It's Strawberry Season!!!

Nothing says "spring" like strawberries, and we are fortunate to have strawberry stands in Sonoma County that are "worth the trip". This is one of those things that is DEFINITELY worth growing, or finding a grower, or buying at the Farmer's Market vs. the grocery store. Why??? Because the ones they sell at the store are a different variety, one that must hold up to shipping and storage. The ones you buy locally are sweet and so ripe they usually must be eaten within a few days.

Our favorite way to eat strawberries is fresh, but occasionally Rick talks me into making strawberry shortcake so I thought I'd share my method. It's so simple I don't know why I don't make it more often!

If you want other ideas for using strawberries, one of my favorites is strawberry jam, you can find directions in this blog. Or, if you want something even more decadent, I saw the recipe for strawberry trifle on this recent blog from Susan Branch.

First, acquire your strawberries. Our favorite spot is Watmaugh Strawberry Stand in Sonoma, but we also have a good strawberry stand right here in Petaluma on the Boulevard. I have learned that Watmaugh keeps their Facebook page updated with hours and supplies, so that can save us a trip if for some reason they're not open or out of strawberries.

We usually buy them 1/2 flat at a time, although last time I bought a full flat because the kids have been enjoying them frozen in their smoothies so I figured if they started going bad I'd just freeze them. As you can see from the photo above, they are all 100% ripe, no white parts, amazing! I usually sort through them when we get home and put the "must eat right away" in one bowl and the "can last for awhile" in another bowl to store away. I was amazed to see that there were no strawberries with bad spots when I did that. Of course, it makes sense, they were hand-picked THAT DAY, so if they do a good job they should be 100% quality.

Onto the shortcake! First, the "cake" part. While some might be satisfied with the "dessert shell" type of sponge cake, I fully admit to being a "dessert snob" and won't have those in the house. For those who want an easy recipe, the Bisquick box has one - or as everything is these days, it's available on the web here.

Or, if you're like me, you want to bake from scratch with ingredients you "know where they came from", so I use a modified version of my biscuit recipe from this blog. All you need to do differently is add 2T sugar to the dough, roll it out like biscuits, including the second roll to make it easier to split in half, and if you want, sprinkle the top with coarse white sugar. Easy peasy!

While the biscuits are baking, add sugar to the strawberries to taste (the recipe calls for 1/4 c sugar to 4 c strawberries but I think that would be too much for our strawberries which are already very sweet). I learned this process is called "macerating" and the sugar draws the juice out of the strawberries, creating a sweetly fruity syrup.

Also while the biscuits are baking you can whip the cream. I DEFINITELY prefer fresh whipped cream to the kind from a can. Again, that "know where the ingredients came from" thing, plus it just holds up better. When I made the shortcake above, I gave Ethan some berries with leftover (refrigerated) whipped cream for breakfast the next day (I know, shhhhh!!!) and he didn't eat them right away. When I saw them several hours later, the cream was still holding up! You know what happens when you leave whipped cream from the can on a plate for awhile? It melts! Yuck, who wants that???

Because I am lucky enough to own an immersion blender with a wire whip attachment, it's a piece of cake (pun intended!) to whip the cream. Or you can get out your mixer. I add a tablespoon or so of sugar (regular or powdered) or some people put in a little vanilla. I usually add this in the beginning, but I read that you can also add the sweetener after "soft peaks" form. Some people use a metal bowl and refrigerate the mixer and bowl first, but I find this method works just fine for me as long as my whipping cream is chilled. Last word of advice, once your cream forms "soft peaks" watch it closely and stop when the peaks are "firm". If you keep going much past that it will get grainy.

So that's it! Once your biscuits are out of the oven, let them cool slightly, split them open, cover them in strawberries, and heap on the whipped cream. Hmmm...I think I'll go see if we have any strawberries left...