"Hotdish" and Blackberry Chèvre Salad

Actually, I don't like the word hotdish. I prefer casserole. It's kind of like my inner struggle with "supper" versus dinner. I prefer dinner. I think I'm resistant to being completely Minnesotan. I have California roots!

Anyway..

I'm done with the Pioneer Woman. I still follow her blog and I bookmarked this recipe. I bought all the ingredients but didn't end up making it last week. My broccoli was on the verge of expiring so I pulled out the recipe for tonight's dinner. I read through the reviews and saw many people proclaim this casserole bland and fussy. I proceeded knowing I should add salt and love to make it right.

I say I'm done because I haven't had much luck with her recipes lately.

So this Broccoli Wild Rice Casserole was okay. Just okay. It happens. It was a lot of chopping and prep, so it's not worth a repeat performance.

 

There is a layer of wild rice, blanched broccoli, cooked chicken (my addition), and then a homemade cream of mushroom type sauce (with a pound of diced mushrooms, some carrots and celery). Oh, and then a layer of panko crumbs tossed with butter.

 

OMG. We have TONS left. I was going to half the recipe, I really was, but I had so much broccoli to use. I did add chicken so I did reduce the amount of rice and broccoli, just slightly. I worried about another ingredient soaking up the sauce so that was my adjustment.

 

Truly, the star of the meal was the Blackberry Chèvre Salad. I am in love with goat cheese. I couldn't find honey chèvre at my local grocery store so I used plain goat cheese drizzled with honey. I toasted the pecans in butter and spices, and I blended some fresh blackberries with red wine vinegar, honey, olive oil, and S&P.

 

F@$% yeah! I'm really glad I liked this because this is the start of our week of salads. Side salads and main dish salads. It just feels right.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Wild Rice Broccoli Casserole.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Blackberry Chèvre Salad.

 

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Blackberry Pie Bars

I'm hoping that the treat recipient will love blackberries.

 

My friend Ann raved about this recipe and really we have so much in common that I knew that I would love this recipe too!

The top and bottom of the bars are a shortbread buttery goodness. There is a custard like filling full of fresh blackberries (and a few raspberries for added color and well, because I didn't have quite enough blackberries!)

I waited the minimum 60 minutes before digging into a piece. It was still warm and very moist. I think the filling will firm up even more and taste better chilled.

New recipes make me happy and this one didn't disappoint! I hope these are well received tomorrow :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Blackberry Pie Bars.

 

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Blackberry Cheesecake

Cub has blackberries, 2 for $1. ONE DOLLA! So I bought four packages and didn't have a plan. I figured ice cream or jam. The very next day Pioneer Woman posted a Blackberry Cheesecake recipe as if she read my freaking mind about blackberries.

I decided to go mini and freeze most of them. I also decided to make half a recipe since I also have banana bread and zucchini bread I can make (and freeze, give away probably too.)




Jim and I had a mid afternoon snack of one mini each. We are freezing the rest- probably for tomorrow! Ha.

The cheesecake is the easiest, basic (and very creamy) cheesecake recipe yet. I can see myself making this one again and drizzling hot fudge sauce on it. Or some other fruits. Endless possibilities- thanks PW!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Blackberry Cheesecake.

My modifications- mini cheesecakes at 375 for 15 minutes. I drizzled the sauce on each cheesecake and refrigerated for an hour before popping them out. I baked the second round of cheesecakes soon after.

Oh! And another use for my pancake pen- I put the cheesecake batter in the pancake pen and I was able to squirt out the batter so neatly and quickly. LOVE!

Blackberry Sorbet

I wasn't even planning on making a sorbet tonight. I noticed that the blackberries that I got on sale a few days ago weren't going over very well with my son. He gets into fruit funks where one day he can't get enough of a certain fruit and then the next day he refuses it. It's hard to buy fruit sometimes because I'm not sure what he'll do. So I try and buy fruit that I know I will enjoy too. And really, which fruit is a bad one? I love them all. I especially love the fruit that you can make into sorbets! I think that's ANY fruit according to David Lebovitz.

So this is a simple recipe. I think I need to tackle one of his more unique, complicated ones. I like a good ice cream challenge!

The color of this sorbet is awesome! It was sweet and fruity, but a little bitter too. Just like a blackberry. This is a great way to use up frozen blackberries too! I had mostly fresh berries but I used 1/2 cup of frozen berries. Oh, and I only made half of a recipe. I need to do that more often with a lot of recipes. Extras are nice but not when I want to move on to the next recipe and then feel guilt that there is half a cake (or whatever) left.

I used my Perfect Scoop cookbook but I found the recipe online, of course.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Blackberry Sorbet.

Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

I made this last year. I had an abundance of blackberries, wanted to bake something, and found a simple cake that looked interesting. The blog that I stole this from has better pictures of the cake, in process and then plated.

I remember that this cake was sweet but not overly sweet. When you think of cake, well when I think of cake, I think of frosting and fluffy cake. This was almost more coffee cake or pound cake like. It was a very simple cake. I think I end every blog posting with this- I think I should make it again :)

I did substitute blackberries for raspberries. The original recipe said it was okay, and of course it was.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Raspberry Buttermilk Cake.