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!
sweets
As I have mentioned before, every once in a while, I make something that is Gluten Free. Not because I have to eat GF, but because I like the idea of a recipe, it sounds yummy and it is accidently without flour. Enter these cookies. As with many of my GF creations, they are made of a nut butter (in this case, almond butter) so if you have a nut allergy, this one isn’t for you. In the recipe, I wrote 1 cup each of the mini-chips and the toffee crunch, but in the actual cookies I eye-balled it, so it’s kind of more than that. I will definitely recommend using mini-chips for these cookies though, as the bigger chips don’t incorporate very well.
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.
GORP, as one theory goes, is “good old raisins and peanuts”. Well, this GORP ain’t no regular stuff then because this trail mix is chock full of tropical fruit and nuts. I’m a big fan of trail mix and almost always make it myself. I do a lot of road trips in the summer, and it’s better than having to stop for junk food. The dried mango is particularly yummy. All the fruit and nuts are from Trader Joes, because they have the best!
















