Strawberry Buttermilk Sherbet

I had some strawberries and buttermilk in the refrigerator that I wanted to get rid of before some travel time.  What should I find, but a perfect recipe that got rid of both in a very pleasant and easy way.

I found this recipe in a May 2008 issue of Southern Living.  Very simple, and very, very good.  Since you are not using heavy cream, you can really enjoy this treat.  Only 4 ingredients.  That's good.  I can imagine do this with a lot of different fruit. 

Strawberry Buttermilk Sherbet
from Southern Living, May 2008 issue

2 cups fresh strawberries or one 16 oz. package of frozen berries, thawed
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process strawberries in a food processor or blender until smooth.  Pour strawberry puree through a fine wish mesh strainer into a large bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon.  Discard solids.  Add buttermilk, sugar and vanilla to the puree.  Stir until well blended.  Cover and chill 1 hour.

Pour strawberry mixture into an electric ice cream make and freeze according to directions.  Mine took about 25 minutes.  Remove from ice cream freezer and put in a container in the freezer for several hours until ready to scoop.

Kiwi and Strawberry Cocktails

It seemed like a perfect afternoon to do some experimenting.  I bought a fairly large stock of kiwi fruit this last week.  The price was right, but at the moment, I was not sure what I was going to do with it.  So I started researching (my favorite thing to do ) and came up for a recipe for Kiwi Capiroska.  It seems that this is a drink from Brazil.  By the way, all of you who are into Pinterest, know that by simply typing Kiwi into the subject line, you come up with millions of suggestions.  I feel this is the very best cookbook ever.  I love Pinterest!!!

So we started experimenting in the kitchen and, I think, came up with a winner.  It seems the favored name for this drink is Kiwi Capiroska.  So, with a little tweeking here and there, we came up with this!

Kiwi Capiroska
 Inspired by "Spoon Fork Bacon"

Drinks for 2

Peel and dice one kiwi

Take two drink glasses and fill each with 1/2 of the kiwi, 2 mint leaves, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 of a lime, juiced.

Muddle together the contents of the the glasses until fully combined.

Fill each glass with ice and top off with 1/3 cup vodka and 1/3 cup tonic water.

Stir and finish each with a garnish of kiwi, mint leaves and serve.

Okay, this was delightful!!  But, now I started a little more research and the word "strawberries" came to light.  Since this is still the fantastic strawberry season in Florida, and since I had some fresh strawberries in the refrigerator, we just had to try one more drink!!

So, instead of the kiwi, we diced strawberries and used them instead.  It was, again, a delightful cocktail, but we both agreed that instead of tonic water with the strawberries, perhaps simple club soda would taste just a bit better.

Don't you agree, that each drink looks perfectly refreshing, and it was!!

Translated, it is Water Cake

Because it was my birthday week and we were dining in all week, I decided to make my mother's old recipe for Wasser Kuchen.  She made this recipe so often, she did it by memory. The recipe card used to hang on the inside of the spice cabinet door in her kitchen.  Such few ingredients, I memorized it myself as a young girl.

Mother always baked this sponge-type cake in a 9 x 13 pan.  Then added fruit or pudding or chocolate or whatever she felt like.  Since this is strawberry season in Florida, I knew I would make a shortcake of sorts.

When we lived in Germany 44 years ago.....can it be that long ago?.... I bought a cake form called a "Torten Boden" which literally means the bottom of the cake.  You can buy these ready made in Germany such as our small, round shortcakes.  What I love about the pan is that it forms an edge so all the lovely fruit cannot escape.

It is a Dr. Oetker pan and looks its age.  The trick is to diligently get shortening into every little ripple and crevice in order for the cake to simply drop out after baking.  No rush on this job.

Wasser Kuchen  (Water Cake)

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup water

Beat the eggs until very foamy.  Add sugar and beat to mix.  Add baking powder to flour and slowly add alternately to the sugar/egg mixture with the water.

Bake in a greased, sugared and then lightly floured 9 x 13 pan, or if you have a fluted German cake pan, please use it instead.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.    How simple is that!!

I mentioned last time that I received this great gift from Debby at A Feast for the Eyes.  One of the items was an envelope of King Arthur "Instant Clearjel Powder."  It is a thickening substitute for flour or cornstarch for pies.  But this is the best part...  I cut up the strawberries and put half the amount of sugar on them and let them sit for a half hour.  Into the other half of the sugar, I added 2 tablespoons of this "Instant Clearjel Powder."  I mixed the last half of the sugar and gel into the strawberries gently, and it quickly thickened to a perfect texture.  No cooking involved.  I then spooned the strawberries onto the cake.  This worked so slick!!!  I know I will use this product often.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!  It is strawberry season in our part of Florida.  If you can't partake of the succulent, sweet berries, enjoy my photo.  Sending love to all. 

Strawberries

We live right next to the "winter strawberry capital of the world." Our newspaper this week was heralding a new strawberry we can try very soon. It is called Florida Radiance and it produces a lot of fruit in December. It is the first time since 2005 that a new variety has been grown in substantial numbers...like 300 acres.

What I didn't know, and find amazing, is that the University of Florida has a research center where scientists develop new types of strawberries. "Only about one in 30,000 new varieties the scientists create actually makes it to market. " Are you kidding me? Doesn't that seem like an impossible number?

There are 5 popular varieties grown in Florida including Strawberry Festival, Treasure, Sweet Charlie, Winter Dawn and Carmine. Florida Radiance will be the new one. I am anxious to try it.

A Farmer's Market in France

We have usually traveled to Europe in May or early June, so we have always enjoyed the fresh strawberries in France or Italy at the markets. I remember two particular kinds of strawberries, I know there were more, and we would try both of them to see if we favored one over the other. What it came right down to was this...we loved whatever name the strawberries had.

It won't be long now until we can get fresh, red, juicy berries. How about strawberry shortcake for Thanksgiving?