Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

One of the best parts about this time of year is the fact that the rhubarb plants are now flourishing!  And big rhubarb plants mean that a lot of people are looking to get rid of their excessive amount of ripe rhubarb.


This is where I come in.  For some reason this year I am ridiculously excited to bake with rhubarb! I have so many things I want to try making with rhubarb: crisps, muffins, cakes, tarts, scones, etc etc!  I have no clue where this has come from, but I can't wait and everyone who has excessive amounts of rhubarb doesn't seem to mind either.

For my first rhubarb adventure I decided to go with a favourite: strawberry rhubarb pie.  I am going to come out with this right now, I did not make my own pie crust.  I have no shame in using the store-bought stuff when it produces such an amazing dessert!  I used the refrigerated Pillsbury dough, and it was so easy to work with and came out so flaky that I think it will be hard to convince myself to try making my own pie crust in the future.


**Disclaimer: Pillsbury has no idea who I am. I just really like their pie crust! :) oooooh and their crescent rolls too

I found this recipee on the Cooking Nook webiste and modified it a bit based on my personal tastes.  My first batch of rhubarb was still a little green so I used a bit less rhubarb and a bit more strawberries to balance out the sweet and tart flavours.  I also doubled the cinnamon and halved the nutmeg, totally a personal preference.

The recipe below is the one that I used, but please feel free to check out the original as well!


This was awesome when served warm with some vanilla ice cream, but it was also amazing cold as a quick breakfast or dessert on a warm night.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

• Two pie crusts 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 cups sliced rhubarb, sliced about 1 cm thick
• 3 cups sliced strawberries

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F and place a baking sheet on the bottom rack (in case the pie bubbles over)
2. Line the bottom of your pie plate with one of the pie crusts
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, brown sugar, flour, cornstarch and spices
4. Add the rhubarb and strawberries and mix well
5. Pour the filling onto the pie crust and spread it out evenly
6. Place the second pie crust on top, and pinch the edges to seal
7. Cut some slits in the top pie crust
8. Place the pie in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes
9. Lower the oven to 350 F and bake for an additional 40 - 50 minutes, or until the edges are a golden brown and the strawberry rhubarb filling is bubbling
10. Remove and let cool before serving
11. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream, or serve cold as a refreshing dessert
12. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Bacon Puppy Treats for a HART fundraiser!

John and Chloe at the park

This past Saturday we attended a Silent Auction/Bake Sale/BBQ at a puppy park in order to help raise money for HART - the Humane Animal Rescue Team. This is an amazing organization that rescues dogs from Edmonton and surrounding areas, nurses them back to health, and then do everything in their power to make sure each dog finds the perfect fur-ever home!

Chloe!

This is the organization that we adopted our puppy Chloe from. They were absolutely wonderful to work with, and you can see the love and compassion for animals in each and every one of the volunteers.

Nikki and Natalie doing their best to keep the puppies warm!

Despite the freezing weather (I wore my winter coat!) there was a really good turnout! People and dogs in every direction, it was awesome! We even got to meet some of Chloe's siblings that are still looking for their fur-ever homes and were introduced to Chloe's mom! 

Our friend Patricia did an amazing job organizing the silent auction. There were so many things I wanted to take home!  I think the auction did awesome despite the less than stellar weather.


Chloe found the best place to stay warm, right between the two BBQ's! A dog after my own heart :)

I am not sure how much money they were able to raise, but I am hoping that they did well.  I can't imagine how much those vet bills add up for an organization such as HART!

If you are looking to adopt a puppy or dog in Edmonton or a surrounding community please consider HART. They have so many amazing animals up for adoption (my husband even tried to take another one home on Saturday! He's still working on me).  Or if you would like to help out, there is a lot of great information on their website.

For the bake sale I made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, and blueberry lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream (recipe coming soon!).  And since it was a fundraiser for HART, I also made these awesome Peanut Butter Bacon treats for the dogs! This recipe is from tidymom.net and Chloe absolutely loves these!

(PS - it is totally pouring outside right now, and I just watered my flowerbeds and garden an hour ago. Figures.)

Bella and Nissa!

If you cannot find any oat flour, you can easily make it in a magic bullet or a coffee grinder using rolled oats. I made mine in our magic bullet and it came out perfect!

and Sunny!

Also, for the peanut butter I used natural unsalted peanut butter, so the only ingredient is peanuts.  This might not be the ideal peanut butter for putting on your toast, but I think it is the healthiest option for a puppy or dog treat :)  If you don't have natural peanut butter, just try to stick with the unsalted stuff if you can.

and Chloe! Now if only they would get in line...

Peanut Butter Bacon Puppy Treats

• 1 cup oat flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup natural unsalted peanut butter
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 pieces of cooked bacon, cut small
• 1 large carrot, shredded

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a large bowl mix together the peanut butter, honey, egg, and water and stir until well mixed
3. Stir in the bacon and carrot
4. In a second bowl mix together the oat flour and the whole wheat flour and then pour the dry ingredients into the wet
5. Mix to form a dough (it will be a little bit sticky)
6. On a floured surface roll out the dough until about 1 cm thick
7. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and set them on the prepared baking sheets
8. Bake for 10 - 20 minutes (depending on the size of the treats) or until the edges have begun to darken
9. Let cool completely before serving
10. Enjoy your new treats puppies!

Strawberry Cheesecake Pretzel Bites

Here is the amazing dessert that I was talking about on Friday! Right now there is a couple left sitting in my refrigerator, just calling my name, tempting me to eat them all at 11 o'clock at night.


I just might too, they are hard to ignore!

I saw this recipe from Amy on www.doyouknowthemuffinpan.com and they looked like everything a summer dessert should be. They had fresh strawberries, a delicious pretzel crust, and an amazing light cheesecake centre.  Amy is definitely someone to follow, not only does she make amazing desserts like these, but she also makes all sorts of other amazing food in her muffin tin! That's right, she muffin-izes all sorts of things by modifying them so they can be made in a muffin pan and they are so fun and delicious every time. How cool is that? 

She took this recipe and made it in her mini-muffin pan which would be the perfect size to serve at a party or a BBQ!

Random aside: When do people do their best blogging? I find that my 'best' work (at least, the posts I am most proud of) happens at completely random times.  I feel like I can tell which of my posts were done all in one sitting, and which ones were written in pieces while at work, on my phone on the LRT ride home, etc. Odd eh? If only I could magically produce my laptop at any time of the day when a random thought hit me, who knows what would end up on this blog! 

I do love how this blog has given me an outlet for both my love of baking and cooking, as well as an amazing way to meet awesome people and release my random thoughts! Food, friends, and free therapy? Awesome.

If you need a delicious dessert that will impress a crowd, these are perfect! You can also mix up the fruit depending what is in season, and adjusting the jello flavour to your tastes.   Another bonus is that you can take out any aggression from the day on the pretzels in order to get them to that crushed state!

I made this in my regular muffin pan (instead of a mini-muffin pan) and we loved them.

Strawberry Cheesecake Pie Bites

• For the crust:
• 1 box refrigerated pie crusts (I used Pillsbury and one was the perfect amount)
• 1 cup crushed pretzels
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp melted butter
• For the cream cheese filling:
• 2 pkgs (250 grams each) softened cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 lb fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup ice cubes
• 1 box strawberry Jello

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F 
2. Roll out one pie crust and use a round cookie cutter or a glass to cut out circles (slightly larger than the bottom of the muffin pan cups)
3. Press each circle of pie crust into the muffin cups
4. In a small bowl mix together the crushed pretzels, melted butter, and 1/4 cup sugar
5. Press the pretzel mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup
6. Bake the crust for 10 - 12 minutes or until golden brown
7. Remove and let cool completely before adding the fillings
8. While the pan cools, cream together the cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla
9. In a second bowl whip together the heavy cream, icing sugar, and remaining 1 tsp of vanilla until stiff peaks form
10. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well mixed
11. Spoon the cream cheese mixture into each of the muffin cups, leaving about 1 cm of room at the top (I had some of this leftover, so I set it aside to use as a delicious fruit dip!)
12. Press the sliced strawberries on top of the cream cheese mixture
13. In a small bowl mix together the boiling water and jello mix. Stir in the ice cubes until melted
14. Pour the jello mixture over each of the muffin cups
15. Place the tray in the refrigerator and let set for at least 4 hours
16. Enjoy! 

Whole Wheat Garlic Knots

You know those recipes that pop up in your inbox, or you see them on twitter, or you see them while stalking reading your favourite blogs, and you instantly know that you have to have them in your life, as in now?


I had TWO of those recipes hit me yesterday. TWO! Oh man, I knew I was in for a busy evening!

So if two recipes hit me, why am I posting this particular one first? Because I saw it first, and I made it first (the other is a dessert, I will be posting it soon!), and then I took pictures of it first, and uploaded those pictures first, so it made logical sense and kept me from choosing a favourite :) because trust me, you can't choose a favourite between them!

Speaking of pictures, how many people edit their pictures before posting? I used to edit mine in the first few months of my blog last summer when I was using a point-and-shoot, but then when I would look back on them they just looked strange (too warm, too cool, washed out, etc.). So I haven't edited my pictures much since then. If I do, I just use the 'enhance' function on iPhoto (that is the only photo-editing software/tool that I have currently).  Often that isn't even a very good option so I usually end up posting them as-is, in their raw picture glory.  

For example, I know my Margarita Cupcakes and Pina Colada Cupcakes photos are a little on the dark side, but when I clicked on 'enhance' the cupcake liner colours blew out into this strange situation so I quickly hit 'undo'!  So then I tried to brighten them up, and that was a whole different disaster.  So dark boozy cupcake photos they remained.

At least the cupcakes still look tasty, which they definitely are!

Margarita and Pina Colada Cupcakes - dark picture but delicious cupcakes!

So now I am wondering, should I look into investing in some real photo-editing software? If so, how am I going to figure it out? Are they user-friendly for people who think their computers should know what they want? Oy, too many questions. Maybe there is somewhere I can take 'food photos and editing for dummies' in the city...

I'll keep pondering the picture questions, and you can make these ridiculous garlic knots. Or if you are in a dessert mood, wait for my post tomorrow for some ridiculous dessert heaven from Amy at Do You Know the Muffin Pan? It is an epic dessert my friends!


These garlic knots are from the lovely Joy at joythebaker.com, and they are everything I love in bread. Whole wheat, buttery, garlicky (<- that's a real word too, spell check didn't even correct it!), and in a funky shape.

This recipe makes about 10 addicting garlic knots.


Whole Wheat Garlic Knots

• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• For the garlic butter mixture
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped chives
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. In a small bowl dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle in the yeast. Let it sit for 5 - 10 minutes until foamy
2. While the yeast foams, whisk together the whole wheat flour, regular flour, and salt
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the olive oil and foamy yeast mixture
4. Mix everything together with a fork, and then knead for about 5 minutes until a soft dough forms
5. Grease a large bowl with some olive oil and then place the dough in the bowl and make sure it is covered in a light layer of the olive oil
6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a tea towel
7. Let the dough rise in a warm spot for about 45 minutes - 1 hour, or until it has doubled 
8. After the dough has risen, lightly flour a flat surface and roll the dough out into a 10" x 10" square
9. Cut the dough into 10 strips (a pizza cutter works perfectly!) and then tie each strip of dough into a knot
10. Tuck the ends of the dough around the knot, and place them on parchment lined baking sheets
11. Cover the knots with the kitchen towel and let them sit for half an hour
12. While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 F
13. In a large bowl mix together the garlic, butter, olive oil, chives, and salt
14. After the dough has rested, bake for 15 - 18 minutes or until they are a beautiful golden brown
15. Throw the warm knots into the garlic butter mixture and stir or toss to coat the knots
16. Enjoy!

Pina Colada Cupcakes - Booze Cupcakes 2

These are another tasty way to make one of your favourite summer drinks into an innocent-looking cupcake!


I know most people absolutely love Pina Coladas, but I will admit that the intense coconut taste in most that I have had is a little bit much for me.  I tend to lean towards the Margaritas or Strawberry Daiquiris if given the option :) But the balance of coconut, pineapple, and sweet in these cupcakes is just right!

I just used the Pineapple Bliss Cupcake recipe and jazzed it up with some delicious coconut rum. As for the icing, I used coconut rum and some coconut extract to obtain a sweet coconut flavour.


These are so easy to make, the cupcakes only take 3 ingredients!

I then topped them off with a little bit of flaked coconut, and they were done!


Pina Colada Cupcakes

• 1 box white cake mix
• 1 14 ounce can crushed pineapple, with the juice
• 4 tbsp coconut rum 

1. Preheat the oven according to the cake mix directions, and line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners
2. Mix all three ingredients together until smooth
3. Fill the cups 2/3 of the way full
4. Bake according to the directions on the box
5. Let cool, then ice with Pina Colada Icing
6. Enjoy!

Pina Colada Icing

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• milk or whipping cream (optional)
• 3 tbsp coconut rum
• flaked coconut (optional)

1. Cream the butter with the coconut extract and then add the icing sugar a cup at a time
2. Add the coconut rum, and beat until smooth
3. If the icing is still thick, you can add more coconut rum or milk 1 tbsp at a time until the desired consistency is reached
4. Frost cooled Pina Colada Cupcakes
5. Sprinkle on flaked coconut if using
6. Enjoy!