A berry important question

 

Image from The Graphics Fairy

I'm late, far too late, for the Wednesday Hodgepodge, so I've selected just one of the questions to answer.  I'm sure you can guess why this one appealed to me most out of all the other questions:

4. June 14th is National Strawberry Shortcake Day...are you a fan, and if so will you celebrate? How do you make yours? Have you been strawberry picking? If so what do you do with all those berries?

I am definitely a strawberry shortcake fan. 

I wasn't aware, or didn't remember, that June 14th was National Strawberry Shortcake Day.  So we didn't celebrate.   But we could have, although we were traveling that day.  Let me explain.  

We had traveled up to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, on Monday, June 12 and spent two nights at a lovely B&B with friends from Pennsylvania.  On June 14, we were heading home and passed through the city of Brunswick.  Still full from our hearty breakfast, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a break and an iced coffee to share.

BUT across the street was this place:

You can tell it's April, not June, in this photo of The Brunswick Diner.

where, on a rainy April day some years ago,  we ate the best strawberry shortcake either of us has ever tasted.  

It was made with baking powder biscuits, strawberries, and real whipped cream, as is the New England way with shortcake.  But there was one important and stellar detail that the Brunswick Diner added: vanilla ice cream in between the strawberry and biscuit layers.  

At home, I make my strawberry shortcake simply with biscuits, strawberries and whipped cream.

Strawberry picking?  Yes, we have often gone.  Not yet this year ... it's been a wet June and I'm not really sure what that will do/has done to the strawberry crop.  But we will very likely go strawberry picking if it's a possibility for us.

Little granddaughter Arielle had a hand (or two) in picking these

Strawberry field where we picked in 2022

What do I do with all those berries?  I usually freeze some whole.  We wash and hull the berries, then place them on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid.  Then they are transferred to zip-top plastic bags.  Now we have frozen berries that will not clump together and one can pour out whatever is needed for a recipe.

To use the fresh berries, probably my favorite thing to make would be strawberry shortcake.  To be a little more fancy, this Strawberry Lovers' Pie is another huge favorite.  

 

And this Strawberry Cheesecake Pie is another. 

Photo from Spend with Pennies.com

I also like this homemade Strawberry Pie Filling as another way to use fresh berries.  

 
And these Strawberry Muffins (or, as you will see, Strawberry Coffeecake) are also scrumptious!

And there's my answer to a berry important question. 

While summer lingers ...

I really need to post some pictures of my hutch from Summer 2019.  Soon I will be changing the hutch decor to fall, and so today I finally made time to take a few pictures.

Often I will put up items with a strawberry theme for the beginning of summer.  Sometimes I've changed to things with a seashore theme for August.  In a perfect world, I guess I'd do strawberries for June, patriotic things in July, and shells and so on for August.  However, this year I put strawberry items out in June and just left them in place. 

I'll just share some pictures and captions now.

The bottom shelf:  The little hand painted blue strawberry dish is a particular favorite of mine.

Middle shelf -- love that McCoy teapot in the middle!

Next shelf: I love how the milk glass looks with the jadeite.  Such a refreshing summery look!

Trying to show a closer look at that vintage notecard.

Here's a scan that shows it much better.  I love this bit of verse and the illustration too!

The very top shelf; a green and white cup and two jadeite coffee cups

In its entirety

Hope you've enjoyed this peek at my strawberry hutch.  Over the years people have gifted me with many strawberry themed items (and I've collected a few myself) so I have plenty to choose from!

This 'n' that in the kitchen

I had a few kitchen experiments that turned out well in the past week or so, and just wanted to share them.  I love it when an idea to use up a leftover (or solve some other similar problem) works out well!

I'd mentioned that last Sunday was our corn roast at church.  We ended up bringing some of the leftover corn home, and I reheated it to serve alongside a couple of different meals -- wrap sandwiches and turkey burgers, if I remember right.  I had a couple ears left over after that,  and decided to cut the corn off the cob and put it in this Hearty Butternut Squash Soup. 

In that same soup, I also used up a few more leftovers: a quart of chicken broth, frozen from the last time I cooked chicken breasts in the crockpot; and instead of using fresh sliced peppers and chopped onions, I used dibs and dabs of frozen ones I had on hand.  I changed the recipe up a lot; used frozen pureed squash, left out the beans, and cut the quantities down a good bit.  The soup turned out fantastic and fed us for several meals. 

And then there was the leftover blueberry sauce.  I mentioned in my Friday five that our dear friends Sam and Jenn and their boys had joined us for supper last Sunday. Mr. T had made waffles, and I made this

BERRY SAUCE FOR PANCAKES OR WAFFLES

1/2 cup sugar
1 Tblsp. cornstarch
1/3 cup water
2 cups blueberries, raspberries, OR cut-up strawberries

Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in the water. Add the fruit and bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Serve warm. Makes about 2 cups.

I had made a batch of blueberry sauce and one of strawberry.  Nearly a pint of the blueberry one was left.   Not wanting it to mold,  I cast about for a way to use it.  We also had in the fridge a cup or two of fresh blueberries that a landowner on a logging job had given to my hubby.  I mixed them with the sauce, put it in the bottom of a pie pan, and made this

DOWN EAST BLUEBERRY COBBLER
3 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest (optional but yummy)
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tblsp. butter
-----------------
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tblsp. sugar
2 Tblsp. cold butter
1/3 cup cream or evaporated milk

Heat oven to 425º. In a bowl, toss the berries with the next four ingredients (sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla). Place the mixture into a 9-inch glass or ceramic pie plate. Cut the butter into pieces and scatter over the berries.

Sift the 1 cup flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together into a mixing bowl. Cut in the 2 Tblsp. butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the cream and stir with a fork until the dough comes together. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead 30 seconds or so. Roll the dough into a round slightly smaller than your pie plate and about 1/4 inch thick. Place the dough over the berries in the pie plate and cut several deep slashes in the top.

Bake the cobbler at 425º for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with powdered sugar sifted over the top.

Serves 4.

This experiment turned out to be absolutely delicious.  I had made this cobbler in the past but I would have had no idea it could turn out so well using the blueberry sauce.

(I left out the sugar in the blueberry part, and also omitted the lemon component because I had put lime juice in the sauce.  I also didn't put the vanilla in with the blueberries, but put it in the topping instead.  I did dot the filling with the butter, though.)

So last week I bought some strawberries at the supermarket.  I had no real idea how I was going to use them, but the price was great,  so I bought 2 boxes.  Of course you know that I didn't get to use them right away.  So I ended up tossing maybe a cup of them, and then decided I would try that cobbler recipe again using diced strawberries instead of blueberries.

This time I did use the sugar, and I think a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch would have been a good idea as well.  I also mixed in about a half cup of strawberry sauce that was left from the waffle buffet.  Again, I left out the lemon zest and juice, since I had put lemon juice in the sauce -- and again, I put the vanilla in the topping rather than the filling.

This also came out very good, though not as good as the blueberry one.  It tastes like warm strawberry shortcake in a pie plate, which is not a bad thing.

And then lastly for my kitchen escapades, a recipe I've blogged about before:   I made one of these S’mores Pizzas to take to a get-together on Saturday.  As you read the post (if you click over), you will see that the recipe actually makes two, but I decided to make just one because I didn't want any leftovers.  What was I thinking?

Photo from  Five Heart Home

These are so good and always a hit, but the reception of this dessert on this occasion had to set some kind of a record.  (To simplify serving at the picnic, I had cut the pizza at home, using a sharp knife dipped frequently in hot water to preserve the look of the marshmallows.  It worked really well.)

The serving table was pretty crowded with food, so I waited until everyone had been through the food line at least once before bringing out this pizza.  Well.  I am not in any way exaggerating when I say that within 3 minutes of placing this on the table, there was nothing left but crumbs.

Lesson learned.  Next time I'll bring two.

Those are my recent kitchen adventures.  What have you been cooking and/or baking lately?

Waffle buffet: a fun meal for guests any time of day!

One thing we wanted to do while our Nevada daughter was here was to plan a simple way for my hubby's 92-year-old mom to see and enjoy her visiting great-grands along with some of the local ones.  We decided to have a simple meal to share at our home on Sunday afternoon/evening.

The next decision was what to serve.  There would be about 18 people.  Our Nevada grandkids had made a few requests of both Grammy and Aunt Carrie (especially Aunt Carrie) for meals they would enjoy while here.  One was Grampa's waffles!  We decided to plan a simple waffle buffet.  It worked out so well, I would like to share the idea with others.

This was the menu:

Grampa's Sunday Waffles
Strawberry Sauce
Blueberry Sauce
Lemon Curd
Maple Syrup
Whipped cream
Breakfast Sausages & Bacon

I cooked the sausage and bacon in the oven, which makes things really simple.  I made the fruit sauces ahead of time and served them warm, right from the saucepans on the stovetop.

We set up several tables and put a stack of sturdy paper plates along with napkins, cups, and silverware in a central location near the waffles.  We borrowed a waffle maker from friends so that we could cook more waffles at one time.  Theirs is the fancy type that one turns over partway through cooking, and one of those is definitely on my hubby's wish list!

When a good number of waffles were ready, I transferred the bacon and sausage to paper-lined serving plates, having kept the meats in the oven until that point.  We placed these on our dining table along with the whipped cream, maple syrup, and lemon curd.  People would go through the line, get a plate, utensils and a waffle and then proceed to the stove if they wanted a berry sauce and to the table if they wanted one of the toppings available there.  People sat where they liked (we also had a table set up on the deck, but it was a bit chilly and no one sat there) and it was all so easy and simple.  People came back for seconds and even thirds.  Mr. T ended up using all the milk in the house as he made a third batch of waffle batter.  (He had thought a a double batch would be plenty.)  Every last waffle got eaten!

We offered only water for a beverage because no one seemed to care about coffee or tea, but depending upon the group (and the time of day) I would offer hot beverages another time.

Here are the recipes for the waffles and the berry sauce.

GRAMPA'S SUNDAY  WAFFLES

2 eggs, beaten in large bowl
2 1/4 c. milk
1/2 c. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 Tblsp. sugar

    Add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the beaten eggs in the large bowl.  Sift the remaining ingredients into the liquid and beat until smooth.  Bake in waffle iron according to the directions for your particular waffle iron.  Yield:  10-12 waffles.

    This great recipe is one I copied from The Beany Malone Cookbook, which shared recipes used by the Malone family in the series of books by Lenora Mattingly Weber.  The vanilla was not in the original recipe, but makes a good recipe into a super one!

Mr. T used to make these every single weekend in years gone by -- and, in 2015 he had this recipe published in a Gooseberry Patch cookbook!  You can read about it in this post if you missed it: He Was Published!.

BERRY SAUCE FOR PANCAKES OR WAFFLES

1/2 cup sugar
1 Tblsp. cornstarch
1/3 cup water
2 cups blueberries, raspberries, OR cut-up strawberries

Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in the water. Add the fruit and bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Serve warm. Makes about 2 cups.

This is a wonderful, versatile recipe that tastes so good on waffles in particular. It’s also good on pancakes or French toast and would probably be good on vanilla ice cream as well. You can make blueberry sauce, raspberry sauce, or strawberry sauce -- all are wonderful. Or you might like to use a mixture of these berries to make a mixed berry sauce. When I do that, I usually also add a few cranberries to the mixture.

 Other toppings that might be included would be peanut butter, applesauce, jams or jellies, or chocolate  hazelnut spread.  You could even branch out and make a savory topping like chicken and gravy or sausage gravy, but if you did that I think you'd want to omit the vanilla from the waffle batter.

We were so pleased with how this hospitality idea worked out, and people seemed to love it.  We are planning another waffle buffet for a smaller group very soon!

Berry Delicious Medley

So it's Wednesday again, and time for the Wednesday Medley hosted by Terri at Your Friend from Florida!   Terri asks the questions and bloggers come up with their own answers. 

 Wouldn't you like to join in?  It's easy, and could make for a fun blog post on a wintry day.  This week's questions have a strawberry theme, which is really appealing to me.  Maybe to you too?  Just head over to Terri's blog, get the questions, then copy, paste, and answer them on your own blog.  Then you can go back to Terri's and link up, if you like.   Here goes!

1.  Given all that information on this 🍓National Strawberry Day🍓, do you have a favorite recipe for strawberries?  Would you share it with us?

Oh, I have many favorite recipes using strawberries.   The Strawberry Lovers’ Pie is probably one of my favorites.  Click the "strawberries" label in the label cloud to see a few more recipes.

2.  Some people think the smaller, northern varieties are sweeter than the larger berries that grow in the south and in California.  What are your thoughts on that?

I really don't know.  I've not yet been to California, and I have never eaten a strawberry in Florida that I remember of.   I've certainly eaten strawberries from those states during winter up here in New England, and they are fine, but the New England berries I've picked in New Hampshire and Vermont are definitely smaller and they do seem sweeter.  But maybe it's just that they are in season and freshly picked.

3.  There is a Strawberry Festival right here in Plant City, Florida (next town over from Lakeland) and it is a huge event that lasts 11 days with headliner acts each day.  Have you ever been to a Strawberry Festival?

I don't believe so.  I've always thought it would be fun, though.   In a way, I have a strawberry festival going on in my kitchen and dining room for much of the year.  Strawberry wallpaper in the kitchen (which really needs to be replaced, but ... ) plus a strawberry collection.  You can see some of it in this post: A look at my strawberry collection, but if you also type "strawberry collection" into the search box at top left or click on the "strawberries" label in the label cloud at right, you will find even more about it.  There are several pages of posts with the "strawberries" label, so if you enjoy picking, eating, or decorating with strawberries you may want to check these out.
 

4.  Strawberries are grown in every US state.  Have you ever grown them in your garden?

No, I haven't, but my parents did a few times and my daughters also have.   I do have strawberries "planted" on the walls of my kitchen. 

5.  Strawberry is the only fruit that has seeds on the outside, and technically it is not a berry but rather a fruit, and would you be surprised to learn that strawberries belong to the rose family?  Do you have any strawberry trivia to share with us?

I did know that strawberries belong to the rose family.  Here's some trivia for you concerning how I acquired the pitcher below: Now It Can Be Told.  If you haven't previously read this, you might enjoy it.

6.  Tell us something random about your week!!

Hmmm .... it seems to be getting off to a slow start, as my hubby had Monday off.  I accomplished almost nothing that I had planned to do; however, with his help, I accomplished a lot of work at my childhood home: cleaning, sorting, and disposing of items to the dumpster, thrift store, and book drop, and even a visit to a consignment place where we may be able to sell some of the furniture.  So a lot got done, and if today (I'm writing this on Tuesday) feels a little slow, that's okay.

That's it!  This week's berry delicious medley is a wrap!

Baking days

Seems as if I have been baking a lot these first few days of September.  A few weeks ago I tried this recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake Pie when I needed a dessert to take to a friend who isn't feeling well -- our church ladies are providing meals for her and her hubby.   From Spend with Pennies, this is a no-bake pie, so I guess I can't technically call it "baking" -- but oh, what a delicious pie it is.  

Photo from Spend with Pennies.com

Last weekend I made two of these pies for Sunday's potluck lunch at church.  There was one piece of pie left over!  We stopped in to see my hubby's mother after church, so we took the last slice to her.

Last Saturday I also baked these Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies, which also contain white chocolate and pumpkin pie spice and are a favorite cookie I like to make in the fall.

A longtime member of our church passed away Saturday, so we ladies were going to be providing food for a gathering after the funeral.  On Sunday evening and all day Tuesday, I was in the kitchen.  I baked Crunchy Toffee Crackle Cookies, a recipe I created some time ago to hopefully duplicate a favorite bakery cookie from my childhood.

These really do come pretty close in flavor and texture.

I also baked these Chocolate  Crisps, which I often make for Christmas with a melted, swirled Andes mint on top.  This time I just dipped the tops of the cookies in sugar before baking, and skipped the mint topping.

And then I also baked a batch of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars that are nice and chewy with a peanut butter icing drizzle.

Photo from Taste of Home

Lastly, I baked a batch of  Cookie Dough Brownies, using the recipe below for the brownie base:

THE PASTOR’S WIFE’S BROWNIES
1 cup flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil
2 scant cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a mixing bowl beat together the remaining ingredients. Sift in the flour mixture and stir it in thoroughly. (Some people will add 1 cup chocolate chips here.) Scrape into a greased 13x9” pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or just until done. Don’t overbake or you’ll lose the fudgy texture.

Photo from Taste of Home

On Monday we were invited to the home of Mr. T's boss and his family for a Labor Day cookout, along with the rest of the crew.   I made two of these S’mores Pizzas to take along, as well as a Greek pasta salad.

Photo from  Five Heart Home

Those s'mores pizzas are a gigantic hit wherever I take them.

I actually did a bit more baking today, but I'll save that story for another day.  Have a nice weekend, everyone!

From the July archives, Part 3

Glorious photo by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings

Here's a final post from the July archives.  Enjoy!

This post about two crocheted dishcloths in Sweet Pea Stripes yarn might inspire you if you're looking for a fun and simple summer crochet project.

God’s pruning in our lives  is a post you may find encouraging as you consider spiritual growth and some of the ways in which it comes about.

Beautiful graphic by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings

Back in 2011, I wrote this post about some of the July flora and fauna around our home.

I love to decorate with banners or buntings using vintage book pages (or sometimes sheet music) as a base.  These Strawberry Book Page Banners are a project I came up with myself, so this post includes a tutorial for making the banners.  They are hanging above my dining room windows at this very moment.

I'll be back in August with a few archival posts from that month!

From the July archives, Part 1

Just sharing a few links from the July archives.  Enjoy!

From 2006, Words to Wash Dishes By shares some quotes I have pinned up above my kitchen sink.

On Working Efficiently, from 2007, will not be a revelation to most organized people.  But it was a lesson I was excited to see myself beginning to catch onto.

I love it when God shows me Spirit Lifters in  the course of my daily routine.  They're always there.  Do we have eyes to see them, and do we know whom to thank?

When you are overwhelmed could be an encouragement if you find yourself overwhelmed by life for any reason.  These are lessons God taught me during a season of life that could have felt impossible.
 
You might also be blessed by this devotional thought: Trees of God’s Planting.

Want a perfect summer pie to share with family or friends?  Strawberry Lovers’ Pie is a good option.

Photo from Taste of Home

Finally, these Vintage-Style Pillowcases from my Christmas blog are a simple, fun sewing project to do in July.  They make nice gifts for either kids or adults.

 Later in the month I'll probably do a second July archive post.