Recipes, Photography, Musings

Month: June 2014 (Page 2 of 5)

The Joys of Strawberry Shortcake

strawberries 1What would June be without strawberry shortcake?  When I was a kid, before we could get strawberries year-round from all over the world, my mother made strawberry shortcake almost every day that strawberries were in season.  She and my dad really loved strawberries.  I have cozy memories of eating strawberry shortcake with my parents and brothers out on the porch after baseball and softball games.  And there really is a difference between strawberries grown halfway across the country or world and strawberries grown in a field within a few miles of where you live.  You just can’t beat the freshness, or the bright red color.  According to www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=32, strawberries have lots of good nutrients in them, especially vitamin C, antioxidants, and phytonutrients.  And the longer the strawberries are stored, the less nutrients they retain.  So it is most beneficial to eat them soon after they are picked.  Strawberries are one of those foods that not only taste great, but are really good for you.  So enjoy the local strawberries while you can!  There are several farm stands and farmers markets around here that sell local fruit, and it’s even more fun to pick the berries if you get the chance.  I have posted a recipe for shortcake that tastes really good topped with strawberries. I made some yesterday for my family, and we savored the rich, juicy strawberries on top of the mild shortcake.  Though the calendar doesn’t say it’s officially summer yet, to me, strawberry season is the unofficial beginning of summer.  I am going to try to savor it as much as possible this year.

strawberries 2shortcakestrawberry shortcake in bowl

Recipe for Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake

  • Servings: about 8
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar, plus about 1/4 to1/2 cup for strawberries
  • 3 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons buttermilk
  • 2 quarts fresh strawberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly grease a 9 inch pie plate.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 Tablespoon of sugar in a large mixing bowl.  Place the butter in the bowl, and with a fork or pastry cutter, press and cut it into the dry ingredients until it has the consistency of large crumbs.  Pour the buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just use regular milk and substitute 1 of the Tablespoons of milk for 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar) into the bowl and stir with a fork just until a dough forms.  When the dough holds together, spoon it into the pie plate and press it down so it is evenly distributed.  Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until shortcake is puffy and lightly browned.

Cut the shortcake into pieces, split the pieces in half, and top pieces with washed, sliced strawberries.  Or if you want a sweeter topping, wash strawberries, remove stems, and mash them in a bowl.  Add 1/4 to 1/2 half cup of sugar, depending on amount of strawberries mashed, and according to your taste.  Pour the strawberry-sugar mixture over the shortcake pieces. Enjoy!

Kale-Banana Smoothie

kale smoothie in glassSmoothies are a fun and healthy way to be creative in the kitchen.  You can mix and match fruits, vegetables, yogurts, juices, soy milk, and other things like wheat germ and ground flax seeds, just to name a few.  I especially like to use fruits and vegetables that are in season, but in the middle of the winter, a smoothie with frozen fruit tastes great too.  Right now, with kale in full swing in our garden, I have been making kale-banana smoothies.  My kids love them.  This smoothie is an easy way to get the powerhouse nutritional benefits of kale without really thinking about the fact that you are eating kale.  The bananas, yogurt and honey make it creamy and sweet.  I like to use Greek yogurt, which is high in protein.  The wheat germ gives it a little extra substance and protein too.  I am posting a recipe that we have created for a kale-banana smoothie.   Smoothies are really flexible, so you can adjust the amounts of the ingredients to suit your tastes.

kale smoothie

 

kale smoothie closeup

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