Recipe Review-Dump Cake

Well this is about the easiest dessert recipe in the history of the universe! And delicious :)

Ingredients:

1 can fruit pie filling (I used strawberry)
1 can fruit pie filling (I used peach)
1 box yellow cake mix (I used butter flavor)
1 cup butter, melted

Directions:

In a greased 9 x 13 in pan layer ingredients as listed above. Do not mix but try to be sure all the cake mix is covered with the melted butter. Cook in oven at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. Cool. Enjoy. Maybe with ice-cream :) Two thumbs up!

Speaking of two thumbs up. Last time was a lie. Jeff HATES brown rice. You know, of the fiesta salad recipe variety. How could he have liked the fiesta salad, then? Good question. He didn't. Nice. AT least he was sweet about it, I guess? And that's all for now. I think we might have a snow day tomorrow. I hope so!

Recipe Review-Fiesta Salad

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (hmph-see below for unpleasant details*)
1 6 0z can tuna
1/2 c diced celery
1/4 c chopped green pepper
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. sour cream
1 tomato, diced
corn chips

Directions:
combine cooked rice, tuna, celery, green pepper and lemon juice. Blend seasonings with the sour cream and stir into rice mixture. Chill for 1 hour (or two days). Garnish with tomatoes and serve with corn chips. I kept the tuna and peppers separate so that Jeff could add the tuna to his and I could add the peppers to mine. I actually heated mine up and melted cheddar cheese on it. We both put taco sauce and sour cream on ours and crunched the tortilla chips up into the whole thing. (which probably helped mask the fact that the rice was still not totally soft. yay.) All in all it turned out really yummy and I would fix it again. Using minute rice. Two thumbs up.







*So, this is quite the recipe story. First of all, there is a HUGE difference between minute rice and the other kind of rice. I, being the kitchen savvy gal that I am, have never used the "other" kind of rice. Until now. I got the rice for this recipe in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods. Pretty awesome, right? No. Not if you don't know how to cook it. Which I didn't. And still don't. So instead of adding equal parts water and rice, bringing to a boil, removing from heat and simmering while covered for 5 minutes, I boiled and boiled and simmered and simmered and added more water and covered and uncovered and after an hour and 15 minutes I finally gave up and we had grilled cheese sandwiches. I left the rice in the pot while we ate and I think it somehow, finally, got mostly done. So I stored all the other ingredients and we ate this meal two days later. Oi Vey.

In other food news, how awesome are these pitas?!


and this decadent chocolate cake, which is almost as good as the one at Whole Foods, if I would just stop overcooking it!

Recipe Review-Lemon Tart

I made this tart for dessert night with the girls. It looks so pretty (as do the rest of the desserts) however it was SO TART! I couldn't even eat one bite without puckering like I've never puckered before. It was way too sour for both Jeff and I. I took the leftovers to work, though, and it was gone by mid morning, so I guess it was OK. I'm just more of a chocolate person, I guess.

Lemon Tart
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/02/in-the-kitchen-with-marjorie-taylors-lemon-tart.html

Pâte sucrée (I guess this means pie crust in fancy talk ;)

Makes enough pastry for 2 tarts (I bought my crusts. What? making the filling was plenty of baking for me!)

1/4 cup heavy cream
2 large egg yolks
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
A pinch of sea salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Whisk the cream and the eggs together in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter. Using your fingers, incorporate the butter until you have a coarse meal. Gradually add the cream and yolks, and mix until just combined. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Bring the dough together with your hands to incorporate completely. Divide the dough in half, shape into disks, and wrap one of them to freeze and use later.

If the dough is soft, put it into the refrigerator for a few minutes prior to rolling. Place it on a lightly floured work surface, and sprinkle with a little bit of flour. Roll it into a 1/4-inch-thick circle, flouring as needed. Started at one side, roll and wrap the dough around the rolling pin to pick it up. Unroll the dough over the 9-inch tart pan. Gently press the dough into the pan, being careful not to stretch it as this will cause it to shrink when baking. To remove the excess dough, work your way around the edge pinching off the excess dough with your fingers. Chill for 1 hour before baking.

Preheat the oven to 375

Line the tart pan with the pâte sucrée. Prick the bottom with a fork and line the shell with parchment paper. Fill the lined tart with dried beans or pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Take the tart out of the oven and carefully remove the parchment paper and dried beans. Return the tart to the oven, and bake until golden brown turning as needed to ensure even color. Set aside on a rack to cool completely.

Lemon Curd (I guess curd is supposed to be an appetizing word?)

Makes enough filling for one nine-inch (23cm) tart, or about ten 3.5” (9cm) mini-tarts, depending on their depth

4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup lemon juice, about 5 lemons (Jeff totally juiced these for me. He's my tart hero!)
5 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

A pinch of sea salt

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and lemon juice together in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the lemon curd has thickened and coats the back of the spoon, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. (The consistency is like melted-ice cream)

Remove the lemon curd from the heat and add the butter a little at a time, stirring to incorporate each addition before adding more. Season with the sea salt.

Strain the lemon curd into the prepared tart shell(s) while the curd is still warm. Decorate the tart with thin slices of lemon and chill for at least 3 hours. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraiche. (more fancy talk)

No thumbs up from the Schurz home. Oh well.

Recipe Review-Sun dried tomato dip

Sun Dried Tomato Dip

Jeff and I sampled a dip at Whole Foods and instead of buying thought it would be fun to try to make it. It was GREAT!

Unfortunately the ingredients are all “to taste” meaning I didn’t measure anything. So, I’ll give you some approximations and then you can make it to fit you!

7-8ish sun dried tomatoes (we got these from the bulk isle, dried, then soaked them in water)
8ish oz cream cheese
1/3 ish cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 Tbsp ish dried basil (fresh would be so much yummier)
A little garlic salt
A little sea salt
Other spices/herbs to your liking

Blend all in food processor. Serve with chips, pitas, or whatever!

Two thumbs WAY up :)