Summer Strawberry Sorbet

Sorbet is one of my favorite desserts! Ice cream is great too, but there's something about sorbet that I really love. So I made this strawberry sorbet!  I got this recipe from the cookbook Sorbets and Ice Creams by Lou Seibert Pappas, but I just changed it a little bit. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice                 

3-3/4  cups fresh

Strawberries, hulled

In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and water, bring to a boil while stirring, and cook until the syrup is clear. Stir in the lemon juice. Let cool, cover, and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours, or until thoroughly chilled. In a blender or food processor, puree the strawberries, and stir in the chilled syrup.

Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until thoroughly chilled.

Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. You can also freeze without an ice cream maker: Pour the mixture into a 8 or 9 inch square metal pan or a half-gallon plastic container. Cover with aluminum foil, plastic wrap or a lid. Place in the freezer and freeze until firm, about 2 to 3 hours. Transfer to an electric mixer or food processor and beat until light and fluffy. Transfer to a container, cover, and freeze until firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

After you are finished making your sorbet, serve it in a bowl with

 strawberry leaves, and/or strawberries.

Hope you enjoyed my post! Until next time!

I posted this at Tasty Tuesday.

I also posted this with Foodie Friday.

Beach Cupcakes and the Oregon Coast!

I love the ocean! It is one of my very favorite places to be. I especially love the Oregon Coast! I made ocean cupcakes because I love the Ocean, and because my mom made these same cupcakes for me for not one, but two of my birthdays.

I am posting this with Foodie Friday.

You will need cupcakes, Zebra Stripe gum, gumballs, graham crackers, paper umbrellas, and blue food coloring.

 Make your favorite vanilla cupcake recipe, or use the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/3 cups sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add butter, milk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape side of bowl with a spatula.Add eggs to the mixture. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Scrape bowl again. Beat on high speed for 1 minute 30 seconds until well mixed. Spoon cupcake batter into paper liners until 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes in pans then remove and place on wire racks to cool completely.

Now make your favorite frosting, or make my aunt Jackie's amazing frosting. To view my aunt's blog click here

In mixer combine 3/4 cup butter at room temperature, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon clear vanilla, and 3-4 tablespoons water. Beat until fluffy. Add more water if needed one tablespoon at a time.

Take half of your frosting and put as many drops of blue food coloring to get the frosting to a color that you like.

Now for the decorating part:

Frost half your cupcake with the white frosting, and the other half with the blue frosting. Smash graham crackers with a rolling pin until finely crumbled in a zip lock bag. Sprinkle the white frosting side of the cupcake with some of the crumbs. Place a gumball somewhere on the white frosting side the cupcake. Place a paper umbrella on the same side. We bought the umbrellas at Party Express.

With the Zebra Stripe gum you can either make a chair out of it by cutting it in half and placing the sides one side down and one sticking up. Or you can cut it in half, and cut the two corners off of one half to make a surfboard. 

With all these steps done, you now have a beautiful beach cupcake to enjoy!

Some pictures of the Oregon Coast:

I loved these!!  I know their names, but I won't even atempt to spell it!=)

They were so funny, especially when they would squirt you with water!

Look at all those star fish!!!

We loved seeing the sea lions!

 

That's all of my post! I hope you enjoyed it. Happy Summer!=)