Frozen Strawberry Dessert

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. I made her and my Dad lunch. My version of surf 'n turf....grilled t-bones and teriyaki swordfish with roasted vegetables and a pesto seafood with orzo. Everything was delicious with a capital D.

I had asked my Mom earlier in the week what she wanted for dessert and she replied "something light and fruity". So off to dig into recipes for spring and summer cause that's where all my light and fruity recipes are. Into my hands fell a recipe for a frozen strawberry dessert. I could use something sweet and summery right about now (even if there are piles and piles of snow still covering the ground).

This would be absolutely fantastic during the summer. It's cool and refreshing and has really intense strawberry flavor. It reminded me of those strawberry shortcake pops we would get off the ice cream truck.

Another great thing about this recipe......it needs to sit at least 8 hours in the freezer. I love "make it the night before" desserts.

Frozen Strawberry Dessert
Printable recipe
1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup cold butter
½ cup chopped pecans
2 cups frozen, unsweetened strawberries, thawed. (I bought whole frozen in a bag, brand name started with a W...Wyman, Wyland, something like that. They were great)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped until thickened

In a small bowl combine the flour and brown sugar; cut in the butter until crumbly. Stir in pecans. Press into ungreased 9 inch square baking pan. Bake at 250 for 14 – 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Crumble the baked pecan mixture and set-aside ½ cup for topping. Sprinkle the remaining mixture into an 8 inch square dish.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice until blended. Fold in whipped cream. Spread evenly into dish. Sprinkle with reserved pecan mixture. Cover and freeze for 8 hours or overnight. Let stand a half hour at room temp before cutting. In the summer it might not take that long to defrost, but in kitchen that day, it took a half hour.

Bacon & Cheese Omelette Cups

I love Saturday mornings. I get to sleep in a bit, if my internal alarm clock let’s me that is. Some weekend mornings it will, most mornings it doesn’t but that’s ok cause I am a morning person. After a minute of initial wake up I am ready to go. I know some of you just groaned at that last sentence. My husband is so not a morning person. He is a bear in the morning. A big, grumpy, coffee swilling, grunting, messy headed bear. Once given adequate amounts of caffeine and a little time, he turns back into my sweet husband again. We just ignore him until that time arrives.

That being said, I never understood how anyone could be grumpy first thing in the morning. When I was younger, if I showed the least bit of grumpiness my Pa would always say, “What’s there to be grumpy about? You just got up, nuthin’ bad even had a chance to happen yet”. When you think about it…he’s right. So I’m happy in the morning cause it’s another day that I’m up and healthy and breathing and ready to face whatever the day holds for me. Think of the alternative non-morning people, and maybe you’ll start to appreciate your mornings a bit more.

So Saturdays are the three C's day here. Cleaning, chores and cooking. We like to get everything done so that way we have Sunday to relax and be lazy. We like to start the Three C’s day off with a good breakfast. That also ensures that I don’t hear…..”I’m hungry” as an excuse to stall on chores. Fill ‘em up and get ‘em to work.

This recipe started off from a clipping stored in my recipe basket. I have no idea where I got it from. I changed it around quite a bit and made it my own. These would be great for a brunch or shower. Little mini omelettes for everyone!

Bacon & Cheese Omelette Cups
Printable recipe
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup finely chopped onions
6 large eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash, or your favorite seasoning
1 tablespoon parsley
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled (that was 1 pound before cooking for me)
2 ½ English muffins, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease 2 muffin pans. In a small skillet melt the butter over medium heat and cook the onion until tender. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, chives, pepper & seasoning. Stir in the cheese, crumbled bacon and crumbled English muffins. Add in the cooked onions.

I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to fill the muffin pan. This filled each cup perfectly. Bake for 20 - 22 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. I ran a flexible metal spatula around the edges for easy removal.

Seeking sweetness in everyday life.

That's what is says on the back of this package....

If there is anyone that knows about sweetness it's Jessie at Cakespy.com. I am the happy owner of several of her cuppie magnet sets, this one being one of the newest. Who could resist this naughty cupcake series? Not me I tell ya. I'm addicted to this little guy.


If you'd like your very own set, visit her Etsy Shop and check out all the sweet stuff she has to offer.

One Bowl Brownies & a few gadgets

Last week when I was in Jo-Ann's Fabrics, I wandered over to the baking section of the store to browse. Well maybe I wasn't browsing per say, I did have a 50% off coupon and I was hoping to use it. While I was checking out all the goodies from Wilton, two caught my eye. The brownie Perfect Cut tool and a Combo Cutter. The Perfect Cut packaging claimed that if you poked your warm brownies with this stainless steel tools tines (wow say that 5 times fast)......

....you would be able to cut brownies easily with no messy edges. So when the brownies came out of the oven, while they were still warm, I poked half the pan with this gadget. The holes it made were bigger than I expected. I was worried that I wouldn't get a nice straight edge, but more of a scalloped one once the knife met the holes. So the holes were poked, and off went the brownies to cool down in the breezeway. A few hours later, knife met holes and I have to say, there was wee tiny bit of a scalloped edge left, but it really did help in making a cleaner edge. Not perfect, but better than some of my results with a knife alone. I'd give it a B+.

This is the combo cutter:

Three oval shaped brownies with one cut. They had a few other shapes...hearts and triangles, but these oval ones caught my eye. The package read that this tool maximizes the number of treats you get from one pan. Well let me tell you friends...it's true! I love this thing. I had very little waste, and the ovals looks so damn cute. Wouldn't you love to take a tray of these oval beauties to a party or bake sale? I can see lots of other possibilities besides brownies. I think I will get some use out of this uni-tasker. My rating for this tool: A+! I really liked it!

In order to use these gadgets and perform these scientific tests I needed to make some brownies. I wanted a simple one bowl brownie that I could get into the oven quickly. Off to do a food blog search. What did I find? I site called The Cook Mobile and with the quick and easy recipe for the one bowl brownies I wanted. I decided to make the cake-like version of these for a change. I've been on a fudgy, chewy kick with the last few batches.

One Bowl Brownies - recipe from The Cook Mobile
Printable recipe
4 squares or 4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped

Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper or foil with an extra inch hanging on sides.

In a large microwaveable bowl, microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter on high until butter is melted, around 2 minutes. Stir until chocolate is fully melted.

Stir in sugar then add in the eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour, stirring until well-blended. Mix in nuts.

Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake at 350 F until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs, around 30 to 35 minutes.

Cool in pan. Using foil or paper, lift out of pan onto cutting board. Cut into 24 squares.

For cake like brownies: Stir in 1/2 cup of milk with the eggs and vanilla and increase flour to 1 1/2 cups.

Today I feel.....

Bread for a week (or more)

The bitter cold weather we have been experiencing here in Rhode Island makes it a perfect time to crank up the oven and bake some bread. My house can use all the heat it can get when the wind chill is below zero outside. Having some delicious bread in your tummy doesn’t hurt either. It was snowing again this morning. This is the 3rd weekend in a row we've had snow. As least Mother Nature is kind enough to hold off during the week.

I found this recipe in an issue of Taste of Home. The recipe was named Ezekiel’s Bread (after the bible verse). I kind have took it upon myself to re-name it, not because I don’t like the name Ezekiel, in fact when I see the name Ezekiel a few other names always pop into my head, Obadiah, Jedidiah, nice old biblical name. Anyway, the reason I re-named it is because you get four loaves out of this recipe…FOUR! That’s a lot of bread. Probably over a weeks worth for most families. Four loaves too much for you?? Oh come on, you can always throw a few loaves in the freezer or just cut the recipe in half too. Another reason I love this recipe is cause I get to break out my gigantic turn of the century bowl, which I scored for ten bucks at a yard thank you very much. Very proud of that find I tell ya. Just take a look at how much the dough had rised in that baby:

This recipe might not be for the first time bread baker, but if you have a few loaves under your belt, it’s a pretty easy one. I have to warn those of you with a Kitchen Aid mixer, this dough comes right up to the tippy top of the bowl. At one point I was afraid of over flow, but it worked.

This is the perfect bread to go along with a nice stew or soup. Hearty with a little crunch due to the wheat germ, it can stand up to a good dipping, but it would also be perfect for a sandwich.

Bread for a Week – recipe from Taste of Home
Printable recipe

3 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast.
5 cups warm water (110 – 115), divided
1 tablespoon plus 2/3 cup honey, divided
2/3 cup canola oil
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 cup toasted wheat germ
6 to 8 cups bread flour

In a large mixing bowl dissolve the yeast in ¾ cup warm water and 1 tablespoon of honey. Add the remaining water and honey, the oil, sugar, salt, whole-wheat flour, wheat germs and 3 cups of bread flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining bread flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky). I added about 2 1/2 cups at this point. The bread was just starting to pull away from the mixer and the dough was very sticky.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 – 8 minutes. I gradually added in another cup of flour as I was kneading this until it got to the point that is was elastic cause the dough was just so sticky. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning once to coat the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Shape into four loaves. Place in 4 – 9x5x3 inch loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.


Bake at 350 for 30 – 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

Granola Bars

I have to thank Ina again. This recipe came from her new cookbook Back to Basics. Granola bars and just plain ole granola in general, is one of my favorite breakfast foods. I usually make a few big triple batches of granola each each so I always have some on hand to stir into oatmeal and yogurt. I thought I'd whip up a batch of bars this time. I substituted the 1/2 cups of dried apricots and cranberries in this recipe for mixed dried fruit which contained two kind of raisins, strawberries, cherries and apricots. A little bit of everything. I did use the dates as suggested. I love dates. You can certainly use any kind of dried fruit you like. Next time I might even throw in some extra coconut and add some dried pineapple.

Portable and good for you too.

Granola Bars - recipe from Ina Garten
Printable recipe

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease an 8 x 12 inch baking pan. (Ok I have to comment on one thing here cause it drives me crazy.....why do all Ina's recipe call for 8x12 inch pan? All my pans are 9x13, some even clearly marked 9x13 on the bottom. Does she have some secret stash of pans that are an inch smaller then the rest of us?? I love ya Ina, but that drives me bonkers.) Ok now that we have that cleared up. Grease a 9x13 inch pan and line it with parchment paper.

Toss the oatmeal, almonds and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake 10 - 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Mine took 14 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl and stir in the wheat germ.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300.

Place the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for one minute, then pour over the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the dried fruit and stir well.

Pour the mixture into a the pan. Wet your fingers and lightly press into the pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares. Serve at room temperature. Stored in a covered container.