Strawberry Rhubarb Meringue Bars

I went to the 14th and U St. farmers market a couple weekends ago and got some rhubarb. For the very first time…in my whole life. See, about a year or so ago I was at a dinner party with Don’t Forget The Flour and she made this amazing strawberry rhubarb crumble thing. Ever since then I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to make something with rhubarb. I even ganked her recipe from her and have been keeping it, waiting for the perfect situation to bust it out!

I asked the guy working the booth to give me a lesson in rhubarb since I knew nothing and here’s what he told me: cut off the tough ends and the leafy tops, even if the whole stalk isn’t red you can still use the whole thing (though you won’t get a pinkish hue to all that you make) and there’s a couple varieties of rhubarb but both have essentially the same taste. Sound about right rhubarb fans?

Since there’s been no shortage of amazing rhubarb recipes on the foodie blogs lately, I really wanted something that would stand out. More perusing at the farmers market revealed a table full of recipes, one of which was for rhubarb meringue. Done and done!

A few tweaks…adding strawberries…including vanilla extract…to make it my own and wowy zowy! Let’s just say, I was amazed by myself, my new hand mixer (more on that later) and the rhubarb. This was quickly consumed by coworkers the next day and everyone had a smile on their face after they left my office.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Mascarpone Bars

What do you do when you get 4 pints of strawberries on sale for $5 at The Teet? Well, you eat one pint, use the other two for a strawberry tart and leave the last one for a refrigerator experiment to see how long it’ll last. (Just for fun.)

Seriously though, I got this smokin’ deal and apparently overestimated my ability to consume strawberries. And my timing could not have been worse…I got them on a Sunday and I was leaving on a jet plane on Friday. What was I thinking?! I wasn’t. Clearly. Faced with a choice: throw them away, eat them at an alarming rate (like, three pints in two days) or make something. Choice made.

Strawberry tart! Easy right? Sorta. I didn’t want to run to the grocery again and purchase a ton of ingredients. That canceled out plenty of recipes and when I finally came upon one that didn’t require massive alterations and guessing…what did I do? I didn’t buy enough of the ONE ingredient I had to get…mascarpone cheese! It was a long week! I was tired. I was bleary eyed and completely OVER IT!!! I misread the instructions…I didn’t chill my tart crust…I used too much powdered sugar…I didn’t use a tart pan because I didn’t trust the recipe.

But you know what? It ended up tasting great! It’s a rectangle…I made it into bars…it’s rustic…WHATEVER! I ate nearly all of it the next day at work because it was one of thooooose days.

Don’t change a thing…I changed it enough for all of us!

Enjoy!

Homemade Twix!

Hello all! Sorry I’ve been MIA here for a few days now. Things have been uber busy at work and in life. But exciting things are happening, which is all good news! Next week I’m heading out of gloomy, cold Washington, DC for sunny (hopefully) Austin, TX for South by Southwest Interactive. I’m out there for work, so most of the sessions I’m attending will be for that…but oh, don’t you think for a second I’m not sneakin’ in some food sessions if and when I can!! (Not to mention the parties, but whatever, don’t judge me.)

I should also note, that you might be seeing an influx of Weight Watchers recipes here at One Bite. As I’ve mentioned before, Weight Watchers is my go-to program for recalibrating my diet. I’ll admit that I haven’t been working out as much as I should…and maybe enjoying good food and libations a weee bit too often. Either way, it’s time for a reality check. And if my jeans weren’t reality check enough…

Hey! On that note! Here’s a super not healthy, but totally awesome recipe for homemade Twix bars!! :) I may have made these before I decided to truly hunker down on the ‘ol diet.

Cranberry Brownie Redeux

I think I learned something about myself this weekend. Brownies don’t do it for me so much. I have a favorite brownie base…and boy I love me some cheesecake brownies…but ya know, when I’m looking for a chocolatey cake-like baked item…I think what I’m really craving is a moist chocolatey cake. Maybe I’ll get to that later this week.

Anyway, you guys remember the cranberry brownie fail. It sucked. So I went back and tackled it, this time using the brownie batter Smitten Kitchen used in the afore-mentioned cheesecake brownie recipe (which was adapted from a Gourmet recipe) and completely ditched the cheesecake-y-ish swirl idea.

Cranberry Brownie Fail

It had been such a good day…The BF and I had decided to stay in…lounge and maybe watch a movie (more on that later)…and then I decided to try a recipe I’d read last weekend.

See…my mom had bought me the Perfect Brownie pan awhile ago, and it came with a recipe book. There was a recipe for cranberry brownies with a sour cream swirl akin to a cheesecake swirl and I fell in heart with it. I happened to have a bag of cranberries so, game on.

As soon as I tasted a cooling brownie square I thought to myself, “WHY didn’t I just use the brownie base from that Smitten Kitchen recipe and go from there?!” Something I’ve come to learn is that, while you have to try new recipes and experiment…you should also be smart about it. My batter was stiff and I should have trusted my gut when I realized that. There was only cocoa powder, no melted chocolate…resulting in a very un-chocolatey, un-gooey brownie. The “swirl” didn’t swirl well and had a soupy consistency.