Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Dana is much better at making chocolate covered strawberries, but I made some with my niece Emily when we were all visiting my parents. This is an easy recipe for kids to help with. And I'm thinking they were pretty good because they lasted only minutes once they were ready! When I'm doing them for adults I like to fancy them up a little with white chocolate stripes, but I just went with simple for the kids.

 

1 cup (6 oz.) milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate

Dana uses this kind

I usually just use chocolate chips

1 to 2 tsp. shortening or oil

1 pint fresh strawberries, with green tops left on

Earlier in the day, wash strawberries and drain on paper towels. It's important that the strawberries be absolutely dry when dipping in chocolate.  Place shortening or oil with chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave in 20-30 second bursts. You can also use a double broiler.
Hold strawberries by their green tops and swirl into the melted chocolate.  
 Place on waxed paper.
Refrigerate for up to 24 hours before serving.Enjoy!

If you want them a little fancier you can add a bit of white chocolate:

No-Bake Cookies

I LOVE these cookies! They are super fast and quite tasty. Chocolate peanut butter goodness! I also love that I can make them in the summer without making my kitchen feel like an oven.

 1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup peanut butter
3- 3 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
2 tsp. vanilla Add the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute.  Stir in the next 3 ingredients.   Drop onto wax/foil/parchment paper. Let cool until set.  Yep, it's that easy :-)

These are some of my favorite cookies!

Mom's Fudgy Brownies

 

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1` teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, melted
• 2-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1-3/4 cups chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9x12" pan.

  

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. 

 

With spoon or wire whisk stir together melted butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl. 

 

Add eggs, stir until well blended. 

 

Stir in flour mixture, blending well. 

 

Stir in chocolate chips. 

Spread batter in prepared pan (it's a very thick batter). 

  

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. 

 

Cut into bars. Enjoy!

Strawberry Shortcake

Sunshine cake is my grandmother's recipe that my mom adapted a little. We use it as our go-to white cake. We often pair it with lemon curd... sooo good! Here we used it for strawberry shortcake to use up some strawberries from my mom's garden. It was delicious! It can be a finicky cake, but I love how light and airy it is.

 Whipped Cream (homemade or canned) Strawberries Sunshine Cake: 11 egg whites9 egg yolks1 tsp salt1 cup cake flour 1 cup powdered sugar1 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar1-2 tsp. vanillaoptional: lemon zest  Sunshine Cake:Preheat oven to 325 degrees.Sift flour and set aside.  Beat egg whites till foamy.  Add cream of tartar and salt.  Beat till stiff. Add vanilla. Optional: You can add some lemon zest if you want. Then add 1/2 cup sugar gradually.  

Mix flour, corn starch, and other 1/2 cup sugar and fold in egg white mixture. Then beat egg yolks until thick and gently fold into the egg white mixture. Spray tube pan with some oil.  Pour batter in pan.    Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.  Then invert pan until cooled.Slide cake out of pan and top with strawberries and whipped cream.