Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Tis the time of the year where my parents garden begins delivering they're wonderful treats to us who are waiting.  First for us, comes the rhubarb.  I love rhubarb.  My parents always grew rhubarb when I was a kid and we would eat it like celery (after trimming the leaves obviously, since we're all still alive.)   So, when I went over to their house with the little birthday girl, I took as much as I could get.  Originally I was going to make  a pie, but I don't have a rolling pin at the moment.  So I thought maybe a crumble.  I don't have any rolled oats!  So I settled on a Cobbler!

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

• 1 cup  + 1 tsp Flour


• 2 tbsp sugar


• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1/4 cup butter


• 1/2 cup milk


• 2 1/2 cup fresh rhubarb (trimmed, and cut in to 1 inch strips)


• 2/3 cup sugar


• 1 1/2 tbsp quick cooking tapioca


• 2 tsp lemon juice


• 2 tbsp water


• 1 tsp rum extract


• 2 1/2 cup strawberries (trimmed and cut in pieces)

Preheat the oven to 425

First mix up your cobbler dough.  Put the flour, 2 tbsp sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl.  mix it up, then cut in the butter until it takes on a coarse crumbly texture.  Stir in the milk afterwords.

In a saucepan, combine the rhubarb, 2/3 cup sugar, tapioca, lemon juice, water and rum extract and on low heat bring it to a boil.  Stir it often, sugar is nasty if it burns.  Once its come to a boil let it simmer for 2 minutes covered.  This will let the rhubarb soften up nicely.  Once that's done take it off the heat and put in the strawberries.  Mix it until its coated and put it in a buttered pan or glass baking dish.   This recipe yields about an 8X10 baking pan so if you have company coming you might think about doubling up the recipe.

Put the cobbler dough on top and spread it as best as possible.  It won't be perfect, and it won't cover the entire wet mixture but it will be pretty close. Bake it for 25 to 30 minutes and you got cobbler!

Happy Birthday!

So my darling baby girl has officially turned one year old today!  I mentioned awhile ago that my plan was to bake her cake myself, this turned in to the idea of cupcakes.  I went with the cupcakes, and I must say they were a hit!  They were absolutely delicious and very fresh and spring-like.  Though her family gathering was a bit ago, thanks to the long weekend, I wanted to save her special cupcakes for today.  I chose to make chocolate bumblebees instead of butterflies, because I call her lil Lizziebee most of the time.  I don't know where that started, but its caught on with me to make it a most likely permanent nickname.  I digress now though, onward to the cupcakes!  I made Lemon-Poppy Seed cupcakes, the recipe for which I got out of my precious "Hello, Cupcake!".  This book has not steered me wrong yet!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 2 tbsp poppy seeds


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 4 oz cream cheese (softened)


• 1 cup butter (softened)


• 1 1/2 cup sugar


• 3 eggs


• 1/2 cup milk


• 1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Preheat your oven to 350, and paper line your muffin tin.

Start by whisking together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and then reduce the speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture, and the milk, in batches.  Beat until just blended, then stir in the lemon peel.

Bake this 15 - 20 minutes, or as the rule of cake baking goes, until a toothpick inserted in to the middle comes out clean.

When these are nice and cooled down, you can start with the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream!

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 3 egg whites


• 3/4 cup sugar


• pinch of salt


• 1 cup butter, cut in to 16 smaller cubes


• 1/3 cup strawberry jam of your preference

This is a little tricky.  I used a pot too big the first time and dropped by bowl in scalding my arm.  But, in a Stainless steel or glass bowl (do not use plastic!) whisk the egg whites with the sugar over a pot (or saucepan) of simmering water until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mix is warm to the touch.

Put the bowl back on to your electric mixer.   I used a vintage stand mixer my mother in law loned me.  I call it vintage because it is from the 70's, and it shows.  With the whisk attachment, whisk the mixture until you get firm, stiff peaks and its cooled down, probably around 6 minutes.   With the whisking going at a med-low, add the salt and the butter one cube at a time beating well between.  If the mixture ends up too runny, just keep beating it until its right.  Then, gently fold in the strawberry jam.

Molded Chocolate Bumblebees

• Dark chocolate molding wafers


• Yellow molding wafers

This is what you do for virtually any hand made chocolate decoration.  Draw your design on a piece of paper.  I used a permanent marker so it would be very dominant.  Put the design sheet in a cookie sheet and cover with wax paper.

Melt your chocolate in top opened zip lock bags, 30 seconds at a time.  After each 30 seconds, massage the chocolate to help it melt.  Its important to take it slow when melting chocolate because it burns quickly, and burnt chocolate is not very tasty.

Once your chocolate  is melted cut a tiny piece of the tip off a corner of the zip lock and then seal the top making sure you get as much air out as possible.

Then, just trace your design carefully.  Work as quick as possible, you don't want the chocolate to solidify in the baggie.  When you're done all your piping put it in the fridge for atleast 10 minutes.  The chance of the pieces breaking depends solely on how well you chilled it, and how carefully you peel it off the wax paper. So take it slow.

Finished product?

Chicken Quesidillas

• 3 - 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced


• 1 large green pepper diced


• 1 large  red pepper diced


• 1 large onion diced


• 1 1/2 tbsp Spicy Fajita Seasoning


• Grated cheddar cheese


• Tortillas


• 1 tbsp veggie oil

Pre-cook your chicken breast and let it cool down so you can chop it up.  Preheat the oven to 350, and while its doing that put everything else in a pan (minus cheese and tortilla) with veggie oil and cook it for 10 minutes, mixing very often to spread around the seasoning and soften the veggies a bit.  When thats done, spoon mix on half of the tortilla, top with the grated cheese, fold over the other half of the tortilla and bake them for 10 minutes at 350 to melt the cheese.

One thing that I'm not sure people realize with my recipes is that I have a family of 4, and only 3 eat people food right now so I modify my recipes to suit us with as minimal leftovers are possible.  This made us approximately four large quesidallas,  but if you need more just double up the recipe.

Spicy Fajita Seasoning

I'm making chicken quesidillas tonight, the recipe will be coming, but I was wondering how in the world I was going to season them properly.  I tend not to buy those Old El Paso seasoning packets, but I wanted something spicy and tasty to make them extra delicious.  I came across a fajita seasoning mix recipe but I tweaked it mildly.  Now this seasoning mix packs quite a punch, so go easy on it!

Spicy Fajita Seasoning

• 3 tbsp Corn Starch


• 2 tbsp Hot chilli powder


• 1 tbsp Salt


• 1 tbsp Paprika


• 1 tbsp Sugar


• 2 1/2 tsp Chicken boullion (powder form, or cube crushed)


• 1/2 tsp Garlic powder


• 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper


• 1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes


• 1/2 tsp Cumin

Enjoy!

Ginger Garlic pork chop marinade

I noticed that my husband forgot to put the pork chops in the freezer yesterday so I thought to  myself, I have to cook these now because another day or two in the fridge they'll be going straight in the green bin!  So I decided to slow cook them.  My husband absolutely loves my slow cooked pork chops because the meat just flakes away like that of a perfectly cooked piece of salmon, and he can easily take every piece of meat right off the bone without even having to use his hands.    So i quickly whipped together a pork chop marinade to slow cook them in consisting of one of his favorite flavours, garlic, and one of mine; ginger.

Ginger Garlic Marinade

• 1/4 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 soy sauce


• 1 tsp minced ginger


• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed


• 1/4 cup ketchup


• salt/pepper to taste

Mix it all up and pour it over 6 - 8 pork chops in your slow cooker, and cook on low for 6 hrs.

Fruit Salsa!

So the birthday party has come and gone, and the food disappeared just as fast as the time it took my daughter to turn one! Shes not one yet really, that won't be until the 26th but the sentiment is still there.  Time has flown, and I don't think that I will ever know where exactly it went.  On to the recipes!  As I mentioned before I really wanted to go for fresh fruit, springtime feel.  So on the side of platters of blackberries, blueberries, cantelope slices and pineapple, I tried to give the "junk food" a healthy touch.  The kids actually loved it! we must have gone through three pounds of strawberries.  This is the fruit salsa I made, with cinnamon sugar tortilla chips to pick up the dip with.

• 1 pound of strawberries


• 8 oz raspberries


• 2 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and diced


• 2 kiwi's peeled and diced


• 2 tbsp white sugar


• 1 tbsp brown sugar


• 3 tbsp Jam of your choosing. (I had strawberry on hand)

mix everything so its coated and keep refridgerated.  What is great about this recipe is after the party, and a day in the fridge it becomes perfect as a fruit filled ice cream topping!   And then for the chips, you just take 10 or so tortillas, coat one side only with butter.  I melted margarine in a bowl and brushed it on the tortilla.  Then sprinkle the buttered side with cinnamon sugar, bake butter side up at 350 for 8 minutes.

It makes for a delicious dessert afterwords.

Pulled Chicken Sammies

Get out the slow cooker!

I decided to go lazy tonight with something that was absolutely delicious, and absolutely easy for dinner.  My 3 year old is gobbling it up while watching Coraline, and my husband... Well he's not home yet so he hasn't gotten to try it.   We love pulled pork in this house; we rarely ever make it but we love it!   We had seasoned pork chops for dinner last night though and I really don't want to eat a pig two days in a row so I decided to try a homemade sauce and chicken in the slow cooker to make a variation of the pork.

Pulled chicken Sammies

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts


• 1 cup ketchup


• 2 tbsp mustard


• 1/4 tsp garlic powder


• 2 tbsp worchestershire sauce


• 1/2 cup maple syrup


• cayenne and hot chilli powder to preference


• couple splashes hot sauce

throw it all in the slow cooker and cook for 6 hrs on low.  I put them on 4 hrs on high, but that was because after preparing everything I forgot to turn the darn thing on.

After the cooking time is done they easily pull apart with forks.  At this point if you want them really saucy you can make another batch of the sauce, put it with the recently pulled chicken and cook another 30 minutes, if you prefer it less saucy, you're done.