Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Fresh PB&J

I can't believe that Ontario strawberry season has come and (nearly) gone again. We ate a whole whack of fresh local berries the past month. Most of the time we ate our berries washed and sliced, very simple but very tasty.

To round out strawberry season I decided to try a strawberry dessert. I let Google guide me this time out (strawberry dessert) and one of the first hits was Fresh Strawberry Bars from Better Homes and Gardens. This recipe brings together the flavours of a peanut butter and jam sandwich in a dessert bar. I had just enough of my homeade strawberry jam from last season to use for this recipe. It was spread on top of the base just before the berries were spread overtop.


This dessert was a real winner with all of my guys, who are peanut butter fanatics. I found the base to be quite rich but managed to eat my share! We enjoyed our Strawberry Squares after a very casual Sunday dinner featuring another Summer sandwich - the Classic Club. Our version featured sourdough bread, crisp bacon, turkey, lettuce, russian mustard and....apple slices. My husband doesn't like tomato very much, so I've started substituting apple slices on his sandwiches. If you've never eaten apple on your sandwich, you should try it. I whipped up a couple of side salads (pasta and coleslaw) to have along with our Clubs. A great (and easy) Summer dinner.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Happy Canada Day!

What to do when you have a half dozen different sized maple leaf cookie cutters? Make festive Canada Day cookies, of course! I made a batch of these cookies to take to work (and for the kids to enjoy at home, wink wink nudge nudge) and they turned out rather scrumtious. The recipe is a reliable one for sugar cookies from Williams Sonoma Kids Baking. The icing recipe is super simple - just icing sugar, corn syrup and water. The red and white sprinkles were left over from Valentine's Day baking. I made three different sizes (again, six to choose from!). I wish the weather on July 1st had been as festive as the cookies! We had brief glimpses of the sun but periods of light rain as well. Summer 2009 is shaping up to be a wet one here in Ontario....