Strawberry Shortcake

We checked out this book from the library and my daughter insisted we make the recipe, so we did. It was a fun book with little facts, tips, and explanations about cooking along the sides of each page. I even learned something: strawberry shortcake is called "shortcake" because of the shortening in it (though we used butter). Maybe I'm behind, but it was news to me.So pretty much it's like a gigantic biscuit slathered with whip cream and strawberries. I've always thought real strawberry shortcake (not those little angle food cakes they sell by the strawberries in the store) was rather dry and bland, but this was really good. The only thing I did different from the book was add some sugar to the strawberries and let them sit to bring out the juices while the cake baked.

Fruit Pops

You might have seen these "All Natural" Dryer's Fruit Bars. Well, I made some by chance the other day. Only better, and healthier.

I was starting to make a smoothie by blending some frozen strawberries with a little apple juice and when it was pureed it smelled so good I just wanted to eat it straight from the blender. And I did. Like Strawberry Sorbet. Mmmm So then I had the idea to scoop it into these Ikea popsicle forms and voila! The kids loved 'em. With summer coming I'm going to have to try some other popsicle recipes.

strawberry freezer jam

I don't do step by step instructions much, but I wanted to show how simple this is for anyone who hasn't tried making freezer jam.

Wash Strawberries

Remove stems

Crush them, one layer at a time

Measure out amount called for in recipe, set aside

Whisk pectin into apple juice (no sugar pectin calls for juice)

Bring to a boil that you can't stir down

Pour into strawberries (don't take a picture while doing this, because you'll miss the bowl) and stir
Add sugar (if using) and stir. Usually I do half the sugar of regular jam, but I used agave this time (no picture sorry).

Ladle into containers (one day I'll have one of those awesome wide mouth canning funnels)
And you're done. Refrigerate over night too cool and then place in freezer until ready to use. Mmmm