Dessert
Baklava-a Traditional Mediterranean Sweet Treat
Baklava has always been a food full of memories for me. Growing up in a family that loved to cook foods from different cultures, in addition to marrying into an Armenian family , I have had a passion for Mediterranean food for years. My fondest memory of Baklava is from my college years when some girl friends and I spent our spring break in Greece. We loved every minute of our time in Greece and although it was the Europe on $5 a day era….we found ourselves a bit short on money the last three days of our trip. Knowing we needed to save enough money for our ferry boat ride back to Italy where we were living and studying, we decided the best use of the remainder of our money would be to skip conventional restaurant meals and survive for our last three days in Greece on Baklava. What a GREAT decision that was. This weekend we had our reunion with the folks we had the privilege of traveling with through Turkey and Greece a few months ago. I decided to bring Baklava for us to all enjoy since it had been one of our group’s favorite treats on our trip. Years ago, my husband’s Nana taught me how to make her Armenian version of Baklava and I have tried various other recipes over the years, but I decided to go back to our roots make my favorite Baklava Recipe…….and I will share it here with you……
Ingredients
1 (16 oz) package Phyllo dough, thawed according to package instructions
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 pound (4 cups) walnuts finely chopped (for a more authentic Turkish version, use pistachios)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ cup sugar
1 cup honey
3 Tablespoons lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
¾ cup water…
Red, White and Blue Dessert
Here is my favorite fun and easy 4th of July dessert. It is so festive and the fresh fruit is the perfect end to a hot summer day of family and BBQing.
4th of July Strawberry and Blueberry Shortcake
Shortcake (made from the back of a Bisquick box!)
serves 6
2 1/3 cups biscuit mix (I used Bisquick brand)
1/2 cup milk
3 TBS sugar
3 TBS butter, melted
Star-shaped cookie cutter
Toppings (personally, the fruit is my favorite part, so the more the better!!!)
1 quart (4 cups) Fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced
6 oz. Fresh blueberries, rinsed
Whipped Cream
If you like your strawberries sweet, mix them with 1/4 cup sugar and set aside.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a separate bowl mix biscuit mix, milk, sugar, and butter until soft dough forms. Drop 6 spoonfuls of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. (I prefer to roll mine out a bit and cut out star shapes with a star-shaped cookie cutter). Bake 10-12 minutes.
Let shortcakes cool. Split open and top with strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. Enjoy your yummy patriotic dessert!
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Peach Cobbler Sensation-Revealing a new trend in healthy desserts
U-Pick fruit stands are plentiful in the town of Brentwood which is about a 45 minute drive from my home. Almost every June for the past 20 years, I plan a berry, peach or apricot picking adventure with friends. Never in all the years I have been planning and participating in this event have I experienced what happened this year. Some girlfriends and i decided it was a perfect week for picking Olallieberries (similar to Blackberries but it is actually a cross between a loganberry and a youngberry and is cultivated in California and Oregon). The anticipated day arrived and it was sprinkling in my home town, but the forecast for Brentwood was morning sprinkles until about 9 am. We had all been praying for rain so we were glad to have a light shower in the wee hours of the morning but as we drove the 45 minutes towards Brentwood we realized the sprinkling was not letting up as forecasted. But on we went….nothing would deter us from our berry picking. We arrived at our destination only to find that the berry picking ranch was closed. We surmised that they were just waiting for the light shower to let up and then they would open up and we would pick for an hour or two and return home with our beautiful stash of berries. So we drove around looking for other U-Pick places that might be open already. We did find one place that seemed to be opening up but when we approached the farm entrance the owners told us it was too muddy and they were going to close for the day. We were so disappointed but on we drove. We finally decided to stop at the Farmer’s Daughter farm and although we knew they did not have …
Read MoreBirthday Cupcake Cones
First of all…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RACH!!
I hope your day is as AMAZING as YOU ARE!!
We love celebrating! And, celebrating can be refreshing – it is the opportunity to stop all the busyness of life and focus on somebody else! This weekend, our family got to put our focus on THREE “somebody elses” celebrating Calvin, Hanna, and Rachel’s birthdays all in one day!
Jess decided to try something new and fun for the party. Instead of just making cupcakes for the kids, she made Cone Cupcakes – literally making cupcakes that go in a cake cone. The kids thought this was so fun – they are easier to hold and easier to actually get the cake into their little mouths! The directions were on the box of the cake cones but were not descriptive at all. So, after we did a little research, Jess decided to give it a try!
Here is the How-to…
1. Follow the directions on the cake box to make the cupcake batter (Funfetti is our favorite and #1 choice :D)
2. Cover a muffin tin with a piece of foil so that you can tuck it over the edges. Poke a small hole in the foil in each of the centers of the muffin spots. Widen the holes so that the tube of the cake cone can fit into it so that they will not tip over.
3. Place the cones in the holes. Fill the cones with the batter in the tube and halfway into the upper section of the cone. Do not fill too much or the cake will spill out of the cone while baking.
4. Bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes. Check at 20 minutes and place a toothpick in the center of the cake to see if it is …
Read MoreOlallieberry and Blueberry Cobbler
For a delicious and nutritious summer dessert try making an olalliebery/blueberry cobbler. We had a wonderful afternoon barbecue with friends to celebrate the 4th of July. I enjoyed the time of fellowship while reconnecting with friends, the beautiful weather and some competitive corn hole games. We ate delicious bbq turkey burgers, bison burgers, chicken, orzo salad, a green salad with watermelon and feta cheese and I made this cobbler recipe for our dessert. It was a hit. I combined two different recipes to come up with this tasty treat. I baked it in a 9 x 13 pan and when it was cool, I decorated it like an American flag with blueberries for the stars and sliced strawberries for the stripes. 
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Fruit filling
8 cups olallieberries fresh or frozen (mine were fresh picked out in Brentwood and then frozen)
2 cups Maine blueberries (I used frozen)
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
2-3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoon nutmeg
⅛ cup butter (¼ of a cube) cut into small pieces
Topping
2 cups oats
1 cup flour
½ cup wheat germ
¾ cups brown sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup (1 stick) cold butter
½ cup coconut oil
In a large bowl, combine the thawed berries with ¼ cup each brown sugar and white sugar. Add the 3 Tablespoons flour, fresh lemon juice and nutmeg. stir gently until combined. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan sprayed with coconut oil spray or Pam. 
Place into a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile combine the first 6 topping ingredients. Cut the stick of cold butter into the dry mixture with a pastry blade and when the butter is pea …
4th of July Strawberry & Blueberry Shortcake
Our favorite holiday treat has become this easy strawberry and blueberry shortcake. I can’t wait to serve it to our family and friends today, this 4th of July. It is simply Bisquick shortcake and fresh strawberries and blueberries, topped with your favorite whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!
4th of July Strawberry & Blueberry Shortcake
Shortcake (made from the back of a Bisquick box!)
serves 6
2 1/3 cups biscuit mix (I used Bisquick brand)
1/2 cup milk
3 TBS sugar
3 TBS butter, melted
Toppings (personally, the fruit is my favorite part, so the more the better!!!)
1 quart (4 cups) Fresh strawberries, rinsed and sliced
6 oz. Fresh blueberries, rinsed
Whipped Cream
If you like your strawberries sweet, mix them with 1/4 cup sugar and set aside.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a separate bowl mix biscuit mix, milk, sugar, and butter until soft dough forms. Drop 6 spoonfuls of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes.
Let shortcakes cool. Split open and top with strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. Enjoy your yummy patriotic dessert!
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Read MoreThe Quick Christmas Dessert That is Sure to Bring Holiday Cheer!
Although there are plenty of Pinterest pictures and recipes out there for the dessert that I am about to give you, I believe that I was the first to “invent” this recipe 🙂 It is so easy and people won’t believe just how easy after they taste how delicious this is!
PEPPERMINT PATTIE BROWNIES!
Ingredients: …
Read MoreHarvest Apple Crisp
Apples, apples, apples…..crunchy, flavorful, tart, sweet, Fuji, Honey Crisp, Pink Lady, Golden Delicious, Pippin, Jazz……so many choices, such a versatile fall fruit. You can slice them, dice, them, bake them, make pies, muffins, cakes. One of my all time favorite recipes to make with apples is old fashioned apple crisp. I will give you the original recipe and them suggest a few healthier options in bold
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A Daughter’s Special Day/Celebrate with ICE CREAM PIE
We love to CELEBRATE BIRTHDAYS in our family!!! The tradition usually includes a special dinner menu chosen by the birthday girl or my husband, aka Poppa. We try to include friends and extended family. This may be the first time in MANY YEARS that I have actually missed celebrating Bethany’s birthday with her in person. My heart will be full of JOY today as I think and pray for my precious Bethany. I had planned to drive up to spend the day with her but last week God had a different plan for me, including being flat on my back for the last 10 days. When you suddenly have a serious physical illness or injury that takes you down, your plans quickly change. So this year I will have to celebrate Bethany by letting everyone know how much I love her and posting about a delicious birthday dessert idea…..
ICE CREAM PIE
Ice cream pies are the easiest birthday dessert to make and you can be creative and style each pie to the particular likes of the person you are trying to honor. Bekah and I had the privilege of making two ice creams pies this week. One was to celebrate the homecoming of her fantastic husband who had been finishing up his visit with his family in Southern California. (Bekah flew up north 5 days early to help take care of me when I was recovering) The other pie was for a pre-birthday/father’s day celebration for my husband. We had so much fun planning out and creating our ice cream pies. We used one 8 inch and one 10 inch spring form pan for our two pies but you can use a regular deep dish pie pan, or any shaped pan you want. It is just easier to serve …
Apricot Crumble
Fresh apricots make a scrumptious sweet and tangy base for a summer cobbler. We like ours with an oat crumble granola-like topping. Using coconut oil, coconut flour and coconut sugar in the topping keeps this dessert delicious but adds a healthy dimension. Serve with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt for a fabulous festive dessert.
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