Flag Cupcakes

This one's more about nostalgia than about the recipe.

Up until 4 years ago I spent every 4th of July at my Grandparent's home and acreage in Reedsport, Oregon. Each year all of my Muffett aunts, uncles, and cousins would gather here for a phenomenal holiday bash. Great food would be served, games would be played, stories would be exchanged, and fireworks (the good ones) would be lit. It was so much fun. It was one of those events that I always enjoyed and treasured, but never really understood how difficult it would be to recreate until everyone started growing up and moving away.

The food was always a potluck of the most wonderful picnic foods brought and shared by everyone. It would all be set out on my grandmother's dining table, and I remember the wonderment I had as a kid that I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I felt like it. Being able to just grab a handful of BBQ potato chips when I wanted to was a very special thing. There was roasted chicken, sandwich meats and cheeses, Grandma's unbeatable potato salad, baked beans, chips, veggies, fruit and so much more. Outside would be a big cooler full of ice and most any softdrink or juice you could want - chilled to icy perfection. We would eat watermelon on Grandma's big porch and roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a big campfire that was built each year on her gravel driveway. The sticks we used to roast with were gathered and whittled by "the boy cousins." From the moment we arrived there would be 4-8 ice cream machines churning out multiple gallons of the best homemade ice cream ever (in the earlier years we had to hand crank it). It was a simple recipe that my Grandpa Muffett used to enjoy as a child made from fresh milk and cream. We would top this delight with my Grandma's homemade hot fudge sauce. Ohhh, my mouth is watering as I type.

And each year my mom would make a wonderful half sheet white cake chilled and topped with whipped cream. She would artfully arrange blueberries and raspberries on top to make it look like a US flag. Simply beautiful and absolutely delicious. I can still taste the fresh sweetness of that chilled flag cake.

This year as we enjoyed a quiet 4th of July to ourselves, I pondered the good ole days and missed them a lot. I made these flag cupcakes in honor of my mom's flag cake, and I plan on using the month of July to prepare and enjoy many of the other foods that I remember so fondly. Next up Muffett Homemade Ice Cream with Grandma's Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce - I can hardly wait!

Flag Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix
1 container White Frosting
1 pint fresh blueberries
1 pint fresh raspberries
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Prepare cake mix as directed on box and bake into 20 cupcakes. Allow to cool then frost cupcakes with frosting. Arrange blueberries on 4 of the cupcakes, raspberries on 8 of the cupcakes, and dip the remaining 8 cupcakes in the coconut. Arrange on a platter or breadboard as pictured above to look like a US flag.

Lemon Berry Tart

So you made that wonderfully tart lemon curd.  And whipped it into a light and fluffy lemon mousse.  Let's take it a step further and make a lemon tart to pile sweet berries upon!  I used frozen blueberries for this one (my kids and I picked 25 pounds at The Berry Patch in Sadler, TX), but it is also de.light.ful. with fresh berries mounded on top - strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries. . . whatever berries you have on hand.

Lemon Berry Tart

First make your tart shell. . .

Tart shell
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 tsp salt
9 Tbs very cold unsalted butter, chopped up into small dice
1 large egg 

Add the flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor and pulse a couple of times until they’re mixed together. Add in your COLD lumps of butter. Pulse for a few beats. The mix will look coarse and grainy and a few pea-sized butter bits should remain.

Add in your egg - pouring it around the whole surface. Pulse again, paying close attention to not let the food processor get away from you. Let it come almost to a ball of dough but not quite. Then  knead the rest by hand. Overprocessing the dough can make it tough.

Unload it to a work surface and give to a few turns and presses until it just comes together.  Form the dough into a disk shape. Wrap the disk in plastic and refrigerate for a couple of hours to chill the dough thoroughly.

Roll out your chilled dough on a lightly floured surface. It should be about 3 inches larger in diameter that your tart pan. I like to roll my dough on a piece of parchment or wax paper to keep it from sticking to the counter. Sparingly sprinkle with flour as needed to keep it from sticking.

Once rolled, drape it over your rolling pin and transfer it to your tart pan. Peel away the parchment paper if you used it. Press it into your tart pan, making sure to get it to butt up against the corner edges of the pan. If you get tears in your dough, patch it with the scraps. The excess can hang over the edge. Cut away the excess.

Prick the tart all over with a fork and place the tart shell in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before baking (or longer, if you want to make it the day before). This will help the shell keep its shape when the heat of the oven hits it.

 

 

 

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Remove the shell from the freezer and tightly fit a sheet of tin foil inside the tart shell, taking care to tuck it into the contours. Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake the shell approxiamately 25 minutes - or until golden brown. Let cool completely before filling.

 

 

Next let's make our blueberry topping - if you're using fresh fruit just skip this step!

Blueberry Topping

1 cup blueberries - fresh or thawed from frozen

1/4 cup sugar

1 T. cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1/4 t. lemon zest (optional)

Place the blueberries in a small saucepan. In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle over the blueberries, add water and stir. 

 

 

Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens and becomes clear. 

 

 

Stir in lemon zest if desired.

 

 

Now let's assemble that tart!

Remove your cooled tart shell from the pan and place it on a pretty plate or cake stand.  Spoon your lovely lemon mousse into the shell until it is 1/2 inch from the top.  Mound with beautiful fresh berries - or - drop spoonfulls of your blueberry topping onto the mouse.  Gently swirl by running a knife slowly through the berry topping.  Enjoy!

 

 

Lemon Mousse

 Ok, so now we've made our lemon curd (click here if you missed it).  If you didn't eat it all up yet, we can use it to make a wonderful lemon mousse.  This mousse is delicious served all on it's own, or it can be used as an ingredient in tarts, cakes and pies. 

Lemon Mousse

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon curd

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and heavy cream to soft peak stage.

Because we whipped air into the cream and made it light and delicate, and because the curd is heavy and dense, we will fold the cream into the curd gradually, so we don’t completely deflate the cream. Scoop a third of the whipped cream into the bowl with the curd. You can eyeball this. It doesn’t have to be exact. Gently fold it in.

Scrape in the rest of the heavy cream and fold it in.

That's it. You're done. Easy peasy. Now you're faced with the tough decision of whether to spoon it into parfait cups to eat right away, or perhaps take it a step further and make a lemon berry tart - recipe to follow!

Whatever you decide, make sure you refrigerate your treat until you're ready to eat or use it :)

Lemon Curd

Lemon curd - oh how I love your happy color and the way your bright flavors zing my tongue and make my cheeks pucker with your sweet sourness.  So summery and a great way to use fresh lemons when you find them 10/$1.  Once you've made your delicious lemon curd (which tastes awesome by the spoonful) you can turn it into Lemon Mousse or a Blueberry Lemon Tart or Lemony Sunshine Cupcakes.  All of these recipes will soon follow. I guess this will be my first "blog recipe series."

But for today, let's start with the basic ingredient for all of these lemony wonders - the lemon curd.  This is by far the easiest lemon curd recipe ever.  It requires no tempering of the eggs and no straining.  I LOVE easy.  And the taste is tart perfection.  So, here we go.

Lemon Curd

6 Tbs butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
4 drops food coloring, optional

Seriously - aren't these some of the prettiest ingredients ever!

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.)

Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. I know, 15 minutes is a long time, but while you're stirring you can imagine all the wonderful ways you will be enjoying your delightful lemon curd. When it has thickened enough it will stick to the back of your spoon and when you run your finger through it it leaves a path. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and optional yellow food coloring (I did not use food coloring in this batch). For this recipe I prefer to peel my lemons with a potato peeler which gives me big chunks of zest.  I can then chop them into the size I want (I like bigger bits) and freeze the leftover zest for when I want to brighten the flavor in some of my other recipes.

Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. Or you can spoon it into small canning jars that can go into either the refrigerator or freezer. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

You can also substitute limes and make lime curd - this too is awesome stuff!!

Yield: 2 cups

Here's a teaser for what we might do with our lemon curd. . .

Are you hungry yet?

Strawberry Pizza

I adore strawberries, and it is making me really happy to see them in the grocery store looking so fresh and juicey.  I guess it's time to break out some of my favorite strawberry recipes. This is a recipe my mom used to make for us when I was growing up.  We lived in Oregon where some of the worlds best berries are grown, so we had access to fresh from the field U-pick berries. Back when my mom used to make it, she would make it on a pizza pan in a circular shape - thus the name strawberry pizza.  I, however, am shamefully lazy and find it much easier to make when you just dump the crust into a 9x13 pan. So what I end up with is a lame rectangular "pizza."  In my defense, I notice that rectangular pizzas are the latest trend with all the big pizza companies :)

I made this recipe for valentines day this year and it was gone berry, berry fast.

Strawberry Pizza

1 cup flour

1 stick butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup Cool Whip

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 quarts strawberries

1 container strawberry glaze

Make the crust by mixing the flour, butter, and 1/4 cup powdered sugar. I use my fingers to work the butter in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Don't overwork it - you should still see bits of butter.

Press onto a 12 inch pizza pan or, if you're lazy like me, into a 9x13 inch pan. 

See the bits of butter in there? That will make your crust light, tender and flakey.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool. 

What's so funny? My crust is cracking up :) 

It must be saying "cheeeeeeeeese."  Which is what we need to spread on next.

To make the cheese layer, cream softened cream cheese and powdered sugar. 

Mix in the Cool Whip.

And spread on your cool and happy crust.

Rinse and dry your strawberries really well.

I like to slice mine up and arrange them in rows to top my pizza, but you do whatever makes you happy.

Your "pizza sauce" is going to be Strawberry Glaze.  You can usually find it in the produce section near (gasp) the strawberries :) This is the one they had at my grocery store:

Spoon your strawberry sauce over the top of your pizza, and use the back of the spoon to gently spread over all of the berries.

Sorry 'bout the color of that glaze - waaaaaay too bright.

Pop your pizza in the fridge and chill until ready to serve. 

If you made a cool circular pizza on a pizza pan like my mom always did, you can cut cool pizza shaped slices. If you made the more modern and trendy rectangular version (notice no mention of lazy here), then you can cut yourself a square slice.

Again, sorry 'bout the color of that blinding, red glaze.  It looks much more appetizing in real life!

Enjoy your strawberry dessert pizza.  No need to say cheese, you'll be smiling once you take a bite!

Mango Salsa - Home Canned

This is a new recipe I recently tried, and I absolutely love it!  It's got that whole sweet, tangy, spicy thing going on, and I love that it was so easy to do.


Mango Salsa

6 cups diced firm mango (about 6 – not ripe)
1 ½ cups diced red bell pepper (about 2)
3 ripe medium tomatoes
2 large jalapeno peppers
½ cup finely chopped yellow onion
2 Tbs chopped cilantro
½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 Tbs finely chopped garlic
2 Tbs finely chopped ginger
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar (5%)
¼ cup lime juice
½ cup water

1. Wash and rinse pint canning jars; keep hot until ready to use. Prepare lids according to manufacturer's directions.

2. Wash all produce well. Peel and chop mangos and tomatoes into ¼ inch cubes. Finely dice bell pepper and jalapenos.  Finely chop yellow onions and cilantro.

3. Combine all ingredients in an 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce to simmering, and simmer 5 minutes.

4. Fill clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids.

5. Process in a boiling water canner.   Pints 15 minutes or quarts 20 minutes.  Let cool, undisturbed, for 12 to 24 hours and check for seals.

Yield: 4 pint jars

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

This week I was asked to make 50 chocolate dipped strawberries for the final evening of the Girls' Camp which my daughters have been attending.  When asked to do it, I was surprised to realize that I had never actually dipped strawberries before, but I knew I could figure it out.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Strawberries - large, firm & ripe
Chocolate Almond Bark
Wax paper

First I washed and dried my berries leaving the green stems intact.

Then I melted my Almond Bark in the microwave, stirring after every 30 seconds so as not to overheat the chocolate.

I used a 2 cup glass Pyrex to melt my chocolate in, because I wanted the chocolate to be deep enough for the tallest strawberries.

My son Harrison was a great helper.  We started with the tallest berries first because the chocolate was deepest and worked our way down to the smallest berries.  After dipping each berry we held it above the chocolate and swirled it in a circle a few times to get the excess chocolate off and allow the chocolate to flow into the nooks and crannies of the berry.  We laid our berries on a sheet of wax paper to allow the chocolate to set.  A few minutes in the refrigerater and they were all ready to go.

It was a fun and easy project, and they tasted oh, so delicious.  Next time I will drizzle some white chocolate over the top to make them even prettier.