Strawberry Long Island!

After visiting a local restaurant (Grizzly's) and discovering a Strawberry Long Island, I set out to make my own version of this wonderful drink! Now, I share this tasty beverage with you...

Ingredients (for 2)
8 medium strawberries
2 oz gin
2 oz rum (Captain Morgan spiced if you have it)
2 oz vodka
2 oz triple sec
1 can of lemon-lime soda
Ice cubes

Directions
Cut off the top of the strawberries and place them in a blender. Pour the one cup of liquor mixture with the strawberries and blend. Strain the strawberry mixture into a liquid measuring cup. Add the lemon-lime soda until the measuring cup is at about 2 cups.
Pour the Strawberry Long Island over ice, half into one glass and half into another glass. Top off with remaining lemon-lime soda (if you desire).

The strawberries add a great flavor to the long island!

Carmelized Onion Tarts!

This past January I married a wonderful young man whom shares my love of food. At the wedding, there were these delicious goat cheese tarts with carmelized onions. Unfortunately, because we had to be in the receiving line, we only got one of these tasty treats.
After scouring my grocery store, I discovered frozen some mini-Fillo (Phyllo) Shells already baked and ready for me to use. I was so excited at the thought of making my very own carmelized tarts that I bought them on a whim.
I finally had a chance to put them together and they were incredible!

Here are two simple recipes for using Fillo Shells:

Carmelized Onion Tart Ingredients
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 tsp of sugar
1 package of Fillo Shells
4 oz of 1/3 less fat Philadelphia cream cheese (or goat cheese) at room tempurature

Carmelized Onion Tart Directions
Cut up the onion into thin strips. Saute the onion in the butter on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add the sugar and saute for 2 more minutes.
Meanwhile, put about 1 tsp of cream cheese in each of the Fillo shells. When the onions are fully cooked, place the onions on top and enjoy!

Strawberry Tart Ingredients
6-7 medium strawberries, washed and sliced
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 tsp lemon (or lime) juice
1 package of Fillo Shells
4 oz of 1/3 less fat Philadelphia cream cheese (or goat cheese) at room tempurature

Strawberry Tart Directions
Put about 1 tsp of cream cheese in each of the Fillo shells.
Then, wash and cut up the strawberries into small slices. Cook the strawberries in the lemon juice and sugar on low heat for 2-4 minutes or until tender. Finally, place the strawberries on top and enjoy!

Both of these treats are wonderful as an appetizer or dessert!

Warm, Fresh Baked Strawberry Pie!

Usually when I bake a "strawberry" anything pie, it's a strawberry rhubarb. However, my friend was visiting from out of town and special requested a warm, strawberry pie with top and bottom crusts. I loosely based my recipe on a blueberry pie recipe that my grandma taught me. It worked out fabulously! One caution: warm strawberry pie does not have time to congeal properly, so it will leak delicious strawberry goo in the pan. No worries! Afterall it still tastes amazing!


How to make your very own strawberry pie from scratch:

2-Pie Crust Ingredients
2 cups flour (I've used both white and whole wheat flour in the past and both turn out great!)
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening (I recommend Crisco sticks; they're easy to measure)
5-6 tbsp Sprite (or other lemon-lime soda)

2-Pie Crust Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Put the first three ingredients into a large bowl. Use a pie cutter to cut the flour mixture until it forms small balls of dough (it will not be completely mixed at this point). Then add the Sprite. Cut it about 5 more times. Then mix the dough with your hands until you can form a ball.
Split the ball of dough into 3/5 and 2/5. Using the larger portion of dough, roll it out to 12-13 inches on a pastry mat with a rolling pin (or, if you don't have a rolling pin or pastry mat, roll it out between two pieces of wax paper).
Put the rolled out dough into a 9" pie pan. Then roll out the smaller portion of dough to 9-10".

Strawberry Pie Filling
4 cups strawberries (preferably fresh and cut)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup and 2 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp of butter or margarine

Strawberry Pie Filling
Cut up medium-sized strawberries into about eighths. Mix in sugar and flour until well-combined. Pour strawberry filling into the pie. Dot pie with butter. Place 9" rolled out pie dough on top. Cut 4 to 8 small slices in the top to let steam escape while baking.

Bake pie at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Then reduce to 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

If you are impatient (like I was), wait until the pie cools for about 20 minutes before cutting. It will make a bit of a gooey mess, but it will taste amazing, especially with a dollop of ice cream.
If you are not impatient (or prefer to let the pie actually congeal), wait until the pie pan cools completely. Then place it in the fridge for about 3-5 hours. This will allow the pie filling more time to congeal, preventing the "spilly" mess.

Tuxedo Brownie Cups - Another innovative way to make your brownies more fun!

My mom is a huge Pampered Chef fan and is always trying out their recipes. When she throws little get-togethers, I am fortunate enough to be invited and have the pleasure of taste-testing these delights. One of my absolute favorite recipes is called Tuxedo Cups.

You take your favorite boxed brownie mix (mine happens to be Betty Crocker's fudge brownies) and add a delightful whipped cream / cream cheese topping that you then decorate with strawberries. It tastes chocolatey, creamy, and fruity all at once!



Ingredients
Cooking spray with flour
1 package fudge brownie mix (plus 2 eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup oil)
1 oz white chocolate chips (or 2 squares of white baking chocolate)
2 tbsp milk
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup whipped topping (I made my own with 8 oz heavy whipping cream and 1/4 powdered sugar - there will be left whipped cream as you only use one cup of the final product)
1 pint small strawberries, sliced

Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray cups of mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray with flour. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions for cake-like brownies. Fill wells of pan two-thirds full.*

Bake 14 minutes or until edges are set. Remove pan from oven and immediately press tops of brownies to make indentations using a teaspoon or round dowel. Cool in pan for about 15 minutes. Then, remove the brownies from the pan to cool completely.

Combine white chocolate and milk in a small, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar; mix well. Gradually stir in the white chocolate mixture until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.

Pipe cream cheese mixture into brownie cups and top with strawberries. If you don't have a cake decorating set (i.e. bag and tips), use a Zip-Loc plastic baggie and cut off a small chuck of one of the lower corners. Fill the baggie with the whipped topping and begin piping!

Refrigerate the Tuxedo Brownies for 1-3 hours before serving.

*Note: I filled my cupcake pan somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4. It made 24 cupcakes and had a bit of leftover batter that I put in a 1-cup Pyrex round glass container and cooked as a large, personal brownie circle (for my husband who likes a more traditional brownie that I do).

This dessert is perfect for a small gathering of friends or potluck! Enjoy!

Strawberry Daiquiris go so well with Chocolate!

One day after making cheesecake...
I just had to follow my craving and make my homemade strawberry daiquiris to go with my next piece of deep dark chocolate cheesecake!

I love strawberry daiquiris and have found this to be the best recipe so far. I have messed around with the amounts and tried omitting some items (like the sugar), but they were never quite as tasty. For an extra bubbly sensation, Sprite makes a great addition to the drink.



Ingredients:
1 cup chopped strawberries (fresh or frozen)
6 cups ice (give or take depending on how big your blender is)
3/4 cup rum (I use Captain Morgan's spiced but others prefer silver rum)
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (or from concentrate)*
1/8 cup sugar

Throw it all in a blender and enjoy!

*Note: When I don't have any oranges or even orange juice around, I have been known to use Pineapple juice as a substitute. It is very tasty!

I enjoyed my smooth, thick daiquiri with another piece of the deep dark chocolate cheesecake. For an added bonus, add sugar to the rim like they do in the restaurants! Simply take a plate and put some water on it. Lightly dip the rim of your glass on that plate making sure to get water evenly around the edge. Put some sugar on another plate and dip the rim of the glass in the sugar, turning it so the sugar spreads evenly. Garnish with a strawberry and voila! A tasty treat.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Review with Tips!

With the help of my friend Marisha (who's oven is currently working, while mine, alas, is not), I was able to make this delightful treat in the course of an afternoon. Needless to say, it is a bit of a lengthy process with much time spent waiting for things to bake, cool, and bake some more! However, it is well worth the wait.
The crust was incredibly easy to make. We used a food processor to crush the cookies. Then we put the cookie crumbs into a bowl with the sugar and melted butter to mix. I personally prefer mixing by hand as opposed to trying to scrape things out of a food processor, but that may be just me! Once the crumbs starting sticking together in clumps, I dumped them into my greased spring-form pan and squished them down. They baked for five minutes and we moved on to the filling.
I was initially concerned that the amount of dark chocolate would be overwhelming. However, after melting the dark chocolate and mixing it in with the sugar, cream cheese, cocoa powder and eggs, I soon discovered it was perfect! It also filled the mixing bowl to the top with a heavy cream cheese filling. We poured it into the spring-form pan and spread it as evenly as possible with a rubber scraper.
Then the waiting began. After one hour, we checked the cheesecake and it appeared rather strange to us. It looked more like a regular cake with all the cracking on the top. We cooked it for another 10-15 minutes before pulling it out to cool.

I know, I know! More waiting, right? We were a little on the impatient side, so after it was just cool enough to pick up with our hands, we threw it into the fridge and watched a movie. Then, despite the directions recommending waiting overnight (can you imagine?!), after only two hours, we got the topping ready and poured it. When it was just barely set, we tried our first piece of deep dark chocolate cheesecake.
Brace yourselves: this chocolate-y delight is incredible! Although it took hours to prepare, it is an incredibly rich, chocolate satisfying dessert that is well worth the time.
I paired my piece of chocolate cheesecake with a touch of whipped cream (you may notice it on the plate in the photo) and strawberries. I think with my next piece I will have a strawberry daiquiri. Who's with me? :)