1 9-inch baked pie shell
3 oz. cream cheese
2 T. (24 g) sugar
1 T. (15 g) milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 pints (1.5 lbs) strawberries
1 c. (200 g) sugar
3 T. (25 g) cornstarch
pinch salt
1/2 c. (125 g) water
1 T. (15 g) lemon juice
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 pint whipping cream, whipped

1. Blend cream cheese, sugar, milk, and vanilla together until smooth. Spread evenly on bottom of pie shell.

2. Wash berries, remove stems, drain and dry strawberries. Place as many strawberries as possible in pie shell, pointed sides up.* Mash remainder of berries, set aside.

3. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan; add mashed berries, water, lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Pour over strawberries and cool.

4. Top with whipped cream before serving.

For you, Annalee & Jeremy: coconut-kiwi & coconut-almond-raisin cereal.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Yields 4 dozen • (adapted from: Allrecipes.com)

1/2 c (96 g) shortening
1/2 c (113 g) margarine, softened
1 c (220 g) packed brown sugar
1/4  c (50 g) white sugar
1 c (256 g) peanut butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 c (192 g) flour
2 tsp (10 g) baking soda
1 tsp (6 g) salt
2 c (170 g) oats

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together shortening, margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the oats until just combined. Refrigerate (or freeze) dough for 15-20 minutes. Roll into balls and place on cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until just light brown.

1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
4 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup nuts (opt.)

1. In a large saucepan, bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in the flour, sugar, eggs, sour cream, almond extract, baking soda and salt until smooth.
2. Pour into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean and cake is golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes.
3. For frosting, in a large saucepan, combine butter and milk. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in sugar and extract. Spread over warm cake; sprinkle with nuts.

from allrecipes.com

This is delicious and so-not-good-for-you. Eat them warm; they taste like a triangle-shaped donut, only with more substance (=better). You really don’t need any syrup with these unless you like to eat your sugar with sugar. We made them with slices of homemade whole-wheat bread and added strawberries…so they were healthy, right?

Recipe from here.

1 egg
1 T. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. milk
1/2 c. flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
6 slices of bread, cut in half diagonally

3/4 c. sugar
4 tsp. cinnamon

In a large skillet or frying pan, heat about 1/4″ of vegetable oil over medium heat. In a shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk together egg, sugar, salt, vanilla, milk, flour, and baking powder. Test oil heat by flicking some water into the frying pan. If it pops, reduce the heat. If hardly anything happens, turn up the heat. If it sizzles, it’s just right.

Working quickly, take each half slice of bread and soak it both sides in the milk/egg/flour mixture. If you leave it in too long, it will get soggy, but you want to make sure enough of the egg mixture has soaked into the bread. Gently shake to remove excess batter and place in hot oil. Cook until puffed, golden brown, and a nice, crispy crust has formed on each side (probably 3-5 minutes per side; you really need to babysit them and make sure they’re cooking correctly) and then remove from oil and drain on a paper towel. While cooking remaining French toast, keep cooked pieces warm in an oven set to the lowest temperature it will go.

When ready to serve, roll each piece in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Serves 3

• Chicken Taquitos (cream cheese sound wrong to you? use sour cream, yogurt, etc. you can’t taste it.)
• Cashew Chicken (we always add vegetables.)
• Oatmeal Blonde Brownies (they do this weird “everyday baking mix” thing that is supposed to save you time or something, but it’s just annoying. what you should really be putting in the batter is: 1 c. flour, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt.)
• Chicken Tostadas
• Coconut Cream Pie (delicious.)
• Lemon Chicken (add vegetables and double the sauce. also, this is super lemony, so if you don’t like that, add less juice.)
• Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad
• Tomato, Pasta, & Potato Bake (better if you add sausage or some sort of meat.)

This is enough for Bret and I (generally). I love caramel corn, and this is pretty simple. I haven’t tried it yet, but you could possibly make the popcorn this way, then microwave the caramel mixture in a bowl, and then dump it in the bag and microwave it all. That way there would be less dishes to wash. Not sure how long it the caramel would need to be microwaved, but based on this, I’d say 4 minutes. Or, you could just follow this recipe:

2 quarts popped popcorn (around 1/3 c. unpopped)

1 brown paper grocery bag

1/4 c. brown sugar
1 T. corn syrup
2 T. butter
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. baking soda

Pop popcorn. Put popcorn in brown grocery bag. Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium-high temperature. Cook for 1.5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Pour caramel mixture over popcorn. Roll the top of the bag down, and vigorously shake the bag. Cook bag in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes*, removing bag from microwave every 20 seconds and shaking bag to prevent burnt areas. Cut the bag so it will lie flat. Spread the caramel corn out to cool.

*Cooking times will vary depending on your microwave. If the caramel corn is still sticky after it has cooled, it needed to be cooked longer.

chicken, noodles, alfredo sauce, vegetables, chipolte chiles in adobo sauce, cilantro

Rather exciting with the chiles.