Crumble Crazy!

Hi!
**Warning: The first part of this post has absolutely nothing to do with food. Instead, it is me demonstrating my excitement about this upcoming weekend. Also, I apologize ahead of time for this post being so unusually long.**

Hope everyone is doing well and staying out of the heat. We aren't really having true hot weather (I think summer forgot about Portland), but it has been a little muggy and because we don't have air conditioning in our house, even just a little heat outside makes us pretty toasty inside. We are, however, hoping for some actual summer weather this weekend, as Andrew and I are going camping with some friends at one of our favorite spots near Mt. Hood, called Timothy Lake. We have taken my sisters and my dad there in the past and it is really, really beautiful and peaceful. However, the water is really cold (as it's snow melt from the mountain) and it needs to be quite warm outside for it to be bearable to swim. Andrew and I have our "boat" that we are taking with us (its a blow-up boat, but a boat nonetheless) and we can't wait to relax out on the water and eat some good camp food! This is a picture of the lake from one of our past camping trips:

And of Andrew in our boat:

We are actually going to be in a campground called Little Crater Lake, which is a short hike to Timothy Lake. Little Crater Lake is nice to look at for, oh, about 5 minutes, but it is pretty cool how blue the water is. Nothing like the real Crater Lake though, which is ah-mazing. Almost as crazy as the Grand Canyon. Here's Little Crater lake:

And here are some pics of the real one (which is in southern Oregon), from when my dad came up for a camping trip:

Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, we are super excited to get away for the first time in a while!

Okay, back to food. Within the past couple of months, I have gone a little crumble crazy. Not that long ago I posted this recipe about a Strawberry Pineapple Crumble and since that time, I have been busy trying a couple of different fruit combinations and toppings to see which I like best. I heart fruity summer desserts and I honestly can't decide which I liked best.

This first recipe is for a Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble from Smitten Kitchen. Before this, I had only eaten rhubarb one other time in my life and on that occasion, it was served to me. Rhubarb really looks like giant red celery and it seems so weird to me that it is a "dessert" food. But, my oh my is it tasty. The topping on this one was super sweet, almost like the crumble topping on coffee cake. I don't know if there was supposed to so much juice after it baked (see the picture below), but it still tasted good. Here's the recipe and some pics of the finished product:

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble
Yields 6 to 8 servings.

For the topping:
1 1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons Demerara sugar (or turbinado sugar aka Sugar in the Raw)
Zest of one lemon
1/4 pound (1 stick or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 quart strawberries plus a few extras, hulled, quartered
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons cornstarch (some commenters found the flour option a little too, well, floury so this has been updated)
Pinch of salt

Directions
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Prepare topping: In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugars and lemon zest and add the melted butter. Mix until small and large clumps form. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Prepare filling: Toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. (I used an oval dish this time, because they fit better in the bottom of a shopping bag.)
3. Remove topping from refrigerator and cover fruit thickly and evenly with topping. Place pie plate on a (foil-lined, if you really want to think ahead) baking sheet, and bake until crumble topping is golden brown in places and fruit is bubbling beneath, about 40 to 50 minutes.

The second crumble recipe is for a Peach Raspberry Crumble from Joy the Baker. This one really screams "summer" to me, probably because I associate peaches with all of the summers I spent with my family in Georgia. Anyway, the topping on this one was almost in between that of the Strawberry-Pineapple and the Strawberry Rhubarb. It wasn't too sweet and because of the oats, it seemed to have a little more substance to it. I made this twice within 2 weeks. Once for just Andrew and myself and another time for a 4th of July party. It went over really well. Here it is:

Peach and Raspberry Crumble
(makes 1 8×8-inch square baking dish)

Ingredients:
5-6 medium ripe peaches, sliced
1 cup fresh raspberries (if using frozen, just thaw and drain)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes

Directions:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place sliced peaches and raspberries in a square 8×8-inch baking dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, oats, spices, and salt. Add the butter and toss the mixture together with your hands. Break the butter up into the flour mixture until the butter is the size of small pebbles and oat flakes.

Toss a generous handful (about 1 cup) of crumble topping into the peach and raspberry mixture. Toss loosely with your hands. Spread fruit evenly in the pan and top with the remaining crumble mixture. Bake until fruit is juicy and bubbling, and the top of the crumble is slightly browned and crisp, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and serve with vanilla ice cream. Crumble is delicious served warm and can be stored, covered, in the fridge and reheated in the oven or microwave for serving.

Have you guys made any delicious desserts this summer? Or, have you taken any fun camping trips or other vacations? I would love to hear about them!

Frozen Citrus Pie

Hi Everyone!
This delicious recipe is from Andrew's mom Lynette, who just recently joined us as a "contributor" to the blog. She's currently still trying to figure out the innerworkings of creating a blog post, so for this first recipe, Andrew and I will be publishing it.

**FYI: Andrew and I are in the process of making some "how-to" directions for creating a blog post, including little tips we have found to be helpful along the way, which can hopefully make posting a little easier for those of you haven't quite figured out how to post yet. Andrew and I are by no stretch of the imagination "pros" at blogging, but we hope that by sharing these directions, we can get a few more of you blogging on here. Although we've gotten a little behind in posting, we would still love to keep this thing going and continue sharing our own recipes as well as reading about the kitchen creations of our family members! **

Lynette emailed this recipe to us last week and I think it sounds like the perfect summer dessert. Plus, it seems really easy to make and doesn't require any baking. Thanks so much for sharing! We can't wait to try it!

Frozen Citrus Pie

1 can (6 fl. oz.) frozen lemonade concentrate

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened

3 1/2 cups thawed whipped topping

Yellow food coloring, if desired (I don't use)

1 graham cracker pie crust

Place concentrate in large mixing bowl and beat about 30 seconds. Gradually spoon in ice cream and blend. Fold in whipped topping and add food coloring (if desired), whipping until smooth. Freeze, if necessary,until mixture will mound. Spoon into graham cracker pie crust. Freeze until firm---at least 4 hours. Serve frozen pie slices. Store any leftover pie in freezer.

Yum!

and

Strawberry Pineapple Crumble

Hi!
Long time, no blog. Summer is such an incredibly busy time of year for me in school and I have barely had time to do much else. I do have a couple of other posts that are long overdue, but they will have to wait for another day. Today, I wanted to spare a few moments from working on my dissertation (okay, okay, I really needed a break from working on it) to write about this delicious concoction of fruit, butter, sugar, and oats that I made over the weekend in anticipation of Andrew's return from his 10 year high school reunion (yikes, I know---we're getting old!).

Sidenote--is it normal to not really feel any different than you were 10 years ago? I for sure thought that by this time I'd feel "grown up" or something....but I really feel just the same. Hmm...

Okay, back to the deliciousness that is this strawberry pineapple crumble. Since this past weekend was Portland's first real taste of "summer"--it got into the 80's guys AND the sun made an appearance--I wanted to make a fruity summer dessert. Insert Joy the Baker's crumble recipe that combines two of my favorite fruits. My dad told me he thought that this sounded like an odd combination of fruit; however, I really think it was the perfect balance of sweet and tart. I have to say it didn't last long and I may have shed a tear after the last bite was devoured. Luckily, it's pretty easy and I have an almost full jar of oats just waiting to be baked in with either the same fruit combo or perhaps a different one? Strawberry rhubarb seems like a good idea.

Here's the recipe:

Strawberry Pineapple Crumble
Makes one 8-inch baking dish

Ingredients
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and cut in half
• 1 pound peeled and diced fresh pineapple
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• 1 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Cooking Directions
• Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• Toss diced fruit together in an 8-inch square baking dish.

• In a small dish, whisk together 3 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, 1/4 cup of flour and pinch of salt. Toss the mixture with the diced fruit. Set aside.

• In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the cold butter cubes. Use your fingers to break up the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture. Add the oats and toss together until the butter bits are about the size of the oat flakes. Pour the oat mixture over the prepared fruit.

• Place in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until juices from the fruit bubble up around the sides of the pan.

• Remove the crumble from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Crumble is delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream.

• Crumble can we wrapped and refrigerated for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or wrapped in foil in a low oven.

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Hi all!

Its been forever since I last posted, but I had some time today and thought I'd share some of what I baked up over my term break a couple weeks ago. I saw this particular recipe on Bakerella a while back and it had been on my "to bake" list for quite some time. I finally got around to baking them for a birthday party for one of my school friends. I will definitely use any excuse to eat something red velvet :) I followed these directions exactly and didn't have any problems with the recipe itself. The only thing I had difficulty with was that I tried to dye the cookies purple for a more spring theme. I thought that if I just added blue to the already red colored batter, they would come out purple. They didn't. They turned brown and looked like regular chocolate cookies (a little bit of purple showed through if the light hit them right). Oh well--they still tasted really, really good. Here's the recipe:

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies:

Cookies

Ingredients:
1 Box red velvet cake mix (any cake mix will work)
1/2 Cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 Eggs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix ingredients until combined.
Drop spoonfuls of cookie batter onto baking sheet about two inches apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Cool.

**Tip: For consistent size cookies, use a 1.5 inch small ice cream scooper when placing batter on the baking sheet. The finished cookie size will be about 3 inches wide.

Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 8 oz. Package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 1lb. Box of confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions
In a mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla.
Gradually add sugar and mix until smooth.

**To assemble, spoon a small amount of frosting on the flat side of one cookie. Take another cookie and press together until frosting is flush with the edge. Makes about 24 cookies or 12 cookie sandwiches.

Anyway, I highly recommend these cookies! Tasty and easy to make--what could be better? Sorry I don't have any process pictures, I was so busy cooking a bunch of stuff that day that I only was able to get the final product.

Hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day! I know my sisters and I are really missing our mom today, but are so very grateful for the other wonderful women in our lives!

Rainbow Jar Cake (or goo)

Because I didn't go home for Easter weekend, my friends who were also staying in Denton and I got together to dye Easter eggs and bake. I've heard of baking things in jars, and wanted to try it, but never actually considered it until my friend Paige showed up at my door with a huge box of jars and showed me this website. Apparently she and our other friend Ashley had decided that's what we were making.

The recipe on the website calls for white cake, but we used funfetti, because it's so much better. Other than that, though, we pretty much just followed directions.

This is how it was supposed to look.

Just batter. Perfect lines thanks to Paige.

Fresh out of the oven

The colors rose through the cake. So cool!

After we decorated them!

View down the jar.

We only hit one problem, but it was a big one. Only the top half of the cake baked in the 35 minutes it was in the oven. The rest was legit goo. We ended up all stopping and saving it for when we could re-bake it. 

I tried to re-bake it the next day, and put it in the oven for another 25 minutes, BUT IT WAS STILL GOO. I just ate it. It was still good.

My rainbow goo and me.

If you want to try it, I have no idea what I would suggest to avoid burning the top while trying to solidify the molton goo at the bottom. If you figure it out, let me know. 

Here's the recipe:

April Fools! (yeah, about a month late)

First of all, sorry for making this email everyone. I couldn't, for the life of me, remember what my password was and that was the only way to get a password reset link.

Now, on with the cooking. I love April Fools because I love pranks, but I never really celebrate it. I'm absolutely terrible with thinking of good enough pranks to pull on April Fools without raising suspicion. I first heard about this a long time ago, and always wanted to try it, so it seemed like the perfect time. I should also say that this was actually last year's April Fools, but I still think it's good enough to share.

Cupcakes anyone?

APRIL FOOLS! IT'S MEATLOAF!

With mashed potato frosting.

They were spit out a few times, but only because it's not what anyone was expecting. Once people realized what they were eating, they finished it. They were actually really freaking delicious.

There was no special recipe, it's just whatever meatloaf you like, and I used instant mashed potatoes (plus A LOT of food coloring). The only thing is to make sure you have foil cupcake liners. The meat cooks into a weird shape, so the foil holds the shape of a cupcake better. Plus, I'm pretty sure paper liners would just absorb juices and be soggy. Gross.

I would definitely recommend this if you want to get coworkers or something. EVERYONE will fall for it, and you'll be super popular.

My First Post!! Chicken Pockets

Hello Everyone! I've been meaning to do this for a while and I finally have internet connection and freetime!!! So here they are Chicken Pockets. They are a hit with all my friends who have tried them and I hope you will like them!!!

Here's What You need:

1 Can of Crescent Rolls

Plain Cream Cheese (Or Cream of Mushroom Soup if you don't like Cream Cheese)

1 Lb of chicken

any/all your favorite seasonings (We normally use Lemon Pepper, Marjoram, and Oregano)

Butter or Olive oil

Let's get Started!

First thing you have cut the chicken into small pieces. I've noticed its easier if you do this before you cook it but I've done it after as well. Add the chicken and the seasonings together and cook in the butter/oil until the chicken is white.

Ok Next step is make the outside layer. Now you get to bust open the crescent rolls! (Save the cooking instructions!!!) Once you finally get then open, you need to make big triangles! You do this by taking 2 normal crescent rolls and putting the flat side together and mashing it together, (it doesn't have to be pretty but one can should make 4).

Once this is done, you can put a layer of Cream Cheese on all of them and start putting chicken on all 4. As you put chicken on you can roll the triangles up and pinch the corners so you don't have any big holes, ( little holes are ok just none that you can put your finger through).

Put all the Chicken Pockets on a cookie sheet and bake like the crescent roll can says.

And once they get they're done just becareful the inside is really hot, (Trust me I burned my mouth this past weekend).

Ashley