Strawberry Shortcake!

I must be coming down with a bad case of spring fever. The first symptom is a craving for strawberry shortcake, months before strawberries are in season.

It all starts with an innocent trip to the grocery store...and there...right in the produce department...it starts.

Oh, they're so beautiful! (I say)

But it's too early... (my pragmatic self tries a counter argument: reality)

I just want to smell them!

They're way too expensive... (my frugal self goes for the throat)

Look! They're on sale!

They're probably spoiled... (my pragmatic self tries again)

No! Look! They're beautiful! sniff...sniff... I can smell them through the plastic!

Every time you buy those, you're disappointed in how bland they taste... (that's the Mom me...I should learn to listen to her)

(But then I lay down the final blow...) I could make SHORTCAKE!!!!

.....and the strawberries jump into the cart!


And now I get to make shortcake :)

My shortcake recipe came from my grandmother...but was never written down. You know the kind of recipe I mean: "Start with biscuit dough, put it in a pie plate, add sugar."

That's the way I always made shortcake, thinking Grandma's recipe was unique and wonderful.

Then I got married, and for Christmas that year my mother-in-law copied some family recipes for me. Imagine my surprise when I saw her mother's shortcake recipe!

It was almost exactly the one I had always used!

That's when I knew I had married into the right family - that, and the fact my mother-in-law loves chocolate as much as I do.

Maybe more.

And she raised at least one wonderful son (I only married one of them, so I can't vouch for the other three!)

Over the years I've taken Grandma Crumrine's recipe and Grandma Ebenhoeh's recipe, combined them, added a few touches of my own...and we have the perfect shortcake.

Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients:
2 cups flour (either all-purpose or 1/2 all-purpose, 1/2 whole wheat)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar (you can substitute other sweeteners, or leave it out)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, plus 1 Tablespoon butter (save for later)
2/3 cup milk


Preheat your oven to 325°.

Stir together the dry ingredients, then cut in the 1/2 cup butter (just like you're making biscuits) until the dough is crumbly. Stir in the milk.

Grease a 9" pie plate (or you can use a similar sized baking dish) and put in the dough. Pat the dough into the edges of the pan, and then dot the top with the 1 Tablespoon butter.

Last of all, sprinkle the top with 2 Tablespoons sugar or 1 teaspoon stevia or other natural sweetener - yes, Virginia, I'm thinking of you :)

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges start browning and the center is done (I use the spring test - touch the center lightly. If it springs back, it's done.)



Now comes the best part.

While the shortcake is still warm, cut it into six or eight slices. Split the slice in half and layer quartered strawberries between the halves, replace the top, and then spoon more strawberries over the top.

What's that, you say? Whipped cream? Ice cream? No way!

You take a couple tablespoons of heavy cream (aka whipping cream) and pour it over the top, just like your farming grandparents used to do.

Heaven.

Or, at least it would be if this was June and the strawberries had some flavor.... I need to learn to listen to the Mom me.

Jan Drexler loves her family, her home, cooking and just about anything made by hand. But she loves her Lord most of all.

Stop by Jan's website to learn more about her books: www.JanDrexler.com.

Quick Party Faves!

This is NOT a lame post.

This is important.

Because every now and again I get invited someplace by an unsuspecting person who doesn't realize I might be the LAST PERSON THEY WANT AT THEIR PARTY...

So to curb the certain-to-ensue anxiety, I bring something delicious.

Now I don't always have time to bake a fancy-schmancy cake like this:

Oops, this wasn't supposed to be Jeter!!! It was supposed to be a pretty basket of flowers cake I made for a baby shower...

But I'm not one to argue with Jeter if he hops into my blog!!!! So he gets to stay.

Cupcakes like this are adorable, right? You just take a dotted "grass" frosting tube, fill the top with frosting "grass" and plunk a chick peep into the middle... then add some strategically placed jelly beans for eggs. EASY and impressive!

Shrimp is a big favorite of mine. No one can hate the woman with a shrimp tray:

And chocolate dipped strawberries are an easy crowd-pleaser for all ages and occasions!

Take fresh, ripe berries:

Melt 12 oz (or so) milk or dark chocolate... or white chocolate... and add about a teaspoon or so of vegetable oil to the melting chocolate:

Dip berries into chocolate using their stems to hold berries in place.... Then lay them onto foil-covered cookie sheets:

Chill... put on pretty plate and serve!

Those were a crowd-pleasing favorite at our Easter brunch!

And remember, if the budget is tight, chicken salad and crackers is a wonderful munch that most people won't think of... and fresh chicken salad is a wonderful thing!

Simply Gourmet Pork Chops from Missy Tippens

Missy, here. Cutting it close on the post tonight! My son has just accepted Georgia Tech's offer of admission into their Aerospace Engineering program. Yay!! And we spent the evening looking at housing choices. Looking at possible roommates. Whew! So many things to do to prepare. We're thrilled for him, though! Tech has a fantastic program. And he'll be only an hour from home. Gotta love that. :)

So at 11:30 pm, I remembered I needed a post! Luckily, I had some photos I recently took. And a quick recipe to share.

I created this a couple of weeks ago. It's easy yet looks really nice when you serve it. Might even make you look like a gourmet cook. :)

Yes, I love to fool my family into thinking I've been working hard in the kitchen. I LOVE fooler recipes!

Ingredients:

Pork chops (I used boneless)
Apricot Preserves
1-2 Tbs. Butter
1 Shallot, finely chopped

Heat a dash of olive oil and about 1-2 Tbs. butter in a skillet. Saute the shallot until translucent and beginning to caramelize.

Sprinkle chops with salt and pepper. Place in the skillet with the shallots.

Cook a few minutes (I think I did about 4 minutes), then flip over.

Add 3-4 Tbs. of the preserves and stir around the chops until melted. Then spoon the melted preserves over the pork. Cook until desired doneness.

YUM!

New Puppies, Re-birth and Maddie...

We had puppies on Good Friday.

It was kind of wonderful, really....

While I prayed and thanked God for his amazing sacrifice, I welcomed new Golden Doodles into the world.

This is a Doodle:

And this:

And these are baby Doodles:

A "Doodle" is what happens when you cross this:

(This is Mick, our Golden Retriever stud dog)

With this:

This is Libby, our chocolate brown Standard Poodle... 

And here's what's happened all four times they've mated...

Yup.

Black puppies.

Don't ask, I try not to pry into their personal lives!

When people come to me for puppies, I lecture them.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, RIGHT????  :)

I say sage things like, "Puppies should be crate trained"... and "Don't let your puppy run the house! Be the Alpha Male!" (or female, but they have other words for the Alpha female...

Sigh....)

And I remind new pet owners that they will most likely outlive their dogs... That animal love is a temporary thing, that there will come a time when they need to make difficult decisions...

And then live with them.

I made that decision today. Well... Yesterday.

This is Maddie:

Isn't she gorgeous? She was a very naughty puppy... (most Goldens are!)

But what a wonderful dog!

Sweet, affectionate, funny, easy with kids, cats, chickens... 

Best of friends with Libby, the two ladies shared a room, shared space on my carpet and they never bossed each other around.

We found out ten days ago that Maddie had cancer.

It was a total shock to us and the vet. Instead of spaying her, the vet removed a huge splenatic tumor...

And we realized the beginning of the end.

Maddie. My friend, my pet, my sweet, affectionate girl was riddled with cancer.

Waiting for the histologist's report, I went online and read whatever I could find on spleen cancer in dogs.

Grim. Days. Weeks.

Those are the words I read and I steeled myself to accept what I couldn't change.

At age 6, I was about to swallow my own words of wisdom about Maddie...

I was going to face the tough choice I've watched others make.

We got ten days. It wasn't nearly enough to repay this sweet dog for the years of love and affection she bestowed on us.

It wasn't nearly enough for the litters of puppies she gave us...

Sweet red babies who've gone to multiple states and cities, including one named Jeter and one who live one subway stop from Yankee Stadium.

This is Libby nursing one of Maddie's litters two years ago...

And this is Maddie nursing Libby's pup that same year:

We got the official report from the veterinarian at about five o'clock Tuesday..

Maddie had been having a good day, eating... wagging her tail... smiling.

But I understood what the report meant...

And by nine o'clock that same night, we knew.

Maddie could no longer eat...

Her back legs stopped working.

She couldn't come upstairs to sleep in my room, so I came downstairs.

We napped in the living room together.

We talked about old times.

Puppies.

We discussed dog foods, the good, the bad, the forgettable.

We agreed not to discuss my shoes.

And instead of going to the vet's this morning to have her surgical staples removed,

we went to have our pretty girl put down.

She's here now.

Back on the farm.

Paul and Seth dug her grave.

Come spring (real spring, that is) I'll plant flowers with the kids.

We'll make a cool cross marker and they'll put her name on it.

And we won't forget.

But tonight, despite the coos and whispers of ten little pups, there's a yawning gap.

A silence that can't be filled.

Because Maddie's gone.

But she'll never be forgotten.

Ham and the end of the world

Hellloooooo, everybody!!! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I have nothing really fresh to tempt you. Nor any sugar. Nor any handsome men.

No, wait, that last one I can probably remedy.

 

hahahaha! Isn't that great! Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy in the 2005 'Pride and Prejudice'.... but he's texting! *smirkle*

 

 I'm not a huge fan of that movie, but I did just give away a copy on my blog to celebrate my 3,000th sale of 'Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits'. Yay!

And then Vince Mooney gave it a hilarious write-up on 'The Philosophy of Romance' here. I just love that guy. My favorite line? "To begin with, I think this title is a great example why editors don’t let writers choose their own titles."

(Let me just say, I have no idea why the fonts have just gone wonky. I blame Vince. That makes much more sense than considering the possibility that I can't even handle blog fonts. *sigh*)

ANYHOO, Yes, it's been a fun week, and Spring is here and life is wonderful, despite having the head cold from Hades.
Honestly, I forgot what it's like to be sick. I'm never sick. You know, that sort of never that's really ALMOST NEVER. *sigh*
But I did manage to cook a little. Well, I always cook because I like to eat. And my husband likes to eat and all those kids... yes... like to eat.

 

Irma S. Rombauer wrote in the Joy of Cooking that "one definition of eternity is a ham and two people."
We have more than two people in this house, but there is something about left-over ham that makes me wonder what we can possibly do, besides eat cold ham sandwiches for the entire week.
I remembered a  friend of mine made a delicious quiche with a grated potato crust and I wondered if that might be one possible reincarnation of Easter ham. So, we set to work...

My kids had a great time grating potatos, with the skins. Here's approximately seven potatoes, or 6 cups. I think the original recipe was 3 cups of hasbrowns per pie plate. You can use prepared hashbrowns. Add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of pepper and 4 TBS of melted butter. I was wary of adding salt because I knew the ham would be salty.

(Oh, excuse me. We have a call. A very important call on the banana phone. See his brother giving him the 'whaddya doing' look. Big brothers have no appreciation for the importance of produce communication. One must answer, speak politely, and pass it to the mother... who then must answer, listen intently, and take instructions for a play date at the park. That is the way of the banana phone.)

After pressing the grated potatoes into your pie pan (it covered several pie pans and one small casserole dish), put in an oven that has warmed to 450F, for about 20 minutes. I was afraid it would burn so I took it out as soon as the crust was cooked, but the edges were only slightly crispy at 15 minutes. Next time I might leave it longer. I nibbled just a bit at it and YUMMY. Anyway, we're tryin to use up the ham...

Lay cooked ham in the bottom of the potato crust.

About 3 cups of cheddar cheese. The original recipe was 1 1/2 cups of cheese, but I was making a big batch. Add 8 eggs and 1 cup milk (or 4 eggs and 1/2 cup milk). Mix well. Add 1/2 tsp salt a dash of tabasco sauce, and sprinkle of pepper.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes until puffy. I was afraid this would spill over, so I set it on a cookie sheet. But everything was fine. I think, all in all, I prefer this potato crust over the usual quiche crust, but I might make a more traditional Quiche Lorraine (with Swiss cheese). It seemed very cheesey with the cheddar. The kids devoured it, and husband ate it (that's all we can ask for, he's not a fan of cheese), but I'm imagining broccoli-Swiss-mushroom version in my future.

  One more picture to lighten your day...

 

Awwww. Such nice eyes. :)

 

 

And now I must be off. Someone is calling on my banana phone. I wonder who it is? And after we're done, I'll be singing this song by Raffi. Click it. You won't be sorry. Unless it gets stuck in your head...

 Until next time! And Edna waves hello! She's made a wonderful friend and they will be taking over the blog next week to show off their skillz in the kitchen. It's a combined effort... No, I'm not telling, so stop asking.

Lickety Split Spaghetti

The only thing better than a quick and easy meal is a quick and easy meal that's worth the effort (or non-effort) whether you're in a hurry or not. You can tweak it to feed an army or just one. Although my husband's favorite spaghetti is next-day spaghetti. You know, leftovers:-)

Now your ingredient list is rather extensive, so I hope you're ready.

Ready?

Okay, here's what you'll need:

• 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (our fave is Prego)
• Sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (I like to use the turkey variety and usually for this size recipe I cook 5 links, but I snitched a couple for another recipe, so I only have 3 this time around)
• Spaghetti, enough to suit the amount of sauce you plan to make (since mine is a 23.5 oz. jar, I'll cook 12-14 oz of noodles).

See? Now doesn't that sound laborious?

So, first you want to put on a big old pot of water, add some salt, and get that to boiling for your noodles.

While that's going, remove the casings from your sausage and brown that up.

Drain off any fat. Now add the sauce, stir, cover and simmer until heated through. Trust me on this one, a cover is a good thing. Nothing worse than sauce spattering all over the counter from an unexpected bubble bursting.

Cook your pasta according to package directions. Here's a tip. Lay a wooden spoon over the top of your boiling pot and it will not boil over. Love that!

Portion pasta into bowls or plates, then top with sauce. A meal in less than 30 minutes. Now if you want to get fancy, throw in a side salad and some garlic bread. Now that's some good eatin'.

The secret here is the sweet Italian sausage. It takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary.

 



When the meal is over, hubby tosses any remaining sauce and noodles together, tucks it in the fridge, and patiently awaits lunch the next day. Gotta love a man who loves leftovers.

 

Now if only we could teach the boys.

Cinnamon Swirl Cake

Jan here, just waiting for spring! Don't you love spring?

We don't have flowers...yet...but we do have these early signs that the yearly promise will be fulfilled:

Calves!

Geese migrating!

May book releases :)

And of course, don't forget puppies! Red-winged blackbirds hanging on the cattails! Sunshine!

I don't care if there's still snow in the yard, spring is definitely coming!






I tried a new recipe this week - I recently "liked" Cheryl's Pampered Chef Biz page on Facebook, and she shared this Cinnamon Roll Swirl Cake. I took it to Bible Study Wednesday night, and it got nine thumbs up!

This is a gooey, buttery, almost pastry-like cake that is absolutely delicious! Expect to wow your friends :)

Cinnamon Roll Swirl Cake (Pampered Chef recipe)

Ingredients:

For the batter -
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

For the cinnamon swirl (think Cinnabon....mmmmm.....):
1 cup butter, soft to the point of being almost melted
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons cinnamon

For the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla


In a large bowl, mix all the batter ingredients together except the butter. Once mixed, pour the melted butter slowly into the batter, stirring as you go (I had my mixer running on low as I poured the butter in). Pour the batter into a 9x13 baking dish.

Combine the ingredients for the cinnamon swirl, and drop onto the batter, then swirl with a knife.





Bake at 350° (thanks, Ruthy!) for 30-40 minutes. Mine took the whole 40 minutes to become brown and done in the center. Don't try the toothpick test for doneness - the cinnamon swirl will remain sticky. Look for slightly browned batter on the tops and sides.

After the cake cools slightly, but while it's still warm, drizzle the glaze on top. 

Yes, I put this picture in twice...it's that good....

And the best thing about this recipe? It only took a few minutes to put together! (And that's no April fool!) Win/win!