strawberries – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

Is It Strawberry Pie Season?!

Posted on June 17, 2013 by LFFL

Strawberry Pie with whipped cream lovin’.

So, what else is new? My car made its usual ‘pit-stop’ to the local diner where all my favorite eatins are—and look what I discovered! We’re in the midst of Strawberry Pie season at the diner.

I’ve never had the strawberry pie at my local diner before so I decided to try one on the advice of a friend. And weeeeellllll, doggie!! is all I can say. That pie and those strawberries were luschiously good!

Bread Pudding with caramel-flavored whipped cream, caramel, and cinnamon & sugar toppings.

As you can tell, it’s also Bread Pudding Monday. What else is new in that department? You know how I do this. I go in with the intent on getting one……..and I end up getting two. I couldn’t help myself. One for now, one for later is the plan—but the later never happens. So it’s, basically, two for now. Who are we kidding?

Warm it in the microwave, toss the caramel-flavored whipped cream on top of the bread pudding, drizzle the caramel on top of the whipped cream, and get-down with sprinkling that cinnamon-sugar goodness all over everything!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, find yourself a freshly made strawberry pie and enjoy it like nothing else.

Take-Away Life Lesson: There’s nothing wrong with having a strawberry pie/bread pudding combo day. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Rockin' The Strawberry Festival

Posted on June 1, 2013 by LFFL

Me arriving at the Strawberry Festival — Arriving at the Strawberry Festival

Oh, my! I had such a fabulous time at the Strawberry Festival this year!

The weather was perfection and I got to the festival right before opening time. I mean, I just have to be the one to get first dibs on any pickins I could possibly want to buy before they all get snatched up by anyone else that dares take them! (I’m thuggish like that.)

The mansion in all her glory

Look at that Victorian detail.

And I absolutely LOVE being around this gorgeous Victorian mansion. I love, love, love all things Victorian. So I was a bit overwhelmed, as usual, just being in the vicinity of this stunning creature in all her glory. I love me some beauty!

Now for the fun! There were over 100 tents selling all sorts of things. It was just one big garage sale for all! I lucked out and found these absolutely beautiful heavy glass ‘objets d’art’ for dirt cheap. Score for me! And I didn’t even have to haggle.

Let the negotiations begin!

Crystal glass wares from Strawberry Festival

I got these lovelies for a bargain!

The kettle corn man! Yum!

Strawberry Goodness

Strawberry Shortcake and Strawberry Float

Amazingly, there was another tent across the way selling glass objects that did not look as nice as these and that were of a much lighter weight when I picked them up—for FOUR (4) times the price!! Kick rocks, dude. I don’t think so.

They couldn’t possibly have known what the competition was selling. I got all 3 of my heavy glass beauties for LESS THAN what the other tent was selling for just ONE light-weight glass bowl the same size. Come on now.

Next up, the EATING PART!! My FAVORITE part of the day. The most exciting part of any day! What can I possibly tell you about all the delicious strawberries I saw being served every which way you could possibly want! Naturally, when I can’t decide which food item I want to eat more than another—I tend to get one of each. Big ups to the ladies serving them!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, find out when a festival will be in your town again and make plans to attend and buy all sorts of objects and yummy eatings. No festival anytime soon? Take a tour of a beautiful historic Victorian mansion and transport yourself back in time. Aahhh.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Always window-shop and make mental notes of all 100 tents first BEFORE buying anything. This is how you score big time for cheap. Also, don’t be afraid to eat yourself into strawberry madness.

I Could Live On Desserts Foreveeeeerrr!

Posted on April 30, 2013 by LFFL

Made with Arborio rice, milk, sugar, vanilla bean, ground allspice, and salt; topped with sliced bananas sautéed in brown sugar and butter.

This rice pudding was soooooo delish I, naturally, couldn’t just eat one serving. This was also where I first discovered the vanilla bean, people. I absolutely love the vanilla bean! It’s an expensive sucker, but it’s so worth it.

Why use vanilla extract (unless you’re just trying to save time) when you can split open the vanilla bean, scrape out those seeds, and have that real deep vanilla flavor ooze out. Throw the seeds and the bean into the milk, warm it, and wait for that smell to go wafting through the kitchen—mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm, I tell you!

Recipe for—Rice Pudding

Oh, this strawberry soup was so nice, refreshing, and cooling. All I can say is “ahhhhh.” I actually got this recipe from Colin Cowie back when he had recipes on his website (but I can no longer find the recipe part of his site—bummed by that). This is actually made up of:

frozen strawberries
sugar
lemon juice
fresh strawberries
mint
lime sorbet
champagne

It’s so easy to imagine how this tasted.

Made with semisweet chocolate chips, heavy cream, espresso powder, coffee liqueur, sugar, gelatin, and vanilla extract.

Boy! It was a hunt I’ll never forget. Who knew it was so hard to find some espresso powder in this city? I couldn’t believe all the phone calls I had to make just to track some down to make this recipe.

The average grocery store doesn’t have it, coffeehouses don’t carry it—let alone know what it is. That was a big surprise to me. So who in the world does??? I had called hundreds of logical places and I was getting shot down left and right.

I was finally referred to my local city farmers’ market but there was still no guarantee there either. Then one grocer tells me to try a “kitchen store.” So after many, many calls and scavenger hunts later—ta da—I landed at Sur La Table.

Thanks, guys, for having the nerve to sell espresso powder since it’s apparently against the law everywhere else. I can finally make my dessert now!

Recipe for—Espresso & Chocolate Jellies

Made with French vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries; sauce made with Marsala wine, sugar, lemon zest, juice of a lemon, nutmeg, and topped with crumbled sunflower seed cookies.

Oh, this stuff was SO good. The Marsala wine in it flavors it just perfectly. Just a bowlful of strawberry luschiousness.

Recipe for—Strawberries with Marsala & Lemon Sauce

So, if you have nothing else to do today, buy and experience the vanilla bean—find a recipe you can use it in then sit back and enjoy that fabulous smell and taste. Also—open an espresso powder store, please.

Take-Away Life Lesson: If no one who works in a coffeehouse even knows what espresso powder is to the point where you’re giving a mini training session about it to them, be very concerned where you’re buying your coffee from.

RELATED ARTICLES:
Bananas Foster—My Favorite Topping Ever