Old and New

Warning:  I”m not talking just about quilting, though “old and new” would fit quilting.  It just as nicely fits cooking.  So now you know.  I”m talking about quilting and cooking tonight.  Follow along and I think you’ll be happy you did.

Last night, as I mentioned in my last post, DD, DGS and I went strawberry picking at a nearby farm.  We always take the grandson with us; he’s actually a very good picker.  We took him the first time when he was about three years old.  He has learned to look over the berry before putting it in his pail.  ” No bad spots, no white spots” are his mother’s lessons to him. I wonder where she learned those lessons. {smile}   He is allowed to eat his fill.  I wish I had that first strawberry picking photo handy.  He was an adorable baby and is a handsome young man now.  I picked about 10 pounds of strawberries with the plan to make some sugar free strawberry jam and a few strawberry shortcakes.

With the grandson spending the night and smelling the strawberries all night as he was sleeping in the same “room”, I made pancakes with a fresh strawberry topping for breakfast this morning.  Tonight, DH asked for strawberry shortcake – instead of supper.   Of course I’m not going to complain about that once in a while and I love strawberry shortcake as much as he does.

I’ve used the same shortcake recipe for my whole married life, with a few exceptions.  Every now and then I try a “new” recipe but this is a tried and true, several generation recipe.  My grandmother had this recipe and my mother had this recipe.  It came from a newspaper article in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald column called “Clearinghouse”, written by Marjorie Standish.  Ms. Standish later put the recipe and a lot of other wonderful Maine recipes into book form.  Actually this recipe came from her second Maine cookbook called Keep Cooking the Maine Way.  This book and her earlier book, Cooking Downeast, are both compilations of the many, many Clearinghouse columns she wrote over the years.

I own both of these books and so does my daughter.  These two books are still available in Maine gift shops and bookstores but if you aren’t visiting Maine, you can find them both on http://www.amazon.com.  My copy of the “Keep Cooking” book is a 1973 hardback edition.   The other book is even older.  My daughter has her grandmother’s copies.

I used the recipe called “Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake” which goes like this:

2 cups sifted flour                1 tsp. baking soda            2 tsp. cream of tartar    1/2 tsp. salt     1 stick butter or margarine     1 egg      2/3 cup milk

Sift flour, measure and sift together with baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  You could use 4 tsp. baking powder if you do not have soda and cream of tartar.  Blend in butter or margarine, using pastry blender.  Beat egg slightly, combine with milk, add all at once to dry ingredients.  Stir with a fork.  Toss dough onto lightly floured board.  Divide in halves.  Roll or pat very gently and place one half in a buttered 8″ pan.  Brush that half with melted butter.  Place other half on top.  Bake at 450 degrees until shortcake is delicately browned, about 12-15 minutes.

Ms. Standish inserts this in the recipe”: ” This is a “do as I say, not as I do” because this is what you will do if you want a real old-fashioned strawberry shortcake.  I use this recipe for it is a real biscuit shortcake.  Instead of making 2 big layers, I cut the rolled-out dough with my largest 3″ cookie cutter, bake the shortcakes on a cookie sheet and serve them in soup plates.”   I completely agree with her.   I made mine into smaller biscuits and baked them in a baking pan.