For
Foodie Friday I am posting recipes from a recent Cooking Class held at my home last week. The theme was
Patriotic Desserts so it was very colorful with mostly red, white and blue foods.
These tarts were so easy and good!
(Five small thinly sliced strawberries form the stars on these tarts)
Red, White and Blue Star Tarts Makes 4 tarts
½ (15 ounce) package refrigerated pie crust
2 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (8 ounce) package frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
4 to 6 fresh strawberries, slices
12 fresh blueberries
Preheat oven to 450. On a lightly floured surface, unroll crust. Using a 4 ½ inch round cutter, cut 4 circles from pie crust. Line 4 (4 inch) tart pans with prepared crusts; prick bottom of crusts with a fork. Place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, whipped topping and vanilla extract. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add confectioners sugar, beating until combined. Spoon cream cheese mixture into prepared crusts. Top with strawberries and blueberries in a decorative star pattern.
Watermelon Slush
Makes 4 servings
4 cups (1 inch cubes) seedless watermelon, frozen
1 ½ cups hulled and quartered strawberries, frozen
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tbsp simple syrup (recipe follows)
1/8 tsp salt
In the container of an electric blender, combine watermelon, strawberries, lime juice, syrup and salt. Process for 30 seconds or until mixture is smooth. Serve immediately. (Note: I found that thawing the watermelon for a few minutes first helped it "blend" in the blender instead of getting stuck on top with the blades whirring nothing around below)
Simple Syrup
Makes about 1 ½ cups
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool. Chill at least 4 hours.
Blackberry Cobbler
Makes 12 servings
3 (16 ounce) packages frozen blackberries, thawed
1 cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 (24 count) package Mary B’s frozen bite-sized butter milk tea biscuits
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine blackberries, 1 cup sugar and flour. Spoon into a 13 x 9 baking dish.
Arrange biscuits on top of fruit layer, pressing down gently. Brush biscuits with melted butter. In a small bowl, combine 1 tbsp sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over biscuits.
Bake for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Note: Since I could not find Mary B's biscuits I used Pillsbury cinnamon twists instead and cut them into small sections. Because the twists come with cinnamon on them I put the sugar/cinnamon mixture directly onto the blackberries instead.)
Cookies on a Stick Makes 15 cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
15 craft sticks
1 (16 ounce) container vanilla icing
garnish: assorted liquid food coloring, gel icing and assorted cookie sprinkles
Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy Add sugar and confectioners sugar, beating until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, beating to combine.
In a small bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed until smooth.
Divide dough into 2 balls, wrap each one in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to ¼ inch thickness. Using assorted 3” cutters, (We used a star cutter) cut out cookies and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Gently press a craft stick into the bottom third of each cooked. Chill cookies for 15 minutes before baking.
Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on pan for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks and cool completely.
Dye vanilla icing with desired liquid food colors. Spread icing to ¼ inch from edges of cookies. Decorate cookies with gel icing and sprinkles if desired.
It was a fun and tasty morning! To be tempted by more food and recipes click
here.
Happy 4th of July!!
Outdoor Wednesday. Today I am joining southern daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday which she sponcers and I'd like to take you on a Garden tour that my local Garden Club sponsored last week. There were 10 amazingly beautiful gardens from newly planted to 10 year old seasoned ones to one that had wonderful entertaining areas.
Come walk down these beautiful sandstone stepping stones with lovely roses planted on either side.
The Day Lilies are at their spectacular best in all colors. These white ones stood out among the lovely chartreuse green.
This lush vegetable garden is on a hillside with rows of basil, tomatoes, peas and grapes. This gardener even has a trough of special food for the deer so they will be content before they enter her yard.
At another yard, looking down about 15', these hosta leaves are at least 15" across. I have never seen such large beautiful, large leaves!
The lavendar is growing very well in our next garden and gives off a lovely scent as we walk by.
Of course we must check out the container gardens too like this one with its geraniums and (oh, what is the name of this purple flower?--can't remember)
I was trying to get close to this coneflower but I got a little too close. At any rate they are lovely in their beautiful pink dresses.
Can you make out this basket of boxwood with ivy handle holding pink roses inside it. It is about 6' long.
There are two seating areas here among the rocks and shade of the large oak tree. A great place to take a rest and have a view of the rest of the yard which is lovely.
Water is a nice feature in any yard and the trickle heard from this fountain is refreshing as we walk by.
