Raspberry Crisp

Mmm...raspberries. I love raspberries, especially as a fruit filling in pies and such. When raspberries went on sale at our grocery store, we immediately bought a flat. Most of those beauties were used to make raspberry jam (which is a must-have around here - my family loves it), but there were three containers left over. Just enough to make Pioneer Woman's raspberry crisp.

It's a simple recipe - crisps aren't anything fancy - but oh my, was it good! Especially topped with icy-cold vanilla ice cream. Rave reviews all around!


Raspberry Crisp

2 1/2 cups raspberries
1 Tbsp (heaping) corn starch
2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup pecans, chopped (optional)
Dash of salt
6 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine rinsed raspberries, corn starch, sugar, and vanilla. Stir and set aside.

In a separate bowl (or food processor) combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, oats, pecans (optional), dash of salt, and butter pieces. Cut together with a pastry cutter (or pulse in food processor) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add berry mixture to a small baking dish or pie pan. Sprinkle topping mixture all over the top. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

Allow to sit for ten minutes before serving. Scoop out with a spoon and top with sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Spinach Mandarin Poppy Seed Salad

The recipe may be stolen, but the picture is by yours truly (as are all my other pictures). See? I'm not ALL thief. :)

I haven't been in much of a "cooking new recipes" mood lately. It's summer - I'd rather play than spend an hour slaving in the kitchen before dinner!

So I'm (once again) presenting another one of my favorite recipes I've gleaned from the Our Best Bites cookbook. I know it's easy to just go get it from there, but at least this way, I may point someone (and by that I mean the two people that read this blog) to the easiness and yumminess that is this salad.

Our family is small (three of us that eat big-people food), so I pretty much halved everything in the recipe below. The original makes 8-10 side dish servings. I also substituted chopped up mini cucumbers for avocados since my hubs doesn't like avocados. Like I said, it was really easy to throw together (especially if you just cook the bacon in the microwave), and tasted just like I expect summer foods to taste. Sweet. Tangy. Crisp. Light. Perfect. :)


Spinach Mandarin Poppy Seed Salad

8 ounces (1/2 bag) baby spinach
1/2-1 head Romaine lettuce, chopped
1/2 thinly sliced medium red onion
1 large avocado, cubed
8 oz. mozzarella or Swiss cheese, shredded
1 (12-oz.) package bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 (12-oz.) can Mandarin oranges, drained
Poppy seed dressing, to taste (I made it from scratch, but it would be just as easy to buy a bottle of the pre-made stuff)

Combine all ingredients except dressing in a large bowl. When ready to serve, toss with desired amount of salad dressing and serve immediately.

If you anticipate leftovers, just let your eaters dress their own salads because the dressing will make the greens wilt.

Strawberry Cheesecake Squares

We tried these last night and oh my word, they were delicious! We needed to use up the strawberries we bought on sale, so I searched Our Best Bites for some ideas and found this. My husband was a little reluctant at first (he's a cheesecake purist), but we both agree now that they were well worth the trip to the store at 6:00 at night to get the extra ingredients we needed.

If I were rating these recipes, this would receive 5 stars. Definitely.

Strawberry Cheesecake Squares

1 package Pecan Sandies Cookies, divided
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter, melted
11 oz. cream cheese (1 8-oz. package + 3 oz. of another package, not low-fat), softened
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 cups sour cream
1 1/4 c. strawberry sauce - recipe found below (you can also use strawberry jam, jarred strawberry topping, or canned strawberry pie filling)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a food processor, process 3/4 of the Pecan Sandies (reserve 6). Mix with melted butter and lightly press onto the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine cream cheese, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla, almond extract, and sour cream. Beat on high for 4-5 minutes. Spread half of the cheesecake batter onto the bottom of the 9×13 pan. Pour 3/4 c. of the strawberry sauce over the batter, spreading gently to cover the surface (it doesn’t have to be perfect). Spread remaining cheesecake batter over the strawberry layer and then spoon remaining 1/2 c. of strawberry sauce over the batter. Being careful not to cut into the surface of the cookie crust, swirl the strawberry mixture with a butter knife.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until center is jiggly but not liquid. While baking, process remaining 6 cookies. During the last 10 minutes of baking, sprinkle the cookies on top of the cheesecake. Chill for at least 8 hours and cut into squares. If desired, drizzle remaining strawberry sauce over the individual squares.

Serve and wonder if you have, actually, gone to heaven.


Strawberry Sauce

1 pint (16 oz.) strawberries

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp. almond extract or vanilla extract

 

Wash strawberries and remove stems. If strawberries are really big (or if you don't think your blender can handle them), chop into smaller pieces.

 

Add ingredients to a blender* and pulse until smooth.

 

That's it!

 

*The original recipe actually says to add the ingredients to a saucepan first and cook for 5 minutes, then let the mixture cool before adding to the blender. I kinda didn't see that part and just put them straight in the blender. It still turned out yummy.

Apple Crisp

I participated in Bountiful Baskets for the first time a couple of weeks ago. One of things I got was apples. I love to eat apples, but unfortunately these weren't the best eating apples. They were a little sour and didn't have much flavor.

So I made apple crisp. They turned out to be perfect apples for apple crisp. Add a couple scoops of ice cream, and voila!

Apple Crisp

4 cups apples, peeled and sliced
1 tbs. lemon juice
1/3 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup melted butter

Put apples in shallow pan (I used my 8 x 8 square pan). Sprinkle lemon juice over apples. (If you happen to be using bottled apples - which I never have - lemon juice isn't needed.) Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl, then add melted butter. Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apples.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until apples are soft.

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream for best results. :)