Fruit – Simple Comfort Food – Recipes that are simple and delicious.

Dump Cake

August 8, 2016 Dax Phillips Leave a comment

I know, I know… another dessert recipe. I guess I am on a roll. The chocolate ice cream was such a hit that I decided to show my daughter another no fuss and way too easy to make dessert. This time it is dump cake. If you have never had a dump cake, well, it is basically you dump some ingredients into a baking dish and that’s about it. The great thing is that you can essentially make it however you want, so I went with a pretty straight forward one using a can of apple pie ingredients and some yellow cake mix. Yep, that’s about it, but the end results are nothing but deliciousness.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter, divided
1 box of yellow cake mix
15 oz can of your favorite fruit (I used fried apples with cinnamon)
1 peach, skin removed, sliced

Yep, that’s it.

Start by getting a casserole dish out, and take about 1 tablespoon of the butter and rub it in the interior of the dish.

Pour out the can of your favorite fruit, juices and all, and layer in the peaches. Pour in the cake mix, then add the dollops of butter.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Once heated, add the dump cake and bake for about 45 minutes. Let cool, and dig in. Simply spoon into a bowl and serve with some vanilla ice cream. Yum. That’s about all we could say. A simple and easy dessert and one that is perfect this time of year with all of the great fruit. Hope you enjoy!

Peach and Mint Soda

July 8, 2016July 8, 2016 Dax Phillips Leave a comment

Peaches, and other stone fruits have been in abundance lately, and as I typically buy a handful of them during the week, only for my daughter to devour, I decided to buy some extras so that I could come up with a refreshing summer drink. I typically buy an array of fresh fruit, placing them in a bowl on our kitchen counter to show my kids how many different fruits there are in hopes that they get curious and try them. This is pretty much only successful with my daughter. She eats everything from mangoes, star fruit, kiwi, different apples, and everything in between. I love that about her. So as my wife and daughter were playing an intense game of Stratego this past weekend, I decided to whip up a fresh peach and mint soda for them.

This drink is way too easy to make, and is really refreshing.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

1 peach, cut into segments
1 small bunch of fresh mint
Ginger Ale, or Seltzer water
Simple Syrup
1 lime, optional

If you have not made simple syrup before, then add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water to a small pot. Place on medium heat, and cook until the sugar dissolves. Once dissolved, let it cool before using.

To a cocktail shaker, add in about 4 segments of the peach, along with about 6 mint leaves. Using a muddler, begin to lightly smash the peaches and mint together, releasing the juice and oil from both.

Next, add about 1 tablespoon (or more if you want it sweeter) of the simple syrup. Cover the cocktail shaker, and shake it like you mean it.

Take a couple of glasses, fill them with ice, and pour into the glasses. Top off with ginger ale, gently stir with a spoon, and serve.

The end result is a super refreshing drink that has a nice subtle taste of peaches, and mint with just the right sweetness. Hope you enjoy!

Homemade Strawberry Milk

July 6, 2016 Dax Phillips 1 Comment

Growing up, I loved strawberry milk. As most kids loved chocolate milk, I leaned more on the strawberry milk. Heck, I even loved Franken Berry cereal, only to be done with the actual cereal and be left with the strawberry milk. Genius. So as our local farmer’s market has been selling these amazing strawberries, I decided to pick up a bunch of them and make something with them before my daughter ate all of them. Yes, that happened. When I bought my first quart of them, and went to the store to pick up a couple of ingredients, I returned only to find two of them left. I was flabbergasted. That being said, I made to secure the next bunch of freshly picked strawberries and asked if my daughter would like to help making some homemade strawberry milk, something she loved as well. Who knew?

If you love store bought strawberry milk, you are going to love this one. Simple, easy, and delicious, plus you know what’s going into it.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

1 pound strawberries, trimmed and sliced
1/2 cup of regular sugar
1/2 cup of buttermilk
4 cups of milk

Start by adding everything to a blender, and blend until everything is nice and smooth. You do not want any strawberry chunks in your milk. If you do, more power to you, but I know my kids would not want anything to do with that. If you feel like straining your milk, feel free, to remove any small chunks of strawberries, but I have been using a Ninja blender, and that thing does amazing things to blend.

Once blended, store in a pitcher, chill in the refrigerator, until nice and cold, then serve.

For one, there is nothing like simple ingredients that make something so delicious, and two it is great to show your kids how things are made. This strawberry milk was perfect, and we pretty much had it done within a couple of days as it was that good. If you are looking for something simple and delicious, give this one a try. It’s awesome. Hope you enjoy!

Rhubarb Simple Syrup

July 15, 2015 Dax Phillips Leave a comment

Our farmer’s market is in full force right now, and it’s one of my favorite times of the year to visit with my local farmers, especially Paula and Jerry. I normally bike there, first thing, on Saturday morning to see what everyone is offering. After bumping into Jerry at the local baker’s tent, I had asked him if garlic was at his stand yet, and low and behold, he said they just picked it. Their garlic was pretty darn awesome last year, and as I have yet to pull mine from my yard, I decided to get a couple of bulbs from him, along with some great looking rhubarb, among other things.

I had no idea what I was going to do with the rhubarb, and all I knew is that I had a pound of it, only to be created into something delicious. This is one of those delicious recipes. A rhubarb simple syrup.

To say the least, this stuff is pretty darn good, and my daughter and I have been squirting it in all sorts of things, from water, to cocktails, to lemonade. It’s sweet, and just slightly sour and that has us coming back for more.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients: