24. Miniatures Melt my Heart: Mini Strawberry Pies

I've had this recipe saved forever but had convinced myself it was too hard.

We were having new friends over for dinner. I know him through work, but hadn't met his wife yet. I was nervous and trying to find something adorable to impress. Let me tell you, these worked!

Thanks to my husband for being my cooking buddy. I don't think he knows how much I appreciate when he gets in to the kitchen with me and helps me get things done. Things get made in half the time.

The day started off with this adorable little bouquet picked by my husband. They were growing somewhere in our yard and he saved them rather than mow them. He laughed when he saw I actually put them in a tiny glass of water. An old shot glass to be more specific. They're on the window sill in the kitchen. Too cute.

This has to be the easiest pie crust in the world. It was quite good too. Flour, butter, eggs. That's it. Mixed in a mixer or with a hand mixer.

Dough was rolled and placed in to tiny ramekins and filled with the strawberry mixture. Strawberries, brown & white sugars, flour, corn starch, cinnamon, nutmeg & vanilla. Over fill each of them, and for a cute touch, rather than basket weave the top I cut little stars out and placed them on top of the strawberries. Adorable!

Here they are ready for the oven. Place them on a baking sheet, pop them in the oven for about 40 minutes and then pull them out to cool. They are so easy and quick, and you've got the perfect summer treat.

How cute are these? Place them on a cooling rack and let them cool completely. You can either serve them straight in the the ramekin like we did, or you could pop them out and put them on a plate for guests to dish up. Be sure to grease your baking device, these popped out so easily on their own after I sprayed them.

I plan to  make these again while we're on vacation this week. We have raspberries, blackberries and blueberries in the fridge. As long as you have 4 cups of fruit, I think you could fill these with whatever you wanted. How perfect would these be for a baby or bridal shower? Or just a girls tea? I guess it's time to start planning a party!

Make them, enjoy them.

Mini Strawberry Pies

For the crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold butter, cut in to 1/2 in cubes

2 whole eggs, lightly beaten

For the filling:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp corn starch

1/2 cup brown sugar, not packed

1/4 white sugar

1 dash cinnamon

1 dash nutmeg

4 cups strawberries, quartered

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup cake flour and salt together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the cold butter cubes and mix on low for 1 minute, then add the eggs and mix on medium low until the dough forms a cohesive mass. Pat the dough into a disc, wrap in cellophane and place in the fridge.

In a small bowl mix together the 1/2 cup flour, cornstarch, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, toss the strawberries with the vanilla extract and then toss them in with the dry ingredients.

Preheat oven to 400F. Place a cupcake pan in the freezer.

On a clean surface, roll out 3/4 of your pie dough until it is about 1/8″ thick. Return the remaining 1/4 of the dough to the fridge.

Cut circles in the rolled-out dough using a round that is approximately 3″ in diameter to make a total of 9 circles. Remove cupcake pan from fridge and lightly grease 9 of the cups with butter. Gently press each dough round into greased cups, coming all the way up the edges and leaving a small rim of dough at the top. Patch any holes with a pinch of extra dough from the refrigerator.

Overfill each pie with the strawberry mixture. Roll out remaining dough and slice into 1/4″ to 1/3″ strips. Lay strips of dough across each pie in a criss-cross pattern, pinching each seam together as you go along.

Place the cupcake pan on top of a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes. If at anytime the crust is becoming too brown, cover pies with aluminum foil and continue baking. When done baking, let the pies cool in pan for 30 minutes, then remove and let pies cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Makes 9 pies

Our Easter

This Easter was the first I've spent with my family in 4 years. When I took my job almost 4 years ago, it put a damper on holidays. We work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There's no break for us, and holidays aren't an exception. It's not something that really bothers me, but when there is a holiday I have off, big or small, I'm pretty excited about it!

We went to church with my parents in the morning. We haven't been to church in quite a few months, and we really enjoyed being there. The music and message were wonderful. It so nice to be reminded of what God has done for us. I enjoy reflecting on my blessings and being around others who hold the same beliefs as I do.

The cooking for this meal was really quite fun. Four of us had something to contribute and made for a really great meal. We've never been a family to branch out and try new things until recently. We've always been really traditional with our holiday meals, but over the last few years as our holiday celebrations have become more concentrated we've made a few changes.

The Tulip Festival is in full swing in Mount Vernon, and my mom has splashed the fresh tulips throughout her house. What's more spring than tulips?

Asparagus & Spring Greens Salad with Gorgonzola Vinaigrette

Made by my mom (with my help :).

Rosemary Turkey stuffed with Onions & Garlic

Mady by my dad.

Herbed Potato Salad

Made by my sister.

Delicious Dinner Rolls

&

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cookie Dough Frosting

Made by me.

Everything together made for a beautiful plate. This was an incredibly healthy and light meal. The potato salad & asparagus salad were both taken from Cooking Light. Turkey is always a healthy choice, topped with organic turkey gravy. The dinner rolls & raspberry lemonade punch were the splurge of the main course.

Pretty purple & cream tulips.

I'll be sharing the recipes for the dinner rolls, cupcakes and asparagus salad. Keep an eye out for those in the coming week! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

boys & brisket on monday

This new grill has changed our life, and it's only been a week. We had our friend Dave over Monday to hang out, enjoy some good food, good beer and a few hands of cards. Nothing beats indulging in some great food and beer. But we're eaters. We love to eat good food.

My husband got his butt out of bed at 3:00am to throw the brisket on the smoker. I was really impressed at his motivation to smoke up a good piece of meat that day. And the result was totally worth it. He put on a great beef rub, and slathered it with some tasty bbq sauce in it's last hours before pulling it off the grill.

Hello you pretty little thing! Now, I'll admit this piece looks very rare. However, what we've learned with smoking is that it turns just about everything red. It's called the smoke ring. This baby had been on the grill for over 12 hours and it was smoked through and through. The meat was done, but still very tender and had an amazing hickory flavor.

Oh my. Hello heaven!

This is a porter unlike any porter I've ever tasted before. It's rare around these parts, and it just so happened that our local specialty beer shop, Whidbey Beer Works, had ordered a few bottles in. My husband snatched them up right away. You can click here to read more about Anchor Brewing's Anchor Porter.

I made jalepeno poppers. Jalepenos halved, seeded, then stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon. We had them for the first time last year at a bar in Port Townsend and my husband asked if I'd make them at home. Thankfully they were as easy as they looked and I was able to recreate them at home on my own.

And here's my plate full. Beef brisket sandwich with italian pasta salad and my Anchor Porter there in the background. Yum! I also made salsa, which I've shown before and it was even better than last time. I didn't bother to partake in the poppers as I'm allergic to dairy products. But that's a story for another time.

We had a great time eating and visiting and finished the night off with more beer and a few hands of cards. I went to bed much earlier than the guys did, but I always like to give them a little time to themselves girl free. Our time off to visit with him is limited with our work schdules and it's alway nice to let the boys be boys.

And of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without Zoey fighting to be the center of attention. Thankfully she's small enough we didn't have a problem navigating our card game around her sweet little self.