Sylvia's Scenario

I wanted to make an  apple pie  this year for the Fourth of July since it was our country's 250th birthday and what is more American than apple pie?  Since we were going to a large party, I decided to make a big slab apple pie that serves a couple dozen people.   Pie is my favorite thing to make so I was eager to make my first pie of the summer.  This pie is made on a cookie sheet so there is less filling and more crust (which is no problem because this crust is AMAZING). This works well for a potluck or large crowd because it's easy to serve.  It's a pie that is like serving browies or some other dessert bar, no gooey mess to deal with like with a conventional pie.   But it tastes like a perfect apple pie.   I have not made a slab pie before but I've eaten one.  My neighbor brought one to a barbecue we had at our house back in 2015 when she brought a  mixed berry slab pie  for dessert.  She gave me the recipe and I put it on m...

Today, I made chocolate covered strawberries for a Fourth of July party we are going to and added some festive red, white and blue sprinkles such as  these  that I got on Amazon.  I've made these chocolate covered strawberries so many times now that they are fast and easy for me to do.  I'm also taking a family favorite  Couscous and Black Bean Salad  to the party that I haven't made in a long time.  I'd forgotten how good this salad recipe is!  This was a great occasion to make it again.  There will be 40 people at the party we are going to so it might get lost in the shuffle but if we end up bringing home a lot of leftover, I don't mind since we all love this recipe in my family and will eat it up immediately.  The strawberries I bought to make the chocolate covered strawberries were not super sweet and they actually we not even that big. I just felt like making them for fun.  Therefore, today I learned that if you want to ma...

Well, so far I am surviving the busiest month of the year of multiple birthdays and all the various celebrations of July.   When the kids were little, I would basically collapse when August came and say “I survived July!!” because it truly was an accomplishment.  We have my birthday in July, Nick’s birthday, Lauren’s birthday, (and Hana and Keaton’s birthdays but they aren’t here right now), our anniversary and then the Fourth of July all in one month.  It’s basically nonstop around here. Also, my sister came to visit this month from Colorado to see her newborn grandson (another celebration!) who lives just a few miles from our house so it was perfect for her to stay with us, plus I love having her here for lots of sister-time.  Of course, we had a family barbecue during her visit so we could all welcome the new addition to our family.  It was also good timing that my sister was here for my birthday, too.  We all went to dinner at a local neighborhood favor...

I'm still enjoying the berries that are in season, especially the raspberries.  They are super big and plump right now and we're buying two containers every time we go the grocery store.  I came across this recipe by Driscoll's Berries, the same company as the berries we buy.  This recipe reminded me of strawberry shortcake except the berries are mixed into the cake and meringue is used instead of whipping cream.   I was going to substitute whipping cream but I'm glad I didn't because the meringue was even better!  I should have whipped my meringue more so it's a little flat but it didn't effect the taste at all.  I just didn't have the glorious peaks that meringue is known for.  Here is what the cake looked like from the recipe photo:  I also used all the raspberry syrup that the recipe instructs you to make but in the photo, I think they must have just used a dab of it since most the meringue is white and not red like mine. ...