Strawberry Chocolate Hand Pies are a beautiful summer dessert that's not hard to make and guaranteed to impress! Are you afraid of making pie crust? I know I was. For years. A perfectly made pie crust is a real thing of beauty. But a badly made pie crust? Ugh. Just ugh. For ages, I was afraid to even try making my own pie crust. "Why should I make one," I reasoned, "when there are perfectly good pie crusts available in the freezer section of the grocery store?" Well let me tell you friends - perfectly good is nice and all, but homemade pie crust? It's perfection. And here's the best part. Once you make a pie crust once or twice, you'll be an old pro at it and you'll feel totally … [Read more...]
Chocolate Crepes with Strawberry Filling
Chocolate Crepes with strawberry filling, topped with ice cream, make a perfect special-occasion dessert! Wow. It's been a while since I last posted a recipe here, huh? Good thing it was a good one, amIright? Well today's recipe is an awesome one too. It's one that I developed because I totally listen to your recipe requests. One request I had gotten all the time is "please post cookie recipes that are made with oil!" (As opposed to margarine or butter.) So I did. Another request I get all the time: to post recipes for a beautiful dessert, perfect for special occasions. Well, it don't get more beautiful, more perfect for special occasions than these delightful Chocolate Crepes. … [Read more...]
Strawberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies
Ok, I am going to just come out and admit it. Half the reason I love these cookies is that they are so darned cute looking. Seriously, pastel shades of yellow and pink scream "spring is here!" to me. Even when the weather is screaming "sorry, spring has been cancelled this year! We're alternating between winter days and summer days until further notice." Oops. This totally wasn't meant to be a rant about the weather. But once we're on the topic, how crazy is it that in a span of a couple of days, I went from sweatshirts and shivering to how-high-does-the-AC-in-this-car-go. It's a pain trying to get dressed for the day when you have to remember that there's a 25 degree fluctuation … [Read more...]
Neapolitan Zebra Cheesecake
Every now and then, a person is lucky enough to come up with an idea that's pure genius. I consider myself endlessly lucky to have a platform, both here on the blog and in my magazine column, where I can share my occasional stroke of brilliance with a couple of folks. Well this one was one of my most incredible strokes of genius. Ages ago, I posted this Zebra Cake. Then I took it a step further with this ever popular Zebra Bundt Cake. And ever since then, the concept of zebra cakes and such have been in my head constantly. I wanted to create a zebra cheesecake, but plain chocolate and vanilla has been done so many times, and I wanted to do something a little more extraordinary. That's … [Read more...]
Homemade Strawberry Lemonade
You know how they say that some of the world's best discoveries have come about through accidents? Well, I wouldn't quite equate this with turning moldy bread into penicillin, but it was a pretty lucky- and awesome- discovery. It started on a day like today, when it felt like it was a million degrees outside, but in actuality, it was only about a hundred. Either way, it was the kind of day that makes you want a tall glass filled with ice- and some refreshing drink poured over it. I walked into the house, grabbed a glass, and discovered that there was no ice in the freezer. Oh, the horror. After searching the freezer and determining that there were, indeed, no ice cubes, I started to look … [Read more...]
Strawberry Chocolate Cream Cups
I am the kind of person who will spot a beautiful little cup, buy it, then try and come up with something to use it for. That's not an example; it's what I did last week. I saw these gorgeous little pedestal cups, and couldn't leave the store without them. They will look so good on the buffet table at the party I am making in honor of my sister's new baby. So I bought a couple packages, and started to think. The party being for a little girl, I decided to strawberry would be the way to go. Then I decided to go for the contrast- so chocolate would have to be involved. At first I thought I would crumble some leftover chocolate cake I had stashed in the freezer, but I didn't have enough, so … [Read more...]