nothing says summer quite like a barbeque... and strawberry rhubarb crisp

I don't have words enough to express how happy I am to be back in Guelph.  I'm not even sure I really have a super awesome reason other than it's just home. 

On Saturday morning Josh Kyleigh and I went to the Guelph Farmers Market to get some produce for the salads and dessert I made for our little family barbeque.

 

I made a cucumber salad with peppers parmesan cheese and balsamic vinegar dressing.  There really isn't a recipe for this one, just as much or as little of each thing as you want and mix.

Broccoli salad with an entire pound of bacon.  You can't go wrong with an entire pound of bacon. 

Broccoli Salad

from the big red book

  

1 big head of broccoli, cut into tiny florets
1 lb really well cooked bacon, crumbled
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Dressing

 1 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellmann's and not Miracle whip for this one)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar

Mix the dressing well.  Pour it over the salad stuff and let it sit for an hour or so till you're ready to serve it.

 

Margie was wonderful enough to make her super awesome and delicious corn salsa.  

The burgers and hot dogs are pretty self explanatory.

And to top it all off, a strawberry rhubarb crisp made with local strawberries and rhubarb.  Is there a better combination than strawberries and rhubarb?

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

from back to basics

2 lbs of fresh strawberries and rhubarb

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour 

Topping

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar 

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, combine strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and 1/4 cup flour.

In a medium bowl, combine remaining 1/2 cup flour and the butter.  You can use a food processor or a stand mixer, but  I find it so much easier to just get my hands dirty.  Add brown sugar and oats and mix until combined.  Sprinkle over strawberries and rhubarb.

Bake until strawberries and rhubarb are tender and topping is golden, 35 to 45 minutes.

It was such a wonderful night, and Kyleigh had the enormous privileged of being surrounded by so many people who love her.  If this barbeque was any indication of how amazing this summer is going to be, I'm not sure I'll be able to contain my excitement, or my need to celebrate with dessert.  Life is just sweeter with dessert isn't it? 

Oh how sweet it is.

lemon graham cracker dessert

  

This is probably one of my favourite desserts ever.  We used to have it a lot growing up, and I have a lot of memories of being the one making it.  Not only is it a favourite, but it's super easy.  Graham crackers, lemon pie filling, whipped cream, a simple water icing and melted chocolate... layer it and you're done.  It's that easy. 

Graham cracker layer.

Add lemon pie filling.

 

Another layer of graham crackers.

 

Whipped cream layer.

More graham crackers.

Spread a simple water and sugar icing over the crackers.

 

 

Lemon Graham Cracker Dessert 

from the big red book

1 box of graham crackers

1 box of prepared lemon pudding/pie filling

500ml sweetened whipped cream 

Enough icing that it adds a thin layer over top (icing sugar and water)

As much or as little chocolate of whatever kind you want, melted

You really can't screw this up.  In a 9x13 baking dish, start with a layer of graham crackers.  On the next layer, add the lemon filling.  It can be hot or cold, it really doesn't matter, and then more crackers.  Next add the 2 cups of already whipped sweetened cream and then more crackers.  Lastly spread the icing over the top and then drizzle the melted chocolate.  Refrigerate until cool and then dig in!

Notes:  We always used the lemon pudding and pie filling that you had to cook, not instant, but I'm sure instant would be fine.

We always used milk chocolate, but really, you can use whatever you want.

The best part about this dessert was that it always tasted better the longer it stayed in the fridge.  By the next day the graham crackers aren't cracker like anymore but soft.  So so delicious. 

Lemon Bread

 Everything about today feels like spring.  It's 13 degrees in Fergus right now, the sun is shining and the snow is melting.  It just makes me so excited for spring.  With spring comes Easter, and while I know it's a bit early considering it's only the beginning of March, Easter and lemons just go together for me.  I've been meaning to make this lemon bread for a few weeks now, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to do it when it was blistering cold out and snowing.  Today though, today it just felt perfect.

Lemon Bread
from the big red book
yield: 1 loaf

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup white sugar

6 tbsp butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

pinch of salt

1 1/2  tsp baking powder

rind of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, flour, milk, salt, lemon rind, and baking powder and mix until smooth. 

Transfer to baking pan, and bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Topping:

 

Combine the juice of 1 lemon and 1/3 cup white sugar.

While still hot and in the pan, take a skewer and poke holes right through the bread and then pour the lemon juice and sugar over the top.  Let it sit for a few minutes before you take it out of the pan so the topping sets. 

Transfer to a cooling wrack and then enjoy!

Delicious.

Simply delicious.  Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did!

rice krispie cake

I should have known better then to ask my brother in law what kind of birthday cake he wanted.  I also should have known I was going to get some crazy elaborate request when it took him 10 minutes to answer.  This is what he gave me.

Peanut butter ball cake with strawberries and chocolate.  

It was then up to me to figure out what to do.  Thank you to my mother in law for helping me brainstorm!

 

Peanut Butter Balls

from the big red book

1 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth it doesn't matter)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup golden corn syrup

5 cups rice krispies

In a sauce pan, melt the peanut butter, brown sugar and corn syrup.  Add rice krispies and mix quickly.  While they're still relatively hot, cover your hands in butter and roll into balls.  These freeze super well.

In the case of the "cake" I opted to press the mixture into two 8" cake pans.  

Strawberry Rice Krispies

by back to basics

4 tbs butter

1 3 oz package of strawberry jello

1 250 g package marshmallows

5 cups rice krispies

On medium low heat, melt butter then add jello and stir.  Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Add rice krispies and press into two 8" cake pans.

To assemble the "cake" I started with the peanut butter layer, added a layer of chocolate frosting, then the strawberry layer and more forsting and then the other peanut butter layer.  I had an extra layer of strawberry rice krispies that I sent home with the birthday boy, but it could easily have been incorporated into the "cake".  Cover the whole thing in more chocolate frosting, and Shane's insane concoction of peanut butter balls and strawberry and chocolate was finished. 

By far this was the weirdest request for a birthday cake I've ever had.  He seemed to love it though, and that's all that really matters.  Happy Birthday Shane.