Giant Strawberries Strawberry Pie

Since being pregnant, I have been eating a lot more fruits.  Every time I go to Costco, I decide on 2 fruits to buy and finish them all in about a week.  Costco had 4 pound of strawberries for $6.99 the past few times I've been there.  The first time I got them, I finished all 4 lbs on my own in less than a week.  They are giant strawberries and very sweet.  The second time I got them, I decided to make a strawberry pie.

I bought store bought crust because I find it a pain to make it on my own.  After baking the crust in the oven according to directions, I coated the bottom and 1/2 of the sides of the crust with a thin layer of chocolate.  I often find strawberry pie to be soggy because of the glaze.  The chocolate will prevent mushy crust.

For the glaze, put about 8 oz of strawberries and 3/4 cup of sugar into the food processor.  After processing, add the mixture to a pot and bring it to boil.  In a separate bowl, mix 3/4 cup of water with 3 tbsp of cornstarch.  After the strawberry mixture boils, add the cornstarch/water to the pot.  Stir until it thickens. 

Arrange the 24 oz of strawberries in the baked crust, pour strawberry glaze over berries.  Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours so the glaze will set.  Top with whipped cream and serve.

We devoured the pie!  The entire pie was gone in less than a day!  One of our guest tasters said it was so good he couldn't believe how fast he gobbled it up.  That's what I like to hear...

Very Dense Red Velvet Cupcakes

Last year, I made purple velvet cupcakes for my mother-in-law's birthday.  Since then, I have been searching for a red velvet cake recipe that actually tasted good.  A recipe where people said "mmm, I want some more."  I was watching this show called "The Next Great Baker" and contestant, Pam, made red velvet cupcakes that won her the top award during that challenge.  I found her blog and recipe.  So I decided to make her version and hoped they were to die for.

I followed her recipe completely and the results were a little disappointing.  The cupcakes looked good and were very red.  But they only tasted slightly better than okay.  The flavor was good but the cupcakes were too dense.  They weren't at all fluffy and didn't taste like cake.  The recipe made 24 cupcakes and good thing I was able to give them all away.  I guess I'll have to continue my search for a better red velvet recipe.

PB + Jelly = always a good combo

These have been on my "to try" list for quite a while.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

The only changes I made were to use raspberry preserves instead of jelly (yuck), use 1/2 whole wheat flour, and a little less sugar.  Even though I had never made the recipe before, they tasted great to me!  I also did not line the pan with parchment and just used non-stick cooking spray.  The dough was easy to work with and I was able to spread it with my fingers.

I gave them all away and am now wishing I had some left!

Southern Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Strawberries.

For hubby's birthday this year, I decided to make 2 desserts.  I made chocolate hazelnut cupcakes for his actual birthday and a southern lemon cake for his birthday weekend (which involved his parent's company).

The chocolate hazelnut cupcakes came from a cupcake book that I got from my sister-in-law 2 years ago.  The book hasn't been too successful in providing good recipes.  I've used it to make Rocky Road cupcakes and Purple Velvet Cupcakes.  Neither recipes were that great!  I decided to give the book one last chance to impress me and if it didn't succeed, then the book was history.  The chocolate hazelnut cupcakes were decent.  They were edible but nothing to brag over.  The cupcake part was a bit on the dry side but it might be because I halved the recipe.  I won't even attempt to add the recipe to our blog though since it's not something I'd make again.  The book will stay on my shelf from now...

I've been watching TLC's The Next Great Baker for the past 8-10 weeks.  It's one of those shows where candidates compete to win money and a chance to be hired on as "The Next Great Baker" in Carlos' Bakery.  Every time I watch the show, I get hungry for cake.  I'm not much of a cake fan at all. But the cake designs are so appealing and some of the things the candidates bake look delicious.  In one episode, Dana makes a Southern Lemon Cake.  The judges are blown away by his cake.  Since then, hubby has been talking about Dana's Southern Lemon Cake.  So for hubby's birthday weekend with his parents, I decided to make a Southern Lemon Cake.

I searched hard for Dana's recipe on the internet, but of course it is no where to be found.  I looked up some recipes for southern lemon cake and lemon cake.  I ended up using this recipe from All Recipes but with a few modifications based on some reviews and things that I wanted in a lemon cake. 

Southern Lemon Cake

Ingredients

3 cups cake flour
(I didn't have cake flour so I used all-purpose flour.  1 cup cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tbsp of flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 eggs, separated whites and yolks
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 grated lemons, zested
1 1/2 lemons juiced
1 small container lemon yogurt

Directions

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Set mixture aside.

2. Separate the eggs -- egg whites and yolks. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, beating until stiff glossy peaks form. Set aside. (I actually did this all by hand.  It was tough work.)

3. Cream butter or margarine and 1 1/2 cups sugar.  Add egg yolks, lemon zest, and lemon juice together until fluffy.  Add flour mixture alternately with the yogurt to the egg yolk mixture.  Gently fold in the egg whites and pour the batter into the prepared pans.  (I used 2 8" round cake pans.)

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes or until cake comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

The lemon cake came out dense, almost like a pound cake.  The lemon flavor wasn't too tart or overpowering.  I might actually add a little more lemon juice or lemon yogurt.  Other than that, it was delicious! 

On The Next Great Baker, Dana makes his Southern Lemon Cake with a cream cheese frosting and tops it with strawberries.  I found a cream cheese frosting recipe on All Recipes that got close to 2000 reviews at 4.5 our of 5 stars.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. 

Add vanilla and confectioners' sugar to taste.  Some reviewers said this frosting was too soft, too sweet, not sweet enough, not enough vanilla, etc.  I followed the recipe exactly because it was just right for my taste.  It would be perfect with a carrot cake or red velvet cake as well.  To change it up, I might add some food coloring, change the vanilla to almond extract, or maybe add some cocoa powder for a chocolate frosting.  It's definitely a recipe to keep.

With the cake baked and cream cheese frosting made, I had my first chance to decorate my cake.  I cut off the tops of the cakes to even them out for a flat surface. 

I frosted the first cake.

Topped it off with sliced strawberries.

Added the second cake. 

And frosted the entire cake, topping it off with a few strawberries.

Let me say, getting the cake to be smooth is a big challenge.  It's no wonder people use fondant.  It probably makes a difference to have the cake tools to help smooth the frosting, which I don't have. 

And Voila!  My version of Southern Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Strawberries.

A huge hit!  The cake and frosting tasted great with the strawberries (or any berries).  It wasn't too sweet, too lemon-like or anything.  And for once, I actually ate all the frosting off my cake.  (I usually pick off all frosting from cakes.)  My in-laws asked for a small piece of cake, probably because it looked really sweet with the frosting.  After their first piece, they immediately helped themselves for seconds.  As for my hubby -- Happy Birthday Honey Bunches!

Perfectly Spiced Paella with Saffron Rice

The hubby's birthday was yesterday and I decided to venture off and make paella.  My taste pallet has changed a bit since getting pregnant.  Creamy foods don't appeal to meal.  Savory foods with lots of spices are usually what I am seeking for.  And my dessert cravings have gone down a bit...except when I watch cake shows on TV.  Paella was a good choice because it has a lot of different spices, it's savory, and I can eat shrimp (no oysters or clams in this paella).  I found this recipe on All Recipes but I changed it up quite a bit based on my party size of 2 and my desire to add in more vegetables.  Here's what I did:

Saffron Rice
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 large pinch saffron threads
1 bay leaf
1/4 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 lemon, zested

Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes, and rice. Cook, stirring, to coat rice with oil, about 3 minutes. Stir in saffron threads, bay leaf, parsley, chicken stock, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer 20-25 minutes.

Paella Topping
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into pieces
10-15 baby portabells mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper diced

Mix all this in a bowl and marinade

1/2 onion, chopped
12 oz chorizo sausage, casings removed and crumbled
16 oz shrimp (I bought frozen shrimp, already deveined and cooked.)
16 oz diced tomatoes
1 cup of frozen peas

Heal olive oil in separate, large skillet over medium heat. Stir in marinated chicken and onion until almost cooked.  Stir in sausage and thoroughly cook meats.  Stir in shrimp bell pepper mushrooms, diced tomatoes and frozen peas.  Cover and bring to boil.  Mix topping with rice and serve.

The rice was just the right amount for a part of 2 (with a day of left overs).  And the topping made a serving for about 8-10.  It was a lot.  Both were delicious.  The saffron rice was amazing and had a lot of great flavors and spices.  It was the perfect color of yellow too with bits of green from the parsley and red from the saffron.  The paella topping was cooked great as well.  I'd probably cut the chorizo and shrimp in half since we had so much left over.  It might be because I added in more vegetables though as the original recipe didn't have the mushrooms, tomatoes or frozen peas.

Tang Ho (Chrysanthemum) Sushi!

When Jen and I took the How to Make Vegetarian Sushi class at Great News Cooking with Mineko Takane Moreno, author of Sushi for Dummies, one of my favorite rolls we had in that class was chrysanthemum sushi with a peanut-miso sauce. Unfortunately this great recipe was not in her book. I always wanted to make it again, but never could find chrysanthemum at my local 99 Ranch. Jen ended up finding out that the Chinese word for chrysanthemum was "tang ho" and that they sold it at 99 Ranch. Sure enough, I found it and had some delicious sushi for dinner!

Mongolian Beef

After having some success with Mapo Tofu from tweaking the recipe at rasamalaysia.com, I thought I would try their Mongolian Beef Recipe. I cannot say I was a huge fan. It definitely needs some tweaking but I'm quite not sure where.... Still looking for some staple Chinese recipes.