Mouth Watering Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I love Farmers Markets. It's so fun to walk around and see what the locals have been growing, and what some have made with what they've grown. The samples some share are always fun too!

So I was pretty excited early this summer when I found out that the city we moved to has a weekly Farmers Market throughout the Summer and into the Fall.

But Saturdays around our house tend to be pretty busy, and many weeks went by before we were able to make it down there. When we did finally make it I'd wished it hadn't taken so long!

Even though we have our own garden there are things we didn't grow that we found at the Farmers Market, so we loaded up on as much of that fresh produce as we could! 

One of the things we bought that I was most excited about was rhubarb. I remembered that growing in my family's garden when I was young, and I remembered the yummy strawberry rhubarb pies that came from it.

So, I bought some strawberries to go with it and then set out to find a recipe for making the perfect Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

After searching Pinterest I settled on one (here) that looked and sounded like it would do the trick.

My kids were pretty fascinated with the rhubarb too. Some who tried a bite of it raw were skeptical that it was going to taste good in a pie, but they were excited enough to try that they hung around the kitchen... so I put them to work! 

One little one chopped the strawberrries, another mushed them. Another added the other ingredients. And my oldest daughter made her first ever pie crust! I mostly just supervised! 

Oh, and I can't forget my son, of course his job was to take selfies with the finished product! 

One of the nice things about this recipe is that it gave instructions on how to freeze the filling so you could make the pie at a later time. Which was great because I bought enough rhubarb for two pies. So, we made one fresh, and then we made another batch of filling that we put in the freezer.

I'll admit I was a little worried that my kids, and maybe even me, wouldn't love the pie as much as I remembered loving it years ago. But, I didn't need to worry. Everyone, including me, thought it was delicious! Thinking about it now is making my mouth water... I may have to pull out that extra filling, enlist my daughter in making another pie crust, and soon enjoy another slice of heaven! 

 

Here's the recipe we used to make our

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

 

• 4 cups sliced rhubarb
• 2 cups mashed strawberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 heaping Tablespoons flour
• 2 Tablespoons butter cut into small chunks
• A pinch of salt
• 1 double pie crust

 

• Combine all ingredients (except pie crust) and mix well 
• Pour into prepared pie crust
• Top with second pie crust (we cut ours into strips and criss crossed them)
• Brush crust with egg white and 1 Tbsp milk or cream 
• Bake in Preheated 425 degree oven for 10 minutes then reduce heat  to 350 and bake for an additional 40 minutes or until golden brown and filling is bubbly.
• Allow to cool  and thicken before cutting
 

**If you want to pre-make your filling and freeze it, just combine all the filling ingredients and pour them into a zip lock bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible, and then use a straw to suck out the remaining air. Lay flat in the freezer. When ready to use, remove from freezer and thaw before adding to pie crust and cooking as directed above.   

 

Creme Brûlée... Heaven in my Mouth!

When we lived in Las Vegas my husband and I would occasionally go to one of the many buffets to eat for date night. There were lots to choose from, but there was one that had the most gorgeous desserts. I don't usually get dessert when we go out but the ones at this place were too good to pass up.

They had  all kinds of homemade pies, and pastries, and tarts, and cookies, and even gelato... mmm, the gelato, SO good! I think I can taste it now! 

Among all these wonderful culinary creations I discovered a love for a dessert which I hadn't had much previous experience with - Creme Brûlée. Something about the silky texture, delicious vanilla-y taste, and a warm caramelized sugar on top really hit the spot for me. I'm not sure that their's was any better than anywhere else, but it sure was good, and I found myself looking forward to date nights at that restaurant just because of it. 

Well, now that we've moved away from Buffet City, um, I mean Las Vegas, it's back to skipping the desserts when we go out (which is probably a good thing). And I thought my Creme Brûlée days were a thing of the past. 

I never even considered that I could make them myself. I didn't have a recipe, or a torch to caramelize the top, and I figured that the whole process of actually making such a thing must be pretty difficult. 

But, things change! A while back, while  perusing through Pinterest I came across a pin for a Creme Brûlée recipe that claimed to be easy, so of course I pinned it. Then, the stars really aligned when I found an inexpensive torch for sale at a garage sale. 

It seemed like fate was telling me it was time to try making my own Creme Brûlée! And when fate tells me something, I know I'd better get to it (that's good justification for dessert, right?!?).

So, I did just that, and besides a few malfunctions with the garage sale torch, this recipe was pretty easy, and so delicious! It does take some time since you have to cook and cool, etc. but the process isn't difficult, and the results are definitely worth the wait!! 

Here's the recipe I followed to make my very first (and I'm sure not my last) Creme Brûlée: 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 quart heavy cream
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• ½ cup sugar
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 quarts hot water
• ½ cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• In a medium saucepan, combine heavy cream and vanilla. Stir constantly over medium heat for about 7-8 minutes until mixture starts to bubble, close to a simmer.
• Remove saucepan from heat. Cover and let set for 15 minutes.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together ½ cup sugar and the egg yolks until it is well blended and just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually until everything is combined.
• Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8-ounce) ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
• Bake at 325 degrees F, just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center. Bake approximately 40 to 45 minutes.
• Remove the ramekins from pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
• Remove the creme brûlée from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top.
• Divide the remaining ½ cup sugar equally among the 6 dishes and spread evenly on top. Using a torch, melt the sugar and form a crispy and browned top. The Creme Brûlée needs to sit at least 5 minutes before serving.

Brownie Bowl Pin-tastrophe!!

So, as anyone who uses ideas and recipes from Pinterest very often will know, not everything from there always turns out just like the picture.

I'll admit that this has happened to me on occasion. Sometimes it's because I do something wrong, but sometimes it's just a lousy idea that simply doesn't work.

Last week we had one of those pin-trosities happen!

My twelve year old son and I were preparing to make our family a Monday night treat. As usual we went to Pinterest and looked through my "fabulous food - sweet treats" board for pinspiration.

We found an idea on there (pinned a couple of times actually...anyone else accidentally pin things multiple times?). It was for these brownie bowls that you could put ice cream in.

They looked good, and easy enough, so we got to work on them.
 

All you had to do, according to the instructions, was to make any brownie batter, pour it into a greased muffin tin, then set another muffin tin (greased on the bottom side) on top and bake it like that. Then, when they come out of the oven you should have beautiful, perfectly shaped bowls of brownie goodness ready to fill with your favorite ice cream.
 

Sounds easy enough, right?

Well, not so much.
 

We followed those very directions...mixed up our brownie mix, thouroughly sprayed our muffin tins (I even have a picture for proof!), filled them, put the other tin on top, and popped them in the oven.
 

... But what came out of the oven was NOT perfectly shaped bowls of brownie goodness ...

What we had was a big ugly brownie mess!! A big pin-daster!!
 

So, of course I did some more Pinterest searching to see if I could discover what we did wrong. But, what I found was interesting. I couldn't find any other successful attempts at making these bowls this way.

The pin I used, with pictures of beautiful perfect brownie bowls was from an ice cream company, and that particular advertisement was pinned hundreds (or more) times.

The only other successful actual attempts I found were from people who used specialty pans especially made for making these bowls.

That made us feel a a little better I guess.

And, it wasn't a total loss... We still ate the brownie we could scrape out of the pan, and it still tasted good!
 

But, I don't give up easily. And I'm still not satisfied that there's not a way to use the pans I have to make brownie bowls. I have a few ideas floating around in my mind that we could try... So stay tuned, maybe someday I'll be able to pin a more fool proof method for creating perfectly shaped brownie bowls with two muffin tins!

I don't think I'll have trouble finding kids to eat whatever brownie mess I make in the mean time!

"Volcano" Chocolate Cobbler

A couple of days ago I wanted to make my family a treat. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare something so it needed to be pretty easy. And running to the store for ingredients wasn't an option so it had to be something that I already had all the ingredients to make. 

I went to Pinterest and scrolled through my "fabulous food - sweet treats" board and looked through recipes until I found something that I could throw it together pretty quickly, with ingredients I already had. Oh, and of course it had to look yummy! 

Finally I came across a pin for something called "My Granny's Chocolate Cobbler" (here). A quick look over the ingredients and I decided that this would be the easy treat I'd make for my family.  

It was easy to put together, and my kids had a lot of fun watching me make this. They kept wondering what I was doing. At first they thought it was going to be brownies, but putting the powder layer on top of the batter, and then pouring water on top of it all really threw them off.

When it was done it was like a chocolate cake with a surprise gooey center. My kids nick named it a volcano cake! 

We served it warm with a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Delicious! 

I had a big gang to feed so I doubled the recipe and baked it in a large casserole pan (9x13). I'm glad I did, once we served our Volcano Cake up it didn't take long for the whole thing to disappear! 

Here's how I made our Volcano Chocolate Cobbler (already doubled): 

Ingredients
 

2 cups All-purpose Flour

4 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoons Salt

14 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided

21/2 cup Sugar, Divided

1 cup Milk

2/3 cups Melted Butter

3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

1 cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed

3 cups Hot Tap Water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 6 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 1 1/2 cups of the white sugar. Save the rest of the cocoa and sugar for later.

Stir the milk, melted butter, and vanilla into the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9x13 -inch baking dish. 

In a separate small bowl, mix the rest of the white sugar (one cup), the brown sugar, and rest of the cocoa  8 tablespoons). Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR!

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Let stand for a few minutes.

Serve with ice cream, use the gooey sauce to spoon over it.

Enjoy!
 

Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream Tacos

For Cinco De Mayo this year I made a whole pin-spired Mexican dinner for my family. We had Carne Asada Fries, Mini Seven Layer Dip Cups, and Mexican Limeade... all from recipes I found on Pinterest. It was a delicious meal! To top it off my nine year old son and I made these delicious chocolate dipped ice cream tacos for dessert!

I followed the instructions pretty closely on this recipe. Mine didn't turn out as pretty as hers, but they sure tasted good, and they got a definite thumbs up from all my kids, and even my husband! 

Here's how we made our Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream Tacos: 

First I found the smallest flour tortillas I could find. We buttered each and sprinkled a mixture of sugar and cinnamon on them. Then we folded them over and placed them onto a cookie sheet. As suggested, we crumpled up some tin foil and tucked it inside to keep the shells open while we baked them.

We popped them in the oven (at 350 degrees) for about twenty minutes, turning them over and making sure they were keeping their shape half way through.

After they cooled completely we filled them to the rim with vanilla ice cream, being careful not to break any of our shells. Then it was time to put them in the freezer to harden up. I set mine in 8x8 square cake pans to help them stay upright. 

While they were in the freezer we melted chocolate chips in a bowl by putting them in the microwave for about a minute, then stirring well. We also dumped some Christmas sprinkles, that were just the right colors for Cinco De Mayo, into a bowl.

We took the tacos out of the freezer and dipped them into the chocolate, and then immediately into the sprinkles. Here I wish I had followed the original pinner's advice for dipping the chocolate though, and used a mini loaf pan instead of a bowl... that would have made getting the whole top of the taco dipped evenly a lot easier. We ended up using a spoon to get the coverage we wanted.

Once sufficiently covered in chocolate and sprinkles (both the tacos and us - this turned out to be a bit messy!), we put them back in the cake pan to return to the freezer till we were ready to eat them.

Like I said, these were delicious, and super easy. And so fun having one of my kids work with me making these treats!

I don't think my family will let me wait till next year's Cinco De Mayo to make these again!!