Cherry Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

3-4 cups diced rhubarb, mine was fresh from my neighbor Eileen

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 cup water

1 tsp. almond extract

1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl combine the following: oats, brown sugar, flour and salt.  Stir well.

Add butter.  If I were a true baker I would have a pastry blender, but I didn't... I used a fork and my Pampered Chef Meat Chopper - it worked - eventually but if I made something like this more often I would pick up a pastry blender for sure!

Work the butter in until it is crumbly.  

Then, into a greased 9x13 pan pat 2 cups of the mixture in.  Be sure to press the mixture down into the pan as this is your crust.

Add rhubarb in an even layer.

In a saucepan, combine the sugar and cornstarch.  

Stir in the water. And continue to stir on a medium/high heat.

Cook until mixture is thick and clear.

Stir in extract and cherry pie filling.

Spoon the cherry mixture over the rhubarb.  

If you are adding the walnuts, at this point add the nuts to the remaining oat mixture. Then sprinkle the oat mixture over the cherry mixture.

Bake until filling is bubbly and topping is lightly browned, about 40-45 minutes.  If desired, serve with ice cream.

Right out of the oven this was a sloppy mess but I couldn't wait.  The next day it was setup a bit more, but still not a bar you could pick up and eat - this is for sure a plate/fork dessert.

Patriotic Cake Pops

So, I was at my Sous Chef's house over the 4th of July Holiday.  We decided to find something on good ol' Pinterest to make to be oh so festive.  Patriotic Cake Pops it was!

Ingredients: {Per cake pop mix directions}
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
Cake Pop Mix

Super easy... add all the ingredients into a bowl.

Mix all ingredients together.  Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl.

Preheat the cake pop machine.  Grease the cake pop machine and add 2 Tbsp batter to each well.

 

Close the lid of the machine... no peaking for four minuets.

Pop out the individual cake pops and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the pops have completely cooled melt the candy wafers one color at a time in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until all pieces have melted.

Dip each cake pop stick in the melted wafers and push into cake pop.  Then dip entire cake pop into the melted wafers.

If you are putting another melted layer decoration on, put the cake pops into the fridge to harden.

To add the white stripe use a pipping bag with a tiny tip.

If you are adding sprinkles, do this before you put them in the fridge to harden.

 So cute... we made an American flag out of our cake pops!

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

So my friend Micaela of Striving Bean made these once for a treat day back when I was in corporate world.  Ever since that day I have wanted these bars/cake again.  I finally made them the other day... and made only one mistake, but, it was still delicious!

Ingredients
Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15-ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:
8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. NOTE: When sifting flour measure first, then sift.  Not the other way around (which, yes, is what I did... duh!).

Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth.

Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.

Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined.

 

Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

 

See how thin my "cake" is... well that's because of the sifting of the flour and then measuring!  

This should be more like a cake than like a bar.

Fruit Pizza

Ingredients:
1 package (18 ounces) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese softened
1/3 cup sugar
4 cups assorted fresh fruit such as strawberries, bananas, kiwi, blueberries, etc (any fruit really)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place cookie dough on round baking stone, spread out in circle and cook 18-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool.

For topping, combine cream cheese and sugar and spread over cookie dough, then start placing on the fruit.
FYI It works better if you start from the outside edge and work your way inward, unlike what I did working from the center to the outside edge because then I had to overlap them from the wrong side...

Peanut Clusters

Really tough recipe here... but you may or may not know it...

Ingredients:
Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts
Chocolate Almond Bark

Depending on how much you want to make... Melt almond bark in microwave safe bowl (I did five squares here).

Eyeball the peanuts - or just dump in the whole jar (I would not do this with the jar in the photos, but the regular jar would be perfect.) Stir. If all the peanuts are completely covered, add more for a more peanutty experience. I basically add peanuts until there isn't enough Chocolate to cover them.
Take a medium scoop and drop clusters onto wax paper. Let them sit and harden for an hour. Store in an air tight container.

Rhubarb Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg; beaten
3/4 cup milk
6 cups rhubarb
3 oz strawberry or cherry jello
6 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour

Mix shortening, flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, beaten egg, and milk. Put into greased 9x13 pan (or rectangular baker).

This was rhubarb that I froze from last season. After doing this recipe, I noticed that I should have cut the rhubarb into smaller pieces before freezing. Once it had defrosted it wasn't solid enough to cut into smaller pieces.


This is fresh rhubarb from the garden. Note the size of the pieces.

Place rhubarb over batter.


Sprinkle jello over rhubarb.

Mix butter, sugar and flour in separate bowl until crumbly. If I had a pastry blender I would have used it... instead I dug in with my hands.

Sprinkle over jello. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.

I prefer mine right out of the oven, but if you let it cool you can cut into nice bars.