Cooking Show: Strawberries!

Strawberry season is here!

When I was a kid, I never knew how lucky I was to grow up in the vicinity of so many strawberry farms.  

My mom always picked more than we knew what to do with.  I'll be honest, my favorite strawberry recipe isn't a recipe at all.  It goes like this: pick them, wash them, eat them!  Supermarket strawberries just can't compare to sweet, juicy, fresh-picked strawberries!

If you find yourself with an abundance of strawberries and are searching for a few good recipes, look no further.  Here are a few recipes from our recent, strawberry-themed cooking show!

Strawberry Lemonade!

For the adult version, top it off with a shot of limoncello.  Click here for the printable recipe.

Baked Strawberry Oatmeal Crumble

This makes a great breakfast!  Or dessert, topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Chicken and Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

This salad is my go-to summer salad.  It's so quick and easy to prepare!  You can also throw it into a wrap.  Click here for the printable recipe.

And finally, Strawberry Galette with Chocolate Crust.  Serve this warm, topped with whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream!

Strawberry Bread with Almond Glaze

I wasn't planning on making strawberry bread.

My plan was to bake banana bread.

I needed three over-ripe bananas.  I always buy more bananas than I think we could possibly eat, hoping that there will be three left by the time they get soft and turn so brown that no one would possibly want to eat them. Three is the magic number for banana bread.

At 7:30 a.m. there were three brown bananas.  A half-hour later:

Ahem.  I should have known better than to count my brown bananas before my husband packed his lunch. 

I'm sure that he thought he was doing me a favor by taking a banana that he thought nobody else would want to eat, leaving better ones behind.

Yes, he left behind eight primo bananas.  And so the cycle begins again--once more, I think I bought more bananas than we can eat, I hope there will be three left by the time they turn brown and mushy.

Not enough bananas. I was forced to change my plans.  Fortunately, I had all the ingredients for strawberry bread on hand!

Strawberry Agua Fresca

This could have been such a quick and easy post.

Three ingredients!  Plus water.  It takes about ten minutes to make.  I could have written this blog post in record time.

But then it sort of turned into a circular tale.  (If you've ever read the children's book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, you know what I'm talking about.)

It all started when I thought I'd make a pitcher of agua fresca.

Which made me think of Mexico.  Circa 1986.

Which made me wonder if I had taken any pictures of agua fresca during my long-ago Mexican vacations.

Which made me dig out a couple of old photo albums filled with pictures from vacations to Cancun and Acapulco.

No pictures of agua fresca, but there was this picture of my poolside drink served in a watermelon.

Which made me think of the abundance of tropical fruit that my friends and I ate on that trip to Cancun.  Imagine our surprise on our first night there, at dinner, when our waiter placed a hollowed-out pineapple loaded with fruit in front of each of us.  It was simply described as a "fruit cup" on the appetizer menu.

Which made me think of how much fun that trip to Cancun was.  So much fun that I wanted to go back to Mexico for my honeymoon the following year, to Acapulco.

Thinking of Acapulco made me think of the goofy little Mexican teddy bear I won shooting hoops.

Which made me think about how sweaty I was shooting hoops in Mexico on my honeymoon.

Which reminded me that I want to make a pitcher of agua fresca.

Berries With Vanilla Glaze--A Pick-Me-Up for Winter Doldrums

Winter, be gone!

If only it were that easy.

Even though it has been pouring rain, the sixty-degree temps of the last couple of days brought a bit of spring fever with them.

Clyde has spring fever, too!

  I settled for a bowl of berries instead, doctored up with a vanilla glaze.  I know, I know...berries are not in season.  Which is exactly why I want them.  Because if they were in season, I wouldn't need them to cure my spring fever, because it would no longer be winter and I wouldn't have spring fever.  Are you following my logic?

This recipe is so simple, and so good!  At first bite, my girls declared, "This is a keeper!" "Make this again!" And I will, anytime I want to chase the winter doldrums away.

Strawberry Scones with Lemon Curd

It's been a few weeks since I made one of the gazillion recipes that I've been pinning on Pinterest.

Eenie-meanie-miney-moe...........for today's recipe I picked Strawberry Lemonade Scones by Munchkin Munchies.

The recipe says to drizzle them with prepared lemon curd.  I know, you're just. like. me.  You're thinking, "why used prepared lemon curd when I can make my own?"

I'm so glad that we think alike!

Make the lemon curd the day before you make the scones.  It's not difficult at all to make, but you need to give it time to chill before you use it, and chill time takes at least an hour.

Unless you like to get up at an ungodly hour so you can make your homemade lemon curd and give it an hour to chill and then make your homemade scones in time for breakfast.  In which case, we don't think alike at all.

Baked Puff Pancakes With Strawberry Sauce

Yep, I'm still overdoing the strawberries.  At just about every nearby supermarket, strawberries have been on sale for at least a month and they're pretty much the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

And I just can't stop buying them.  Fortunately, I haven't even come close to running out of ways to use them in my cooking!

Today, I'm using them to make a sauce for my puff pancakes.  You can use any fruit you like, and frozen fruits work well, too.  But c'mon, admit it.  You want to use strawberries, too, right?

Strawberry/Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

We've been eating a lot of strawberries lately.  It seems like every local supermarket has run a special on strawberries within the last few weeks.

Today I walked into the supermarket and strawberries and blackberries were on sale.  For someone like me, who has had spring fever for two solid months already....well, all I could think was, "the more, the berrier!"  Ouch, that was pretty lame, I know.

This is the look that Gus gives me when I make a bad pun.

It has been exactly one year since Gus was sprayed by a skunk.  No matter how much he tries to coax and cajole us into letting him out when he catches a whiff of his stinky little friend, we've managed to keep him skunk-free.

As usual, I digress. Back to the berries.  I made a very simple salad of spinach and berries topped with a sweet poppy seed dressing.  Goodness, gracious, me-oh-my, it was soooooo good.

Strawberry Lemonade Bars

I finally got around to making one of the many recipes on my "baking" board on Pinterest.  I have been spending way too much time surfing the site, pinning recipes I'd like to try, crafts I'd like to make, projects I'd like to do, flowers I'd like to grow, decor I'd like to have and plenty of other pictures that make me go "ooh" and "ahh."  (I'm not kidding; I named two of my boards "ooh" and "ahh.")

But anyway, back to the recipes.  One of my New Year's resolutions was to go through the recipes I've collected on Pinterest and make one dessert and one main dish or salad per week.

Here we are, eight weeks in, do you think I've made sixteen recipes?  Nope.  This weekend I made my first Pinterest recipe.........and I'm happy to say it is a keeper!  Can you imagine the pressure that I put on that recipe?   If it failed, then the chances were pretty good that I would nix that New Year's resolution.

Here is a picture of the Strawberry Lemonade Bars.  Now for those of you that are thinking, "My, how  Fran's photography skills have improved!"--you need to know that this is the picture that was taken and posted by kandktestkitchen .  If you click on that link it will take you to the original post and recipe.

And for those of you who prefer your photos a bit more dim and drab, accompanied by awkward attempts at witty repartee...........well, I thank you for that.  :)

Strawberry-Custard Shortbread Bars

You may remember one of my first posts last year, when I mentioned that Gus was sprayed by a skunk.

After 20+ years as a dog owner, my skunk-free streak of luck had run out.

We dodged a bullet last night.  Take a look:

All of a sudden, Gus was acting insane.  He was so insistent that he be let outside.  He could hardly contain his excitement.  Then I smelled the skunky smell.

Something tells me it is only a matter of time until he gets sprayed again.

Trying to get a head start on my baking for the Super Bowl.  Go Pats!!

Strawberries and Cream Mini Muffins

It has been much too long since my last post!

I wish I could say that I've studied the art of photography and the photos that I post will no longer look like they were taken in the dark.  Maybe someday.

It's not that I haven't been cooking dinner.  I just haven't cooked anything new that hasn't already been included in this blog!

This week I've made Chicken Pot Pie , Chicken Piccata , and Lemon-Marinated Chicken Sandwiches (the latter of which I'm happy to say has finally been edited to include pictures)!

I'll get my act together soon, I promise.

Erin's been baking.

Lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

There were plenty of strawberries left over, so I put them to good use and made muffins.

Strawberry Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

What should I write about first?  That I have a terrific recipe for strawberries?  Or how excited I was last week when my blog passed the 1000 visitors mark, so I decided to do a giveaway in true blogland fashion?

The giveaway is closed.  The winners have been drawn--congratulations to Maureen and Anne!

Okay, let's do the giveaway first.  My followers are automatically entered into the giveaway.

If YOU would like to be entered into the giveaway, all you have to do is a). become a follower or b). leave a comment to this post.  If you are a follower and you leave a comment, you will be entered twice!  And since I have TWO items that I am giving away, if you win twice, you get two prizes!

Anyone can enter.......and since I have had recent visitor(s) from India, let it be known that I will post world-wide.

I will draw the winners on Wednesday.

Wanna know whatchur playin' for? (that was my best impersonation of the host of Survivor.)

Two of my favorite cutting boards.  You may have noticed them in previous posts....the tomato made its first appearance in the pasta with creamy tomato sauce recipe and the lemon made its first appearance in the recipe for BLT/Grilled chicken salad .

I like them so much, I bought two for you.

 The thing I like most about these cutting boards is the green rim, which has a rubbery texture so the cutting board does not slip and slide around.  I also like that they are sooooo cute!

If you would like to win one of these cutting boards, don't forget to a.) become a follower of this blog or b.)leave a comment to this post by Wednesday.  And if you do both a. and b., you will be entered twice.

Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated or connected to the company, Dexas, which makes these cutting boards.  Not only do they have no idea who I am, I would venture further and say that they do not even care who I am.

Okay, now on to the next part.  I promised you a strawberry recipe.  This is a recipe for a strawberry salad with a honey balsamic vinaigrette. 

The supermarkets are finally selling sweet, juicy strawberries (at very reasonable prices), as opposed to the hard, tasteless strawberries they sell in the winter (at outrageous prices). 

Of course, the best strawberries here in New England are the ones you pick yourself or buy at your local farmers' markets.  It won't be strawberry picking season here for a few more weeks, but do yourself a favor when that time comes and buy some local strawberries......yum.

Cheesecake

Some of my favorite recipes are printed on the packages of items I have purchased.

It only makes sense that the recipe should be good;  the manufacturer of the item that you purchased wants to give you a good reason to buy the product.  They don't want to give you a nasty recipe that makes you gag.......chances would  be good that as I'm gagging I'm thinking, "never buying this again!"

Of all the recipes I've taken off of packages, my all-time favorite is New York Cheesecake from Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

I've been making cheesecake using this recipe for almost 20 years.  After all these years, you can still find it printed on the package.  It's printed on the multi-packs sold at warehouse clubs.  It makes sense that it would be printed on the multi-packs because you need five 8-oz packages to make this cheesecake.  Yes, 40 ounces of cheese.  It's not for sissies, that's for sure.