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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 .

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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

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