Driscoll's Berries - Coupon Winner

Congratulations Fallon! You win the coupons for the berries from Driscoll's.  Just email me with your mailing address at phemomenon[at]gmail[dot]com  Thanks for playing along!

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Decadent Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and win Driscoll's coupons

Decadent Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

Photo and recipe courtesy of Driscoll's

So, July 30th is National Cheesecake Day. When I was growing up for the longest time I thought I didn't like cheesecake.  It was one of those times as a kid where I was basically making an assumption and not trying something.  I finally tried it when I was probably about 11 or 12 and I've never looked back since.

While I do love a killer cheesecake with more of a traditional style and flavor, this Decadent Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake looks insanely good and, well, decadent, just like the title promises.

A couple of weeks ago, in honor of National Cheesecake Day, I was emailed this recipe and sent some coupons for some Driscoll's berries.  I couldn't be happier that the kind folks at Driscoll's offered this, not just because I can do so many fun things with the berries, but because it educated me about something I didn't know before.  Their website.  Why I didn't know about it or think about it before I couldn't say, but it is bookmarked now for sure.  It certainly stands to reason that the people who grow the berries would have lots of great ideas of how to use them.

In fact, I want to share the wealth and pass on some of the coupons for the berries.  They are a great value at $2 off a package.  I have 3 of them to share, so that is $6 worth of beautiful in-season gorgeous berries from Driscoll's.  The coupons are good for any of their berries, so just to prove a point about what a gorgeous site and all the recipes that Driscoll's has, I nabbed a few more pictures and links for you.  After all, while it is still summertime, why not plan a whole meal featuring some ridiculously pretty berries.  Dessert is already taken care of above, prepare to drool over these ideas. Details to get the coupons are at the bottom.

All photos courtesy of Driscolls.com

Goat Cheese and Strawberry Bruschetta

Cedar Grilled Prawns with Blackberry Citrus Salad

Raspberry Cilantro Salsa

Bourbon Raspberry Rub Steak with Raspberry Mango Salsa

OK, so now that you've seen just a taste of what they have come up with over at Driscoll's, head on over to their site, look around and tell me which recipe you would try first with your berries.  You have until this Saturday at noon MST to leave a comment on this post.  Drawing will be open to anyone in the United States or Canada and will be decided by Random.org.  I can't wait to see what else you find on their site!

TWD: Chewy Chunky Blondies

The time for the chewy, chunky blondies for Tuesdays with Dorie has finally come.  I've wondered about this recipe for a while, but I'm not sure why I hadn't just tried it before now.

These were the pick of Nicole over at Cookies on Friday, which is where you can find the recipe.

The original recipe calls for chocolate, butterscotch of toffee bits, walnuts and coconut.  I opted to make homemade toffee bits (recipe below) and use pecans. They turned out really great, but were quite gooey when they were warm.

Don't forget to visit the TWD Blogroll for more blondies!

Homemade Toffee Chips

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Line a baking sheet with parchment or buttered foil and set aside.

In a heavy saucepan combine the sugars and cream and bring to a boil. Cook on medium heat to softball stage (a  drop of the mixture in a glass of ice water will make a 'soft ball') (238 degrees F). Add the butter and vanilla and stir. Continue cooking until hardball (a drop of the mixture in a glass of ice water will make a 'hard ball') stage (245 degrees F).

Pour the mixture onto the lined baking sheet and set aside to cool and harden.  Once it is cooled, break into bits and use in cookies, cakes, baking, as ice cream topping, or whatever your little heart desires.

Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

TWD: Banana Cake into Banoffee Cake

If anyone out there has figured out how to squeeze more hours into the day, please let me know! I actually made this cake almost two weeks ago... and I just remembered in the wee hours of the morning that though I had loaded the pictures, I had yet to write and post about this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick.

This week is bananas - both the cake, and my life (see what I did there with my lame-it's-reeeeaaaaalllly-late-early-whatever BAD sense of humor - sorry about that).

Anyway, the Lots-of-ways Banana Cake, chosen by Kimberly at Only Creative Opportunities is a great recipe with lots and lots of options for what to do with it.  It really got me thinking, and what I really wanted was a snacking cake with lots of goodies loaded into it.  I didn't feel like coconut, so I opted to turn the cake into a halved-recipe (only 1 9-inch cake) banana-toffee-chocolate-pecan confection.  I'm so glad I did because it was a delicious and imminently snackable treat.

I made a plethora of changes and wanted to save them, so I opted to post my version of the recipe over on my SLC Baking Examiner page at Examiner.com - just in case anyone else out there was looking for a very simple and snackable cake.

The cake itself turned out moist, and tender with just a little banana flavor.  It is fairly dense for a cake, but not as dense as most banana breads I've had.  I made a mixture of dark chocolate chips, homemade toffee chunks, chopped pecans and even added a little raw sugar on top for an extra crunch.

For many more variations, check out the TWD Blog.

TWD: Brrr-ownies

Tuesdays with Dorie this week was a pretty lucky pick for me since I just made these brownies a few weeks ago for a friend to celebrate the birth of her first baby - she is a peppermint patty lovin' fiend.  I knew the brrr-ownies time would come someday, so I went ahead and took pictures then VOILA! There time is already here!

The brownies were much like most other brownie batters, with the addition of chopped up peppermint patties.  Many other bakers ran in to problems with the peppermint patties melting into goo and disappearing in the batter.  I'm not sure why this didn't happen to me, but I did make sure to chop my candies in fairly large pieces for the most part - I really wanted there to be chunks of candy in the brownies.

These brownies were a hit with my friend and here at our house, so thanks go out to Karen at Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life for choosing this one! Make sure to check out the TWD Blog for more brownie posts!

TWD: Tarte Noire or Tarte S'More

Tuesdays with Dorie this week is a sleek, chic concoction called a Tarte Noire - simply put, the most simple and perfect little chocolate tart in creation.  I am so excited that this recipe's time has finally come! Thanks go out to Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life. I wanted to choose this for my pick long ago, but needed something at that time that was Passover appropriate for more of the group.  I actually first made this about two years ago and just haven't been able to stand not screaming about it from the rooftops!  You can see my original tart below.  I posted about it over here and absolutely loved it in its pure form of the tart crust and chocolate.  When I was thinking about whether or not I would be able to make the recipe for this week though I started thinking about all kinds of things going on in our lives lately - mainly all about summertime and childhood memories.

I mentioned that we made S'Mores with the boys when we were visiting my in-laws on their farm a couple of weeks ago.  It was actually their first campfire too and they loved it - even though it was still raining on us.  Anyway, it made me think about the fact that, although I really love S'Mores, I would love them a lot more with a better quality chocolate than the norm.  Enter the Tarte Noire becoming the Tarte S'More.  

I decided to make mini graham cracker tartlet crusts (which as you can see fell apart, but were still delicious - not sure how to correct that better, but it still tasted awesome).  I filled the graham crusts with the ganache for the tarte and let them set (I actually even froze them for a little while in my impatience).  I then topped each one with a generous scoop of marshmallow fluff and toasted the fluff till it was warm, gooey and just a little singed in some spots and voila! Upscale S'Mores.  They were sooooo good.  Dangerously good.

For more amazing chocolatey creations check out the LYL post on the Tuesdays with Dorie blog.

Independence Day Cookies

Happy Independence Day to all of my fellow American's this weekend!  If you are still looking for a fun treat to make with your kiddos, these patriotic tie-dye swirly cookies are a blast to make (and eat!).  I posted these last year and we still love making them.  You can get the recipe and instructions here.

I was recently contacted by Rebecca, an editor over at LilSugar (of PopSugar network fame) who asked if I would let them feature these cookies in their round-up of ideas for fun desserts for the holiday.  They have a lot of great, fun, kid-friendly ideas, so if you are still stumped you should head over there and see what they came up with.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe and very happy holiday!  I'd like to send out my heartfelt gratitude to all the men and women in our armed forces, and their families, for their contribution in keeping us safe to enjoy the privileges and freedom that so many are still denied.  I want to send a special thank you and round of much hugs and love to my brother who is in the Army and headed to Korea for a year after just recently returning from his second tour in Iraq. He always did want to be a Super Hero.  Mission accomplished.  Love you Bubba :)