Strawberry Shortcake!!

Yesterday on a whim, I picked up a few pints of strawberries from a local farm stand. It was the perfect opportunity to make Strawberry Shortcakes!

For the shortcake I made All-American Baking Powder Biscuits (A King Arthur Flour recipe):

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tblsp baking powder

1-4 tblsp sugar

4-6 tblsp butter or shortening (I used Butter flavored Crisco)

1 cup milk or buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 F

Mix together the dry ingredients. Using a pastry blender cut the butter or shortening into the flour mixture.

Add the milk, all at once, mixing quickly and gently for about 20 seconds until you have a soft dough.

Drop the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 8-10 times. Roll out or pat out the dough to about 3/4" thickness and cut the biscuits with a round cookie cutter.

Place on tray and bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Prep Work:

While the biscuits cooked I cut up the strawberries and mixed them in a bowl with a little sugar.

When the biscuits where done I let them cool a few minutes. Then cut them open and spread a little butter on them. I put two halves in each bowl, spread strawberries on top, and sprayed whipped cream over the entire top.

Let's just say that they were so good!! We all devoured our Strawberry Shortcakes in no time at all!

Raspberries!!

Aiden has really enjoyed picking raspberries in the play yard over the last few days. Daddy even setup a ladder for him to reach the high berries! Here he is picking, eating and delighting in his harvest!

Chicks and Food

When we got home last night I heard some peeping coming from under our front stoop. I tiptoed over and saw two little black chicks. Mama hen saw me and was not too pleased. She jumped at me twice and I shrieked! I really understood the term, "Mother hen!" Then I did the same with my brood, I protected them from the hen and quickly got us inside. Despite almost getting pecked to death I am so excited that our hens are hatching out their own chicks!

When I looked in the fridge I discovered a bowl of strawberries. Hubby had helped a coworker move a washer and he gave him a bunch of strawberries. They were so good! Aiden ate most of them! That kid loves his fruit!





Today must have been the day for attracting locally grown food. At Maine 4-H Days we spent some time helping out in the kitchen and the lady in charge gave us several bags of spinach, pea tendrils and turnips! I made Ehric and I bacon wrapped scallops and wraps made with apple slices, cheddar cheese and some pea tendrils. It was all really good! Aiden stuck to his favorite PB &J!



Today at Maine 4-H days we got to try a sample of Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp made with local maple syrup and oats. It was really good! When I got home I decided to try to make my own rhubarb crisp using maple syrup (I usually use sugar). I threw some frozen rhubarb into a glass pyrex, then added some maple syrup and a little bit of flour (figured the frozen rhubarb would get watery) to the mix. In a seperate bowl I mixed old-fashioned rolled oats, maple syrup and butter. I used a pastry blender to combine. Then I poured the oat mix on the top. I baked at 375 F for maybe 30 minutes or so. Next time I will probably look up a recipe and use fresh rhubarb because some of my pieces were not mushed up enough and were a little tart. It was pretty good though, but different!

Honey, Raspberries & Baby Birds

Hubby recently befriended a fellow beekeeper that lives up the road. All week they have been chasing swarms together, and as a thank you he gave us 5 jars of honey and 2 packages of honeycomb from his bees. We tried the honeycomb after lunch and had fun sucking the honey out. It was so floral tasting and sweet. Can't wait to try the honey out soon!

After lunch the boys went to play outside and discovered raspberries in their play yard. They were so excited and spent most of the afternoon picking berries. Hubby weeded out some butterfly bush from the raspberry patch and discovered a bird's nest that had two baby birds inside. He showed it to the boys. They were so excited to tell me about it, and Ehric said it had two little red colored birds in the nest. I will have to go inspect it tomorrow. Not a bad Thursday!