Asian Lettuce Wraps, by Cheryl

I think this might be the 4th version of lettuce wraps on here (and it's very similar to one that I posted 4 years ago), but this is a solid recipe that 3/4 of us ate.. so I'll take it! It was easy to make, healthy, and delicious! Yum!

Ingredients (recipe from here):

Bibb lettuce (I only had Romaine)

1 lb ground beef

Cooking oil

1 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 tsp minced pickled ginger

1 8oz can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

1 bunch green onions, chopped

2 tsp dark Sesame oil

Optional toppings: carrots, sesame seeds, scallions

Directions:

1) Cook beef in skillet with a dash of cooking oil until browned, about 5-7 minutes. Drain and set aside. Cook and stir onion in the same skillet until slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in hoisin sauce, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger into onions. Add water chestnuts, green onions, sesame oil, and cooked beef. Mix and continue to cook for a few minutes. 

2) Arrange meat onto a lettuce leaf and top with optional toppings (carrots, scallions, sesame seeds, etc.) 

Mistake Cake, by Diane

This is a recipe I have been making for years for our family and I have just never thought to post it! This cake is a riff on a strawberry shortcake, but we make it with blueberries for the 4th of July each year. The cake gets its name from a mistake that went wrong but so good it's oh so right and now we make it this way every year! A few 4th of July's ago, I tried to make whipped cream from scratch using whipping cream and sugar, then assembled the layers of the cake and put it in the fridge before our cookout. By the end of the meal, the whipped cream had turned to liquid and essentially melted through the layers of the cake. What started out as a massive disappointment turned into quite the discovery as the cake soaked up all the sugary creamy goodness and now we will never make it any other way!! This cake is so freakin' delicious and absolutely the taste of summer. YUM.

Ingredients:

1 ring angel food cake

1 pint strawberries, sliced

1 pint blueberries

1 8oz container heavy whipping cream

1/2- 1 1/2 cups sugar

Canned whipped cream

Directions:

1. Slice the angel food cake into three even layers and poke each layer several times with a fork, set aside. 

2. Mix cream and sugar until the sugar dissolves (use your desired level of sweetness).

3. Assemble the cake by starting with the bottom layer and drizzling about 8 tbsp of the cream mixture onto the cake, making sure it soaks in. Then cover with berries and place the next cake layer on top. 

4. Repeat for all layers, and the drizzle more cream mixture over the outsides and inside of the cake, reserving some "mistake cake sauce" for serving. Chill for 30-60 minutes to allow the sauce to absorb.

5. When ready to serve, top with dollops of canned whipped cream and berries and serve with a side of the magic sauce. Yum!!!

Cherry Pie, by Diane

 

Look at these beauties!! :)

This month for bookclub I read Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. What a cool book this was to learn all about how these elements help you cook and bake better tasting food! I wanted to test one of the recipes in the book out, and it just so happened that the next day was the first day of cherry picking season! 

This pie was really outstanding, especially the filling! I could eat entire bowls of this filing on it's own! The crust recipe was very specific and a bit time consuming, but I could see how following these steps led to a flaky almost puff pastry like crust because of the science behind the method. She really emphasizes that cold butter leads to flaky crust and so every step of the recipe accounts for this. The addition of the vinegar made the dough taste outstanding as well, mostly because of her belief that acid is a flavor booster in the right proportions. Can't wait to try more of her recipes in the future! 

One final word of advice- we ate this while it was warm because we just couldn't wait, but I would definitely let it cool because the magic happens when the filling gels back together once at room temperature!

Note: the filing recipe is separate from the book, and can be found here!

Ingredients:

Filling-

4 cups tart cherries (we had a mix of 2 types tart for 2/3 and 1/3 sweet)

1 cup sugar

4 tbsp cornstarch

1/8 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 tbsp butter, diced

1 tbsp white sugar

Crust-

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 generous tbsp sugar

 

Large pinch salt

8 oz chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 cup ice water

1 tsp white vinegar

Directions:

1. Place the flour, sugar, and salt for the crust in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, then freeze the entire thing for 20 minutes (bowl and ingredients). Freeze the butter and ice water as well.

2. Mix at lowest speed, adding in cubed butter a few pieces at a time until the butter looks like broken walnut pieces. Avoid overmixing.

3. Add the vinegar in a thin stream, and then add just enough water to mix until the dough barely holds together (if unsure, take dough in your palm and squeeze- if it crumbles add more water and if it holds together its done). 

4. Dump the dough onto a large sheet of plastic wrap and avoid touching with your hands. Wrap in a ball then cut into two halves and wrap individually and press each ball into a disk. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours.

5. While the crust chills, make the filling by placing the cherries in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cover until they lose their juice, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat.

6. Mix the cornstarch and sugar together in a small bowl and add to the cherries along with the extract and mix well. 

7. Return to the stove and cook over low heat until thickened, stirring often. You can add more cornstarch if it's not thick enough. Allow to cool completely.

8. Preheat the oven to 375, and roll out one of the dough disks to fit a 8 or 9 inch pie pan. Top with pats of butter then cover with the other dough disk.

9. Sprinkle with remaining tbsp of sugar and bake for 50 minutes. Allow to cool completely before eating.

Marinated Mushrooms, by Diane

I made these mushrooms for a salad I created for the week, and they were really good! This was a really easy recipe and would go well with a lot of things. The vinegar flavor was a bit strong for me to have eaten them on their own but they went great with salad!

Ingredients:

1 package cremini mushrooms

4 cloves garlic (2 smashed and 2 minced)

6 sprigs fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup finely diced shallot

1/4 cup EVOO

2 tbsp each white wine and red wine vinegar

3/4 tsp italian seasoning

salt and black pepper

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1 1/2 tsp finely chopped parsley leaves

Directions:

1. Fill a large saucepan w 5 cups water, add smashed garlic, thyme, 1 bay leaf and 1/2 tsp salt and bring to a rapid simmer.

2. Add the mushrooms and keep at a simmer for 3-5 minutes until tender, then drain well. 

3. While the mushrooms cook, combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl and whisk to combine well. 

4. Add the mushrooms while still warm, mix well, and marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 8 hours (up to 10 days).

Cake Pops, by Cheryl

Cake pops... need I say more? So the first half of these were super easy to make. The second half... not so much. It takes a little practice, but I did figure out some tips along the way. One, do not dip the cake pop into the white chocolate to coat it. It will break and be impossible to put back together. Two, the amount of white chocolate chips stated in the recipe is not enough at all. Mine only made 26 pops (recipe said 36) and it didn't cover all of them. Third, less is more. I used a spoon to put the coating on and then used that to move what I had all around the pop. Otherwise it drips and turns into a gooey mess. All in all I got 18.5 cake pops done, 2 broken, and 6 without any coating. BUT they are DELICIOUS! And mess free when eating. And delicious. Yum!

Ingredients (recipe from here):

1 box white cake mix

3 tbsp. white frosting

11 oz. white chocolate chips (not enough)

sprinkles

Directions:

1) Bake cake according to box directions. Let cool. 

2) Crumble the entire cake.

3) Add the frosting to the crumbled cake. Mix well until it becomes a dough and can be formed into balls. 

4) Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. 

5) Melt a small amount of white chocolate chips. Dip skewers into white chocolate and then push into cake pops.

6) Refrigerate for one hour.

7) Melt remaining white chocolate chips.

8) Roll each cake pop into melted chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. 

9) Add sprinkles quickly before chocolate hardens. 

10) Chill before serving.