Jun022010

Strawberries – We Hit the Mother Lode!

By Country Gal | June 2, 2010 | Posted in Cooking and Food, Gardening, Harvesting | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (11)

Would you look at those berries!

There’s 14 ice cream buckets of berries there – yes 14!

Would you believe our 8 little strawberry plants produced such bounty?! Yeah – I didn’t think so.

Actually – they didn’t come from my pathetic patch. Our good friends Laverne and Caroline offered us the opportunity to pick their patch. They moved into an Amish house a few months ago – and with the house came an Amish sized strawberry bed.

This was the first big picking – and we were all amazed at the size and number of berries.

We picked 15 buckets total – they  just kept one and sent the rest with us. Laverne just smiled and said, “I know where we can get some more!”

Oh yeah – they will be picking strawberries enough for an Amish family of 12 every other day for the foreseeable future! :)

So what did I do with all those berries?

The first thing we did was to wash a handful and one at a time we dipped them in sour cream and rolled them in brown sugar before eating them.  Heavenly!

Then it was time for the real work to get started.

Angel Girl and Buddy  were the only kids at home – so we sat them at a table hulling strawberries all day long. They started at 11:00 – had about a half hour break for lunch – and finished at 5:30.

They had a great time! Seriously – they did, mostly because I let them watch movies while they worked. So, other than being covered with sticky strawberry juice and having sore fingers, they were happy campers. Being able to watch TV for 5 hours straight was a real treat!

While they were enjoying their Veggie Tales marathon – I took their finished berries and made 2 fresh strawberry pies, 11 pints of jam, 10 quarts of sauce, and froze 10 quarts of berries. The rest we ate fresh or I put in a huge berry bowl in the fridge.

I think I can honestly say that that is more strawberries than I have ever worked with at one time in my life!

I think I can also say that I used to really envy those Amish strawberry beds – but no longer.  My dream strawberry patch has gotten much, much smaller! :)

Bless you Laverne and Carolyn!

By Country Gal | Posted in Cooking and Food, Gardening, Harvesting | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (11)
May312010

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

By Country Gal | May 31, 2010 | Posted in Chocolate, Cooking and Food, Desserts | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

chocolate chip shortbread

I’m a chronic recipe clipper.

I have notebooks full of recipes that I cut from magazines and newspapers just waiting to be tried!

Recipes like this one.

I ran across it the other day and thought it looked really yummy – they only problem was that the recipe started with “To the basic sugar cookie dough (recipe on page 196) add…”

Oops. I didn’t save page 196.

So I substituted my favorite sugar cookie recipe – a sour cream version that is rich and soft.  The shortbread turned out great – and looked really fancy!

If I was short on time, I’m sure a refrigerated sugar cookie dough would work just as well – just throw in the chocolate chips, press it into the pan and bake.

The round springform pan and the chocolate/raspberry glaze will make it look like I spent hours!

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 – 3 ounce package cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Cream together the margarine, and sugar. Add the cream cheese, egg, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine the flour and baking powder. Add it to the creamed mixture and mix well.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Press into a 9 inch round springform pan.  Score into 16 pie shaped wedges.

Bake at 350 degrees for 27-30 minutes.  Let cool. Remove the sides of the pan and drizzle with chocolate sauce and/or melted raspberry jam. (I did both!)

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post up at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday on Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam.

By Country Gal | Posted in Chocolate, Cooking and Food, Desserts | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
May312010

Those Aren’t Mine!

By Country Gal | May 31, 2010 | Posted in Children | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (7)

My kidlets are all home again. Ahh….

The three oldest kids returned from Teen Pact National Convention full of stories punctuated with exclamation points (!!! ) and everything they took with them – minus the snacks.

We got a great feel for their week away when we looked through the pictures they took. One picture stood out to me – I’m still not sure why they took it – but it was kind of funny!

It is a picture of someone’s sleeping bag and bag of clothes. They unloaded it there on Monday afternoon and never picked it up.

Never.

All week the sleeping bag and bag of clothes sat there. All week it was announced that someone’s sleeping bag and clothes were sitting outside.

But they were never claimed.

Some boy had slept on a bare mattress all week and never changed his clothes. I jokingly said that all they needed to do was smell the kids about Wednesday and you would know who hadn’t changed their underwear. :)   But then I remembered that this was a bunch of junior and senior high boys – so that test wouldn’t be very accurate.

Seriously – I wondered how in the world someone would not miss their things?!

But then I remembered that these were junior and senior high boys.

Case in point: earlier this spring one of my sons suddenly lost all of his jeans. They were not in his dresser – they weren’t in his dad’s dresser or his brothers. They had simply vanished into thin air.

He went an entire week with alternating between his one pair of jeans and his pajama pants.

Finally – I went up to check the attic where all the kids have a Rubbermaid plastic tote for off-season clothes. Voila! There were several pairs of jeans in his tote – in his size.

I brought them down – but he looked at them and said. “Those aren’t mine – I’ve never seen them before.”

Hello! He wore those jeans all winter. I bought them for him. I washed them and folded them all winter long. Those were his jeans. He probably carried them up on a warm spring day – thinking he wouldn’t need them anymore and forgot about it.

I said, “Humor me – just try them on.”

Would you believe – they fit?!

I just smiled my “all-knowing mother smile” and proclaimed it a miracle.

Now I totally understand why some teenage boy never recognized his own sleeping bag and clothes. It’s called adolescence.

And I can totally understand his mom’s frustration when her son arrived home empty handed.

I send her my sympathies.

Techie Son Edit: I’m still sure those jeans weren’t mine.

By Country Gal | Posted in Children | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (7)
May262010

All Nature Sings

By Country Gal | May 26, 2010 | Posted in Critters, Deep Thoughts, Spring | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

Our afternoon got a little sweeter today.

Poppa found a newborn fawn in the grass near their garden.

We hurried over to see , being careful not to touch or disturb it.

We stood in awe  at the wonder of new life – the miracle of creation.

It was incredibly beautiful – laying there in the grass.

I thought to myself – how can anyone look at this new life and not believe in a creator God? Where did the doe learn how to give birth?

Who taught her where to give birth?

How does she know how to feed and care for her newborn?

Who designed the camouflage pattern on the fawn to help it hide in the forest?

All of nature sings of a Creator.

We heard the song today as we gazed in the face of a newborn fawn – it was in the form of a lullaby.

Job 39:1- 4  “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do  you watch when the doe bears her fawn? Do you count the months til they bear? Do you know the time they give birth? They crouch down and bring forth their young; their labor pains are ended. The young thrive and grow strong in the wilds; they leave and do not return.”

By Country Gal | Posted in Critters, Deep Thoughts, Spring | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)
May252010

Black Forest Chocolate Mousse

By Country Gal | May 25, 2010 | Posted in Chocolate, Cooking and Food, Desserts | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

chocolate mousseWe went from cold and rainy to hot and sticky – literally overnight.

Instantly – baked goods just didn’t sound good and we were all hungry for something smooth, creamy, and cool.

It was time for some mousse.

I found an interesting recipe in an old Ghirardelli cookbook – it was quick to make and didn’t heat up the kitchen.

I did make a few frugal substitutions – but the end result was still yummy!

Black Forest Chocolate Mousse

2 bars (4 ounces each) Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate (I used 1 cup of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips – shh – don’t tell!)
2 tablespoons warm water
1 cup whipping cream
3/4  cup sugar
pinch salt
3 Tablespoons Kirsch (cherry liqueur – I used maraschino cherry juice)
1/2 cup sour cream
6 whole maraschino cherries

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate with the water over 1 inch of simmering water, stirring until smooth.

Whip the cream with the sugar and the salt. (I skipped this step and used a carton of Cool Whip!)

Gradually add the melted chocolate and Kirsch, beating at low speed until smooth.

Fold in the sour cream.

Spoon into serving dishes and chill.

I served to an enthusiastic audience with a dollop of Cool Whip and a maraschino cherry.

The recipe says it makes 6 (1/2 cup) servings – but I barely got 5. I think I may have sampled too much! :)

Enjoy!

PS Just a note on the photo – I would like to introduce my new photographer on staff here at The Chocolate Lady – my 11 year old daughter who’s blog name is Angel Girl. She had just a few days to practice before her brother left for a week at camp with the only camera she has ever used.

She was a trooper though and took several shots of of our finished mousse – with an unfamiliar camera – before we ate it.  When she went to upload them however – they didn’t turn out.

We couldn’t take another picture because we had devoured the dessert. Then I remembered the little bit of extra mousse I had hidden in the fridge so I could have a little taste later (I know none of you would ever do such a thing!). It wasn’t pretty though – just plopped in an old plastic container (part of the disguise – please don’t tell my kids!)

So I scooped out a spoonful, topped it with just a touch of Cool Whip – and voila! Angel Girl got her shot.

It still wasn’t  quite what we were looking for – but at least you get the idea! :)

And yes – now Angel Girl knows my secret.

And yes – I will let have some – okay all – of my secret stash.

And yes – I knew I shouldn’t eat it anyway! :)

I’ve linked this post up at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday on Blessed with Grace and Tasty Tuesday over at Beauty and Bedlam.

By Country Gal | Posted in Chocolate, Cooking and Food, Desserts | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)