I absolutely LOVE strawberry season!!  Yeah, I know the peak of it was a while ago, but when I saw that strawberries were going on sale again, I simply couldn’t resist.

When it comes to pie, I feel like no one can have just one favorite.  You have to have two.  One favorite from the cream pie family, and one from the fruit family (we’ll completely ignore pecan pie…yuck!).  My favorites would be: coconut cream pie (for the creams), and for the fruits, definitely STRAWBERRY!

I’m always really upset when I’m out to eat, and the piece of strawberry pie costs more than every other piece of pie.  That being said, I’ve had my taste of many coconut creams, but strawberry pie always seem like such a delicacy.

Confession(s):  I have never made my own strawberry pie (until now…keep reading!).  I have made other pies though, so that counts, right?  I have also never made my own pastry type pie crust.  I mean, graham cracker crust is just a million times better.  Both of these things being said, these tarts were a completely new adventure for me.  I knew I wouldn’t put them on the blog if they didn’t taste good, but oh boy…they taste gooooood!

There was only one thing that I did wrong that I would change.  On many of the tart crusts, I made the crust way too thick.  I’ll admit that I was in a hurry when I made them (they had to be on time to a ward party!), so I didn’t take the time shaping them as I should.  Some of them turned out great!  But the ones with the thick bottoms could have used more filling instead of so much crust.  But hey, maybe if you’re a crust person you would have liked it more than I did!

So, as I mentioned, I took them to a party.  I took two large platters full.  Let’s just say they were one of the first things to go.  I highly recommend this treat!  It’s great for parties, showers, or just as a delightful refreshment!

Mini Strawberry Lime Tarts
Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 Tbs. strawberry Jell-O mix
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 cup butter, melted
3 Tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups flour

Directions:
1. Mix together the final four ingredients (the ingredients for the crust) just until mixed and a soft dough forms.
2. Evenly press the dough into well greased and floured miniature muffin tins.  Use just enough dough to cover the bottom and sides (leaving room for filling!), but be sure it is enough that the crust will remain strong.
3. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, mix the sugar, jell-o mix, and cornstarch together in a medium saucepan.
5. Once mixed, stir in the water, and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the liquid turns translucent (about 10-15 minutes).
6. Stir in the lime juice, and heat (while still stirring!) for an additional 1-2 minutes or until well incorporated.
7. Remove from heat and allow to cool to just above room temperature.  (The refrigerator can help you out with this!  Just don’t let it get too cold.)
8. Meanwhile, your crust should be about ready to bake.  Heat the oven to 350.  Using a fork, poke a few holes in each crust and place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans.  Once cool, gently remove from pans.
10. Meanwhile, slice your strawberries into miniature bits, and if you would like, a lime or two for garnish.
11. Once your filling has cooled to room temperature or just slightly warmer, you are ready to assemble your tarts.  Add about half the filling to your strawberries and mix to evenly coat.
12. Fill each tart with the coated strawberries.
13. Top each tart with some more glaze (it is really thick, so be patient while it fills in the cracks!)
14. Chill until ready to serve.  Garnish each piece with a lime slice immediately prior to serving (they turn pink within a few hours).  Enjoy!!

**For pie instructions, continue reading!

Since I really love strawberry pie, and I knew I would be taking my tarts to a party, I made double the filling  I had a graham cracker pie crust already on hand, so I quickly poured the rest of my filling in there and had two quick (delicious) treats in one!  Wohoo!!  To make this, just follow the recipe above for the filling, and simply place into a pie crust instead of the mini tart crusts.  Easy peasy!

Wohoo!  For those of you who have been waiting… it’s time for me to bring to you my very first craft on this blog!  And I am SO excited for this… any guesses why?  You got it.  It’s completely covered in glitter!  I suppose that should pretty much be expected for my first posted craft, but I’m still thrilled to proclaim my excitement about it.

Back in February, I was out shopping and I saw this:

I fell in LOVE with it.  I was shopping with a giftcard I got for Christmas, so I of course had no excuse to not get it, so I did

I hung it on my wall right when I got home (I figured it was almost Spring…right?? plus, I was really looking forward to the warm weather), I continued to fall in love with it even more, and then it ended up staying on my wall all the way through June and part of July because I loved it that much (and it was technically barely into summer at that point…right??).

I figured that I couldn’t leave this thing hanging up year round, but I really didn’t want to see it go!  This is when I decided that I should make one for every season so that I could have one up all the time!

DIY Glittered Seasonal Wall Hangings (A Tutorial!)
Materials Needed:
Wooden letters and shapes
Acrylic Paint
Glitter
Mod Podge
Floral Wire
1/2 x 1/2″ screw eyes
Hot glue

Tools:
Paint brushes
Wire cutter
Hot Glue gun
Pliers

1.  Select your wooden letters and shapes.  You can buy them pre-cut at most craft stores (sometimes even pre-painted!) or online.  If you can’t find a shape you want, you can buy a small sheet of wood and cut it out yourself if you have the proper tools (my dad cut out a couple shapes for me – thanks Dad!!).

2. Paint your letters and shapes using acrylic paint.  Be sure to do multiple layers if necessary.

3. Paint a thin layer of matte Mod Podge onto the top of the letters/shapes (you don’t need to get all the edges)

4. While the Mod Podge is still wet, immediately cover letter/shape with a decent amount of glitter. (Note: Your glitter and paint need to match as closely as possible!)

5.  Lift letter/shape and tap of surface to remove excess glitter.  Extra glitter can be put back in the container for future use.

6. To attach the letters together, line the letters up and screw in 1/2″ screw eyes at connecting joints.  To do this, I just used my hands (my fingers got really tired!), but you could use some pliers if you would like.  **Sometimes the wood will split!  If it starts to do this, try to move to a different spot on the letter if possible.  If not, just screw it in as little as is necessary, or place the screw in as normal and use some hot glue for extra hold (I had to do this on just one letter).**

Here are the screw eyes that I used:

7. Using a pair a pliers, open up one pair of screw eyes needed to connect each set of letters.  (If it is difficult to do this while it is screwed into the letter, quickly remove it, open up the eye, and put it back in.  But be sure to put the screws in the letters the first time while the screw eyes are closed…it’s a lot easier that way!)

8. With one pair of screw eyes open, attach connecting letters.

9. Using a pair of pliers, pinch the screw eye closed so the letters are now connected.  (Note: the eyes will have to be perpendicular to one another to hang correctly).

Here’s what mine looked like after I got all the letters attached to one another:

Next it’s time to attach all the shapes and make a hook at the top to hang it on the wall.  To do this, I used floral wire.

Here is the type of floral wire that I used:

10.  Using wire cutters, cut off a small piece (approx. 5 inches) of small floral wire and wrap it around the end of a pen to create a spring.

11.  Using hot glue, glue the spring to the back of your shape you wish to place on your wall hanging.

12.  Hot glue the other end of the spring to the desired location on your wall hanging.

13.  Using wire cutters, cut a generous length (approx. 15 inches) of thick floral wire, and bend it to the desired shape (I did a loop at the top).

14.  Cut off any extra ends from your wire.

15.  Hot glue the wire to the back of the top piece of your wall hanging. (no one is going to see this part…so it doesn’t have to be pretty )  **Alternative method: drill two holes in your top piece and stick the wire through the front.  Loop ends in the back with your wire to “tie” it off (this method was used in the spring wall hanging)**

16. Hang your masterpiece on your wall and enjoy!!

Here’s a special sneak peak of tomorrow’s post…

…be sure to stay tuned!!  (I promise, it’s going to be good!)

I seriously have a curry obsession.  I had never had any type of food with curry in it until my very first year of college, four years ago, when I moved out of my parents’ home and to a totally different town.  It’s not like my hometown didn’t have anything with curry in it (wouldn’t that be weird?), I suppose I just didn’t have it in my home growing up.

Then, I moved out and I was exploring my new college town.  This new little city that I was now a part of hosted an evening for the new students to get to know the town.  Some of the local restaurants and shops opened up and gave some free samples, freebies, tours, and other things college students love

Right on main street is a cute little Indian restaurant.  They gave out samples of Basmati rice with Chicken Tiki Masala.  I was nervous to try it, but my friend dared me, so of course I had to  That would be my first ever taste of Indian food.

Since then, I have been hooked.

I have been hooked to anything Indian, and Indian related, which of course, means curry.

I am now a regular at that little Indian restaurant.  The people there know me, and I’m not ashamed of it.

One of my good friends in my neighborhood heard of my great love for curry foods, and gave me this great recipe for curried popcorn!  My favorite (curry) + a hubby’s favorite (popcorn) = win.

When I saw that the recipe had golden raisins (a content of one of my favorite dishes from my fav. restaurant!), I didn’t know if I could buy them at a regular store, or if I would have to go to a special store to find them.  Maybe I just don’t know a whole lot about dried fruits, but I had only ever seen them in Indian food.  But…I found them at the grocery store with no problem, right by the regular raisins!

Well, as my friend Cindy said…be prepared to lick the bowl clean!!

Curried Popcorn
Ingredients:
6-8 cups popcorn (air-popped is best!)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 tsp. curry powder

Directions:
1. Mix popcorn, sunflower seeds and raisins together.
2. Mix curry powder and butter together.  Pour over popcorn mixture and stir to coat.  Enjoy!

One day I was browsing my facebook and saw a post for bread made with only ice cream and self-rising flour.

“Yeah.  Right.”  I thought.

I thought about it more though, and it made sense.  At least enough sense that I thought I would try it out to convince myself into it making full sense.

I mean, if you think about it, there are all of the essential ingredients there: flour, milk, sugar, baking powder, salt, and believe it or not, a little bit of egg is in most ice cream.

But.  I still wouldn’t believe it until I tried it.

So I ventured off to the store and I over-analyzed every single flavor of ice cream there was available.  My favorite ice creams are definitely the really sweet, outrageous ice creams (such as Birthday Bash), but I didn’t think those would have been very good in bread form.  Butter Pecan probably would have been my best purchase for this recipe, but I seriously don’t like Butter Pecan ice cream, and I didn’t really want the left overs so, I decided to go with something else.   I ended up picking what was called “Caramel Sweet Surprise” – a caramel flavored ice cream, with mini peanut butter and caramel cups.

After I made it and placed it in the oven, I was nervous that it was just going to come out as a blob, but…it worked!!  I’m not sure who was more impressed at the fact that it actually turned out, me or my husband

Now, for the honest taste review: I was pleasantly surprised!  It tasted nothing like ice cream though, but it still was good.
-If you’re looking for a really good, delicious homemade bread to make…this probably is not quite the one.  I would rate it 2 out of 5 stars.  Good… but not serve at Thanksgiving dinner good.
-If you want something FUN and unique to try out, this recipe is for you!!

Ice Cream Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups Ice Cream (any flavor), softened
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour*

Directions:
1. Mix ice cream and flour together just until combined.
2. Place in bottom of a 8×4 greased and floured loaf pan.
3. Bake at 350 for 45 min or until lightly browned and toothpick inserted in middle comes out with only a few crumbs on it.
4. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack to cool.  Enjoy!

*If you don’t have self-rising flour, you may substitute 1 cup flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt for every cup of flour (that is the same as 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 3/4 tsp. salt!)

This last weekend, my friend celebrated her birthday and I volunteered to make the cake for her party.  I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, and she gave me three ideas: she likes lots of frosting, strawberries, and she has never had a red velvet cake before.  I, of course, decided to take all three of those things to heart and make a cake that had all three of those suggestions.

For a long time now, I’ve been desperately wanting to make a frosting with white chocolate in it.  So, I selfishly made that one of the requirements as well

But!  Oh boy am a sucker for red velvet cakes with cream cheese frosting on them.  Once I was putting the whole design together, I realized that I should either pick my white chocolate frosting, or my cream cheese frosting…and I couldn’t pick!

That’s when the idea struck me that I should just combine the two.

I tried searching for what I was looking for online and couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I created this recipe.  And let me tell you: it’s a good one.

Unofficial Disclaimer: I am not a cake decorator.  If I was, I would work in a bakery  Plus, I had to travel many miles with the cakes, so they fell apart just a bit.  Appearance: 2 stars.  Taste: 5 stars!

At the party, I got so many compliments on the frosting!  This seriously is not your average frosting.  You’ll just have to taste it to believe it.

I don’t normally prefer buttercreams (they’re just okay), but this one is at the top of my list.

Confession: I didn’t know what to do with the leftovers right away.  So, today I made waffles and I didn’t feel like putting syrup on them, and instead I spread a bit of the frosting on them (butter + cream cheese + chocolate + sugar) = best (and sweetest) waffles I have EVER had!  End confessional.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
3/4 Cup Butter (not margarine), softened
1 pkg. (8 oz.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/4 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. White Chocolate*
Pinch Salt
3-4 Cups Powdered Sugar

Directions:
1. Cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth
2. Add the Whipping Cream and Vanilla
3. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave on 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds until melted.
4. Stir in the white chocolate.
5. Mix the salt and powdered sugar together and beat into the wet mixture until smooth.
6. Add more powdered sugar as needed until you reach your desired consistency.

*Use a high quality white chocolate (such as bakers chocolate).  Do not use white chocolate chips, especially if you plan to color the frosting, as they will leave small wax droplets in the frosting the cannot be colored.

If anyone were to ever ask me what my go-to recipe is, I am positive this would be it.  It seriously is about as hard to make as Ramen Noodle soup, but it is infinitely better.

The best part though, is that you can make it for a crowd, and no one will know how much effort you didn’t put into it.  Seriously.  It is my go-to recipe because it is so easy and I get asked for the recipe every. single. time.  (Half the time I never give it out though because I’m too embarrassed…I guess the secret is out of the bag now!)

So, if you have company coming over, toss it in the oven (after your 5 minutes of prep work) hide your bottle of dressing deep within the garbage can, and allow the delicious aroma to begin filling the air.  Meanwhile, whip on your apron, pull out as many spices as you can from your cabinet, and spread them all over your counter.  Begin cleaning them up with a sweat just as your guests arrive, and you’ll have them fooled!

Ridiculously Easy Creamy Italian Chicken
Ingredients:
6-8 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
16 oz. bottle Creamy Italian Dressing

Directions:
1. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces.  Place into a 9×13 baking dish.
2. Pour bottle of dressing over chicken.  Stir to coat each piece of chicken in dressing before baking.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.

*You can easily cut this recipe in half, or make it according to the proportions you would like!  Use as much or as little dressing as you desire, it simply depends on how much sauce you like it.
**Sometimes it is hard to find Creamy Italian dressing.  Make sure it is Creamy Italian, not just Italian.  (I shop at Smith’s and can find it there.  I have also seen it at Wal-Mart in the past.)

Last week was my birthday!  It was so great.  I LOVE having my birthday so close to the 4th of July!  Fireworks are always a must have on my birthday.  I wouldn’t ever want my birthday any time other than smack dab in the middle of summer.  Call me crazy, but I love the warm weather.  I’m a blue skies and sunglasses kind of girl.  I have no clue why I live where I do – where the winters are so bitter cold…but let’s not think about that right now!

Anyway, my birthday was fabulous!   My husband spoiled me.  We went out to dinner, and he made me (all on his own) Toffee Cake (or as some people call it… “BTS Cake”).  I was surprised with a few new pairs of earrings, but the best gift I got was (*drum roll please*) a new camera!!  I got it just for blogging!!  Now, I’m still not a photographer by any means, and I’m still learning how to use it, but I’m so happy to have a camera that is better than my tiny little point and shoot camera that I used to take silly pictures with back in high school.  I feel like I’m moving up in the world  This is the first post that I have used my new camera for!

As I have mentioned before, it is tradition in my family to pick out everything for a birthday dinner when it is your birthday.  This, of course, includes the dessert.  My sister is a fabulous cake decorator (she even made my wedding cake!), so I always let her make something fun for me.  But, there always seem to be those who just want something besides cake!  My brother always chooses brownies.  From a box.  So that got me thinkin’… and that’s where I came up these bad boys: birthday cake brownies.  It’s the best of both worlds: the brownie AND the birthday.  Seriously.  Where could you go wrong?  They’re to die for!

Birthday Cake Brownies
Ingredients:
1 box brownies with frosting (OR your favorite brownie recipe)
1 package (15.25 oz.) birthday cake oreos
1 cup yellow cake mix
1/2 cup water
Hot fudge
Sprinkles
Ice Cream (optional)

Directions:
1. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions.
2. Coarsely crush 15 Oreos and mix them into brownie batter.
3. Cook brownies according to package directions.
4. Allow brownies to cool.  Frost.
5. In a small bowl, mix dry cake mix and water together until smooth.
6. Coarsely crush remaining Oreos.
7. Slice brownies.  Top with: Oreos, cake batter, fudge, sprinkles, and ice cream if desired.
8. Serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Whenever I’m at a loss of what to make for dinner, I ask my husband what he would like.  Sometimes I don’t know why in the world I do that because the answer is always the same: “stuffed peppers.”  This is, hands down, my husband’s favorite meal.

Plus, whenever I go to the grocery store and I look in the produce section and see big, round, bright green peppers, it makes me want to make this dish as well.  It’s a lot of fun to make something so tasty, pretty, and healthy!

Stuffed Green Peppers
Ingredients:
4 large green bell peppers
1 cup brown rice
1 large onion
2 Tbs. olive oil
8 oz. turkey sausage
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1 tsp. Garlic salt
1 tsp. Garlic powder
1 Tbs. Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. Red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Cook rice according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, cut the tops off the peppers (save tops for later!) and remove seeds.  If necessary, trim the bottom of the peppers so they stand upright.
3. Place peppers in a greased baking dish.
4. Remove the stem from the pepper tops, and dice the remaining pepper.  Dice the onion and mix with the diced pepper.
5. Heat the diced pepper and onion with olive oil, garlic salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes on medium high heat for 5 minutes or until onion begins to turn clear but not brown.
6. Meanwhile, remove the sausage from its casting and cook in a skillet until browned.
7. Combine rice, pepper/onion mixture, and sausage.  Stir in parmesan cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Stuff the peppers until well packed.  If there is any stuffing remaining, it can be baked in a small ramekin alongside the peppers.
9. Bake the peppers for at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.
10. Place a generous pinch of mozzarella cheese on top of each pepper and continue to bake for 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
11.  Enjoy!

I had a cute little old lady as a neighbor when I was little.  Her name was Louise.  I have very fond memories of visiting Louise and spending many evenings with her.  I always liked watching Wheel of Fortune with her, and she always liked it when I would show her my new dances that I learned that week in my dance class.

Louise had a cute little kitchen with yellow floors and a yellow fridge (those were the days…right?!).  In her kitchen was a big tall cupboard, and in it was something that I was always sent home with whenever I would visit: nutty bars.  Yep, the kind by Little Debbie.  However, on very special occasions, Louise would make her specialty: fudge.  I cannot see, smell, hear of, or think of fudge without thinking of Louise!    Now.  As a little girl, I didn’t actually like fudge.  I would eat it when Louise would give it to me just because it was such a special treat from her and I knew it, but it really wasn’t my favorite.  But, now I really like fudge.   I really wish two things: 1) that I could go back and enjoy a piece of fudge from Louise now that I have a taste for it, and 2) that I could have Louise’s actual fudge recipe.  I just know there’s something special about it.

However, even though this isn’t Louise’s recipe that I’m sharing with you today, it’s a pretty darn good one.  I LOVE that this fudge is made with marshmallows!  I. love. marshmallows!  You can see that here and here as well.  The taste is just so decadent and sweet.  The marshmallows seem to make the fudge lighter too, and not so dense and thick.  I can never eat just one piece!

Marshmallow Fudge
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 Tbs. butter
pinch salt
1-1/2 cup chocolate chips (I like milk, but semi-sweet is good too)
20 large marshmallows
1 tsp. vanilla
0ptional: chopped nuts

Directions:
1. On medium heat, stir together sugar, milk, butter, and salt.  Bring to a boil and stir constantly for 5 min.
2. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and marshmallows until melted.
3. Stir in vanilla (and nuts if preferred).
4. Spread in the bottom of a greased 8×8 pan.
5. Chill until firm.  Enjoy!