The Secret Recipe Blog

If you're new here or love our recipes, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!            Subscribe in a reader

Every time I eat at Macaroni Grill, I face the same problem… I’m always way to stuffed to order dessert! The solution? I prepare some of my favorite Macaroni Grill desserts at home. Enjoy this delicious chocolate peanut butter cake.
3/4 cup Unsalted butter
3/4 cup Creamy style peanut butter
2 cups Packed brown sugar
3 Eggs
2 cup Unsifted all purpose flour
1 tablespoon Baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Peanut Butter Filling:
1 cup Cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Creamy style peanut butter

Chocolate Glaze:
1/2 cupWater
4 tablespoons Unsalted butter
1/2 cup Cocoa
1 cup Unsifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9″ cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and peanut butter until it becomes
fluffy. Mix in brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after
each addition.
3. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour
mixture to butter mixture with milk and blend. Add vanilla.
4. Pour batter into pans. Bake until cake tests done, about 45 minutes.
Cool on wire rack to room temperature before frosting the cake.
5. Spread 3/4 cup peanut butter filling over tops of each cake. Let chill.
6. Spread half of warm Chocolate Glaze over peanut butter topping
on each cake, using metal spatula dipped in hot water. The glaze will
cool as it thickens.
Peanut Butter Filling: Cream ingredients together until fluffy.
Chocolate Glaze: Place water and butter in small saucepan. Bring to
boil.Add cocoa, sugar and vanilla to water mixture. Mix until
smooth.
Makes 2 Cakes

Mushrooms were on sale at my local grocery this week, so I figured why not try out this classic Olive Garden dish!  I was able to prepare this in a flash and for a fraction of the cost of eating out.
Ingredients:
4 Chicken half breasts - boneless, skinless
1/4 C. cake flour (Wondra)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Oregano
4 Tbsp. Oil
4 Tbsp. Butter
1/2 tsp. Pepper
1 C. Fresh Mushrooms, sliced
1/2 C. Marsala Wine

Preparation:
Combine flour, salt, pepper, and oregano in a shallow dish.  Heat the oil and butter in a skillet until it begins to bubble lightly. Dredge the chicken in the flour, coat evenly. Cook the chicken on medium heat for about 2 minutes on the first side, until lightly brown. As you flip the breasts to the second side, add the mushrooms around the chicken pieces. Cook about 2 more minutes, until lightly browned on the second side. Stir the mushrooms. Once the second side is lightly browned, add the wine around the pieces, cover the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Transfer to plates and serve.

I love Starbucks, but honestly, I gave it up for my New Year’s resolution. It is just too darn expensive! What’s my secret? I do my best to recreate that Starbucks magic at home for a fraction of the price. This gingerbread loaf is one of my favorites in the morning.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/4 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract, optional
1 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon baking soda

FROSTING
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt.
Then set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in orange extract.

Mix baking soda into applesauce and stir into creamed butter mixture.
Add flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes or until a
toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

FROSTING:
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and orange extract. Slowly beat in confectioner’s sugar.

Once the cake has cooled, evenly spread the frosting on top.  Decorate with chopped candied orange peel or candied ginger .

Back in the seventies, Eric Clapton - the original guitar god, founder of Cream and Derek & the Dominoes, creator of the immortal “Layla” - liked to eat at this quirky American diner in London called the Hard Rock Cafe. Founded by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton, two enterprising and music-loving Americans, Hard Rock Cafe was an instant classic.

Clapton got to be friends with the proprietors and asked them to save him a regular table, put up a brass plaque or something. And the young proprietors said, Why don’t we put up your guitar? They all had a chuckle, and he handed over a guitar, and they slapped it on the wall.

No one thought much more about it. Until a week later, when another guitar arrived (a Gibson Les Paul, by the way). With it was a note from Pete Townshend of The Who which read: “Mine’s as good as his. Love, Pete.”

The young proprietors put it on the wall. After that, the guitars never stopped coming. Today there are more than 70,000 guitars, drums, pianos, harmonicas, microphones, shirts, pants, scarves, shoes, handwritten lyrics, cars, bikes, a bus and assorted rock memorabilia.

This recipe is one of over 100 recipes that can be found in America’s Most Wanted Recipes Volume 1!

1 pound medium shrimp, shelled
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 cloves minced garlic
1/3 cup lime juice
4 (9-inch) flour tortillas
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large bell peppers, thinly sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sour cream
1. Stir together shrimp, cilantro, garlic, and lime juice. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, wrap tortillas in foil and place in a 350 degrees F oven until hot (about 15 minutes).
3. Heat oil in a wide nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat.Add peppers and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until limp (about 10 minutes). Remove vegetables and keep warm.
4.Add shrimp mixture to pan, increase heat to high, and cook, stirring often, until shrimp are opaque in center; cut to test (about 3 minutes). Return vegetables to pan, stirring to mix with shrimp.
5. Spoon shrimp mixture into tortillas, top with sour cream, and roll up.
Serves 4

Nothing makes you think of good home cooking like a nice serving of garlic mashed potatoes.  I made this recipe last week with a roast beef and it was a hit!  Next time I’ll be sure to double the recipe.
32 ounces red potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
salt and black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup garlic cloves

1. Place a single layer of garlic cloves on a sheet of aluminum foil and wrap tightly.
2. Roast in 400 degrees F preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until soft.
3. Unwrap and let cool.
4. Peel cloves and set aside until the potatoes are ready.
5. Wash and rinse potatoes under cold water.
6. In large pot, bring red potatoes to a slow boil for about 20 minutes.
7. Remove from heat and drain in colander.
8. In pan or bowl, combine potatoes, peeled and roasted garlic cloves, and all other ingredients and mash with a potato masher.
9. Keep warm until you serve.
8 servings

Everyone loves fried mozzarella or mozzarella sticks as many call them.  This recipe is both easy and inexpensive and goes great when watching the game on TV!

Ingredients:
16 oz Package of Mozzarella Cheese
2 Eggs Beaten
1/4 Cup Water
1 1/2 Cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Salt
1 teaspoon Italian Seasonings
2/3 Cup Flour
1/3 Cup Corn Starch

Preparation:
Cut the mozzarella into either triangles or sticks.  Beat the eggs with water and set aside.  Mix the bread crumbs, garlic salt, and Italian seasonings and set aside. Blend the flour with corn starch and set aside.  Heat your vegetable oil for deep frying to 360 degrees. Dip cheese in flour then in egg wash and then coat with bread crumbs. Place carefully in hot oil and fry until golden, this takes just a few seconds so watch carefully. When golden remove from hot oil and drain .
Serve with marinara sauce.

Those Red Lobster commercials get me every time.  Just can’t resist those visuals of endless shrimp, crab legs and lobster tails!  Now I have said it before, that I’m not a huge seafood fan, but I do love shrimp.  Cook this recipe for someone special, fix a nice cocktail, close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting on a sunny beach.  Ahhhhh…summer will be here sooner than you think.

Pina Colada Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup pina colada mix
1/4 cup crushed pineapple (canned)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Shrimp
6 to 8 cups canola or vegetable oil (for use in the fryer)
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons Captain Morgan’s Parrot Bay coconut rum
1 cup panko Japanese breadcrumbs (can be found in the asian section of your local grocery store)
1/2 cup shredded coconut

On the side
Salsa

Prepare pina colada dipping sauce by combining all ingredients. Cover & chill

Heat oil to 350 degrees in a deep fryer or a large heavy skillet.
Measure 3/4 cup of flour into a medium bowl.
In another medium bowl mix together the remaining 3/4 cup flour, sugar, and salt.  Stir milk and rum into flour mixture. Let this batter stand for five minutes.
In the meantime, combine panko breadcrumbs and shredded coconut into a third bowl.
Butterfly cut each peeled shrimp before you start the battering leaving the tail intact.
Dip each shrimp once in the flour, then the wet batter, then coat each shrimp with the panko/coconut mixture.  Place the shrimp on a plate until all of them are battered.
Fry shrimp by dropping one at a time into the hot oil for 2 to 3 minutes or until the shrimp are golden brown.  Only fry a few shrimp at a time. Remove shrimp to paper towels to drain.
Serve shrimp with pina colada dipping sauce or shrimp cocktail sauce along with salsa.