Strawberry Rhubarb Bars for a Hot and Sunny Easter Sunday

I made this as a light Easter dessert.  It's fruity and fun and best when served with fresh vanilla ice cream.  It's slightly tart and pairs perfectly with ice cream or whipped cream, or both!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 stick butter
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tsp. cinnamon

Filling:
32 oz. strawberries sliced
1 stalk rhubarb sliced thinly into nickel sized slices
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1/4 cup cold water

Topping:
1 stick butter
1 cup flour
1 Tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar

For Crust:  Combine all ingredients using a food processor or pastry knife until coarse crumbles.  Spread evenly over bottom of a jelly roll pan.  Bake for 20 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven.

For Filling:  Place all but 1 1/2 cups of strawberries, rhubarb, 3/4 cup water, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan cook on medium-high stirring constantly until relatively thick.  Mix corn starch with cold 1/4 cup water until combined.  Add to strawberry mixture and cook on high until mixture is thick.  Pour over crust.  Sprinkle the reserved 1 1/2 cups of uncooked strawberries over top.

For crust:  Combine all ingredients with food processor or pastry knife until coarse; spread evenly over the filling.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until crumble topping is lightly browned.  Cool for 5 to 10 minutes.  Cut into bars and serve.  Best served with ice cream or whipped cream.

Makes about 32-40 bars.

Cheesy Bread with Hearty Beef Tomato Sauce for a Cold and Stormy Spring Night

So for a lack of specific ingredients, I made these two dishes up this week; and they taste amazing together!  This is seriously one of my new favorites.  I actually made the Cheesy Bread as a side at a dinner party and it is delicious by itself (it is basically a savory bread pudding or a savory french toast casserole).  However, it is amazing when covered with the Hearty Beef Tomato Sauce.  I highly recommend you try this on a cool spring day, before its Summer and it is too hot to cook anything in the oven.

I love to buy the day old Hearty Italian Loaves from Market Street Wine Shop in downtown Charlottesvillle.  They are always on sale and still taste amazing!

Cheesy Bread:

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. of butter
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 (15 oz.) container of part-skim ricotta (or you can use 1 brick low fat cream cheese cut into cubes
2 cups shredded Pizza Cheese (*optional for cheese lovers))
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 large french loaf, Garlic Parmesan Skillet Bread or loaf of your choice cut into cubes (can be older bread) or
1 tomato diced (optional)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the butter in a 13X9 inch baking dish.  Bake the butter in the oven until melted.  Make sure the butter evenly covers the bottom of the dish, place aside.

Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl; add the milk, 1/2 of the ricotta, cheese if desired, salt and pepper; mix to combine.  Pour the butter from the baking dish into the egg mixture and stir to combine; leave a layer of butter in the bottom of the baking dish.  Add the bread to the egg mixture and mix to combine covering all the bread cubes.  Pour half of the bread mixture into the 13X9 baking dish and spread evenly.  Add about 1 tsp. sized drops of ricotta randomly over top, using half of the remaining ricotta.  Cover with remaining bread mixture.  Add about 1 tsp. sized drops of ricotta randomly over top, using remaining Ricotta.  Spread diced tomato evenly on top if desired. Bake covered at 350 degrees for40 minutes.  Remove cover and bake for 10 more minutes at 400 degrees or until set and lightly browned on edges.

Cheesy Bread before going into the Oven:

Cheesy Bread after being baked:

While the cheesy bread is baking make:

Hearty Beef Tomato Sauce

or...

Hearty Sausage Tomato Sauce