National Catch-Up-on-Desserts Day: Peach Pie, Banana Split, and Cherry Popsicle Days

Absolutely abysmal! I promised these good people timely posts on their National Eat Dessert First Month entries, and then went ahead and landed myself in a place with as much internet access as Andromeda. Nice going, Ala. *virtual fail high five*

Anyway, here’s a recap of all the lovely national dessert days that have passed us by:

August 24th: National Peach Pie Day (kueken23 & Amanda)

August 25th: National Banana Split Day (Alicia)

August 26th: National Cherry Popsicle Day (Bob)

For the recipes and mouth-watering photos, take the jump!

NEDFM Day 17 Challenge: National Vanilla Custard Day

It was the seventeenth day of National Eat Dessert First! Month, an entire 31 days dedicated to a different themed dessert but, more importantly, getting those desserts onto our plates and palates! Each day will feature a new guest chef’s photos and recipes for each theme. If you’re interested in joining in for a dessert-tastic month, read the details at the Dessert Month Challenge post. It’s never too late to start!

THEME DAY #17: APPLE CUSTARD CRUMBLE PIE

Courtesy of: rebecky_mo!

Original post: here

Hello again, b3! Time for my third (and final) claimed day for August. This recipe has been hanging out in my mom’s massive ‘to try’ list since 1997, when it debuted in Canada’s annual Dairy calendar (you can now find it on their website). I figured after 15 years, it wasn’t gonna happen, sooooooo…YOINK! I had to do a little switching around in this recipe; I couldn’t find a 10-inch pie shell or any McIntosh or Spy apples! I settled for 2 9-inch shells and Red Delicious apples, which unfortunately had them remaining crunchy after baking. It also seemed like 8 apples was a little too much; I had more than enough for 2 pie shells! The taste of the pie is still very good though, so I hope to try it again with the proper apples.

Without further ado, I give you Apple Custard Crumble Pie:

recipe and image from dairygoodness.ca

Apple Custard Crumble Pie

10 inch (25 cm) 1 deep-dish pie shell, unbaked
8 Ontario apples (McIntosh or Spy)
2 tbsp (30 ml) packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp (7 ml) ground cinnamon

Custard:
1 cup (250 ml) Milk
1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream 35 %
1/4 cup (60 ml) all-purpose flour
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup (80 ml) sugar
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract
2 tsp (10 ml) grated lemon zest

Crumble:
1/2 cup (125 ml) packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (180 ml) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5 ml) ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (125 ml) butter, cubed
1/2 cup (125 ml) grated Canadian Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup (125 ml) quick-cooking oats

- Preheat oven to 425 °F (225 °C).Partially bake the pie crust for 8 minutes. Let cool. Reduce heat to 350 °F (180 °C).

- Peel and core apples; cut into slices about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. In bowl, toss apples with brown sugar and cinnamon to coat.

- In another bowl, make custard. Beat together milk, cream, flour, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and lemon peel.

- In a third bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and spices. Cut in butter. Add Canadian Parmesan cheese and oats. Using your fingers, rub the crumble mixture together to resemble small peas.

- To assemble, spoon apples into the pie shell, pressing down lightly. Slowly pour custard over the apples. Sprinkle crumble mixture evenly, completely covering the filling.

- Bake at 350 °F (180 °C) for 45 to 50 minutes or until crumble is crunchy and apples are soft.

Read more at BakeBakeBake: 
http://bakebakebake.livejournal.com/3618373.html?view=44515909#t44515909#ixzz248rjqR6e

Julia Child’s 100th Birthday Celebration and NEDFM Day 15: Lemon Meringue Pie

Do you know who my favorite superhero is?

No, it’s not Superman. It’s not Spiderman. It’s not Batman, or Catwoman, or the Incredible Hulk, or even Captain Underpants (although he’s pretty darn cool).

No, my favorite superhero is far less bionic than any of the above heroes. Heck, he’s even more useless than Aquaman, whose greatest superpower is his ability to talk to dolphins and company. Of course, he might’ve given Dory and Marlin a break if he’d made a guest appearance in Finding Nemo, but that would just be silly, plus we would’ve then missed out on possibly the best animated scene of all time (which, in case you didn’t know, is this–Ellen DeGeneres, I love you so much).

My favorite superhero? <<cue dramatic groundhog music>>

It’s…CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! Dah dah dah!

…Okay, yeah. Dud. I know. And no, you can’t throw a virtual tomato at me.

You can, however, throw a real tomato into your mixing bowl, because I have a real winner summer salad recipe for you here. (Ha!Not bad for a relatively contrived segue, eh?)

I made this for our in-celebration-of-Julia Child afternoon–we put on Julie & Julia and proceeded to feast in her name while singing praises of her and Paul Child’s love. Seriously. Those two were like, I don’t know, that really stubborn egg that you’re trying to separate but just will not separate. You know the one I’m talking about. The egg where the whites and yolk are like the same freakin’ entity. That’s what Julia and Paul Child were. An inseparable, heads-over-yolk in love pair.

My friend even made this from Julia’s desserts section (I’ll have to look up the name and get back to you on it, unless anyone recognizes it–it involves cherries!):

The Captain Obvious point was initially related, I swear. I was going to say that yesterday was Julia Child’s 100th birthday, and I’d be about the 7.2 millionth person to point it out, so I’ll just…not say it and assume that you already know.

But you have to try this salad! Okay? It’s in honor of Julia (she has a section on vegetable salads/marinades), but I made it using my own recipe, because I’m also a really stubborn egg and happen to like my version better. Sorry, Julia!

Cucumber Tomato Summer Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup vinegar (I used a combination of rice vinegar and white vinegar)
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of pepper

Directions:

1. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper in a bowl (adjust vinegar-sugar ratios as desired). Place cucumbers and tomatoes in a large bowl; pour liquid over them and toss to coat. Leave in fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours, tossing every half hour or so to ensure that liquid soaks into all of the salad. Serve chilled.

By the way, on a completely unrelated note, aren’t these just the cutest measuring cups ever? My friend had them at her place when we were making our Day 15 themed entry together:

Aren’t they just the cutest? I love having Aquaman-level-useless cooking instruments on hand that just make me, admittedly, happy to an irrational degree whenever I spot them. It’s like:

Me: Ho hum, cooking in the kitchen, la la…

<<Spots the cute cat measuring cups>>

Me: …..

And then…

Me: LA LA COOKING IN THE KITCHEN WITH CUTE CATS HEE HEE <3 <3 <3

Ahrm. I also make sure I keep my peppy playlist blasting whenever I’m in the kitchen (my favorite stove-side tunes are the Glee soundtrack and anything from Tangled, Enchanted, or Disney in general). Whenever my roommate comes home and I have the radio blaring out from my room, I always have to put down whatever I’ve been using as a mock microphone (usually my spatula) and look like I’m really, really intent on, um, cleaning something. Or something.

Do you have any kitchen-time guilty pleasures or ways to get you in a good mood while you’re in the kitchen?

————————————————

And finally, last but not least in this monster posts of monster posts…our (belated) NEDFM entry!

THEMED ENTRY #15: LEMON MERINGUE PIE

NEDFM Challenge Day 11: Ice Cream “Bon-Bombes”

The following is a faithful account of my rather tenuous encounter with airport security as I was flying back to school last holiday season.

I was armed with your standard wayfarer airline-approved duffel bag, a bunch of frozen Lunar New Year bamboo-wrapped glutinous rice bundles (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s this), and some not-so-common-sense.

Security guy (holding up my duffel from the x-ray machine): Miss, is this your bag?

Me: Oh. Yeah, that’s mine.

SG: What’s in here?

Me: My clothes, some books I brought from home.

SG: Is that all?

Me: Yeah.

SG (pulling out the bundle of zongzi): Do you want to explain what this is, then?

(The zongzi have apparently, by this time, begun to defrost in my bag. They’re dripping like a very suspicious, heavily-wrapped bag of liquid uranium or something.) 

Me: Oh. (Stopping short for a second. Probably looking very suspicious in general as I consider how to explain it, and then just decide–rather stupidly–not to bother.) Yeah. That too. I forgot about that.

SG: Well? What is it?

Me: It’s this thing I’m bringing home for, like, Chinese New Year. It’s this sticky rice, er, thing wrapped in bamboo. (Pause) Yeah. That’s about it.

SG: Why is it dripping? Is it a liquid?

Me: No…it’s just…melting. I mean…yeah, it’s not a liquid. It’s sticky rice. In bamboo.

SG (Tossing the bag up and down in his palm): And it’s rock hard?

Me: No, it’s actually soft. Well, we froze it. So it’d last longer and…stuff.

SG: Miss, you’re going to have to take it out and show us what’s in there.

(At this moment, I stare down and notice with a sinking feeling that my mom has wrapped, tied up, layered, and sealed the entire package with a rigidity that only my mom can accomplish. It’s completely leak-proof. It is also completely tamper-proof, openable-proof, dent-proof, security-proof, and me-proof.)

Me: Er, yeah. Just hang on…

A full two minutes later, after my fingers are raw from digging through layers upon layers of glacially-sealed plastic bags, I finally manage to pry out a frozen zongzi that–truth be told–could probably kill someone if I threw it at them.

Terrorist weapon? Not really.

Just a really dangerous thing to be putting in the hands of a girl who might at any time trip over a first-class seat cupholder and send those rocks flying at somebody’s head? Maybe.

So after receiving several credulous looks from the security guards, none of whom seem to know what to do with these potential security hazards, they finally let me pass. I’m assuming that they assumed that a rather lacking-in-common-sense gal like me probably wouldn’t know what to do with an armament even if she had access to one on board.

That’s probably true, too.

So what’s the lesson that we all learned from this little anecdote?

Don’t ever, ever let me attempt to board an airplane while carrying a tray of these bon-bombes, a.k.a. mini dessert bombes.

Why, you ask?

Well, let’s just think about it for a straight second…

Security Guard: Miss, what are these?

Me: Oh, those? Just some bombes I made.

……….

Yeah, I’ll let you figure out the rest.

By the way, aren’t these just the cutest shot glasses in the world? Meet Rabid Rabbit, Skulk the Schizophrenic Cat, and Post-Security-Guard-Encounter Me.

  

I used them to hold some of the extra bon-bon/bombe frozen filling I made–half raspberry, half cookie butter swirl (I swear, it’s like I’m possessed by cookie butter or something! Not that I’m complaining…).

Hope you make some “bon-bombes” too to celebrate National Raspberry Bombe Day! If you have an airport anecdote to tell, or a funny story about something a rather embarrassing lapse of judgment that has hit you recently, please share! I’d love to feel, you know, not completely alone in my less-than-common-sense encounters.

Happy reading, and happy eatings!

NEDFM Challenge Day 10: S’mores

What happened to National Rice Pudding Day? Er, I’ll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, why not enjoy this huge, indoorsy distraction of s’more goodness?

It’s the tenth day of National Eat Dessert First! Month, an entire 31 days dedicated to a different themed dessert but, more importantly, getting those desserts onto our plates and palates! Each day will feature a new guest chef’s photos and recipes for each theme. If you’re interested in joining in for a dessert-tastic month, read the details at the Dessert Month Challenge post. It’s never too late to start!

Our decadent Day 10 entry features every indoor camper’s dream–a baked s’more pie, straight from your oven.

Ala’s note: If you’re looking for a graham cracker crust recipe that works every time, try 1 1/2 cups crushed graham crumbs, 6 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup white sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix together, press into a pie tin, and bake at 350 degrees F until firm to the touch. Voila! Instant hassle-free graham cracker crust, chez vous!

THEMED ENTRY #10: BAKED S’MORES PIE 

Courtesy of: Alicia

This is my attempt at a baked s’mores pie. I’ve never had s’mores before (and I haven’t tried my pie yet!), so I was really excited about giving this a shot.

I worked this out from a video at JoyOfBaking.com, but there really is nothing to it! I just made a regular graham cracker crust, baked for 12 minutes, spread some Nutella on it (because I’m one of those people who believes very few things in life can be ruined by too much Nutella), arranged the marshmallows and covered them with milk chocolate chips, and then back in the oven for another 15 minutes.

It looked pretty good straight out of the oven!

The video said not to be tempted into trying it right away, so I let it cool overnight.  It lost some of its fluffiness, but it still looks pretty good! I’m looking forward to getting off work and trying it myself.

Happy S’mores Day!

National Eat Dessert First Month Challenge Days 6 and 7: Root Beer Floats, and Raspberries & Cream!

I missed Day 6, which was National Root Beer Float Day, because I forgot that we didn’t have a Day 6 entry. Oops.

Quick remedy? Here are some ways you can celebrate (belatedly) this decadent holiday!

THE CLASSIC: Root beer, your choice of ice cream.

THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE SODA FLOAT: Strawberry or cherry soda, vanilla ice cream, and a cherry on top.

THE CAFFEINE CRUNCHER: Coke, mocha almond fudge ice cream, and a square of dark cacao chocolate.

THE GOLD MINER: Sprite, butter pecan or caramel ice cream, pralines or caramel candy

THE CALIFORNIA CRUSH: Orange soda, orange sherbert and vanilla ice cream

Hope you all get a chance to try it if you didn’t celebrate due to my oversight. Anyway, enough about that–no use crying over spilt, er, root beer, right? Moving on!

———————————————————————————————————————————-

It’s the seventh day of National Eat Dessert First! Month, an entire 31 days dedicated to a different themed dessert but, more importantly, getting those desserts onto our plates and palates! Each day will feature a new guest chef’s photos and recipes for each theme. If you’re interested in joining in for a dessert-tastic month, read the details at the Dessert Month Challenge post. It’s never too late to start!

Our decadent Day 6 entry features a healthy, scrumptious apricot almond raspberry shortbread triangle, courtesy of up-and-coming poster kmazzy!

THEMED ENTRY #: ICE CREAM SUNDAE WITH BLUEBERRY SAUCE

Courtesy of: kmazzy

Source of original post here

For bubblebubba‘s Eat Dessert First month I decided to make something a bit healthier than most desserts. This is my take on the raspberries & cream theme.

This recipe was tweaked from ‘Apricot Almond Raspberry Shortbread Triangles’ at The Eat Clean Diet website and the original can be found here.

National Eat Dessert First Month Challenge Day 3: National Watermelon Day

Have you had your watermelon today? No? Well, what are you waiting for? Go out and get some, because it’s national watermelon day! And it’s probably one of the only guilt-free desserts you’re going to be getting this month, so better make the most of it. I subscribe heavily to the “negation effect theory”–according to this theory, even if you eat a 5-pound cheesecake with caramel and hot fudge topping, as long as you eat a 5-pound watermelon…cheesecake negated!

If only that’s how it worked.

It’s the third day of National Eat Dessert First! Month, an entire 31 days dedicated to a different themed dessert but, more importantly, getting those desserts onto our plates and palates! Each day will feature a new guest chef’s photos and recipes for each theme. If you’re interested in joining in for a dessert-tastic month, read the details at the Dessert Month Challenge post. It’s never too late to start!

About today’s featured chef, rebecky_mo: Hello to everyone out there! My online name is rebecky_mo, but I go by pretty much any form of the name Rebecca. I’m Canadian, and I like to think of myself as an adventurous eater, though my cooking skills are still pretty average. I’m a wuss when it comes to spicy foods, and I don’t think any food is ever going to beat good old potato chips in my book.
THEMED ENTRY #3: WATERMELON-LIME GELATIN SQUARES

Frozen Treats Galore! Cookie Butter Chunk ‘n Swirl Cinnamon Ice Cream, Coffee Dark Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, and Ice Cream Sammy Bon Bons (A.k.a. National Eat Dessert First Month Day 2 Theme Post)

If you’ve ever heard a holiday song–and I’m talking winter holidays here–blaring from some sacrilegious corner of the bus in the middle of August, chances are that one of your eyebrows will quirk up. You’ll probably roll your eyes as you try to ignore the strains of “Last Christmas” wafting in on the public transportation air behind you. After two choruses and a bridge, when the song reaches that really annoying part where the singers are warbling the title over and over again with as much grace as a shrieking fence-posted cat, you’ll most likely sigh really loud to let the person know, with a certain level of passive-aggressiveness, that they’re irking you. You will probably even shoot glances around you at your fellow passengers to confirm that they all have the same exasperated looks on their faces, and give them the knowing look when you guys make eye contact.

Got anything we can throw at Christmas Song Freak back there without being sued? their and your expressions will clearly say. And you’ll both shrug helplessly, caught in a state of mutual and lingering frustration, until Christmas Song Freak finally gets off at the second-to-last stop. Of course, you had to be going to the last.

Chances are also that that Christmas Song Freak is me. I mean, how many of us could there be in this world?

I love the winter holidays. I love everything about them–the holiday spirit, the holiday decorations, the holiday smiles and hugs, even the holiday-inspired-laughter-at-disgruntled-shoppers that I frequently indulge in. I’m generally a very easygoing person, and winter is just my season.

Summer is my season though, too. I love everything about the summer holidays–the summer reads, the summer beach runs, the summer weather, the summer outings, the summer nights spent in shorts and sleeveless shirts, the summer guys and dates…I’m generally a very easygoing person, and–yup, you guessed it–summer is just my season. I’m not super picky, really, as long as I’m having fun.

The only real plus in my humble opinion that summer wields over winter is the ice cream. Let’s face it–there’s no better way to come out of hibernation mode and shed that winter coat than with a huge bowl of homemade ice cream. Okay, so maybe ice cream isn’t exactly the best way of shedding a winter coat…but summer only happens 25% of the year and that means we need to celebrate it while we can, right? Right. Plus I get to use my Mickey Mouse ice cream scoop.

Part of me, though–and this is the Christmas-music-playing-on-the-summer-solstice part of me–doesn’t think it’s fair to the winter holidays to let summer have all the claim to frozen treated glory. I mean, winter has its own set of gems: warm gingerbread from the oven, the cup of hot chocolate that your mom makes for you when you’ve battled a storm of Frosty the Snowmen home from school. I’m making most of this stuff up. We don’t have snow where I’m from, but you see where I’m going with this. Winter has its perks, too.

So when I was in the kitchen whipping up these homemade ice cream batches for the August National Eat Dessert First Month Challenge I’m hosting here, it occurred to me that I should probably choose. And it seemed natural, considering that it’s the smack dab middle of summer right now, that I should choose ice cream.

So that was summer. Done.

No, not done! I love winter, too.

Winter it is.

No, summer.

No, I’m pretty sure it’s winter that’s her favorite. (At this point in the mental conversation, the voices in my head were referring to me in the third person.)

She likes summer best!

No, winter!

And so on and so forth. Imagine this going on for a good four or five minutes as I stood in the kitchen with my mixing spoon in hand with a fairly bemused look. I started thinking about whether I should just put on a Christmas soundtrack and forget about the whole thing, when it hit me.

Bam! Like a bus rammed into me. Probably because I was the person playing that annoying holiday music.

Why not have both?

And that’s how the recipe for cookie butter chunk ‘n swirl cinnamon ice cream was born. A hefty dose of Christmas-in-a-jar cookie butter swirled into a lightly spiced homemade vanilla ice cream, and topped with sweet cookie butter chunks. Genius.

I also made these into frozen ice cream sandwich bon-bons by adding graham cracker crusts and coating the whole shebam with chocolate. Shazam! Christmas-time in a summer style? Done.

As for the coffee dark chocolate chunk ice cream, I just like coffee flavors. Fun fact about Ala, though: I can’t drink coffee. I’ll get a massive headache for about 1.283 days and be a massive grouch. Boo.

Anyway, hope you all get a chance to make these–I’d love to hear how they turn out, or if you decide to try out any fun variations! I do have to say, though, that the cookie butter chunk ‘n swirl cinnamon ice cream was an instant hit–so don’t be scared away from trying it! Grab that cookie butter jar and go, go, go!

I’m off to play “Last Christmas” on my iPod now as I get a scoop of cookie butter ice cream. Oh, and if you’re wondering, there aren’t any bon-bons left–the girls at the book club gobbled them all up.

So sad.

Happy reading, and happy eatings!

For the recipe and photo-cipe:

National Eat Dessert First Month Challenge Day 1: Raspberry Cream Pie

On the first day of August, my bakers gave to me…

Two really stellar entries! Like, really stellar.

That’s right, folks–we’re kicking off the first day of National Eat Dessert First! Month, an entire 31 days dedicated to a different themed dessert but, more importantly, getting those desserts onto our plates and palates! Each day will feature a new guest chef’s photos and recipes for each theme. If you’re interested in joining in for a dessert-tastic month, read the details at the Dessert Month Challenge post. It’s never too late to start!

National Eat Dessert First Month Challenge Day 1: Raspberry Cream Pie

Our first entries feature up-and-coming baker rebecky_mo, who has posted on the community site for the first time and really stepped up to the challenge with her decadent version of raspberry cream pie.

We also have a fantastic entry from kamaliitaru, whose mouthwatering photo rendition of raspberry lemonade cheesecake is creative truly criminal.

RASPBERRY CREAM PIE ENTRY #1

Courtesy of: rebecky_mo

Source of Original Post: rebecky_mo’s bakebakebake post

Original Post: 

RASPBERRY CREAM PIE ENTRY #2

Courtesy of: kamaliitaru

Source of original post: bakebakebake

For the original posts and recipes–

Did You Know? August is National Eat Dessert First Month!

…And I’m hosting a theme challenge in honor of it!

So in America, we apparently have something called “National Eat Dessert First” month. These are the 31 blissful days during the year when the sugar on all the grocery store shelves suddenly vanish and national happiness levels skyrocket. Each day in August has a different themed dessert–the month kicks off with national raspberry cream pie day, followed by national ice cream day, and so on and so forth. Are we seeing a completely delicious, delectable idea brewing here? I hope so!

My idea is to muster up as many forces as I can from all around baking and cooking communities to help me accomplish this challenge. The goal: Find at least one participant–either another or myself–to make a recipe featuring each themed dessert day in August. 

Yes, you read that right, and you know what that means–I NEED YOUR HELP!

I will be featuring a different theme recipe every day for the month of August on this blog. Proper credits and links will definitely be set up, and nothing will be used without your permission. But what better way to create a community and cook up a storm while we’re at it? Plus, you’ll have another outlet for readers to learn about your cooking skills every time you’re in the spotlight. Pretty nifty, eh?

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: