A berry by any other name

If you aren't from Texas I can pretty much guarantee you have never heard of a Dewberry. If you aren't from Central Texas, you probably haven't even had a Dewberry. I grew up eating them...they tend to grow wild and are best around Mother's Day. Every year I'd end up with purple fingers from picking my share (and eating more than I kept). So when my coworker asked for "something with fruit in it" instead of a birthday cake I decided on a Dewberry Cobbler. She's from College Station, so she's pretty familiar with my favorite berry. I channelled my inner Southern Lady and found a Paula recipe for Blackberry crisp. Since Dewberries taste pretty similar (they're a little more purple in color) it was a great swap.

Fresh Dewberry Crisp adapted from The Lady & Sons Just Desserts

• 4 cups fresh dewberries, rinsed and drained
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350. Butter sides and bottom of a 9" square dish.

Place dewberries in a bowl, sprinkle with 1 cup of sugar and cinnamon, stir to cover the berries. In another bowl, stir together flour and remaining 1 cup sugar. Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut in butter until crumbly. Pour sugared berries into baking dish and cover with flour mixture. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

Good luck finding fresh dewberries. You may can find them at a Farmers Market, but other than that...you'll have to find someone who knows where to go.

Also, since Jason missed out on the dessert I used a small bag of frozen mixed berries (about 2 cups) this weekend and divided the recipe in half to make another crisp for us. It's a great, easy recipe.

Hoppy Easter!

My family usually does a pot-luck type thing for holidays. The hosts will be responsible for the main dish and beverages, then everyone else is to bring a side or dessert. This Easter I volunteered for a dessert. I have about 15 Easter/Spring type cookie cutters...but I didn't have the ambition to make sugar cookies. So...I thought about brownies.



These were actually pretty easy. Of course, because of lack of ambition, they were made from a box, but who cares? They taste pretty darn good! I poured them into a 11*13 cake pan and added the M&Ms for a little something extra. I also found out that they really need to cool completely before you try to remove them from the pan. I cut them out while they were still warm and then waited before taking them out of the pan.

Now, the upside is that you'll have a lot of brownie scraps. What to do, what to do? Since I hosted Bunko again this April I saved half of the scraps for my dessert. I made homemade ice cream and used the brownies as toppings. Well, the brownies that survived my trip to the fridge.

Master Baker!

Well, not really. I'd say I'm more of a...OK baker. But, I took the Master Baker Challenge for March head on! The challenge was to make something using your favorite Easter candy. I don't really have a favorite. I try not to discriminate when it comes to candy, I give them all equal share in my stomach. :-) So I asked Jason for his opinion and he replied "those malt-ball things that are shaped like eggs." Perfect - my sister, Lindsey, had a birthday on Thursday and those are her favorite candy...so it made for a great birthday treat.

Now...what do I do with them? After much searching online, I found a recipe for Whopper Brownies. Of course, one main ingredient was 1/2 cup instant malted milk...and I did not read that until I was about halfway into the whole process. At that point, I said forget it and just left it out. Since I really don't know how they should have tasted, I can only say that they did taste pretty darn good!

Whopper Brownies adapted from aaa-recipes.com

• 11 1/2 oz milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup instant malted milk (I left out)
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 cup Whoppers (or Robin's Eggs) chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease and 9*13 pan. Melt the chocolate and margarine over low heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Beat in sugar, vanilla and eggs. Stir in remaining ingredients except the chopped Whoppers. Spread the batter in the pan and sprinkle with the chopped Whoppers. Bake for 30-35 minutes, cool completely.

The best of both worlds

I love ice cream. It is my favorite thing to eat. I'm on a diet, but Friday while we were walking around the Strand in Galveston, my father-in-law mentioned ice cream and, well, I melted. I proceeded to eat a cup of Pistachio Almond Blue Bell ice cream and I loved every fattening bite of it.

A few years ago, my in-laws bought me an ice cream maker for Christmas. I was one very excited person! I can say, though, this is where Jason and I disagree. I think that ice cream should be anything but plain! Who wants boring old Vanilla? Give me Mint Chocolate Chip. Or Tin Roof or some Rocky Road. Anything but plain old Vanilla. Jason, on the other hand, thinks ice cream should be enjoyed in its pure form. Thus the reason I've probably only made Vanilla twice and I made Chocolate for the first time this week. We tend to compromise with Strawberry. But since I was making two batches, I got to pick one of them.

Vanilla Ice Cream from Cuisinart

• 1 cup whole milk (I use fat free)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1-2 t pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer or whisk to combine the milk and sugar until dissolved. Stir the heavy cream and vanilla. Turn on the mixer and pour the mixture into the freezer bowl. Let it mix until thickened, about 30 minutes.

Chocolate Ice Cream from Cuisinart

• 1 cup whole milk (again I used fat free)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 8 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 t almond extract

Heat the milk until it bubbles around the edges. In a blender or food processor, pulse the chocolate and sugar until it is well blended. Add the milk and continue to blend until smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and let it cool completely. Stir in the heavy cream, vanilla and almond extract. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Turn the machine on and add the chilled mixture. Freeze for 25-30 minutes.

Spring is on the way!

Well, at least in Houston it is. Yesterday was a beautiful 83 degrees at my house. Perfect for yard work and cleaning house with the windows open. This is when I pity the people in the north who are still shoveling snow.

In honor of the warmer weather, I decided to bake something light and springy. A fellow What's Cooking Nestie suggested Paula Deen's Lemon Blossoms. They are delish! Plus, it gave me the perfect chance to use my mini-muffin pan that I got for Christmas. I think it should be a crime to get a kitchen item and wait more than 2 months to use it, so I just slid in the deadline.

Lemon Blossoms from Paula Deen

Cake Batter

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 3.5oz package instant lemon pudding
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

Glaze

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• zest of 1 lemon
• 3 T vegetable oil
• 3 T water

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the ingredients above for the batter and mix well. Lightly spray the mini-muffin pan and spoon 1 teaspoon full for each muffin. (My first batch was 1 Tablespoon, and those did not bake pretty.) Bake for about 12 minutes, until they are golden brown around the edges.

Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir gently. Remove the muffins from the oven and cool slightly before flipping them onto a tea towel. While they are still warm, completely coat the muffins in the glaze. Let them dry completely on a cooling rack and store in an airtight container.

Lucky for Jason I had a few that fell apart when I flipped them. Since I'm taking them to a friends house for dinner, he usually only gets to keep a couple for himself. He was very happy that some were broken!

Weight Watchers Points: 3 points for 1 muffin, if you make 48 servings. I actually think that I could have gotten 72 had I used 1 teaspoon for the batter in each. The point value would drop to 2 if that was the case.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Jason turns 30 on Wednesday. I think I'm more excited than he is...but for me - it's a chance to give a gift and to go out for a nice dinner. Score! We're hitting up this place called The Oceanaire Seafood Room - we haven't been, but I read some pretty good reviews.

Birthdays also mean the chance to bake a cake. So, a few weeks ago I asked Jason what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday - plain vanilla with "birthday cake icing" (his favorite), red velvet or a pound cake. I honestly thought I would be making a plain vanilla cake. Instead his response was "Can you make my mom's pound cake?" Gasp! Horror! No!

Now, don't get me wrong, her pound cake is, well, awesome. It's an Almond Pound Cake and I could probably eat the whole thing. I had two problems with this. First - she makes it all the time and I try to only eat one piece, but I had this fear of actually reading the recipe. I don't want to know how bad it is for me. Second - I know that what my mom bakes is pretty good. I also think I can make it as good or better. Right? But men...well, what their moms make is as close to perfection as it could be. I dreaded the words "well, it's good but mom's..." Nightmare. However, it's his birthday so I caved.

Then last week he upped the challenge. "Can you make it with Splenda?" I am dieting and he is training for a bike ride, so that makes sense, but I have a general rule. You don't mess with the precision of baking. Jason thinks you can sub anything - 2 eggs instead of 3, water for oil, light or dark brown sugar doesn't even make sense. Me - it's written that way for a reason. But, after asking the What's Cooking Nesties I decided to take a chance.

Almond Pound Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups Splenda (or sugar, if you go for the full-fat version)
• 5 eggs
• 2 t almond extract
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 cup milk (I used fat-free)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Cream butter and shortening. Add Splenda (or sugar) 1/4 cup at a time, alternating with the eggs until all of the Splenda and eggs are added. Mix in almond and vanilla extracts. Sift dry ingredients and add 3/4 cup at a time alternating with the milk, a little at a time. Continue to mix until both the milk and dry ingredients are added. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour. Reduce the heat and bake for 15 additional minutes at 300 degrees. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Honestly, the only difference I noticed was that the cake was not as fluffy as it normally is. It tasted about the same (Jason said a little less sweet, but he liked that) but the consistency was a little off. However, I am completely sure he will eat every piece he can.
WW Points - 5 per piece, based on 24 small servings

Rule #1: No talking while baking...

Rule #2: Read the directions more than once! Rule #3: If you follow Rule #1, you won't need the rest of them.

While baking for my WC Nest Recipe Exchange, I messed up royally. Jason and I are vising his parents for Christmas and, as usual, I waited until the last minute to complete my recipe exchange. So, this morning, in the middle of visiting with my mother -in-law, I mixed up the Mud Bars for my exchange. Fortunately, I have this really bad habit of licking the spoon (don't worry, I put it right in the sink...not back in the batter!!) and noticed that it was a little...bitter! "Something is not right." You think? I then turned around to see the bag of brown sugar and canister of granulated sugar on the counter. ((light bulb goes off)) "Well, I forgot the sugar and the eggs." I quickly proceeded to dump the mix back into the bowl, add the sugar and the eggs, and voila! I have Mud Bars. In the end, you don't have to follow the rules, but it sure would have helped!!

Mud Bars

• 1 cup oatmeal (not instant)
• 1 stick margarine
• 1 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 2-4 T baking cocoa (to taste)
• 1 (12 oz) pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over oats and margarine. Let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in sugars and eggs.

Combine dry ingredients and add to oats mixture. Stir in half the chocolate chips. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9*13 baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining chips and nuts. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cheesecake!

Of all the things I love to eat...cheesecake is probably my favorite! My in-laws visited before Thanksgiving, so I decided to make a dessert for dinner. I also baked an entire turkey and a lot of sides...and failed to take pictures of any of it! Oh, well.

This is a perfect fall dessert - Pecan Pie Cheesecake! It combines two of the best desserts...pecan pie and cheesecake. And, it's actually pretty easy to make.

Pecan Pie Cheesecake (courtesy of Southern Living)

Ingredients

• 1 (2lb, 4oz) frozen Pecan Pie
• 2 cups graham crackers crumbs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/4 t ground cinnamon
• 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 T all-purpose flour
• pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325°. Thaw pecan pie according to package directions. Cut evenly into 20 thin slices, keeping wedges intact, and set aside.

Stir together graham cracker crumbs and next 3 ingredients; press mixture onto bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of a 10-inch springform pan.

Arrange 10 pecan pie wedges in a spoke design in prepared pan, placing 1 cut side of each wedge on crust with narrow end towards center of pan. Reserve remaining pecan pie wedges for another use.

Beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add sour cream, half-and-half, and vanilla; beat until blended. Fold in powdered sugar and flour. Carefully pour cream cheese mixture evenly over pecan pie wedges in pan, making sure wedges remain in place. Arrange pecan halves evenly around edge and center.

Bake at 325° for 50 minutes. Turn off oven, and let cheesecake stand in oven 1 hour. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Chill at least 8 hours or overnight before serving.