Food Friday....Featuring Red Raspberries

 

 

The wonderful Red Raspberry!

 

Quote of the week........

 

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

Don't be trapped by dogma-

which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. 

They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

Everything else is secondary."

Steve Jobs

 

This tasty little red berry can be eaten alone or in a variety of ways!  The Red Raspberries go well with yogurt, on a bowl of cereal, make them into a smoothie, great as a sorbet, but my favorite is with dark chocolate. 

Valentine's Day is just around the corner so way not take these tasty little red berries and turn them into a decadent dessert.  Take a look at the photo below....you're looking at a golden almond shortbread with a lightly sweeten layer of red raspberry with champagne preserves topped with rich dark chocolate.  YUM!!!

This is a pretty easy recipe to make.  So instead of buying something sweet for him or her....why not make it and make it with love.

Red Raspberry Champagne Chocolate Bars

2 ½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
¾ cup finely chopped almonds
1 egg beaten
1 cup cold butter
10 oz red raspberry with champagne preserves
1 2/3 cup of dark and milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13x9 baking pan

Stir together flour, sugar, almonds and egg in large bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender (or you could use a fork) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside 1 ½ cups crumb mixture.  Press remaining crumb mixture on the bottom of prepared pan. Stir preserve to soften; carefully spread over crumb mixture in pan. Be careful not to spread the preserves all the way to the edge leave about 1/2" all around to prevent the preserves from burning on the pan which would taste icky.  Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Crumble reserved crumbs mixture evenly over top (you can add the extra crumbs mixture if you want. I've chosen not to)
Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack

Prep time: 30 minutes
Yields: 16 bars
Cook time from start to finish: 1 hour 30 minutes

Here are a couple of footnotes to the recipe.........as far as the chocolate chips, you can use just dark or milk chocolate or mix them up, your choice.
Regarding the Red Raspberry with Champagne preserves.......you can use just regular red raspberry preserves or any kind of preserves you would like.  If you want to order the Red Raspberry with Champagne preserves you can get it from Fieldstone Farms.  Fieldstone Farms is a wonderful small business here in Maine.  They run their business right from there home.  They use the freshest ingredients and the taste of these fruit spreads are FANTASTIC!!!!!   I would highly recommend you visit their website!

Interesting Facts......

 

~Red Raspberries are a good source of fiber, antioxidants and vitamin C.
~Grow Red Raspberries in full sun in well-drained soil and space the plants 2-3 feet apart.
~Red Raspberries are ready for harvest in midsummer.

While I was working on this blog post the Internet quit working due to the high winds and many power outages that had occurred here in Maine.  So that gave me the opportunity to review my garden plans.  I have planned out what vegetables I'm going to grow and I've also figured out how I'm going to redesign my flower garden.  Now I'm very anxious for the arrival of Spring.  Although I've been ready for Spring for about a month now.  My gardens are my inspiration for alot of my photography.

 

Watch for Monday's post.....Have a wonderful weekend! 
 

Speaking of which it is Superbowl weekend.  Are you watching the Superbowl?  Which team do you want to win?!  I have to say since the Patriots didn't get to the Superbowl and even though I'm not thrilled with them I'll be rutting for the Ravens.

 

Oh and Hey don't forget the champagne to go with those Red Raspberry Champagne Chocolate Bars!!