Homemade Strawberry Shortcake ~ from our homegrown strawberries...

Our spring has been lackluster and the garden has suffered for it.   The last time I had checked the strawberry bed, the little berries were small and green.  I had (quite frankly) forgotten about them, so imagine my surprise when my son & his friend came into the house with two big, red strawberries.  The kids said there were lots more out there.  When did this happen??  So, I gave them some bowls to pick whatever ripe strawberries they could find.  I was very pleased when they brought back enough to make a dessert ~ Nice!

I looked around and found this recipe for (a healthier) strawberry shortcake.  It called for basic ingredients which I always have on hand and the recipe was easy to make/follow ~ even for this challenged baker.  :)   I did try using the pastry blender to  combine the butter and flour, but got frustrated pretty quick and ended up just using my fingers.  (soooo much simpler!)  I made a few changes to the original recipe ~ I added an extra teaspoon of sugar to the shortcake batter, as well as a teaspoon of vanilla extract; I used fat free Greek yogurt and sweetened it with honey instead of sugar and used a splash of vanilla extract instead of the lemon zest (my guys like vanilla flavor more than lemon flavor).  I made the shortcakes bigger, so came up with three instead of four.  What a marvelous, light, rich and tasty shortcake.  More real-time baking in my kitchen tonight.  :)

School is now out for the summer ~ Let the games begin!

Official Fish Fingers & Custard Day ~ Who, is with me...

Today is April 3rd, and it's officially ~ Fish Fingers & Custard Day!  I never thought I would be writing about those two items, at least not in the the same sentence...but, here I am.  Maybe you've eaten them yourself, maybe even at the same time.  Chances are, if you have, then you too, are a Whovian and a true fan of the BBC TV show 'Doctor Who', just like us.  :)

A bit of back story:  Last year, J & I discovered the BBC TV show ~ Doctor Who.  We were utterly charmed by the actor Matt Smith, who took over the controls of the TARDIS & became the 11th regeneration of Doctor Who.  As J says, 'It's brilliant!'  (he's picked up that phrase from his English dad)  This, coming from a 8 year old, is high praise indeed.  If you've never seen Doctor Who, (or even if you have) check out this foodie inspired clip from the episode ~ The Eleventh Hour.  This is when the meal ~ Fish Fingers & Custard ~ was invented.  It's one of the funniest food scenes I've ever seen...

I've cooked this unusual food duo and it makes for a surprisingly good meal.  Over here in the US, to us Yanks, Fish Fingers = Fish Sticks. Custard = Pudding, and to me, the custard/pudding becomes a mellow stand-in for tarter sauce...and it really works together!

Since we're on this side of the pond... (ahh...Pond.  Oh, Amy & Rory ~ we MISS YOU!), you could serve it with a traditional English custard mix like ~ Bird's Custard (I happen to keep a container in my pantry, for occasions when I want an English custard), OR you could just use good ol' Jello Brand 'Cook & Serve' Custard, OR just use a vanilla or tapioca pudding cup ~ they would all be good!  So, if you're looking for an unusual, out-of-this-world (or universe) meal, then give it a go.  We enthusiastically give it two-thumbs up, and as you can see from the video clip ~ it's Doctor Who approved!  teehee  :)     

Sharon's ~ No-Bake Double-Decker White Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cracker Cookies

My friend, Sharon, just shared a photo on Facebook of some recent cookie making in her kitchen.  I was so thrilled to learn about her ~ kid friendly, no-bake, easy to prepare and mighty impressive ~ No-Bake Double-Decker White Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cracker Cookie.  It'll be perfect to make over the upcoming winter break with my son.  I was so tickled with how simple this recipe is, that I just had to share it right away.  J will be so thrilled to make these when he gets out of school later this week.  They're made with some of his favorite foods, all dunked & decorated to make a new flavor combo.  Kid + an easy, no~bake cookie recipe = one happy mom!  : )

Sharon, thanks so much for sharing this truly simple recipe that our family will enjoy making ~ You are awesome!

Sharon's ~ No-Bake Double-Decker
White Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cracker Cookies

Ingredients

• Ritz crackers
• peanut butter
• melted white chocolate for dunking the double-decker peanut butter crackers in
• sprinkles, crushed peppermints, colored sugar, etc. ~ for sprinkling/decorating

Directions 

Take your Ritz crackers, spread one side with a bit of peanut butter.  Top with another Ritz cracker and then carefully dip the 'cracker cookie' into the melted white chocolate, covering both sides.

Once dipped, place on a sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper & sprinkle or decorate to your hearts content.  Allow to dry, then package for gift giving or eating.  If you happen to have any left, (yeah, like that is going to happen around here...) store in a covered container.  Enjoy!

P.S. ~  Sharon says ~ I have tried variations (Nutella, dark chocolate, etc.) and found that these are the most coveted...so I stick with it!

The Swedish Chef ~ comical cooking in the kitchen

I've been a HUGE fan of the Muppets ever since I was a kid, and one of my absolute favorite Muppets has to be the Swedish Chef.  (looking back, I guess I was destined to be a foodie :)  To me, there is something so hilarious about watching him wreck havoc in the kitchen, or better yet, his meal ingredients running amok and seeking revenge on him ~ that really tickles my funny bone.  I've recently introduced J to the delightful kitchen mishaps of one of my favorite chefs, and we always get a bellyful of laughs every time we watch him attempt to cook a meal.  Of all the skits this 'master' of the kitchen has done, I think this one ~ Home Cooked Meal ~ has to be my favorite...

No Torkey Stew.  No Piggy Stew.  No Bif Stew.  Heck, even the veggies revolt!  (I love it! :)  After all these years, watching the veggies gang up on him still cracks me up.  Now, I know he didn't have any success with making that Veggie Weggie Stew, but if I ever meet him in person, I'll share a little secret with him.  You know, just cook-to-cook...If you use frozen veggies, they don't fight back ~ problem solved!  heehee  We chefs/cooks need to stick together.  :)

What got me on this Muppet kick you might ask?  Well, I was tickled to find out that our neighbors granddaughter, K, is a Muppethead just like me.  One day she brought over all of her Muppets to show me and I was thrilled to see my old favorite, Swedish Chef was among them.  So, I'd like to say to K ~ Thanks so much for reminding me of the silliness of the Muppets and making me remember what it's like to be a kid again... watching a Muppet puppet kitchen cooking show, with a Swedish Chef, who spends more time fending off the attacks from his ingredients than he does actually cooking.  :)  

  
                                                         "Børk! Børk! Børk!"

  

Ginger Drop Cookies ~ salvaging a sticky, ooey-gooey cookie dough mess...

Salvaging the gingerbread dough & turning it into 'drop cookies' was easy.  Yeah, right.  Easy once we got the sticky mess of tar-like dough scraped off of our hands & off the waxed paper & off the bowl.   By-the-way, have I ever mentioned before that I'm a challenged baker... :/

I was reading a bedtime story to J the other night.  It was one of his favorites ~ The Gingerbread Man.  On the back cover of the storybook is a recipe for gingerbread cookies, J saw it & asked to make some.  Sure, why not?   We went into the kitchen the next day & attempted to recreate the cookies.  Operative word here is ~ attempted.  The venture started out fine, all seemed innocent enough when mixing/chilling the dough ~ but, then we tried rolling out the dough/using the cookie cutters & it quickly headed south from there...

The dough was a tad bit sticky, even after sitting in the fridge, but I didn't think anything of it...

...The dough quickly became unmanageable & we finally gave up on rolling out the dough & instead focused on trying to remove (make that scrape) the offending cookie dough 'tar' from the cookie cutters, wax papered counter, bowl, hands...

...I gotta say, it became comical after awhile ~ that dough just wouldn't come off of our hands, no matter how hard we tried.  We were laughing so hard we almost, well, you know... No longer was this gingerbread, it was far, far beyond that.  As you can see, the offending dough was reminiscent of... how can I say this delicately ~~ baby poo. We had already gone down that (#1) road, after fits of laughter, so it's no surprise how we ended up here. (#2 :)   We dubbed the offending cookie dough mess ~ 'Dino Poo'... and laughed even more... 

Our one & only Gingerbread Man.  It tasted fine ~ but it was a sad, sad excuse for a Gingerbread Man cookie.  This Gingerbread Man wasn't running anywhere.  Heck, he couldn't even hobble...

We finally got all the cookie dough gunk off of everything & were able to salvage the cookies, sorta.  By default, they became drop cookies, since that is how they landed when we were finally able to pry the offending dough off of our hands, the bowl & the wax paper.  Some of the batch of cookies were dubbed ~ 'Dino Droppings Ginger Cookies', while others were fancied-up a bit, (by sprinkling them with powdered sugar) & we named those our ~'Ginger Drop Cookies'.   The final baking outcome turned out fine.  We all enjoyed our unusual batch of gingerbread cookies, even if they were a bit wonky.  They gave us a laugh & that's makes it all worthwhile.  I must admit, after this fiasco, I won't be reading any kids stories with baking recipes in them any time soon.  (FYI, about me ~ years ago, I worked in marketing & I learned that you can spin just about anything, anyway you want to ~  It's all about the presentation.  After this memorable afternoon of baking, let's just say I'm glad I was paying attention that day at work!  :)

Easy Apple Crisp

Apple Crisp ~ This is the recipe J & I made, using his Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook.  I ordered this cookbook from Gold Medal Flour, w-a-y back in 1998.  That was six years before I had J...and another five years before we started making recipes from it.  It was worth the wait ~ the recipes are fun & colorful, easy to make, directions are easy to follow & they taste great!

If the type on the above picture recipe is too teeny-tiny for you to read, (heehee, I need my reading glasses to read the book, fat chance me reading the picture :)  here is a very similar recipe from the Betty Crocker site.  The kids version above includes walnuts.  We like walnuts.  Walnuts make us happy.  Include some walnuts.  :)   

(Almost) Homemade Classic Apple Pie ~ homemade apple pie filling with a store bought crust

(Almost) Homemade Classic Apple Pie ~ homemade Apple Pie Filling with a store bought crust ~ When J & I bring back apples from the orchard, Roy always likes me to make an apple pie.  When Roy was growing up in England, he & his brothers would pick apples off the apple tree in their backyard & then his Mom would make homemade apple pies.  Roy remembers those pies fondly & wants J to have the same sort of 'picking, making & eating homemade apple pie' childhood memories...

Well, you might remember me mentioning this before ~ the fact that I am a challenged baker...  I can make a few things well, but when I stray too far off the dessert baking path, (like I can do with non-baking cooking, with no problems) well...I run into problems.  Like with baking 'from scratch' pies (i.e., the apple pies Roy likes) ~ I've tried making a pie crust a few times...it was NOT pretty.  Well, maybe it was pretty...awful.  As I remember it, the crusts all turned out tough.  Never one to give up, I knew there was more than one way to bake a pie, so I turned to the fastest way I knew how.  I went to the store, hit the freezer aisle & bought some frozen pie crusts.  Problem solved.  Works for this gal!  What also works for this gal is the two for $1 Apple Pies at McDonald's.  I admit it, I really like them.  (I totally agree with Carrie from SATC on that one)

Now, all that being said, I do make the Apple Pie Filling from scratch, no canned pie filling for me.  Funny, I have no trouble with the fruit filling aspect ~ just the flour part trips me up every time.  My cooking motto: Play to your strengths & downplay your weakness.  :)

Here is the recipe I use for the Apple Pie Filling, it's taken from an America's Test Kitchen Cookbook.  Just skip right past the part on making the crust (it's already thawing out on the counter, right?) & go directly to the 'For the pie' instructions.  You'll be enjoying your (Almost) Homemade Classic Apple Pie in no time!

Homegrown strawberries & fresh eggs ~ just another semi-rural Sunday in the Midwest

Strawberries fresh picked from our backyard. 

  

With all the warm weather we have been having, we are weeks ahead of the usual strawberry harvest schedule.  J & I picked two pounds (!) of strawberries today & there are TONS of green ones.  We are eating them plain, right out of hand.  I think that is the best way to enjoy the first berries of the season. 

J & I cut some brown iris's from the garden today.   J thought they smelled like chocolate & they did!  How cool!  'Chocolate' & strawberries ~ growing in my yard.  Who knew? 

 




Today we have been living the semi-rural life ~ picking & eating sun-ripened, homegrown strawberries and helping take care of  a 'backyard' gentleman farmer's chickens.  Life is good.   :)

Our friend, Dan, has three chickens and we helped take care of them for a few days.  We dubbed them 'The Girls'.  J was really taken with them.  We dug up worms from our yard to bring with us when we went over to Dan's house to feed them.

'The Girls' let out a funny "Oooo!!" when they find something tasty.  The worms never stood a chance.

Checking for eggs...

Bingo. Egg-o's!

Gathering the eggs.  We get to keep them for helping out.  Cool!

Anybody home?

J really liked the timid black chicken.  'The Girls' were not as taken with him, as he was with them.  Imagine that!

Summertime is almost here.
Bring.It.On.

Healthy Banana Split ~ for breakfast or dessert, this glammed up cottage cheese & fresh fruit is my kinda food

Healthy Banana Split

They had fresh blueberries & strawberries on sale at the market last week.  I bought a bunch. (ha, no pun intended)  So, I was on the lookout for some inspired ways to eat them.  I remembered a photo I saw on Pinterest & off I went to find it.

Here is the happy result.  A unique version of a Banana Split that is actually healthy for you since it replaces ice cream with cottage cheese.  I know that sounds boring, but hang with me, I promise it is worth it.

I gotta say, due to the texture, trying to get J to eat cottage cheese is a challenge - so, I sweetened it up a bit with some honey.  I topped the banana & cottage cheese with thinned out strawberry jam for the 'sauce', walnuts bits, a sprinkle of flax seeds & my fresh berries. One word, YUM!

Presentation is everything, especially with a Banana Split.  It is amazing that you can change how you assemble a dish & the whole mood of the food changes.  This went from a boring bowl of cottage cheese & fruit to a Banana Split - just by the way it was presented.  I had to improvise the bowl, but the end result had J begging to eat it - for breakfast & he wanted it again for dessert.  I agree with him, we should eat this often for dessert.  It certainly is healthier for you & it satisfies the 'dessert monster' the lurks around the kitchen table after the dinner dishes have been put in the sink, plus J enjoys assembling his own Dessert Banana Split.  Good for you, fun to make & fun to eat.  That's the Holy Grail as far a getting kids to eat is concerned.  And I think it really is tasty/pretty enough for guests of any age, what ever time of day you decide to serve it.

As a matter of fact, it is breakfast time right now.  Excuse my while I go have a Banana Split for breakfast.  That sounds like such a kid thing to say... care to join me? 

No-Bake Treats ~ Oreo Cookie Truffle Balls, Chocolate Dipped Pretzels & Peppermint Bark

Oreo Cookie Truffle Balls ~ such a quick & easy recipe

It is almost time for Santa.  All the gifts are under the tree & I have put out the cookies for Santa to eat, well, some of them were cookies before I started tinkering with them.  I saw an interesting recipe for no-bake treats & I thought Santa might like a little something different tonight.  Since I'm not really good at baking, I didn't think Santa would mind if I used his Oreos to try this recipe for Oreo Cookie Truffle Balls. 

I used regular milk chocolate since that is what I had on hand and I also added a little peanut butter to give them more of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup flavor.  One word ~ YUMMY!

Since we had extra chocolate in the bowl, we also made Chocolate Pretzels & Peppermint Bark.  Just dip pretzels in some melted chocolate & add sprinkles.  For the Peppermint Bark we mixed crushed candy canes into melted chocolate (white or milk chocolate) & then spread it out on waxed paper to harden, then broke it into chunks.  Both are kid friendly & approved.

We gave some away & kept some. They are going fast, but we made sure to save some for Santa...

To all of our family & friends in the England & Scotland ~             Happy Christmas!

And to all of  our family & friends in the US ~
                           Merry Christmas!