Apricot Strawberry Blackberry Jam Cookies

Sugar. Butter. Flour.

Just three basic ingredients and umpteen variations to make yummy goodies.

This time, I went with Flax Oil Omega Butter Light, with a combination of Splenda and demerera and granulated white sugar, regular all purpose flour, plus egg yolks, of course. The texture came out more or less like shortbread cookies.

Jam filling is the fun part. Jars of homemade home-canned jams made from fresh u-pick berries were sitting in the pantry.

I don't have a consistent standardized recipe for these jam cookies, but it's hard to go wrong with these basic ingredients as long as we keep an eye on the consistency and proportions. I prefer to chill the dough before shaping and baking.

Ingredients
3/4 cup Smart Balance ™ Omega Butter Light
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp demerera sugar
2 Tbsp Splenda
1½ cups all purpose flour, plus or minus to make the dough not too sticky
2 egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks; then fold in the flour till it comes together and forms a dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes till the edges turn brown.

Home Garden Strawberry Salsa

For weeks now, the small strawberry patch in the backyard has been consistently yielding about two dozen ripe berries every three days. Some get made into smoothies, some enjoyed fresh off the plant, some brighten up an impromptu fruit salad, and some others get to become my favorite Salsa Fresca, as well as simmered spicy salsa.

There is no set recipe per se. For the strawberry salsa, a splash of fresh lime juice and finely chopped home-garden super chiles added the bite that I like; fresh tomatoes, onions, and cilantro are the main ingredients. But, I added some finely chopped celery and colorful mini peppers just to satisfy my tastes, along with salt, cayenne pepper powder and some taco seasoning.

The simmered salsa is not much different, just combine the ingredients and simmer till cooked through to desired consistency.

Strawberry Pie glacé

Just had to throw in the glacé as this turned out so smooth and shiny, thanks to the sugar.

This is a very rustic pie, nothing fancy about it. Single pie-crust, per usual recipe. Made a thickish sauce with some strawberries and sugar, and combined it with whole fresh strawberries we had picked. We had enough filling to make two pies out of this.

Ingredients
single-pie crust as in this recipe

for the glacé:
1 pint fresh whole strawberries, hulled, mashed
1½ cups sugar
2-3 Tablespoon cornstarch
½ - 2/3rd cup water

1 pint fresh whole strawberries
whipped cream (optional)
Preparation

1. Combine the glacé ingredients and bring to a boil, allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly till well-combined and thick
2. Allow to cool a bit, then pour some at the bottom of the pie crust, arrange some whole strawberries, and pour the rest of the glaze, chill in the fridge for about 4 hours
3. Serve with some whipped cream on top

Strawberry Shortcake

Nothing special about this, just realized I hadn't posted my series of strawberry recipes that I made from the fresh strawberries we picked not too long ago.

Simply bake the shortcake, make strawberry compote (I like chunks and whole berries in it), serve topped with whipped cream :)

I just looked up the shortcake recipe on the web - didn't bother bookmarking, they are all pretty much the same. I cut back on sugar in the shortcake as well as compote, letting the natural sweetness of Hood strawberries steal the show.

Serve any way you like - shortcake topped with the compote and whipped cream, or slice the shortcake and fill it with compote as in picture. Enjoy!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Very much like spiced banana breakfast shake, this could be a simple and wholesome meal in itself, especially if you like savoring a full 16oz in one go :)

Now, I used soy milk and whey protein powder in this just for a boost, but, can leave it out. Frozen bananas are the key, in my book at least, to get the thick rich texture.

A few fresh strawberries from our garden was handy, so I used them for garnish and presentation here.

Instead of strawberries, either blueberries or chunks of mango (my favorite), or even raspberries(D's favorite) can be used.

This has become such a favorite with Ana, especially when I whip it up in no time at her request that it almost seems like she is taking it for granted. Well, no matter - what are mom's for, right?! And, since I don't have to shell out 5$ to 7$ for a tall 16oz., I am glad to make it at home in its simplest and most-satisfying form :)

Ingredients
1 pint freshly picked sweet Hood strawberries*
2 medium bananas, peeled and left in the freezer for about 30 minutes
1 Tbsp whey protein powder
2-3 cups soy milk (or skim milk)
1-2 Tbsp Agave nectar

*Or any kind is fine, just that Hood that we picked are incredibly sweet and juicy

Preparation
Simply combine the ingredients and blend, adjusting milk/soy milk to get desired consistency.

strawberry banana yogurt nut muffins

Strawberry season is not far away now. We still have a small stash of yummy frozen strawberries picked last year from local farms. And a large stash of blueberries. I am trying to use them up so we can pick some fresh ones again this year.

I am not particularly fond of muffins, but, thought it would be a nice breakfast treat for my wee tot.

Muffins are not as easy to make as they seem. At least not to me, as I love to just throw things together and see what comes up. Baking is more precise and demanding than the usual cooking I do. Not much room to play around and experiment. And, my oven seems to have a mind of its own. I have mucked around with baking recipes to end up with batches of paper-weights :-)

Thanks to ATK (America's Test Kitchen), at least I now know that sugar is considered a wet ingredient in baking and the amount of sugar matters a lot to get the end product just right. And, mixing techniques do affect the outcome. A hand-held power-whisk with speed control is better than my arm-power?!

Wanting to make low fat, low sugar goodies, I used to cut back on sugar and butter from standard recipes, but, now I know better ;-)

I wanted to use yogurt, nuts and fruits in the muffin recipe. Milk:Yogurt ratio can be adjusted to your liking, to make up 1½ cups total. I was quite skeptical about how it would turn out as I was meddling with the recipe a bit, but, it turned out all right :-)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup 2% milk
½ cup plain non-fat yogurt
4 Tbsp melted butter or ghee
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts)
¼ cup dried cherries & cranberries
1 cup banana and some strawberries - mashed together to make 1 cup

Preparation

combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, dried fruits and nuts in a large bowl

beat the eggs, milk and yogurt in a bowl

whisk in the egg+milk+yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients; add the strawberry+banana mash; fold them in gently; this muffin batter has the consistency of a thick pancake batter

pre-heat the oven to 400°F, grease a muffin pan, and maybe a small 4" cake tin, or bundt cake pan

pour the batter into muffin pan, about half full (or more, if you like it to swell up and form a mushroom-like 'top'); and if any batter is still left, pour into the greased tin; i had enough for 12 muffins, plus a small 4" bundt cake mould

bake in 400°F oven for about 20-25 mins; check part way and turn the pan around if needed; insert a toothpick - if it comes out clean, muffin is done

strawberry daiquiri

I've looked at Ice Cream/Yogurt Makers and walked away many times before.

We make yogurt from a culture without a fancy apparatus anyway, and, I figured, better to keep the temptation at bay - if I can easily make ice cream at home, i might end up having it everyday, was my reasoning...

But, the Ice Cream/Yogurt Maker was on my Wish List anyway...

Last Christmas, we exchanged our Wish Lists as usual, and my brother gifted us a Cuisinart Ice Cream/Yogurt/Sorbet Maker! We have been trying different things with it at home ever since... This frozen strawberry daiquiri is one such. And, to my surprise, I have made ice cream only 3 times in the last 2 months. Yay!

We still have a ton of berries we picked last summer from local farms, all frozen of course. And looks like it will be berry season again in a few months and we need to use up the stash.

1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries
2½ cups water
1 cup granulated sugar (less if you don't like it sweet)
¼ cup lime juice (more if you like it tart)
½ cup light rum

Puree the thawed strawberries in a blender, then, add the other ingredients and process till smooth. Turn ON the Ice Cream maker and pour the strawberry mixture into the freezer bowl and leave it on for about 20 minutes till the mixture become slushy.

Serve up and Enjoy!