Strawberry Shortcake.

Perfect summertime dessert.

2 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup milk

3 cups sliced strawberries

1 cup whipping cream, whipped with about 2 T powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder and sugar. Mix in butter until coarse crumbs form {I do this with my hands}. Combine milk and egg in a separate bowl. Add milk and egg mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.

Drop onto a greased cookie sheet in a large mound {about 2-3 inches in diameter}. Cook for 18 minutes. Let cool. Slice in half horizontally. Place a generous dollop of whipped cream on bottom of biscuit, top with about 1/2 cup of strawberries, each. Place top of biscuit back on and add whipped cream to the top with a more strawberries.

Makes 6 large servings.

[via Internecipes]

Triple-Layer Chocolate Sour-Cream Cake

I've always made the same type of chocolate cake. Sometimes it's a texas sheet, sometimes it has chocolate chips, sometimes it has pudding, etc. But this chocolate cake is amazing!! I've made it three times now and every time people say it's the best chocolate cake they've ever had. You have to be sure to frost it only on the tops of the layers or it will be too rich. Yum, yum, yum!!

Ingredients

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• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 bag of Chocolate Chips
• 1 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 cup Shortening
• 1 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 16-oz carton Sour Cream
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 12-oz bag of Chocolate Chips
• 1 cube Butter
• 4 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

Preparation
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1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and heavily flour three 8-inch round cake pans.
2. In a small bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl beat shortening and sugar on medium spead until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in 1/3 cup of melted chocolate chips until combined and then 8 ounces (1 cup) of sour cream. Alternately add flour mixture and milk; beat on low after each addition until combined.
4. Spread batter evenly in three pans and place all three pans on the same rack in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool.
5. Make Frosting. Melt the rest of your chocolate chips and 1 cube of butter in a small saucepan. Cool for one minute and put in a medium sized bowl. Add remaining sour cream and beat until combined. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
6. Frost the tops of each layer of the cake with a thin layer of frosting and let it spill over on the edges a little so it looks good. Unless you don't like the way mine looks...then of course you can frost it however you want.

Yum!! Best Chocolate Cake in the world. Oh...if you like sour cream.

Pie Crust

My husband is a very picky pie crust eater, but he loves this recipe. This can be used for pies or chicken pot pie. This is also the recipe used in the BYU food labs.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
ice water to make soft dough--Ice water and not just cold tap water is used so the shortening doesn't get too soft and mix in too much with the dough

Combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening to the size of peas. Gradually add ice water to form a soft dough. Divide into two disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes. (If you look closely, you should see marbling of the shortening throughout the dough. This is a good thing.) Shape as desired.

If crusts need to be pre-baked, follow the directions below, if not, follow the directions of the recipe you are using:
Bake single crust at 400 degrees F.
Bake double pie crust according to filling instructions.

Marbled Chocolate Treats

I know this blog is about dinners, but these were absolutely to die for! They make great treats to give away, or to just eat for yourself! Again, this is from Kraftfoods.com,but the picture is from last week when I made them.

8-1/2 HONEY MAID Honey Grahams, broken in half (17 squares)

6 squares Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3 squares White Baking Chocolate

LINE 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Arrange grahams on bottom of pan, cutting as needed to completely cover bottom of pan; set aside.

MICROWAVE semi-sweet chocolate and peanut butter in medium microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 min. or until chocolate is completely melted when stirred, stirring every 30 sec. Stir until well blended. Pour over grahams; spread with spatula to cover completely.

REPEAT microwave melting steps with the white chocolate. Drop spoonfuls of the white chocolate over chocolate-covered grahams. Immediately cut through the chocolate mixtures with knife several times for tiger-stripe effect.

REFRIGERATE at least 1 hour or until firm. Use foil handles to remove dessert from pan. Peel off foil. Cut dessert into bars. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

NOTE: The peanut butter is a great flavor, but it takes over the white chocolate flavor. I haven't yet made them without the peanut butter, but don't worry. I plan on it! I also didn't use the exact square sizes and definitely made more than just the 17 squares, which didn't end up square, but still tasted divine.

Sorry-no pictures!

I took pictures of both these recipes, but they looked funny. And since I only want pictures of tasty-looking food, you'll just have to use your imagination and trust me that they're good.

Caesar Salad Pizza

-1 container of Pillsbury pizza crust (or homemade if you're really krafty)

-1 1/2 C of mozzarella cheese

-mixed lettuce greens

-1 C grilled, cubed chicken

-1/2 C of parmesan cheese

-croutons

-Caesar salad dressing

-Place pizza dough in pan, or on stone, cover with mozzarella cheese and bake at 400 for 7-8 minutes. While it cooks, combine caesar salad ingredients. When the dough is finished, top with salad and enjoy!

Chocolate Layered Pudding Pie

-32 Oreos

-1/4 C Butter, melted

-2 4 serving-size boxes of jell-o chocolate pudding

-2 C milk

-1 8oz. container Cool-Whip

-Crush 24 oreos and combine with butter. Press into 9 inch pie pan; set aside. Mix pudding and milk, mixture will be relatively thick. Take about 3/4 of pudding and pour into pie pan. Gently fold in 1/2 of Cool Whip into rest of pudding and spread over first layer. Combine remaining 12 oreos, crushed, into remainder of Cool Whip and spread over second layer. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set.

Enjoy! I'll try and get pictures next time:)