Strawberry Recipe #4

These are a little bit time consuming, since you can only cook a couple at a time and kind of need to babysit them, but they were very yum! Take note: in moderate or high humidity, either eat or seal these up right away or they get soft and lose their shape.

Tulipes

3 large egg whites
3/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 c flour
6 T melted butter (no substitutions)
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease large cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites, powdered sugar and flour until well blended. Beat in melted butter, vanilla and salt.

Make two cookies by dropping batter by heaping tablespoons four inches apart on cookie sheet. Spread batter to form four-inch rounds. Bake cookies until golden around edges, about five to seven minutes.

Place two two-inch diameter glasses upside down. With large, thin spatula, quickly lift hot cookies and gently shape over bottom of glasses. When cookies are cool move to wire rack. Store in single layer in an airtight container at room temperature.

To serve, fill with ice cream or whipped cream and berries or fruit.

And I Quote

Luke: Mom, do you remember in the Bible when Moses' staff turned into a snake? Do you know why I think God turned the other guys' staffs into snakes too? So that Moses' snake could eat theirs up and they wouldn't have any staffs any more."

And that's the real reason the Israelites were set free -- the fear of a nation-wide staff shortage.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Light Saber Up

Synopsis: When Flint's FLDSMDFR (Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator) is accidently launched into the atmosphere and starts raining burgers on Swallow Falls, the fate of the dying town is turned around. Things are looking up for Flint and the newly renamed town of Chewandswallow, until the machine begins malfunctioning. Now Flint and weather reporter Sam Sparks must risk their lives to shut it down.

Highlights: I loved when Flint told Sam that she was even more beautiful with her glasses and scrunchie, and that she should let herself be smart instead of acting flaky so that more people would like her. There was also a great side story going on with Flint trying so hard to impress his dad, and his dad having a hard time expressing himself to Flint, which was solved in the end with the use of the monkey thought translator.

Snags: Okay, this is more a personal preference than a real drawback to the movie, but it had several moments of Jim Carey/Adam Sandler humor -- that obnoxious, stupid, irritating, not-even-really-humor-if-you-ask-me humor -- but that's just me. I'd have enjoyed it more without the monkey and the cop's twitching chest hairs.

Conclusion: This was a good clean film (if you can call a movie about falling food clean) that was entertaining for our whole family. The emphasis on family relationships was also nice to see. It's not high on my re-watch list, but I if the kids ask to watch it again, I'm comfortable with that.

Strawberry Recipe #3

This delightful dish was our Father's Day dessert. Yum!


Strawberry Trifle

1 pkg. angle food cake mix
1 6-serving pkg. vanilla pudding
5 c. sliced strawberries

Bake cake according to package directions, let cool and break into small pieces. Slice berries and mix with a little sugar if desired. Prepare pudding according to package directions. Before pudding fully sets, layer in a large glass bowl: cake, berries, pudding, cake, berries, pudding, cake, berries, pudding. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. For added aesthetic appeal, arrange some halved or sliced strawberries over the top (not shown in picture).

Dinner

Aren't some days just so like this?

Strawberry recipes 1 and 2

Our strawberry patch has begun to produce fabulous, beautiful, delightful and oh-so-delicious berries. This may be the summer of the strawberries at our place.

One day the boys came in exclaiming, "Mom! We found five!" Everyone gets one but mom.

The next day it was, "Mom! We found 12!" Everyone (including mom) gets two!

The day after that came the cry, "Mom! We got 30! Can we make a pie?" Um, not quite, but we can each have five berries sliced over whipped cream. Okay, I confess, it was just extra creamy Cool Whip, but it was still good. And by the way, that right there was recipe number 1.


This afternoon the boys picked a scant quart, and yes, we made that pie! It was delicious. Here's the quick and easy recipe we used so that it would be ready right away after dinner.

Quick Strawberry Pie

1 c flour
2 T powdered sugar
1/2 c soft butter
1/8 t salt
1 1/2 c water
3/4 c sugar
2 T cornstarch
1 4-serving pkg. strawberry jello
2 c slice strawberries

Heat oven to 350. Mix together flour, powdered sugar, butter and salt and press into a pie plate. Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are golden. Cool.

Combine water, sugar and cornstarch and cook until clear(ish). Add jello and mix well. Combine with berries and pour into crust. Chill until set.



Stay tuned to find out what else we end up doing with strawberries this summer. Have any great ideas? Please share them!

The curse passes on

Oh dear. I did it now. I fell victim to my own childhood sympathies for inanimate objects and have now validated those sympathies in my children.

Here's how it happened.

The boys made sand art ducks at today's street fest. They filled little plastic duck containers with layers of colorful sand, popped on a lid and voila, masterpieces were created. But the sand settled somewhat, allowing the colors to shake and shift. The three eldest were diligent to carry their ducks home carefully to preserve the distinct color striations, but Elijah had no such concern. His duck arrived home all one color -- brownish-blah.

Now here comes the part where I learn without a doubt that these are my children -- no switcheroos at the hospital.

Isaac and Luke were in tears over Elijah's poor duck that was doomed to a miserable existence of brownish-blahness. I understood completely. I recall finding a sad looking stuffed animal at a garage sale and begging to buy it and bring it home so that perhaps it wouldn't feel so terribly woebegone -- because stuffed animals have feelings, you know. Apparently sand art ducks do, too.

It took me many years to get over this irrational attribution of feelings to lifeless objects. I'm not certain I'm completely over it yet. Sometimes I still feel bad for toys left in storage.

So rather than trying to reason with my two overly-sympathetic boys, I blurted out the only thing that I thought would have comforted me as a child had I been in the same situation.

"The duck wants to be whatever color his owner wants him to be. If his owner is happy with his color, the duck is happy."

And of course it worked. I knew it would. But now I have verified the fact that toys have feelings! Augggg! I'm afraid I've cursed them to a lifetime of guilt for every toy they someday donate, sell or throw away!

And so the curse passes on to the next generation. Maybe, being boys, they'll outgrow the extreme sentimentality and properly teach their children that toys don't have feelings. I can only hope. It was more than I could do.