Strawberry Goodness

We picked strawberries this morning. We live on the geologic area called the "Anoka Sand Plain". Glaciers dropped lots of sand here, I think. It is a pain for gardeners because the water and nutrients drain right through the soil. We are big fans of compost here. Strawberry plants like this kind of soil, though. There are quite a few strawberry farms up here.

We like to go to Berry Hill Farm to pick our berries. They should have them for another week, yet. Call before you go. The berries you pick are $1.65 a pound. Costco's berries are $1.50 a pound. The difference is that grocery store berries are bred to withstand shipping cross-country. Local berries are bred for TASTE! Plus, I like to give money right to my local farmer. You are allowed to eat as you pick, too! I didn't get a lot of strawberries, because I still have some from last year, but I needed some of these today! I will give you my 2 favorite strawberry recipes, too.

After berrying, I went to Costco where I saw this really cool purse/totebag! Look, it has a really big CLOCK on it! Your teenager would never be able to be late for curfew again. When I was a teenager I tried turning my watch back as an excuse for being late ("Oh, sorry mom, my watch must be broken") unfortunately, my mom invented that excuse and didn't buy it.
Then I went to joann's to get the new "marty mag" (Martha Stewart magazine). Then I went to Kohl's because they sent me free money! They sent me a coupon for $10 off anything in the store. While I was there I tried on perfume. If you know me, you will not be surprised that I could not stop at one kind, I have to try lots of them. If you don't know me, you will still smell me coming from a mile away, I smell like Saturday night at the cathouse! Sadly, most of the perfume fades pretty quickly. By the time Paul gets home I'll probably smell like bath night at the nursing home.

One of our favorite salads (well, 3/4 of us like it, Nick refuses to eat spinach) is spinach with shredded cheese, sliced strawberries and italian dressing. This recipe steps that up by making the dressing out of strawberries, too. The recipe suggests adding pecans to the salad, as well.

Strawberry Vinegar

1/2 pound strawberries (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup white balsamic vinegar (or other mild vinegar, like champagne or tarragon)

Buzz this in the blender and let it sit at least an hour. The recipe says to strain it, but I didn't and it was just fine. Use vinegar to make salad dressing.

Strawberry Vinaigrette

5 Tablespoons Strawberry vinegar
6 Tablespoons olive oil (extra virgin is best)
Salt and pepper to taste

Shake this all in a jar just before serving. It is really good on spinach salad with strawberries and shredded cheddar and/or pecans. This cannot be beat as a side dish to a nice steak.

This is to-die-for cheesecake. It was Marty's Dessert of the Month a few years ago. I'm simplifying it a bit, you know how over the top Marty is. You can use any cookies for the crust, sugar cookies are especially good.

Strawberry Cheesecake

1 1/2 pounds strawberries, green caps removed
3 Tbls light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups graham cracker (or cookie) crumbs
1 cup plus 3 Tbls sugar, divided
3 Tbls melted butter
2 pounds cream cheese
8 ounces of neufchatel (light cream cheese) or marscarpone cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place strawberries in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. drizzle with corn syrup and toss gently to coat. Bake until syrup thickens and berries turn deep red and shrink slightly, about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours. Don't let it burn. This step concentrates the flavor of the berries. Put berries and syrup in a bowl and mash with a potato masher or fork.

Raise oven temperature to 325 degrees. Mix graham cracker crumbs, 3 Tbls sugar and melted butter and press into 9-inch springform pan. Wrap 2 layers of foil around pan so it will be watertight later on. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese in mixer until creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides and add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down sides and add vanilla and neufchatel or marscarpone. Mix until no lumps remain. Stir in strawberries. Pour into prepared pan.

Put pan into large roasting pan. Fill roasting pan with boiling water until water reaches halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Bake cheesecake until set, about one hour to one hour, 10 minutes. Remove cheesecake from water bath, cool, refrigerate until cold.


Have a great 4th of July, be safe!