Did you know that Evan hates strawberries?
It's true.
He hates the look of them, the smell of them and lord help you if Evan accidentally gets a taste of strawberry. (note to self: mixed berry yogurt does, in fact, have strawberries in it, so do not buy it for Evan's lunches.)
Since Evan is such a freak of nature, I don't make a lot of strawberry desserts, even though I do happen to lovelovelove strawberries.
That's why it's taken me so long to actually make this recipe. But, I bought some fabulously beautiful strawberries for a fantastic price at the store and decided it was time to try this strawberry pizza recipe out.
The ingredients:
Crust: 1 C. flour; 1 C. sugar, 1 stick of butter.
Filling: 8oz. cream cheese; 1/2 tsp. vanilla; 1/2 C. sugar; 1/4 tsp. lemon juice.
Topping: 1 C. mashed berries; 4 Tbsp. sugar; 1 Tbsp. corn starch.
Rest of strawberries from the pint cut up for top of topping.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Let's begin with the crust.
In a small bowl, pour in the flour, sugar and butter.
With two knives or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it is crumbly.
(Dear family, I want a pastry blender badly. I hate cutting butter into things and feel a pastry blender would help simmer down part of the hatred. A pastry blender would make a FANTASTIC gift for me for my birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas or "I love Virginia so much I just feel the need to bestow gifts upon her" Day. Thank you.)
Press the crust mixture into a 10inch. pizza pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is a golden brown.
Mmm...yummy. The crust is basically a giant, flat sugar cookie.
Allow the crust to completely cool. While it is cooling, start on the filling. In your mixer bowl, combine the cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, lemon juice.
Beat the ingredients until very fluffy.
Now for the topping. Take a cup of strawberries and mash them up.
Then mix the mashed strawberries, sugar and corn starch.
Microwave for 3-3 1/2 minutes until the mixture thickens.
Now, take the rest of those strawberries and slice them. (Seriously, how can you not think strawberries are beautiful?! Evan has something wrong with him.)
Now, take the cream cheese filling and spread it evenly over the cooled crust. Take the strawberry mixture and spread it over the cream cheese layer.
Finally, take those strawberries and decorate the top however you feel. Cut the dessert as you would a pizza (hence the name).
I served this dessert at Thursday dinner with my friends Kim and Rachel and their families.
This dessert was flipping fantastic!!!! Very rich but perfectly sweet. It was a hit with everyone (except Evan, of course). This is something I would definitely take to a brunch or a party. Way too much for just one family to eat, but enough to share with others.
Enjoy!
Olive oil; 3-6 chicken breasts (depending on how many people you are feeding); 1 C. cream; 3 Tbsp. capers; 3 Tbsp. caper juice; 3/4 tsp. oregano; salt and pepper to taste. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Move the chicken to a baking dish. In the same large skillet, add the cream, capers with their juice, oregano and the salt and pepper. Bring this all to a boil and then allow it to simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Pour the sauce over the chicken in the baking dish. Bake the chicken for 45-60 minutes, basting the chicken occasionally with the sauce.
Done! (Sorry this isn't prettier, but sometimes things out of the oven aren't very pretty.)
We ate our caper chicken with rice and green beans.
This chicken was soooo juicy!! And the cream sauce was yummy! I didn't have enough capers and we'll definitely be making sure I have plenty the next time I make this dish. Everyone liked it and it was simple yet very yummy. My favorite kind of meals.
Elisabeth asks me to buy mango all the time. I have a couple of times and then forgotten to actually cut them up to eat them and then they go rotten. It's tragic. This time, I made sure to eat this mango pronto.
Take one side and make cuts through like a checkerboard, making sure not to go through the mango skin.
Then, push the mango up from the bottom skin part. It'll look like this:
Trim off the chunks you have made with your checkerboard pattern and serve.
Holy crap, mango is delicious. Google was so right. Both Elisabeth and Julia ate them like candy (which they are...they're the candy of nature...sorry, I'm a dork). They are sweet, but not as sweet as pineapple. I really enjoyed the taste and now wonder why I hadn't tried fresh mango sooner. I've eaten dried mango and drank mango smoothies, but have never just bought a fresh mango. Well, that will be changing and at 2 for a $1.00 at the stores, I shall be purchasing more while they are in season.
Crust: 1 C. flour; 1 C. sugar, 1 stick of butter.
With two knives or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it is crumbly.
(Dear family, I want a pastry blender badly. I hate cutting butter into things and feel a pastry blender would help simmer down part of the hatred. A pastry blender would make a FANTASTIC gift for me for my birthday, Mother's Day, Christmas or "I love Virginia so much I just feel the need to bestow gifts upon her" Day. Thank you.)
Mmm...yummy. The crust is basically a giant, flat sugar cookie. 
Allow the crust to completely cool. While it is cooling, start on the filling. In your mixer bowl, combine the cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, lemon juice.
Beat the ingredients until very fluffy.
Now for the topping. Take a cup of strawberries and mash them up.
Then mix the mashed strawberries, sugar and corn starch.
Microwave for 3-3 1/2 minutes until the mixture thickens.
Now, take the rest of those strawberries and slice them. (Seriously, how can you not think strawberries are beautiful?! Evan has something wrong with him.)
Now, take the cream cheese filling and spread it evenly over the cooled crust. Take the strawberry mixture and spread it over the cream cheese layer.
Finally, take those strawberries and decorate the top however you feel. Cut the dessert as you would a pizza (hence the name).
I served this dessert at Thursday dinner with my friends Kim and Rachel and their families.
This dessert was flipping fantastic!!!! Very rich but perfectly sweet. It was a hit with everyone (except Evan, of course). This is something I would definitely take to a brunch or a party. Way too much for just one family to eat, but enough to share with others.
