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Tag Archives: strawberries

Strawberry and Jam Mini-Muffins

Here is a quickie recipe that my son and his friend from across the street helped make on a recent playdate. They did a great job. Kids love wearing aprons to cook, so try to have enough available for everyone. And set out all ingredients ahead of time. Measuring is a great way to talk about fractions!

They are the cutest little tea muffins and we used some organic strawberries I had got on sale and frozen in season. I freeze these and then toss a couple in the kid’s lunchbox for school. They thaw out and warm up in time for snack!

Easy and delicious!

Strawberry and Jam Mini-Muffins

1 egg

½ Cup plain yogurt

¼ Cup coconut oil (or any neutral vegetable oil)

1 ½ Cups flour (mix of white and whole wheat)

½ Cup sugar (mix of brown and white)

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 Cup strawberries, chopped (frozen is fine!)

1 Tbs strawberry or lingonberry or other berry jam

Topping

½ Cup sugar

1/3 Cup flour

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ Cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 400° and line mini-muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the egg with a fork. Add the milk and oil and continue to stir. Add all dry ingredients. Mix the batter well, but do not over mix (which would toughen the muffins). Fold in strawberries and stir in jam.

Fill each muffin cup about 1/3 full. Then start making the topping.

In a separate bowl, combine all ingredients for the topping and crumble together with your fingers (if you are baking with children, expect to be abandoned midway when they are grossed out by the stickiness. Also expect to find bits of this topping on the floor and all over the bathroom sink as they try to get it off). Sprinkle each muffin with a bit of topping.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until plump and golden brown. Let stand for a minute, then remove from trays. Serve warm or room temp. They freeze well too!

Tags: baking, cooking with kids, desserts, muffins, strawberries, tea

Comments 4 Comments
Categories baking, Recipes, Vegetarian

Seven Sweet and Spectacular Strawberry Recipes

18 Jun

As strawberry season is in full swing, I’ve collected for you some spectacularly simple recipes that take advantage of the season (and help salvage berries that have passed their prime!). This has been updated from six to seven!

We like mini-muffins because you get so many you can share them around!

Strawberry-Blueberry Mini-Muffins (click on image for recipe)

Berry Crisp – sweet and crunchy! (click image for recipe)

We're jammin'. we're jammin', hope you like jammin' too

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam with no pectin and no preserving. A Hot, Cheap & Easy Top Five (click on image for recipe)

Strawberry Shortcake…a crowd pleaser! (click on image for recipe)

A Red White and Blue Berry Shortcake (with real whipped cream and simple white cake recipes)

Saving Sad Strawberries – by Roasting! Delicious jammy results (click on image for recipe)

And of course, the most refreshing sangrías include sliced strawberries!

Two of the three sangría recipes include strawberries! (click on image for recipes)

Tags: cooking, desserts, food, preserving fruit, recipes, strawberries, strawberry

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Entertaining, Food, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Can These Strawberries Be Saved? Yes!

10 May

‘Tis the season of strawberry temptation. You know, such a good price on 4 fragrant ruby lbs. of strawberries that you don’t even think about the organic vs. conventional argument, or about who is going to eat them all. You put that clam shell right into the shopping cart and carry on.

And then a few days later, you re-encounter said clam shell, about two pounds lighter in strawberries. But the ones that are left are looking sad, faded, withered, mushy, maybe even a little gray and mossy in spots. A bit like Lola the Showgirl thirty years on at the Copa.

They seemed like a bargain at the time, but now they threaten to become food waste, a drain on your wallet, a stink in your trash can, those starving children in Ethiopia that your mom used to tell you about, yakkity, yakkity, just wrong.

Relax. There is a way to save them, make them delicious and desirable once again, make yourself feel better about your folly.

Roasting. Yes, roasting. Toss those aging beauties (do cut out those grey mossy bits, of course, and all the other dubious bits) in sugar and balsamic vinegar (and rosemary if you are so inclined), roast for an hour, and you will end up with some deliciously jammy stuff that you can use on toast, stir into plain yogurt, use to top ice cream or even experiment with to make some sort of chutney or relish for meats.

As the strawberry season is upon us, I know I won’t be the only one to make ridiculous seasonal purchases. Here, at least, is one solution to the retail hangover.

Roasted Strawberries (adapted from The Oregonian)

1 lb strawberries, hulled and cut into 1” pieces if the whole fruits are bigger than that

scant ¼ Cup sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 375°F. In a bowl, toss the berries, sugar and vinegar. Spread berries on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about an hour or until soft and dark. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat and cool before serving. Will keep a couple of days in the fridge.

Tags: cooking, food, overripe fruit solutions, recipes, roasted strawberries, strawberries, summer fruits

Comments 10 Comments
Categories Food, gardening, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian

Farm and chicken update (and new poll!)

7 Jun

We headed over to Restoration Farm, our CSA, today to put in a little work and visit the chickens.

Leandro was a champion snap pea picker (he remembered his skills from last year) on this bright sunny day that showed hints of what a sweltering hazy, hot and humid Long Island summer can be.

Many peas didn’t make it to the basket, as they ended up in his mouth. He won’t yet eat the pods, preferring to open them up and eat the tiny peas inside, edamame-style. It’s a start. And at least he knows they grow on vines, not exclusively in the frozen food section! Mommy gets the pods, which are wonderfully crunchy and bright.

The boy was also introduced to the delights of picking strawberries, but won’t get a chance to pick his own quart until our pick-up day, later this week. Whether any berries he picks will actually end up getting home is doubtful. I will have to make sure he doesn’t get out of hand. He can devour a pound of strawberries at a sitting and since they are amongst the most chemical-laden of fruits when conventionally-grown (see http://ewg.org/) and very expensive to buy organic, I hope this is a good year for strawberries in our neighborhood!

We visited the chickens, of course. He still loves Donna’s future egg-layers and their roving chicken coop (now painted a proper barnyard red), but the now five-week-old eating birds, not so much.

“Ew! Stinky!” is all I got out of him today, as he ran away to see what he could spirit out of the berry patch. As we get closer to our first installment of locally pastured chickens, I am starting to think about what irresistible dish to concoct for him….

Tags: CSA, farming, food, gardening, pastured chickens, Restoration Farm, snap peas, strawberries, teaching children about food, vegetables

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Chicken, CSA, eggs, farming, Food, gardening, Vegan, Vegetarian

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