Mixed Berry Pretzel Ice Box Dessert

We had a great fourth of July, especially since we got to enjoy it with a ton of Brent's extended family.  It was a day full of swimming, a great pot luck meal, and fireworks.

Caleb got to swim in the pool with all the big boys;

And show off his high five skills;

And operate some heavy machinery;

And hang out with family, enjoying the nice weather and our holiday off work.

And I made a dessert which was devoured within a few minutes of being served.  It's perfect for summer since it's cool, creamy, sweet, tart and crunchy all at once.

Mixed Berry Pretzel Ice Box Dessert

Source:  Noble Pig

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups finely crushed pretzels
3 Tablespoons sugar
12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
7 oz. plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (3 oz) packages strawberry gelatin
1 (16 oz) package frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed
2 cups fresh blueberries
Whipped cream

Directions:
 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit; mist a 9 x 13 baking pan with cooking spray. Place pretzels in a bowl of a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add sugar and melted butter and pulse to combine. Press pretzel mixture into baking dish and bake for 8 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.

Make filling using an electric mixer on medium speed, beating cream cheese with sugar until well blended. Fold in yogurt and vanilla. Spread over cooled pretzel crust, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2-3 hours.

In a large bowl, dissolve both packages of gelatin in 2 cups boiling water. Let cool until mixture begins to get syrupy, about 15 minutes. Stir in strawberries and blueberries and pour over cream cheese layer. Chill until firm, at least three hours or overnight.

Cut tart into squares and serve with whipped cream.

Rich Banana Bread

Banana bread is one of my favorite treats.  My grandma makes it in a metal coffee can, so her banana bread always has circular ridges all the way around it, and the slices are round.  I don't have any metal coffee cans so I had to make this recipe in a normal bread pan, boring, but probably a prettier picture.

Janet's Rich Banana Bread
Source:  Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 medium bananas, sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, stir together the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing well.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, then stir it into the butter mixture until smooth.  Fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas.  Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Paula Deen's Strawberry Cake - the cupcake version

Back when I was pregnant I saw Paula Deen make this cake on one of her shows. Soon thereafter, I ran out and got the ingredients and made it for myself, it was my very first double layer cake. I obviously need more practice with layer cakes because though it tasted wonderful, it looked awful. One of the layers stuck in the cake pan and I had to puzzle piece it back together on the cake stand. When a piece was cut from the cake, it's structural integrity was pretty much nonexistent. At the time this was fine with me, my pregnant self just took a bite off the cake with a fork every time I walked through the kitchen.

The next incarnation of this recipe came at my birthday party when it was made into cupcakes. Much better for this inexperienced baker-gal! I'm including Paula's cake recipe, but the conversion into cupcakes was simple, just watch the baking time. The cupcakes can also be prepared ahead of time and frozen.

Paula Deen's Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake
Source: Food Network

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 box white cake mix
1 3 oz box strawberry flavored instant gelatin
1 15 oz package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 10 oz package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
7 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cake:
Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans.
In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix and geletin, add strawberries, eggs, oil and water, beat on medium until smooth. Pour into prepared cake pans and bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Let cool for 10 minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Frosting:
In a mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese on medium until creamy. Beat in 1/4 cup of the strawberry puree and the vanilla extract. Gradually add confectioners' sugar and beat until smooth.

Frost cake and garnish with fresh strawberries.

Meringues Chantilly with Roasted Berries

For our Labor Day weekend cooking marathon, my mother in law decided we should make these meringues. We had both seen the Barefoot Contessa episode where she makes these (or does one of her super gay-tastic friends buy them, I don't remember?). I have to admit, my mother in law did most of the work for the meringues...that's not really my cup of tea. But I did help with the clean up, and I prepared the berries all by myself :)
This was a super fancy pretty little dessert. The berries were a knockout. I think next time we make them we will allow the berries to macerate with the sugar for a while, we both agreed the roasted berries would have been even more fabulous if they had been juicier.

Meringues Chantilly with Roasted Berries
Source: Ina Garten

Meringues:

4 extra - large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a small glass and a pencil, draw 4 (3 1/2-inch) circles on each piece of paper. Turn the paper face down on the baking sheets.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed until frothy. Add 2/3 cup of the sugar and continue beating on high speed until the egg whites form very stiff peaks. Whisk in the vanilla. Carefully fold the remaining 1/3 cup sugar into the meringue. With a large star - shaped pastry tip, pipe a disk of meringue inside each circle. Pipe another layer around the edge to form the sides of the shells.
Bake for 2 hours, or until the meringues are dry and crisp but not browned. Turn off the heat and allow the meringues to sit in the oven for 4 hours or overnight.
For serving, place each meringue on a separate plate and top the shell with berries.

Roasted Berries:

1 pint fresh strawberries
2 half-pints fresh raspberries
2 half-pints fresh blueberries
2 half-pints fresh blackberries
1/4 cup sugar
Vanilla bean, split and seeds removed

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Place the strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries on a sheet pan and toss with the sugar and vanilla bean seeds. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Carrot Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

We have been eating zucchini like crazy lately, a friend has a garden and she is so generous. Last Friday she brought in a mixed bag of produce from her garden to share and I grabbed a zucchini so I could make a zucchini cake. My grandma used to bake it all the time when I was a kid and I love how it's a green vegetable but it's also a yummy dessert! Anyway, to tattle on my dumb self, I grabbed a cucumber instead of a zucchini...so this cake morphed from a zucchini cake to a carrot cake. And now, as I'm reading through the recipe list again, I realize how many errors I made while baking it! So many that I'm amazed mine even turned out good, in fact. But it was. Brent and I have been eating bites out of the cake pan in the refrigerator for almost a week. Tonight what's remaining is going to have to go...I'm trying to loose this baby weight after all.

Carrot Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Source: Tasty Kitchen lindainmo

1 cup All-purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (can Use All White Flour If You Don't Have This)
1-¼ cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Sweetened Flaked Coconut
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
Freshly Grated Nutmeg, To Taste (1/4 To 1/2 Tsp?), Optional
1 Pinch Ginger (about 1/16 Tsp Or So), Optional
3 tablespoons Canola Oil
2 whole Large Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2 Cups Grated (unpeeled) Zucchini or carrots
1 (20 Oz.) Can Crushed Pineapple In Juice, Drained (reserve In Case You Need It For The Cake Batter Or The Frosting)

FROSTING

2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
8 Ounces Low-fat Cream Cheese, Softened (can Use Full-fat Cream Cheese)
2 Cups Powdered Sugar, Approx.
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Splash Of Milk Or Pineapple Juice, If Necessary
Chopped Walnuts Or Pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cake:
Combine flour, sugar, coconut, baking soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Combine oil, eggs, and vanilla; stir well. Stir egg mixture, grated carrots, and pineapple into flour mixture. Batter will be stiff , keep folding until it comestogether. Add a little splash of the pineapple juice if it needs any more liquid.
Pour batter into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for about 33-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs and cake is pulling away from sides of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. (Mine only took about 31 minutes, so keep an eye on it)
Frosting:
Combine butter and cream cheese in the bowl of your mixer. Beat at medium speed until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla just until smooth. Add a splash of milk or pineapple juice if necessary. Spread frosting over top of cake. Garnish with chopped pecans or walnuts, if desired.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

I saw this recipe on For the Love of Cooking a few days ago and knew I had to try it this weekend. I've never made homemade muffins before, I've always taken the easy way out and used a mix. This really wasn't that much more work, and the flavor was SO much better!! I don't think I'll buy another muffin mix now that I know how easy making them from scratch really is.

EDIT: I am submitting this recipe to Joelen's Culinary Adventure's April Tasty Tools event!


Lemon Blueberry Muffins
From For the Love of Cooking via Food and Wine


Makes approx 16 muffins


1 3/4 AP flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup frozen blueberries, plus a few more to top the muffins (I let mine thaw in the refrigerator overnight, I don't know if that's necessary or not)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Zest of 2 small lemons
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 packets raw cane sugar, for topping the muffins

Preheat oven to 357º

Coat a muffin tin in baking spray, or use paper muffin cups, set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour though salt). Stir in the blueberries. In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients (milk through lemon juice). Being careful not to overmix, fold the wet ingredients into the dry.

Scoop the batter into the muffin trays, top with a few additional blueberries and sprinkle with the raw sugar.

Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack.

Summer = Watermelon = YUM

This summer has been weird for me. I've been really busy at work, and overtime in the summer sucks. Sorry, I imagine there is a more polite way to say it, but it's true. And believe me, Internet, if I wasn't working as much, I would probably be cooking more, and you'd have more posts to read. Ah well, no use complaining...can't let the Man get ya down! One of the things that made my summer just a little less weird was provided by my friend West 95. I call her that because I live on East 95 and she lives right across the street from me. West 95 called me one evening and said she had some homegrown watermelon to share from her husband's hometown of Atwood, OK. I've never been there, but I can tell you this, they are some supreme watermelon growers down there in Atwood. Watch as West 95's dog Zane models with the melon.

I'm not sure why Zane has such a sad look on his face, I'm afraid maybe he was feeling exploited since he knew that none of that yummy melon was going to land in his dish. That's alright though, more for me. It was a super yummy melon and a fun treat to make my summer feel more summery! Thanks West 95!!