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The Berry Best Four Berry Pie Recipe

This mixed berry pie is made with four kinds of berries and a buttery homemade pie crust. It’s the ultimate summer pie recipe!

If you live in the great state of Utah, you know that today, the 24th of July, carries nearly the same celebratory weight as the king of patriot days, July 4th. It’s the day Utahns celebrate statehood with parades, fireworks and a nod to the pioneers who walked thousands of miles until they stopped in our little valley and declared, “This is the place!”

Happy Pioneer Day! Or as us heathens who prefer to center all holidays around food prefer to call it, Happy Pie & Beer Day!

I’ll take a slice and a swill of both, please.

After posting my round up of 20 Classic Summer Pies to Love, I got the pie bug. I had the homemade pie fever. I had the lust to bake. So I set myself to task. I armed myself with a summertime selection of fresh berries: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Then I turned to my favorite pie crust recipe, which I have come to realize is nearly as soft, sweet and supple as sugar cookie dough. Cookie as a crust? Not officially, but it strikes a resemblance.

There may have been a little inspiration for the cutaway crust thanks to the cover of this magazine. They used a cookie cutter. I used a big mouth straw, and ate the little roundie cutouts as I went.

A double crust pie loaded with fresh berries is nearly as patriotic as parades, firecrackers, and a side of beer with your pie.

continue to the recipe…

Strawberry Arugula Salad with Watermelon and Feta

This healthy strawberry and arugula salad recipe with a simple balsamic vinaigrette dressing gets even sweeter with watermelon that’s topped with feta cheese and nuts.

Strawberries. Watermelon. Arugula. Feta.

Sweet. Sweet. Bitter. Tang.

This super simple arugula salad with fruit and a quick balsamic dressing melds so perfectly together it creates a total flavor explosion. It’s smooth, it’s crunchy, it’s fresh, it has bite. And it lets every one of your senses know that baby, summer is on its way.

During spring and summer, I bet I make a version of this strawberry and arugula salad with watermelon, feta cheese and nuts at least once or twice a week. I LOVE the ying and the yang of the flavors and textures. Shockingly, the other two in our trio of a family didn’t get the fruit-in-salad-loving-gene.

Since meal time it’s a democracy in at 0ur house, when I say fruit goes in salad, this democratic (?) Queen (that’s me!) gets her way every time. And guess, what? Thanks to repeated exposure, my king and my princess have seen the light and converted to fruit-in-salad-lovers too.

All hail the Queen! (Still, me.)continue to the recipe… about Strawberry Arugula Salad with Watermelon and Feta

Strawberry Cheesecake Cream Puffs With Barbara Bakes

A no-bake cheesecake filling tops strawberry jam in these light and airy cream puffs that are a surprisingly easy dessert to make at home.

There are a handful of baking recipes I excel at. Like my German Chocolate Cake and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re my basic classics, recipes handed down to me from my mama and grandma.

Luckily, there are also a handful of baking sites I refer to time and time again, sites that move the needle past my comfort zone. When I go to these sites I KNOW I am going to get a rock star result.

So when it comes to baking desserts and breads like Samoa Macarons, the best crunch rolls, the flakiest crescent rolls, or a sugar-spun, towering Croquembouche, I know exactly where to turn. I head to one of my favorite bloggers, Barbara Schieving of the food blog Barbara Bakes, and the creator of these Strawberry Cheesecake Cream Puffs from her new book Simply Sweet Dream Puffs, with the recipe at the end of this post.

continue to the recipe… about Strawberry Cheesecake Cream Puffs With Barbara Bakes

Berry Delicious Fruit Salad Recipe

A mix of berries, melon, oranges and pineapple gets tossed with honey, fresh orange and lime juice and mint, making for a healthy, colorful and bright salad that’s both light and refreshing.

Following my route of debauchery last weekend in Las Vegas for our 16th annual NASCAR race (yep, I’ve got a little redneck or “neckcar” in me, and proud of it), I’ve been in need of a thorough cleansing.

Too much rich food for dinners and wacky fair food at the track (fried bricks of french fries?), too many late nights as my dad’s good luck charm at the 21 table only to get up too early to head out to watch cars go round and round and round in the 74 degree sun.

Good thing I evened it out with a spa day spent with my mama. At least they offered cucumber water to counter our mango-ritas.

It’s all about balance.continue to the recipe… about Berry Delicious Fruit Salad Recipe

Berry With Arugula and Prosciutto Pizza

This light and easy-to-make pizza is topped with salty prosciutto, juicy strawberries, and raspberries, creamy ricotta, and fresh arugula, and is perfect for warm spring or summer brunches or dinners!

Pizza. It’s what’s for dinner. Although in this case, it could be mistaken for breakfast. And definitely lunch. Ah heck, let’s not let any of our favorite feasts feel left out. Brunch, you’re invited too.

A doughy base. That’s always a good start. I like this recipe from Ina. But I’m not ashamed to buy it from the store either. Whole Foods and Trader Joes are great places to start. In fact, after hitting the grocery store for the goods for this pizza I nearly stayed on the freeway and skipped my exit so I could detour to the closest Whole Foods for store bought dough-soon-to-be-crust instead of making my own.

But I told myself to buck up and just go home and get cooking.

So I did. And then came the case of the missing dough hook.

continue to the recipe… about Berry With Arugula and Prosciutto Pizza

Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait Plus a Giveaway

This post is sponsored by California Strawberries, whose sweetness will surely inspire you to start the new year right with this Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait and the opportunity to win a Vitamix blender.

If you’re like me, moving into the new year means coming down from my holiday foodie high of sweets, treats and not-especially-healthy-eats and confronting myself with reality.

That boils down to clearing out the stash of Christmas cookies and the last sips of eggnog and making room for more healthful fruit and veggies for this girl. STAT!

With this as my first recipe post of 2014, it seems only fitting to have it start with the most important meal of the day: breakfast. And since I’m six days in and feeling all gung-ho with my annual analysis of what I feed this body of mine, I’m leaving the eggs, french toast and waffles for later.

Today we’re starting off simple. And fresh. And easy. With strawberries.

continue to the recipe… about Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait Plus a Giveaway

Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

It was that sock that sat right in the middle of the floor for over a week. And her flip-flops that were haphazardly strewn about the living room along with a pile of papers and markers and other 8 year old stuff. And the pile of yet to be cleaned paint brushes sitting on the counter after my husband deposited them, left to languish next to the pile of clean towels that never seemed to get put away.

The little annoyances that last week gave me prickly heat every time I saw them, melted to the background after several national events reminded me that life as we know it can change in an instant.

I’m just grateful I get to once again have this gentle nudge to not take “stuff” so seriously. It is, afterall, just stuff.

As I show you my favorite recipes or share the latest shoes I covet, I don’t want to be insensitive—or on the flip side too melancholy—to events beyond our control. I think it’s important to remember that while we’re all affected by national circumstances, and while saddened or frustrated by them, we must also learn something from them. So I’m working on learning to turn a blind eye to MY issues with what gets my dander up, and be thankful I have loved ones to contribute to my self-induced peeves.

Yesterday I asked Facebook what you were craving to continue my Grilled Cheese Month Friday recipes: Savory or sweet? While the savory side seemed to weigh in pretty heavy, there were a fair number of you in the sweet camp as well. So I made a compromise: Let’s do a savory AND sweet grilled cheese this week. And here she is.

I present…Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese.continue to the recipe… about Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

Roasted Butternut Squash Butter Lettuce Salad with Spicy Avocado Dressing

Let’s talk about getting skinny. Ugh. The worst. Maybe we shouldn’t.

It’s been a winter of cocooning, hibernating and grazing. What else is one to do when its been one of the coldest and snowiest on record? We need to keep warm, right? we need strength to push the shovel through another 8 inches of snow. And what does that better than a little extra girth easily hidden—and ignored—under long sweaters and puffy coats? Ah, thank the Lord for the style Goddesses.

Well guess what peeps? The groundhog spoke and the style Goddesses listened and spring is right around the corner. Time to lose the bulk and take a look at those pops of colors and short shorts.

Last week I asked my Facebook peeps what you’d like to see more of on the blog: More ooey gooey or more healthy recipes? Your answer? Pretty much straight down the middle.

continue to the recipe… about Roasted Butternut Squash Butter Lettuce Salad with Spicy Avocado Dressing

Pickled Strawberry with Roasted Beet Salad and a Recipe Contest

I mean seriously. This salad is sweet. Seriously sweet.

But, really, how sweet is this girl?

How much can we possibly love our little babes, especially in those unscripted moments of pure, sweet bliss, savoring the moment and creating our earliest memories of where food comes from.continue to the recipe… about Pickled Strawberry with Roasted Beet Salad and a Recipe Contest

Puff Pastry with Sabayon Custard and Strawberries

I just couldn’t let Valentine’s Day creep by without one more last-minute contender in my favorite heart recipe category.

I got all inspired to create this today when I had some left over puff pastry I was using for an upcoming post that is polar opposite of this one. But I didn’t want the leftover, thawed pastry to go to waste. BOOM! Inspiration. The cookie cutters were still out, littering the countertop after our Valentine’s Sugar Cookie baking extravaganza, so how about some heart-shaped puffs sprinkled with sugar sweetness. Okay, good to go.

Now what to add to my little heart cuties?

Earlier in the day Smudge was bugging me to make, oh what was that? Yes, her usual obsession: Pie. She was trolling through her kid’s pie cookbook and lit upon a strawberry tart-like sweetness. Okay, strawberries are valentine-ey and whip cream certainly has its history with romance. So that’ll work for the topping.

So I had the berry part and the whip cream part, but must have some goo to pull it all together. Pudding would be the ticket. Vanilla? Chocolate? Banana? Nah. Let’s go something a little more celebratory for V-day. A quick raid of the pantry and ohhhhh, YES. My go-to boozey add-in: Marsala wine.

continue to the recipe… about Puff Pastry with Sabayon Custard and Strawberries

The Berry Best Four Berry Pie Recipe

Strawberry Arugula Salad with Watermelon and Feta

Strawberry Cheesecake Cream Puffs With Barbara Bakes

Berry Delicious Fruit Salad Recipe

Berry With Arugula and Prosciutto Pizza

Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait Plus a Giveaway

Strawberry Bruschetta Grilled Cheese and Friday Faves

Roasted Butternut Squash Butter Lettuce Salad with Spicy Avocado Dressing

Pickled Strawberry with Roasted Beet Salad and a Recipe Contest

Puff Pastry with Sabayon Custard and Strawberries

How to Make the Best Potato Salad

How to Make Classic Macaroni Salad

How to Make the Best Grilled Salmon

The Best Greek Chicken Marinade

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