So, It’s my best friend’s birthday this weekend, so I am up at her place, visiting in Maine. And of course, there was a birthday cake to be made, so I made this amazing Mountains of Berries Cheesecake. It’s a vanilla cheesecake and fresh berries that I picked myself (well, at least the raspberries and blueberries). It’s goinng to be a disaster to cut, but that is ok because it will still taste good!
As is usual in later June, usually the first weekend after the summer solstice, I went PYO Strawberry picking today. It wasn’t great weather, and I picked less berries that usual because they seemed smaller, there were less of them, and the impending rain. As usual, I have plans for the berries, so stay tuned. Here is my first recipe: a crumble bar stand-by: Strawberry Almond Crumble Bars. Bursting with fresh strawberry flavor!
Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day. Not just for me, but it definitely felt like the entire circle of friends around me had an elevated stress day. It wasn’t good. But you know me with particularly hard days, that usually means that I end up baking something. That “something” this time was cupcakes, Triple Chocolate Cupcakes to be exact. It started with Trish musing about chocolate cake and morphed from there. So, in essence, it’s all Trish’s fault. 😛 For now, though, enjoy the cupcakes: dark chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream frosting and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. While it didn’t make the day less stressful, I was in a better state after making them.
It seems that every where you go, you’re overrun with rhubarb this time of year around here. Apparently it’s been a bumper crop and people are practically giving it away. So here is a new recipe to use some of your harvest. I know that the berry accompaniment tends to be strawberries, but I thought that I would change it up with raspberries. And ginger. Love ginger.
I found out a few hours ago that today is National Chocolate Chip Day. This is not to be confused with National Chocolate Chip COOKIE day, but just the chip itself. Well, you know what happens when I find out about these things? Well, of course I had to dig out some chocolate chips and make something. These are just your average Toll House “Back of the Package” type of cookies, but I did have a blend of three types of chocolate chips to make them a little more unique. As Cookie Monster would say Nom Nom Nom Nom!