elsa's blueberry pie

This is a recipe that my friend Elsa sent me, that sounds fantastic. I have not yet tried to make this, but will do so in the next few days! Elsa's sweet tooth is as strong as mine, so I can guarantee you this will be delicious!! Unfortunately, this recipe is in cups so anyone in England might have to use a converter. According to Elsa, this recipe is very easy to make, and I look forward to doing it! So here it is:

Elsa's Super Easy Blueberry Pie/Tart!

CRUST
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold
1 tablespoon white vinegar

FILLING
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
4 1/2 cups blueberries divided into 2 1/2 cups and 2

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 10 inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Combine flour, salt and sugar.
Cut in the butter with pastry blender or fork.
Mix in the vinegar.
Pat crust onto bottom of springform pan and 1 inch up side.
For filling, combine sugar, flour and cinnamon.
Add 2 1/2 cups of blueberries.
Place evenly on top of crust.
Bake for 1 hour.
Remove from oven and put remaining 2 cups blueberries on top, lightly pressing them in.
Cool completely.
Remove rim and serve from springform bottom.


This is an unbelievably good recipe! I am ashamed to say, I ate four pieces... not leaving much for our guests!

1. m10
   

renee's million dollar cookies

These cookies are amazing. When Renee came over to lunch, she brought them. Afterwards, we just left the box open and, while chatting, we'd casually reach in and pick up our sixth one. Mentally, we'd chide ourselves. Stop it! You've had enough! Now concentrate on the conversation and... What did I say?? STOP EATING THOSE COOKIES! Our efforts were futile. The box of cookies disappeared very very very quickly, along with our appetites. So here is the recipe:

renees million dollar cookies (aka toffee chocolate chip cookies)

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup Heath bits
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Combine the first four ingredients. At medium speed, mix butter, both sugars, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Add dry ingredients. Mix in remaining ingredients. Refrigerate for two hourd. Roll into 1" balls and place on cookie sheets 2" apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

homemade popsicles

These popsicles are delicious, fun and very easy to make. It is great fun to choose your own flavors, my favorite being limeade. Some flavors, however, may not work as well as others. For instance, I made a blueberry smoothie and made a popsicle out of it, and it wasn't very good. I pretended to eat it for a while, making the smallest lick possible and finally surreptitiously threw it away. But all juices will work beautifully, such as lemonade or cloudy apple juice. Be careful: anything with pineapple in it will not freeze at all.

*****
Homemade popsicles

Juice
Cup
Stick
( if you have a special popsicle mould, that works much better)

This is very simple. Just pour the juice into your cup or mould. Let it freeze for two or three hours, then if it is not fully frozen ( if it is, let thaw for a while) push you stick into the middle. Then freeze it until it is very hard. Run hot water overy the glass, and take your popsicle out. Mmmmmm!
*****
Experiment with flavors here, sometimes the unusual can be very good!

cookie crumble sundae

The cookie crumble sundae requires very little preparation, but is delicious and perfect for a hot summer day, equally as good as homemade popsicles! (Recipe on next post!) After a single bite, you will eat this ice cream faster than you can say, ' delicious!' Of course, you will have your cookie crumbs in your mouth so it will sound a bit more like: "mrrrrrrrmmmmmmyyyyshummmmmm!', this of course being accompanied by more mad eating.

cookie crumble sundae

3 scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream
2 cappucino cookies ( recipe to come soon)
hot fudge sauce
2 chocolate eclairs
1 maraschino cherry ( optional. if not included, use 3 eclairs.)

Scoop all 3 scoops of ice cream into a very large bowl. Drizzle carefully with hot fudge sauce, and sprinkle all over with cookie crumbles. If you use a cherry, put it in the middle scoop and an eclair on the other scoops. If you use just the 3 eclairs, put one on each scoop.

Keep looking for more great recipes: hint... cappucino cookies and homemade popsicles coming up soon!

cranberry snow

Cranberry snow is a favorite of mine. It is temptingly easy to make but requires some sort of snow, or extremely fine crushed ice. It seems strange to post this in July because of the nature of the ingredients, but frankly, at the moment, I can't actually think of anything else that I don't have to test first. I made this for the first time last Christmas, when it began to snow . At the time I was here in Connecticut and there were none of the usual issues with snow, like pollution and dirt. No, this snow was clean and fresh, so for a snack, I made cranberry snow. Here is the recipe:

*****
Cranberry Snow
Slightly more ice than you think you want, I used a large bowl as one serving.
Cranberry juice. This can be a lot or a little, depending on how strong you want the snow.

Scoop the fresh (!) snow into a bowl. Pour in about 3 spoonfuls of cranberry juice, if the mixture is a very faint pink, add some more. If it is very dark, go and find more snow. Mix these together well, and serve before it melts.

*****
This is a very simple and vague recipe, but never fails to please guests. Be warned: This uses up a surprising amount of juice if you make this for a party.