Now that summertime is here, people with a sweet tooth (like me) can think of one thing: pie! All that delicious summer fruits and berries mean that there will be plenty leftover to make some yummy fresh fruit pies.

Different fruits flourish during various parts of the summer. June is the best time for strawberries, so why not make a tasty strawberry pie? Blueberries are also best at this time of the month, so why not try making some blueberry pie with lemon cream?

Cherries flourish in the mid-summer months, and what better way to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend than with a traditional cherry pie? If you'd prefer something more unusual, then a delicious apricot pie will hit the spot! You can even have them ala mode by topping of a slice with some homemade vanilla ice cream.

Summer's not over yet, as August welcomes succulent stone fruits like peaches and nectarines? Martha Stewart's rich Peach and Creme Fraiche Pie is not for the faint of heart, but is absolutely divine. Nectarine is an unusual ingredient for pies, but this Nectarine Pie with Almond Crumb Topping recipe will dispel any doubts.

So, what's your favorite pie? We'd love to hear from you, so leave us a comment or send us an email!

Labels: Desserts

A few times a year I'll have the pleasure of a visit from a dear friend of many years. Whenever she comes, we love to bake together. Last time she came during apple- and pumpkin-picking season, and we had a blast trying out different apple and pumpkin recipes.

This time, it was chocolate, fudge, and candy weekend.

The first picture shows the "cupcakes" - half of them made in cupcake tins and the other half in a popover pan. I only have one cupcake pan, and it was too late at night to do two batches in one pan.

The Chocolate Mint Cupcakes were absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, the icing did not follow suit.

We should have used our powers of deduction to realize that unsweetened chocolate + butter + mint extract DOES NOT = sweet icing. However, we were blindly following the recipe.

Thankfully, we decided to test it out before icing all of our precious cakes. Yuck, bitter as anything!

First, we tried to add some powdered sugar. When that didn't work, we tried cream cheese. By this time it was very late at night so we gave up and left them until the next day. Just before we threw it out, we tried dipping in a few strawberries. Success!

If you find yourself with bitter frosting, try it on some strawberries. It just might save you from wasting a pan of chocolate.

We were out of butter, and didn't feel like making a trip to the store. So the next day we found this fantastic list of icing recipes.

We chose one, split it up in to several dishes, and colored each dish with a dot of food coloring. We had a blast decorating each cupcake with a design, and it made it much more fun than simple chocolate icing!

Labels: Desserts, Tips, Variations

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Easter Breakfast
Start a new tradition for Easter Breakfast this year!This delicious bread has been updated from its original Greek ancestry to satisfy the American palate and pantry.The Greek name is tsoureki paschalino, and it is as delightful to look at as it is to eat. You can view the recipe here. The recipe is for use in a bread machine, since that makes this significantly easier, but it can be done by hand.

Inside the bread there is a hidden egg dyed red, the red symbolizing Chirst’s blood and the egg symbolizing new life.

Don’t forget to schedule this bread and the rest of your Easter menu on DinnerBeat! If you need ideas on what to serve, check out what your friends have planned, or search for new recipes. Then go to the shopping list page to print your shopping list. You can choose to shop for the week or just for the day. Planning a big meal has never been this easy!

Keeping up-to-date
If you haven’t stopped by the DinnerBeat blog recently, you’ll want to revisit that part of the site! You can now subscribe via RSS feed. We run a weekly “Healthy Dinners on a Budget” column, and now you can easily share the posts that you love via Email, Facebook, Digg, Del.icio.us, or Stumble.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

Labels: Desserts, Updates

This picture is my first try! It's not the best but boy am I proud of it! ;o)

Cake Decorating!! Most of us don't EVEN ATTEMPT to try making our own cakes because of the fear our time would be wasted and thinking it most likely will be a total disaster! I encourage you to GO FOR IT! TRY IT! Let what little artistic ability you have pierce through your stubborn mind! lol! ;o) Give it a whirl! You can do it!

What you need is a good butter cream frosting recipe, like this one, that you can adjust to different thicknesses, a standard cake recipe and a cake decorating kit found at Amazon or Michael's.

You will need colored frosting paste to color your frosting.

Go for it! You can do it! ;o) And if by chance you blow it the first time give it a second chance!

Labels: Desserts, Parties, Tips

I had a craving for Maple Syrup candy since I saw it in a store this weekend. But spending $13.50 for a box of 12 bite-sized pieces seemed like a bit too much.

So I decided to try making it at home, and it was actually incredibly easy!

I looked up a number of recipes and merged them into this one.

All you'll need to make beautiful candies is real maple syrup, a pot, and a wooden spoon. It's ideal to have some candy molds to form cute little shapes, but you can still make this even if you don't have any. Just spread the hot candy liquid onto greased wax paper in a thin layer (about 1/4 inch), and when it hardens, cut it into squares with a sharp knife. It won't look quite as cute, but it will still taste heavenly.

This recipe is so simple, it's amazing. Since maple syrup is the only ingredient, you can use any amount that you have available. It does condense quite a bit, so one cup of maple syrup will only fill about one candy mold (depending on the size of the mold, of course.)

Try it out - and enjoy!

Labels: Desserts