Phylloccine Ice Cream Sandwiches

The pictures of this one intimidated me and then the recipe assuaged me. It was basically an assembly recipe with very little baking.  I had to only bake the phyllo strips mounded into little nests,  after dousing them with some butter and sugar.  Simple.

The other assembly parts were some whipped cream, ice cream ( I used store bought frozen yogurt), skewered fruit and a chunky fruit puree with mint.  Simple.

The ironic part of this recipe was that it called for raspberries.  The kiddos and I had just picked pounds of the season's first raspberries but froze them or sauced them all.  No fresh ones left.  But we did have strawberries and blueberries so we subbed those in.  Simple.

Although difficult to eat, much like the recent tropical napoleons, they were delicious. They tasted like summer on a plate.  

Check out the other bloggers take on this recipe at Tuesdays with Dorie.

Blueberry Muffins

Awhile ago, we lived in Telluride, CO, and living near us were two of our dearest friends.  They were the reason we moved to the boxed in canyon, dead end street town.  Not to say anything disparaging about Telluride, as it is indisputably one of the most beautiful towns in the lower 48.  But food is difficult to come by there.  We traveled to not so nearby Montrose every other week to stock up on goods.  Despite this, our friends never seemed to be short on food, delicious food at that.  If we stopped by their house in the morning, it was par for the course to have fresh waffles or my favorite, fresh, huge blueberry muffins.  

Within a year of our arrival, both couples soon moved from Telluride, we to Portland and they to Austin.   But I have never forgotten those muffins.  I got the recipe and even bought oversized muffin tins to replicate them exactly.  They are nothing extravagant but just right.  They have the perfect crumb and density that I crave in a muffin. 

So, looking at the blueberry muffin recipe in Baking with Julia, I was reluctant to even try it.  It requires a few more steps than the normal muffin recipe and it even states the muffins turn out with a flat top, not at all like my giant overstuffed muffins of Telluride.  

I tried it anyway.  It turned out just fine.  But that's just it, fine.  The crumb is light and cake-like, maybe too light for me, as I am not a big cake fan.  So for cake lovers these may be the perfect recipe.  

As for me I will stick with my friends' recipe.  

Rhiannon on a BC Ferry

This blog participates in Tuesday with Dorie baking group.  See the link for others' experience with this week's recipe.

Baked Yogurt Tart

I am not sure what to write about this recipe from the Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia group.  I liked it's simplicity and lightness.  I disliked how underwhelming its flavor was.  And this has nothing to do with the berries, because the berries in Oregon are incredibly insane right now.

Maybe it could use more berries.  Maybe it's because I really just wanted a berry pie to eat those berries, not a baked yogurt filled pie shell with a smattering of berries.

As far as the recipe goes, it is simple.  Start with pre baking a piecrust (mine fell, as you can see), then fill it with a yogurt, flour, eggs, vanilla and sugar mixture.  Top this with berries and some chopped almonds (missing from the picture as I added these after the baking process to avoid burning them).  Bake it all and it's done.  I did bake mine longer than the recipe states, and I still could not imagine flipping this one over (as instructed) as it's center was still a bit loose.  (I would curious to hear if anyone successfully flipped theirs.)

For others stories and pics, see the link above.

Rhiannon camping...