Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is by far one of my favorite desserts. What's not to love about a soft, sweet shortcake with whip cream and strawberries all over it? It has been a tradition in my family that every year on my birthday we have strawberry shortcake. I didn't get it this year :( so i decided I would make it myself! A couple friends had half moved back from Montreal this summer (half as in she has moved back and he has yet to make the transition back to the Prairies) and they were coming over for a dinner party so why not make something special for them? I made an entire dinner but as I already featured one of those recipes in my last blog post I figured I would focus on the dessert in this post. Plus one of the recipes, though delicious, I will never make again so I'll just leave that one in the archives.
I got this recipe from my mom as this is normally the shortbread recipe that she uses and I have yet to have a better strawberry shortcake than hers. Mine was equally as good for the record. So here goes:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk

For the glaze: milk and granulated sugar

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Next, cut in butter finely. Combine the sour cream and milk and then add to the dry ingredients. Stir mixture with a fork until all the ingredients are combined and you have a soft, slightly sticky dough.
Gather the dough onto a floured surface and need until smooth, about 8 times. Roll or pat the dough into either one large round, or 6 individual rounds. I opted for the 6 individual rounds as I wanted to make each person an individual cake. I fear that my dough may have been just a touch too tough as I first patted it out into one large round, realized that was not my plan (I was following the directions a little too carefully), then cut it into 6 pieces and rolled those pieces out again.
I put the cakes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brushed each of them with the milk and sugar glaze.

There they are, all cute and ready to be baked. I had set the oven at 425 degrees and baked them about 15 to 20 minutes or until they looked like this...

Aren't they just adorable? I left them out to cool completely. In the mean time I prepped my whip cream (whipping cream and powdered sugar in a mixer until stiff peaks form) and strawberries (cut up and then mixed with a tiny bit of sugar just before serving). I cut each cake in half and then layered them with the whip cream and strawberries to make this...

Ta-da! What a perfectly delicious looking strawberry shortcake. Pair this with a glass of wine and you have perfection.
Yay for summer!

- A

Parmesan, parmesan, parmesan

Today's recipes are brought to you by Parmesan cheese. And lots of it. I found a recipe for Broiled Tilapia Parmesan and Parmesan and Basil Orzo and thought, well what the heck, let's make those together.

I never used to be a fish/seafood person until a few months ago. I had always considered myself as someone who likes literally all kinds of food but the fact that I didn't like fish went against the schema I have for myself (I said that exact sentence to my mom and she says, "You've read too many Psychology textbooks." I'm a Psychology major, I can't help it).  Anyway, I started buying more fish and cooking it at home - which my husband has been happy about - and now I can't believe that I wasted so many years without this delicious food group! Here's the recipe I found on allrecipes.ca for Broiled Tilapia Parmsean:

• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/8 teaspoon celery salt
• 2 pounds tilapia fillets

First, I started preheating my broiler in my oven. That baby sure doesn't take a long time to heat up. I lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and added a liberal amount of cooking spray. Then I mixed all the ingredients together - except for the fish - in a small bowl.

 It's important that the butter is soft but not completely melted into a liquid. You still want it to be semi solid so you can spread it on the fish easily and it actually stays there.
Now, arrange your fish filets on the baking sheet in a single row, like so...

Broil the filets for 2-3 minutes then flip over and broil the other side for about 2-3 minutes as well. Once both sides have been broiled take the fish out of the oven and cover with the Parmesan mixture and broil for a couple of minutes more. I found that I only needed to broil it for about a minute more, also because it started smoking like crazy.

And there it is. I must say, this was quite a delicious recipe that I will definitely make again. As for my side dish, here's the recipe for Parmesan Basil Orzo that I found off of Pinterest. Here's the link: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/orzo-with-parmesan-and-basil-2/

• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 1-½ cup Orzo
• 3 cups Chicken Or Vegetable Stock
• 6 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Basil
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Pepper

First melt the butter in a saucepan. Once melted, add the orzo and saute for a few minutes, until the orzo is a nice golden brown color.

It's a little hard to see in this picture but I'm pretty sure that's what I achieved here. Once you reach this point, add the broth and cook for about 20 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. After that, remove from heat, add the basil and the Parmesan, stir it up and enjoy.

Finished meal. You could also add a salad or vegetable of some sort to help complete this meal. I don't usually make more than two things when it's just my husband and I. Guests are fed better than I feed myself at my house.
That's all for now.

- A

Lasagna Cupcakes

Daryl, Chantelle - this one's for you guys...

I love lasagna. Really, who doesn't? It's the ultimate good. Also, who doesn't love cupcakes? Seriously. Putting the two together? Ugh, perfection.
This comes from another recipe I found on Pinterest and along with a few twists courtesy of yours truly, this recipe is going into my favorites folder. The genius part of this recipe is that instead of using lasagna noodles and boiling them and trying to make them cupcake size it uses wonton wrappers! Best idea ever.

Here's the link: http://quick-dish.tablespoon.com/2011/03/31/lasagna-cupcakes/?nicam1=content_pcc&nichn1=Outbrain&nipkw1=Lasagna-Cupcakes&niseg1=TBSP_Traffic&nicreatID1=QuickDish

And here we go...

 24 wonton wrappers (uses 2 in each, makes 12 cupcakes)
1/3 pound ground beef
2ish cups grated Parmesan cheese
2ish cups mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 cup pasta sauce (I used my own recipe here)
Italian parsley (yes I still have lots).

First, you want to preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Start browning your ground beef and as you do that you can start to put one wonton wrapper in each muffin cup. The recipe said to cut the wonton wrappers into circles but I left them as squares as I thought it would look a little more rustic (the original recipe suggests that as well).

Once you have the first wonton wrappers in the muffin tin, you can start layering. First, add some ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella. Then add a little bit of ground beef, and tomato sauce on top. Put the second wonton wrapper on top of that.

Add another layer of parmesan, mozzarella and the remaining ricotta. Then beef and sauce again. At the end add the remaining parmesan and mozzarella and top with italian parsley (or herb of your choice).

Once these babies are assembled like so, bake them in the preheated oven for 18-20 mins or once the edges are browned and the cheese is bubbly.

Let the cupcakes cool for about 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan.

It might be illegal for something so cute to also be so tasty.

Attempting to get a picture of the layers on the inside. Needless to say these were super easy and super delicious. Chantelle - we need to see each other again soon so we can make these together like I promised.

I've got so many more delicious demonstrations on the back-burner. Hopefully I'll find time to blog a little more frequently!

- A


***I made this for a second time and used ground turkey instead of ground beef and mixed in some pesto with the ricotta - because pesto makes everything better - and it was even more delicious the second time around***