A few years ago I made Slab Pie, which could feed a crowd because it was baked in a rimmed baking pan.  I made a blueberry Slab Pie for Labor Day weekend and it's still a great way to make a lot pie.  But what if you didn't want to have to slice and serve the pie from a pan?  Hand pies are all over the place now on food blogs and in cooking magazines and they make serving up pie a breeze, especially at cookouts and picnics. 

Here is a fun summer treat that's easy to make and doesn't require popsicle molds.  These fun homemade popsicles are made in little dixie cups.  I've made them with three layers - two fruit purees, one blueberry and the other strawberry, and a white layer of cream cheese and yogurt.  They will be great for the Fourth of July.  Pass around a platter of these to your guests.  

My oldest son was taking a trip out to L.A. recently and asked for some restaurant recommendations.  I told him to try to go to Lucques, the restaurant owned by Suzanne Goin.  That reminded me that I've always wanted to make her Meyer Lemon Tart, from her book, "Sunday Suppers at Lucques".  It's a different kind of lemon tart, because it has a layer of bittersweet chocolate on the bottom, an idea she got from her sister, who asked her to put some chocolate in her lemon tart. 

We love our traditional dishes at Thanksgiving, don't we?  But for people who love to cook, sometimes Thanksgiving can be a pretty boring meal.  Have you ever tried to eliminate that horrid green bean casserole, only to hear groans of disappointment when it's not served?  Don't try to jazz up the stuffing too much or there is sure to be someone disappointed on that one, too. But maybe you can sneak in this pumpkin roll, though, for a little twist on Thanksgiving dessert!

If you've never made any kind of cake roll before, don't be afraid of it.  It's so easy and you'll have fun doing it. You bake the cake quickly in a sheet pan that is lined with parchment.  The cake is very thin and you tip it out easily onto a thin tea towel, sprinkled with powdered sugar.  The cake and towel are rolled up together and left to cool in that shape.   Making the filling is a snap and then you just spread it on the cake and roll it right up again.  

What are the Thanksgiving dishes you just can't live without?

My appreciation for the wonders of puff pastry knows no bounds. If you keep a package of puff pastry in your freezer you can do all kinds of delicious things with it.  You can make a savory palmier or a sweet palmier.  All you need is a sheet of puff pastry and a little filling of some kind and you can have a plate of these in 30 minutes.

I'm going to share with you today a new method of making homemade ice cream that produces not only delicious ice cream, but ice cream that keeps well in the freezer.  We love making homemade ice cream in our house, but the one problem was that it didn't keep well in the freezer.  It was delicious and creamy the day you made it, but the next day it formed ice crystals.  This recipe solves that problem.

Well, you can actually make any kind of pie you want.  But you will make pie dough.  Because it's such a snap and it's so good when it's homemade.  You don't think you can make homemade pie dough?  What if I told you that if you have a food processor, you can  make it in 60 seconds?  You don't have a food processor?  Put it on your Christmas list. You need one.

Wow, that sounds complicated, doesn't it?  Actually, this rich dessert isn't that hard to make.  If you've never made marshmallow meringue before, you are in for a real treat. It's easy, insanely delicious and a has a real "wow" factor.  

I've made these cakes many times and they are supposed to be served unmolded, upside down on a plate. Because they are so gooey on the inside, sometimes they fall apart a bit after unmolding.  I just quit messing with that step and I just serve them now in the ramekins, but you can certainly unmold them if you want. If you don't unmold them, you can pipe the marshmallow right on top, which I prefer. 

We make ice cream at home quite a lot and I've posted several ice cream recipes in the past.  But I get asked enough about how to make gelato that I thought it was time for a post.

The big question for people is what is the difference between American ice cream and Italian gelato? When people taste gelato, they comment on the intensity of flavor and the different texture it has.  Gelato is very dense and this is because there is not the amount of air whipped into it like American ice cream.  Ice cream has a lot of air whipped into it and it makes for a lighter texture. Ice cream is also made from cream and sometimes eggs and has quite a bit of butterfat.  Gelato has much less butterfat and is made from milk. 

When Brian and I were on our great food and wine adventure to Oregon last summer, we saw lots of orchards that we could not identify.  As it turns out they were hazelnut trees.  I love hazelnuts.  Some people call them filberts.  They are the nutty goodness in Nutella.  Turns out Oregon is the major producer of hazelnuts here in the United States.  It was nice to see them used on so many of the restaurant menus in that area, especially in their wine country.  I wanted to cook more with them when I got home.

I usually make this delicious cake/bread in a couple of 9x5 loaf pans.  It's a great breakfast/brunch bread. But I was supposed to bring dessert to an evening get together with some of my friends and I had some great blueberries from a local farm and way too many lemons in my fridge, so I immediately thought of this cake.  When you make it in the loaf pans, the slices are very pretty, really showing off the blueberries.  But I wanted to try something different, so I made it in my little individual bundt cakes pan.  They came out cute, but I think I still like it best just in the loaf pans.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes.  She has chosen Abbe's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.