No-Bake Blueberry Pie

This recipe comes from my dear friend Shelly/Lyric over at Life is a Many Splendored Thing.

I'll share her recipe with you but I have to postpone the picture because I made the pie before I want to bed, and my nephew ate the entire pie by morning so I didn't get the chance to take a picture.

You can subsitute homemade blueberry filling, like I did, since blueberries are in season. Basically you boil blueberries, a tad bit of flour or that clear gel stuff, water and sugar for a few minutes. I found that 2 containers of blueberries made enough for one pie. I think with homemade filling you get the soursweet taste of the fresh berries and I really like that

Makes 2 pies.

Fixins:

blueberry pie filling
tub of  whipped cream (can also make homemade)
2 graham cracker crusts (I always make mine)
1 cream cheese brick
1 bag of powdered sugar

Steps:

Make the crusts. Mix together the softened cream cheese and the sugar. Divide mixture between crusts. Top with berry filling. Chill for at least an hour. Top with half of the whipped cream. Garnish as desired.

No Bake # 9: I'll Have S'more Please!

So yeah...this no bake was a bit too easy that I feel like I'm cheating....But S'mores are so good!! These Indoor Peanut S'mores recipe came from Betty Crocker, and they were sooo good. Marshmallows are so much better melted, and I would argue this against anyone.

In life there are a lot of things (and people) that prove to be unreliable. Happily, this does not (and will never) apply to s'mores. They always come out perfect.

Rachael Ray Strikes Again: Whipped Strawberry Cheesecake

As I was posting this I started to worry that I was writing about a no-bake that Luisa had already posted. I got the idea from a list of Racheal Ray's favorite no-bakes and it contained strawberries, just like Lu's.

But I double checked. And they are different. Somewhat anyway.

Mix a small tub of whipped cream with 1-1.5 bars of softened cream cheese (I did 1 but it could have used a bit more). Add in 3/4 cup-1 cup (I dumped whatever sugar I had left in) sugar and about half a container of sliced strawberries. Either stir in a handful or two of chocolate trips or serve with a drizzling of chocolate syrup. (The chocolate was my addition)

Add in more strawberries, sugar and chocolate to taste.

Racheal Ray suggests scooping the dessert into icecream cones. We didn't try it that way  but I think it'd be really cute.

No Bake # 7: A Berry Delicious Coffee Break!

I tease my mother a lot because her picture should be in the dictionary next to "coffee addict". She's been drinking coffee since before she can even remember (possibly still in diapers and from the bottle, i'm guessing) and she HAS to have at the very least 4 cups a day at very specific times. It's nuts...and what's scary is that the longer I live at home the more I find myself falling into this pattern myself. So, in honor of my mother's obsessive love affair with coffee, I made a Berry Delicious Coffee Cake to give her and her coffee mug some company every time she indulges...which is really all the time.

The recipe is very simple (the way I like it!) and very fast. I'd suggest putting more graham cracker crumbs if you want an actual crust at the bottom, but otherwise it tasted really nice, the flavor in mine seemed to all be at the bottom, so the last bites were moist and sweet. I also added a lot more fruit than suggested, but that's never a bad thing in my opinion.

My mom seemed to like the cake, and in spite of the teasing I hope it encourages her to keep her coffee habit up, because she really is quite unpleasant when she doesn't get it ;) love you mom!

No Bake #6: Piss Poor Planning Plus Popcorn

Ok so I don't know what possessed me to think that this no-bake could possibly be a good idea. First I'll tell you why I think it failed and then I'll give you the link to the orginal source.

1. I attempted to make something similar and while it was delish it was a disaster.
2. I attempted to mix hot popcorn and hot marshmallos together with my hands. Despite only minor burning sensations it took me a good while to destickify my self. It looked like I had massive worts all over my hands.
3. I didn't have all of the suggested ingredients and even attempted to pick the peanuts out of my chex mix to make up for it.
4. I like my popcorn salty and sprinkled with chocolate chips (occasionally), not room temperture and stale.
5. No one like stale popcorn.
6. I didn't have a bundt pan so I decided to make bars instead of a "popcorn cake" as suggested and forgot to grease the pan. Enter another disaster. But hey, weren't some foods invented "on accident"?

Anyway, you can find the recipe  HERE. I subbed in pastel colored marshmallows for the regular ones. They were on sale for like a quarter a few days after Easter while the Christmas themed marshamllows were still two bucks. Maybe people buy them year round? Can you imagine roasting Santa over the campfire. You'd be first in line for a lump of coal.

I also subbed a handful of chocolate chips for the m&ms, which I think the whole idea behind them is you get chocolate that doesn't melt as much. Whoops.

Anywhos, I present to you my popcorn "cake"

Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad idea if you had leftover popcorn from the night before, but it was definitely a waste of a good bag of popcorn. Actually, it expired in December as I bought it at a bend and dent for about a nickel, but the bag I had a few nights ago tasted fine. Well, I didn't really contribute much in the way of a usable recipe but I hope you got a good laugh of out of my misadventures.

It's a Peachy Keen No Bake!

On my quest for no bake recipes I came across a microwave peach cobbler. I love peach cobbler, and I hate heating up my house in the summer time, so this recipe seemed like the perfect one to try out!

I found the recipe at.cdkitchen. It only makes one serving so multiple the ingredients by the number of people you want to feed.

Ingredients are simple enough:

Steps:

Coarsely crumble graham crackers into a microwave safe glass dessert cup. I used one of the margarita glasses luisa brought me back from Espana.

Then top with butter, then sliced peaches. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. I mixed them together before sprinkling.

Microwave on high 2-4 minutes and if you're in the mood top with whipped cream or a dainty scoop of vanilla ice cream. I wasn't in the mood. Actually, I was out of whipped cream and the ice cream was freezer burnt. Fun stuff.

The verdict? AMAZING. BEST NO BAKE EVER. Tastes just like the real thing.

Oh, here's a freebie for you:

Have you ever had grilled peaches?

Peel and quarter a peach, stick it on the grill for a few minutes. Remove from grill, plate and sprinkle with brown sugar. MMM!

No Bake Challenge 3: When Life Gives You Lemons...Make Lemon Bars!

So my family and I are going to a trip at the end of the week to Savannah, followed by a few days to Myrtle Beach, and we are in need of some snacks=perfect time to try this recipe I found for No Bake Lemon Bars!

The recipe included coconut, something my dad takes very seriously (as expected, he ate about 90% of the bars!) They weren’t as solid as I would have liked, but I’m finding that’s a trend with these no bake endeavors…This might have had to do with the fact that I couldn’t find tea biscuits at Food Lion, so I just subbed in vanilla wafers…you work with what you got! They were still good though. The lemon taste just POPS, which I love because sometimes when I make lemony baked goods, you get a hint of the taste of lemon but that’s it…what a disappointment! I would, however, appreciate tips on the best ways to zest a lemon…I usually use one of the smaller sides of a cheese grater, but so much lemon skin gets stuck in that thing!! Also, in the future I think I might toast the coconut flakes first, because I do wish they hand a more crunchy, solid feel to them.

The ingredients and directions are below!

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1 1/2 cups tea biscuits, crushed (or vanilla wafers, in this case)

1 cup flaked coconut

Directions

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt together butter and sweetened condensed milk, stirring frequently until smooth. Stir in crushed biscuits, lemon juice and zest, and coconut; mix well. Press into a 9x9 inch dish. Refrigerate overnight before slicing or the squares will come out sticky

Say Yes to No!

Peabut butter no bake cookies that is.

As soon as I mentioned to my husband that Lu and I would be running a "no bake" series he immediately asked for peanut butter no bakes. My husband never asks for or eats sweets so I knew that if these cookies were something he wanted that they had to be good.

Fortunately for him I saved a recipe that I found at The Girl Who Ate Everything. Unfortunately for him, the recipe I planned didn't turn out quite so hot.

Here's what happend.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
3 cups quick cooking oats
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

Bring butter, sugar, milk, and cocoa to a boil for one minute. To make sure cookies set up properly wait until mixture comes to a complete FULL boil and then start the timer for one minute. Remove from heat.

Add peanut butter, vanilla, and oats. Stir well and drop spoonfuls onto waxed paper or parchment paper. Let them set up and cool.

Problem?

I did all of this- and made sure the ingredients vame to a full boil. Hours later I  gave up and put them in the thr fridge. They set up and we ate them,  but the cookies I took out of the fridge went right back to their gooey state. So we kept them in the fridge and ate them out of there.

Does anyone know what happened?

No Bake Challenge 1: “Strawberry Fields Forever!!

Now, I don’t really like Rachael Ray, for a variety of reasons: her voice (which I know has gotten better, but before I would have rather sat through nails on a chalkboard), and just because she seems a bit frantic when she cooks…I watch cooking shows to be relaxed, but when I watch her I feel like I have an exam to study for! However, when I stumbled upon this super easy recipe for Individual No Bake Strawberry Cheesecakes, I had to give her some credit! Not only does in require a minimal amount of ingredients, most of which I already had, but it leaves a lot of room for flexibility and they were the perfect treat on a hot summer day!

The only thing I would caution about the recipe is that the end product isn’t exactly “cheesecakey”, or rather that at least in my case the mixture was still runny. I did incorporate a box of strawberry Jello, as one of the reviewers had suggested, and while it did make it thicker, it was still way too liquidy to have a cheesecake texture. So I left it in the fridge for a few hours too, and that did the trick! So, don’t expect it to be super solid at first! However, it was very tasty, and I loved being able to use the mini graham cracker crusts-too cute! I also used these cute little dessert dishes my mother bought at Pier 1, and sprinkled graham cracker crumbs on top. See?! So much room for your own touches!

Enjoy making these lovely, simple treats! I sure did!

Prepare for a Meltdown

Get ready!
Lu and I will be hosting a ten recipes series focusing on no bake recipes. With it lingering in the high 80's in PA and hitting the low 100's in good ole SC, no one wants to run their oven and heat up the house. (At least I don't, as we don't have AC!!) We'll be showcasing sweet treats that you can make while still beating the summer heat! The series will start in July so until then please feel free to share your favorite nobake treats with us!

My Big Fat Greek...Baking Challenge!

Lu: Well look at this!! A lovely visit from my HotGlue culminated in one of our more difficult baking challenges, which was learning how to make baklava!
Rachel: Lu considered making baklava when I gave her the challenge to make something that begins with the letter b, I wanted to learn the skill and had amazing baklava on my first trip to Pittsburgh. So Lu found an easy recipe for us to follow and we each brought some ingredients to the table.
Lu:The recipe we followed was by Michael Symon and can be found here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-symon/baklava-recipe/index.html

Something to keep in mind when brushing the phyllo dough: make sure to keep the sheets moist! We did this by putting a damp towel on them, because if they dry up they tend to crumble easily. Also, the recipe calls for 4 sticks of butter, but we only used 3 and were just fine.

Rachel: Shelling the pisachios was annoying, but not hard and the rest of the recipe seemed to go fairly well. (Although, thats easy for me to say because Lu seemed to do most of the work). I loved that Raul thought the baklava was yummy and ate several pieces. I bought some home for Mike and he said that he wasn't the best he'd ever had (I think he had some in Europe) but that it was up there

Lu: Haha...that's one thing I learned from this recipe...always remember to read the ingredients in detail!! If I had noticed it said ground nuts we could have saved a bit of time! Nevertheless, it was still a lot of fun. And of course it was the best way to celebrate our reunion!!