gelato Artisans (www.capogirogelato.com)
is owned by Stephanie and John Reitano.
They were inspired on a trip to Italy and realized
there wasn't much gelato being served on the USA.

Capogiro makes 27 different flavors of gelato each and
every morning. Gelato being Italian ice cream.
Their ingredients come from local Pennsylvania farmers
who hand pick their produce and the cows are grass fed and
hormone free. You can ask for a sample of any flavor before
deciding which one you want that day. Some of the flavors are:
Champagne Mango, Dulce De Leche,
Macadamia Nut, Pistacchio Siciliano, Tiramisu,  
Caribbean Sunrise Papaya, Lime with Cilantro, Wild Flower Honey- 
just to name a few. It's a little pricey but worth the treat here and now.