As food prices go up, I was surprised to find strawberries at a buck a
pint/pound, yesterday. What nice damn-near-free-by-today's-standards bit
of snackage. (Ralphs, if anyone's got one in their 'hood.)


--
Blinky
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Blinky the Shark wrote:

> As food prices go up, I was surprised to find strawberries at a buck a
> pint/pound, yesterday. What nice damn-near-free-by-today's-standards bit
> of snackage. (Ralphs, if anyone's got one in their 'hood.)
>

That is a pretty good price.
FWIW, the local strawberries seem to be especially good this year. I missed
part of the season because I was away for 2-1/2 weeks in June, but they are
still going strong around here, and very tasty.

Dave Smith wrote:

> Blinky the Shark wrote:
>
>> As food prices go up, I was surprised to find strawberries at a buck a
>> pint/pound, yesterday. What nice damn-near-free-by-today's-standards bit
>> of snackage. (Ralphs, if anyone's got one in their 'hood.)
>>
>
> That is a pretty good price.
> FWIW, the local strawberries seem to be especially good this year. I missed
> part of the season because I was away for 2-1/2 weeks in June, but they are
> still going strong around here, and very tasty.

I confess to sweetening them. Is anybody else going to come out...?


--
Blinky
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Need a new feed?
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Blinky the Shark wrote:

>
> > That is a pretty good price.
> > FWIW, the local strawberries seem to be especially good this year. I missed
> > part of the season because I was away for 2-1/2 weeks in June, but they are
> > still going strong around here, and very tasty.
>
> I confess to sweetening them. Is anybody else going to come out...?

I will confess to having done it in the past, but this year's berries really don't
need any extra sweetness. But then, I get them from local farmers fresh from the
field, not the berries that have been picked for transport and sale. a day or two
later.

Blinky the Shark wrote:

> As food prices go up, I was surprised to find strawberries at a buck a
> pint/pound, yesterday. What nice damn-near-free-by-today's-standards bit
> of snackage. (Ralphs, if anyone's got one in their 'hood.)
>
>

That time of year for a repost of the Escoffier 'Fraises Bernhardt' recipe?


Fraises Sarah Bernhardt.

(for 8 - 10 people)

Using about 3 - 4 pounds of fresh strawberries, remove the stems and put
2/3 of the nicest ones in a bowl, lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar,
add 5 - 6 wine glasses of white wine (or sweet wine of choice) and
chill. Puree the rest of the strawberries and mix with about a cup of
sugar (depending on sweetness of strawberries and taste) and add to the
whole wine and strawberry mixture, reserving a few tbs. for the whipped
cream.

Take a whole small ripe* pineapple and peel and core and then slice, then
prepare a pulp of pineapple by roughly chopping or using a fork to pull
apart or shred, canned pineapple in water can be used. Sprinkle this
shredded pineapple with about a cup of sugar and reserve in the
refrigerator.

Prepare about 3 cups of cream chantilly or ordinary whipped cream and
have on hand (if not making fresh) 8 - 10 cups of a good vanilla ice
cream.

to serve;

Place a serving of vanilla ice cream in a bowl, flatten the ice cream
then, using a slotted spoon, place over this some of the whole
strawberries. Cover this with a few tbs. of the shredded pineapple. Top
with the whipped cream that has had a few tbs. of the strawberry puree
lightly folded
in, the strawberry puree should be folded into the whipped cream in such
a way as to produce an obvious mix of whipped cream and strawberry.

Originally this dish had a lace of spun sugar over it and the original
recipe suggests the whipped cream and strawberry puree should resemble,
or "give the illusion of a beautiful sunset."

*To pick a ripe pineapple pull on a leaf, if it comes off the pineapple
with just a minimal effort it is ripe, if it come off too easily it is
over ripe, if hard to pull off it is not ripe, pineapple do not ripen
after picking.
--
Joseph Littleshoes

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:09:09 -0700, Blinky the Shark
> wrote:

>I confess to sweetening them. Is anybody else going to come out...?

I made strawberry shortcake yesterday and you MUST put sugar on them
if you want any "juice". Fortunately, my shortcake wasn't sweet so
the sweeten strawberries tasted just right.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:50:21 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>I will confess to having done it in the past, but this year's berries really don't
>need any extra sweetness. But then, I get them from local farmers fresh from the
>field, not the berries that have been picked for transport and sale. a day or two
>later.

We were just saying today that we hadn't done the dip in sour cream
and brown sugar thing in years.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

> On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:09:09 -0700, Blinky the Shark
> > wrote:
>
>>I confess to sweetening them. Is anybody else going to come out...?

Sure, we slice then and add sugar to make some juice. We do about half that
way and half are eaten whole; often while slicing the other half.

Local berries are $5 a quart this year.

sf wrote:

> >I will confess to having done it in the past, but this year's berries really don't
> >need any extra sweetness. But then, I get them from local farmers fresh from the
> >field, not the berries that have been picked for transport and sale. a day or two
> >later.
>
> We were just saying today that we hadn't done the dip in sour cream
> and brown sugar thing in years.
>

Now that you mention it, either have we. It used to sound revolting to me, but then I tired it and I
was impressed.

sf wrote:

> On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:09:09 -0700, Blinky the Shark
> > wrote:
>
> >I confess to sweetening them. Is anybody else going to come out...?
>
> I made strawberry shortcake yesterday and you MUST put sugar on them
> if you want any "juice". Fortunately, my shortcake wasn't sweet so
> the sweeten strawberries tasted just right.

My wife does the strawberry shortcakes in this house. She uses a biscuit recipe but uses butter in
place of Crisco. She puts sugar on some berries to get juice and uses un-sugared berries for garnish.

> This year has been especially good for the strawberry crop it seems
> (Seattle area). Relatively inexpensive, flavorful, plentiful. I've
> been buying 2 lb flats for 4.99 regular price, and a 2fer now and
> then. I'll miss 'em when the height of the season passes in a few more
> weeks.

I plan on going over to Puyallup & picking my own this upcoming
weekend. I'm hoping this stretch of nicer weather will help them ripen
up!