Monday, March 15, 2010

Cheap and Cheerful Cooking: Strawberry and Apple Crumble



From Sara's Kitchen on the Food Network

Ingredients

1/2 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced, plus sliced strawberries for garnish
1/2 pound cooking apples, like Granny Smith and Jonathan, peeled, cored, and sliced
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup crushed walnut halves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 pre-baked (4-inch) tart shells, recipe follows
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup oatmeal
9 tablespoons packed brown sugar
Confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Serving suggestion: Vanilla ice cream

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the strawberries, apples, granulated sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft.

Divide the strawberry-apples mixture among the tart shells.

Sift the flour into a bowl, rub the butter in until it looks like fine bread crumbs and add the oatmeal. Gently mix in the brown sugar. Sprinkle a thick layer of the crumble mixture on top of the fruit. Arrange the crumbles on a baking sheet and bake until lightly browned and hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Divide the crumbles among plates, place a scoop of ice cream on the top of each, sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Garnish with strawberry slices.

Tart Shells
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 beaten egg yolks
1 dash cream
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar; then add the eggs slowly, mixing well. Add the cream. Add the flour all at once and mix to a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap. Let rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the dough into a large square, about 1/8 inch thick. (Freeze the other half of the dough for another use.) Cut the dough into 4 parts and line 4 (4-inch) tart pans. Line each tart with parchment paper and fill with dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the parchment and beans, and bake for 15 minutes more.

Let cool on a rack.

Yield: 4 to 8 (4-inch) tart shells

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Today's Giveaway Link: ContestBee on Twitter

If you're on Twitter, follow ContestBee. It may become a large time suck so I am giving you fair warning. I only dabble in contests but I did win one this December -- a $50 gift card to Tiny Prints. Who knows? Worth a few minutes of time if you're just surfing the web while lounging on the couch.

Cheap and Cheerful Chatter: Coupon Convert


While I still rely mostly on Safeway Club card offers to save cash at the grocery store, I recently put some effort into gathering coupons and was pleased with the result. We don't get the Sunday paper so I mainly print my coupons from online sites. I saved $16.60 last week!

Cheap and Cheerful wants to know: What are your favorite coupon sources?

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Buy This, Not That: Men's Polo Shirts

So, this is a nice polo shirt. The perfect blend of tradition and fashion. But, this almost identical polo shirt comes in more colors and costs $30 less, plus you can get free shipping. You could get these to go with the shirt and only spend $9.50 more on your total transaction. I know at least one person at my house who would be pretty happy about that.

Cheap and Cheerful wants to know: What would you get the man in your life with the $30 you could "save" by choosing the less expensive shirt?

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Cheap and Cheerful Chatter: Do you know Alice?

Alice and I are trying to decide if we're going to be friends. Sometimes it's hard to be friends if you have too much in common. After all, I enjoy stumbling upon a great deal. All of the fun is in the chase, right? But I love free shipping! And I am growing to love coupons so this could be a match made in heaven. I'm going to give her "my number" (make a free account) and do some looking around. I'll let you know. If it doesn't work with us, she still might make a good friend for someone else.

Deal of the Day: $2 Oatmeal Wednesdays at Jamba Juice

$2 oatmeal, every Wednesday, Jamba Juice. Totally and completely yummy. Organic steel-cut oats with your choice of topping. I went for the Berry Cherry -- blueberries, dried cherries, pecans, and brown sugar and I enjoyed every single bite.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Today's Giveway: Prize Packages on The Maternal Lens

I love the Maternal Lens blog. They are having a giveaway in honor of their blog birthday. To check out the goodies, go here. And while you are there, check out their amazing photography. Only click this link when you have plenty of time to get lost on the internet.

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