Monday, June 15, 2009

Strawberries


I don't know about you but I love Strawberry Season! Sweet juicy red strawberries delicious in cereal, pies, cakes, smoothies, ice cream and sorbet with whipcream or just on their very own. These Strawberry recipes are simliar to ones i've made before so they should be yummy! We serve a strawberry soup close to this recipe at work when it's really hot out in a nice cold half a cantaloupe bowl.

STRAWBERRY - BUTTERMILK SOUP (Serve
cold) from cooks.com

2 pt. fresh strawberries
3/4 c. orange juice
1/4 c. sugar
4 1/2 c. low fat buttermilk or plain low fat yogurt
Mint sprigs, optional

Rinse and hull strawberries. Place in blender. Process until smooth. Transfer to large bowl. Stir in orange juice and sugar. Continue stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in buttermilk or yogurt. Refrigerate several hours before serving. Spoon into soup bowls and garnish with mint sprigs, if desired.



Strawberry Shortcake from allrecipes.com

  • 3 pints fresh strawberries

  • 1/2 cup white sugar

  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  • 4 teaspoons baking powder

  • 2 tablespoons white sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 1/3 cup shortening

  • 1 egg

  • 2/3 cup milk

  • 2 cups whipped heavy cream

  1. Slice the strawberries and toss them with 1/2 cup of white sugar. Set aside.

  2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease and flour one 8 inch round cake pan.

  3. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons white sugar and the salt. With a pastry blender cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and milk. Stir until just combined.

  4. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool partially in pan on wire rack.

  5. Slice partially cooled cake in half, making two layers. Place half of the strawberries on one layer and top with the other layer. Top with remaining strawberries and cover with the whipped cream.



RHUBARB - STRAWBERRY PIE from cooks.com

1 1/4-1 1/2 c. sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 c. rhubarb, cut into 1/2" pieces
2 c. sliced fresh strawberries
1 tbsp. butter
Pastry for double crust pie (click for crust recipe)

In large mixing bowl stir together sugar, cornstarch, salt and ground nutmeg. Add rhubarb pieces and sliced strawberries, toss gently to coat fruit. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare and roll out pastry. Line a 9 inch pie plate with half of the pastry. Trim pastry to edge of pie plate. Pour fruit mixture into pie plate. Dot with butter, place pastry on top of filling. Cut slits in top to allow steam to escape seal and flute edge. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Or you can skip the top pastry and make an almond crumb topping.

1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sliced almonds

Saturday, June 13, 2009

To chocolate, or not to chocolate!?



Don't forget to vote in the Chocolate poll! ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!
Will it be the creamy sweet milk chocolate, the rich almost too much dark chocolate, or the overly sweet White chocolate!? You decide!
There's so many uses for chocolate, in baking, cooking and just plain eating.

My favorite, i can't really decide (not to mention i'm a girl and i should never have to decide) I really like white and milk chocolate. I'm not a huge fan of Dark chocolate, unless it's the really good kind we have in a bar at work! YUM!

VOTE! YES WE CAN eat chocolate whenever we want!