There is something about a pinwheel that makes me smile. Maybe it’s the pretty colors, or the way they twirl in the wind. Or maybe it’s the memories from that little slice of my life called childhood where I was carefree and playfull. What ever it is about pinwheels, they make me happy.
I recently priced a pinwheel at Joanne’s Craft Store and a small one retailed at $1.99. Ok, granted , you can usually get them at 50% off, and it was made of plastic. But I dont usuaaly want them hanging around all summer, just long enough for an event like the 4th of July, Easter, or a birthday party.

 Case in point, my friend  just turned 50 and I made some up to decorate with for a little gathering I was having. These were a Martha Monday project picked out by Sassy Suppers.  How could I resist?

 I think they would be great for any occasion using the right paper. Stars and striped, baby print for a baby shower, school colors for a graduation. Or howabout using a pretty pinwheel instead of a bow on a gift?  Chip bag clip anyone? I think there is a scrapbook paper at there for any occassions these days.

 Martha said to glue two different colored papers back to back. You could, but I used a double printed scrapbook paper.

Martha said to use a map pin , I used a push pin. Mine dont twirl. But I’m going to pick up some map pins and make them twirl. I like to smile!

Martha said to attach them to a clothes pin, but you could use a  longer stick like maybe a popcicle stick, if ya wanted that is.

Martha said they were easy, she was right!

You can get Martha’s full detailed instructions for pinwheels here.

I also made  the Strawberry Tart from last weeks Martha Monday Project.

But I used a storebought pie crust because I had one in the freezer that I wanted to use up. I also used a homemade rhubarb jam to cover the berries instead of a seedless logenberry jam. Mine didnt turn out as pretty as some of the tarts I’ve seen, but it sure was tasty. The tartness of the rhubarb mixed with the sweetness of the strawberries was magic. I’m not a big rhubarb user so now I’m beginning to understand how the marriage of a fruit like strawberries has lasted through the trials of time with such an iteresting  stalk of a vegetable. I believe they made for each other.

 I usually like to make a custard for my fruit tarts, but Martha’s sweetened cream cheese mixture is a tasty time saver. Strawberries are in season, and this was a perfect vehicle to get them to my mouth!

Enjoy.

 Strawberry and Rhubarb Tart

adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

OR:  One store bought crust baked in a 9 inch tart pan!

• For the Filling

  • 1 bar (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 to 2 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved
  • 1/2 cup (or more) rhubarb jam

Directions

For THE JAM

•       1 lb. rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1″ piece
•  1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 vanilla bean

1. Place the rhubarb, sugar, and water in a medium saucepan.  Split the vanilla bean, scrape the soft, pulpy seeds into the pan, and toss in the pod. 
2. Bring to a simmer over low heat, and cook, stirring often, until the rhubarb softens and almost seems to melt.  The cooking time will depend on the rhubarb, but it probably won’t be more than 10 minutes. 
3. Remove the pan from the heat, retrieve the vanilla bean and discard (or save, rinse, dry, and use to flavor sugar).
   Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Recently, I was sent an Ice Cream maker from the good people at CSN Stores. Talk about quick delivery, it was here in  exactly one week after my order was placed. It was a pleasure dealing with this company.

Anyway, the ice cream maker! It’s a Cuisinart automatic maker and it is so nice. You can whip up a quart of ice cream in about 1/2 an hour. No ice, no salt, no mess!!! Just mix up your base and put it in the frozen bowl of the maker, insert the churner thingy, put the lid on and hit the “on” button.
Delicious homemade ice cream in no time. Small enough to take with us when we go camping in our RV and perfect for the dog days of Summer.

My first play date with this machine came  as soon as it arrived. I made a delicious Low Fat S’more Ice Cream. It was so good, I wish I had a quart of that in my freezer right now. I don’t, but I do have  fresh made Strawberry Ice Cream (that I like to call Chocolate Covered Strawberry Ice Cream), and some Chocolate Flake Frozen Yogurt.

The strawberry ice cream was made up of  sliced “fresh from the  patch” strawberries that were mixed with a little sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was hard to resist the berries just like that but I put them into the food processor and gave them a whirl. You see, I don’t like hard frozen chunks of berries in my ice cream. They can be as hard as ice and me no likey. So I gave them a whirl and added them to my cream base. I was just going for a balsamic strawberry ice cream type of recipe but I  had about 1/2 a cup of mini chocolate chips leftover and I just had to add them. It was a wise decision!

I also made a Chocolate Flake Frozen Yogurt It was good but it has quite the tang to it. I believe it was the yogurt I used and I think I have to play with that recipe a bit.

The Chocolate Covered Strawberry Ice Cream recipe and the giveaway are coming up. but first, check out some of these screaming recipes!

Candied Bacon Ice Creamby David Lebovitz

Cardamom Pistachio Ice cream from Modern Comfort Foods

Mint chocolate Chip from Healthy Green Kitchen (My daughter’s favorite!)

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream from Amanda’s Cookin’

Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean Ice Cream also from Amanda’s Cookin’

Pine Nut Brown SugarIce Cream from Cookin Canuck

Chai Ice Cream from Simply Recipes

Apricot Sorbet from Two Peas and their Pod

Leomonade Sherbert from Boys and Baking

Salted Caramel Ice Cream from What’s Gaby Cookin’

Rhubarb Lavender Swirl Ice Cream from Daniel and Dawns Culinary Adventure

And Now For The Giveaway!!!

Wouldn’t you love to have your own Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and make some of these delicious ice cream recipes? I’m going to be giving away one ice cream maker to one of my U.S. or Canadian readers! You have 3 chances to get your name in the hat.

 1. Just leave me a comment which ice cream you would like to try. That’s it! Simple, huh?

2. Subscribe to my blog. The subscribe tab is at the top  Just be sure to let me know. (let me know if you are already a subscriber for your extra entry)

3.Tweet, Facebook, and/or Stumble about my giveaway!

I’ll put all the entries in a hat and find someone to pick a name sometime on June 18th. All entries will be excepted until I get around to drawing a name. Good Luck!

And now…

the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe!

and your favorite wine!

Chocolate Dipped Stuffed Strawberries!

First, wash your berries and dry them very well,
then cut a v slice out of the bottom.

You then pipe in your stuffing of choice.

Then you dip them in chocolate cut side down first.

It’s a nice surprise when you bite into them and find a little cream…

or cheesecake

I took mine to a wine tasting party.

Twice.

They went with wine perfectly!

Thank you and big hugs to April of Abby Sweets for this fantastic idea.

She sold hers by the dozen last Valentines Day.

Mascarpone Cream
1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (125 ml) Mmascarpone*
1-2 Tbs (15-30 ml) sugar

* Mascarpone is an unfermented cheese from Italy, similar to cream cheese, that is available in the deli section of most supermarkets.

Whisk the ingredients together to form a thick, smooth cream. Refrigerate until ready to use. Makes about 1 1/2 cups (375 ml).

Enjoy!

With Springs arrival, I wanted something light yet sweet. When I came across this recipe in one of my cookbooks, I new this was just the recipe to welcome the sun drenched days of a perfect weekend. A chocolate angel food cake with strawberry cream layered between slices. It’s a quick and easy cake to make, that’s pretty enough to impress your guests. And it all starts with an angel food cake mix.

After baking, you just slice it into four layers and start layering that strawberry cream. I was going to dip strawberries in chocolate to garnish the cake but I messed up the chocolate and while trying to save it, it turned into a glaze. An accident that turned into a success story.
I love when that happens!

This is a “must make” recipe that’s sure to please.
Sinfully delicious!

Chocolate Angel Torte
1/3 Cup Cocoa
1 PKG (about 16 oz) angel food cake mix
2 envelopes (1.3 oz each) dry whip topping mix (like Dream Whip)
1 Cup cold nonfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup strawberry puree (see note)

1. Move oven rack to lowest position.

2. Sift cocoa over dry cake mix in large bowl,stir to blend. Proceed to make cake as directed on package. Bake and cool as directed for 10 inch tube pan. Carefully, run knife around along side of pan to loosen; remove from pan. Using serrated knife, slice cake horizontally into four layers.

3. Prepare whip topping as directed on package, using 1 cup nonfat milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Fold in strawberry puree.

4. Place bottom cake layer on serving plate; spread with 1/3 of the strawberry topping. Set next cake layer on top and spread with 1/3 of the topping. Continue layering cake and topping. Garnish with strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Slice cake with long serrated knife, cutting with gentle sawing motions. Cover; refrigerate leftover cake.

Strawberry puree
Mash 2 cups fresh strawberries (or frozen berries, thawed) in blender or food processor. Cover and blend till smooth. Puree should measure one cup.

Chocolate glaze
Melt one cup chocolate chips with 3 tablespoons fat free half and half. Pour over cake

Every since last fall, I’ve been dying to make this jam. Of course I had to wait till Strawberries were at their peak. Our strawberry patch just opened up. Big, red, ripe, delicious Strawberries in all their glory. Oh, how that makes me happy!

I saw this on some Jammin Jelly Round-up on the blog Batter-Splattered. My friend April had joined the jelly exchange, and this was the jam she sent out.I knew if it came from April, it would be good.
This recipe was so easy to make. You just cook your fruit with some sugar and vinegar and a pinch of salt. Cook it till its 220 degrees
and then add your chocolate

Swirling in the chocolate

Look at my beautiful jam!

I doubled the recipe and got 12 half-pint jars plus some extra. I had some while it was still warm on some pancakes and I was not disappointed. I think this would be excellent on a bagel with cream cheese.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam
2 lbs strawberries, sliced
4 1/2 Cups sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
pinch of salt
3 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients, EXCEPT the chocolate in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil on medium-high heat, stirring frequently for about 15-20 minutes, or until you reach 220 F on a candy thermometer. Once you reach this temp, remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and is combined. Transfer to jelly jars and top with the lids. The heat from the jam should make the tops seal. Also, you don’t need to skim off the foam, once you add the chocolate and get that all mixed in, the foam dissolves back into the jam.

Spring is here in 2 weeks and that means Summer is right around the corner. I don’t know about you but I’m not ready to break out the itty bitty teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. Or in my case, the fat lady suit.

With all the baking I do, I try to get my share of chicken and vegges. But, I always add, Diet Pie.

I got this recipe from Weight Watchers years ago. But you don’t have to be on a diet to enjoy this
pie. It’s light and refreshing and perfect for anytime. Even for company!

The original recipe calls for a low fat graham cracker crust, but I add an extra WW point (per piece) and use a chocolate crust. It was also for a lime pie but I mix it up. Strawberry, raspberry, orange, what ever my mood desires. I call it strawberry cream pie because I was to lazy to completely incorporate the cool whip into the yogurt mixture. Beside the fact, I kind of like the cream spots.

So without further adu, I give to you my version, of Diet Pie.

Diet Pie

from: Weight Watchers

Ingredients:
1 prepared low fat graham cracker crust (I just use regular chocolate crust)
1/4 cup boiling water
1 pkg (4 serving size) sugar free strawberry jello (or any flavor)
2 containers strawberry yogurt (or any flavor to match jello)
1 container cool whip

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Add yogurt. Mix well. Fold in Cool whip.
Pour into prepared pie crust. Chill 2 hours.

In Weight Watcher talk- 3 points for 1/8 piece of pie.
In Megan’s Cookin talk-4 points for 1/8 piece of pie.

Every year around Febuary, I start getting so excited for the strawberry patches to open. Of course, they don’t open till the end of April, but strawberrys stay on my mind all Spring, till I can sink my teeth into those big fresh juicy berries. There is nothing as good as local grown, fresh, perfectly ripe strawberrys. To sustain me through, till fields yield their glory, I used frozen for this quick bread.

I made mini loaves and it reminded me of zuchinni bread. The strawberry flavor is very sutle and the cinnomon seems to take center stage. Then add your Strawberry Butter and your taste buds start singing. This butter would be good on waffles or scones too.

Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. Morning, noon, or midnight munchies. I’m submitting it to Gretchen Noelle of Canela and Comino, who has selected quick breads for this month’s Homegrown Gourmet.

Strawberry Bread
This recipe from CDKitchen
for Snook’s Bayside Club

Ingredients:

3 cups All-purpose flour
2 cups Sugar
3 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 1/4 cup Vegetable oil
4 Eggs
1 1/4 pound Fresh strawberries; sliced -OR – Unsweetened frozen berries, thawed, drained and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup Walnuts, coarsely chopped (I left out the nuts for daughter reasons.)
2 (8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch) loaf pans

Strawberry Butter
By:All Recipes
ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar (I used superfine sugar)
1 tablespoon strawberry preserves DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, beat together the butter, confectioners’ sugar and strawberry preserves until creamy. Cover, and refrigerate until serving.